Keyboard shortcuts are keys or combinations of keys that provide an alternative way to do something that you’d typically do with a mouse. Shortcut keys help provide an easier and quicker method of navigating and executing commands in computer software.

Shortcut keys are commonly accessed by using the Alt key (on Windows computers) Command key (on Apple computers) Ctrl key or Shift key in conjunction with another key. The de facto standard for listing a shortcut is listing the modifier key a plus symbol and another key. In other words "Ctrl+S" is telling you to press and hold the Ctrl key and then press the S key too.

You can also find the shortcut keys in popular programs by looking for underlined letters in their menus. For example the file menu image has an underline on the "F" in File which means you can press the Alt key and then the "F" key to access the file menu.

Some programs require the user to press and hold Alt to see the underlined characters. In the image above you can see that some of the common features such as Open (Ctrl+O) and Save (Ctrl+S) have shortcut keys assigned to them. As you begin to memorise shortcut keys you'll notice that many applications share them. We have a list of the most commonly shared ones in the basic PC shortcut keys section.