Important Keyboard Rescue Shortcut for DU!

[MineralMan]

So, you're typing away on a lengthy post for GD, using your Windows PC. Your lazy left hand leans on the Ctrl key as you type an "a" in the post. Before you know what has happened, everything in your draft gets selected and instantly deleted when you press the next key.

DID YOU KNOW that Ctrl-Z works as an Undo command in the DU text editor? It works in Word. It works in Notepad. It works in every Windows application. IT WORKS on DU and in other web text editing boxes, too!

Just thought you'd like to know.

Using a Mac? Typing on your smart phone? I don't know what works on those, but if there is an UNDO shortcut, that probably works here as well.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

1. Cmd-Z for Mac.

[MineralMan]

5. Thank you kindly. I have to type on my wife's

MAC (The Horror!). That's good to know.

[Aristus]

2. That shortcut has rescued me more than once in clinic.

My electronic health records system for charting medical visits is mostly a lot of point-and-click. But for writing assessments and plans, I do at least some free-texting. The more complex the visit, the more free-texting I do in order to record the work carried out during the visit.

I can't count how many times, typing as fast as I can in the limited time between visits, I have accidentally erased entire paragraphs of text. Very frustrating. Finally, a colleague told me about this shortcut, and it made my job so much easier and less crazy-making.

Thank God for Ctrl-Z...

[Rollo]

3. Good point

CTRL-A selects all the text on the screen editor. The next key doesn't exactly delete it, though. It just replaces it with whatever that next key is.

CTRL-Z has been the edit/undo key combo for decades...

[MineralMan]

4. I use it all the time in my word processor.

It wasn't until this morning that I did the Ctrl-A sudden disappearance thing on a DU post, and sort of automatically hit Ctrl-Z. I did not know that it worked everywhere. Doh! So, I thought I'd share it.

[dalton99a]

6. Just shake the iPhone!

if you're using an iPhone

[MineralMan]

7. Seriously? Really?

Shake the phone? Amazing. I'll try it on my wife's iPhone. I don't think it works on my Samsung flip phone, though, but I never type anything on that, anyhow.

Now, I need to find the trick on my Kindle Fire.

[dalton99a]

9. Yes, it's an old trick:

[MineralMan]

10. That's funny, but workable. I passed it along to my wife, who is

the iPhone person here.

[Yonnie3]

8. Ctrl-Y is handy too

If I do too many Ctrl-Zs to back up, typically after typing a sentence I don't like. Ctrl-Y (redo) will undo the undo(s).

[MineralMan]

11. Yup. The new thing I learned is that it works everywhere.

That, I did not know.

[Yonnie3]

12. Yes. My reply was for those who might not know of Ctrl-Y

New knowledge keeps the mind young.