Keyboard shortcuts

[FORREST]

why is it that vista doesnt open the microsoft word program when i press
CTRL+ALT+W (i have put 'W' ) as shortcut while it opens fine for Microsoft
Excel as 'CTRL+ALT+X'? other shortcuts also doesnt work for other programs.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Forrest.

One quirk of Vista (and WinXP) that bugs me is that the shortcut keys often
don't work on icons in Quick Launch, even though the same shortcut works on
the same icon on the Desktop. So I create the icon on the Desktop, set the
shortcut key in its Properties, then drag it to QL. Sometimes this works;
sometimes I have to leave a copy of the icon on the Desktop, in addition to
the one in QL.

Do you have an Excel icon on your Desktop? A Word icon?

I've not explored this thoroughly - and I'm not sure this aspect is covered
in the Tutorial. But this behavior has frustrated me several times.

UPDATE: This prompted me to explore further and I learned something (I
think I did; only time will confirm that.)

Quicken is one of my most-used programs, so I use Ctrl+Alt+Q for its
shortcut, plus it's in my Quick Launch. It's the 3rd item in my QL bar, so
I usually start it with <Win>+3, and seldom use the shortcut key. When I
tried it just now, it didn't work. I dragged the icon from QL to the
Desktop; still didn't work. Deleted the shortcut key from its Properties,
Applied, recreated and Applied - still didn't work. Then I went to Start |
All Programs | Quicken 2008 to open the Quicken folder, then right-clicked
on the executable and set the shortcut key in Properties there (had to
furnish Administrator credentials at this point). And it works!

I guess the short version of this lesson is that it matters HOW you set the
shortcut key!

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[FORREST]

Hello RC,
nice to know that i am not the only one frustrated....further to your reply,
i want to ask how do i set the shortcut key in Properties of the executable
file for Word? i want to try this but do not know how....if i right-clicked
WinWord.exe, and click Properties, i do not see any form for me to fill in
the shortcut. it only says WINWORD.EXE in the box and that's it.

thanks in advance.
FORREST

 

[FORREST]

hi brink. thanks for your comments but i checked the tutorial and i have
followed every step described but it still doesnt work for me.

 

[FORREST]

Hi Friends,

The other thing i'd like to do is to apply a keyboard shortcut to the 'Show
Desktop' icon, bec. i need to clear lots of windows very often when it gets
too cluttered...it seems like after doing this for the quicklaunched Desktop
icon, its also not working like the rest....

thanks
FORREST

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Forrest.

Start | All Programs | Microsoft Office, and then right-click on Microsoft
Office Word 2007. This should give you a context menu with about 10 items,
with Open at the top and Properties at the bottom. Click Properties and
then the Shortcut tab. I never actually see "WinWord.exe".

It works for me. ;<)

If you have only Word and not the full Office Suite, you probably would
click Start | All Programs, then right-click on Microsoft Office Word 2007,
but I can't test that. Or run Word at least once, so that it appears on the
first Start menu as a recent item, then right-click it there. I'm using the
Vista Start menu, not the Classic Start menu; that also might make a
difference in what we see...Nope, switching to Classic gets me the same
result.

If I browse via Windows Explorer to WinWord.exe, then right-click and click
Properties, I see a different screen - probably the one you are seeing.

Perhaps Word 2007 is different from earlier versions in this regard, but I
don't think so.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Forrest

The Show Desktop is a built-in keyboard shortcut. Press WINKEY+D.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Ronnie - and Forrest.

I don't know why we need both Win+D and Win+M - which minimizes everything
to the Taskbar.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "R. C.

I don't know why we need both Win+D and Win+M - which minimizes everything
to the Taskbar.

Because they do very very different things...

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

They don't appear to be different from a users point of view? They both
minimize all open windows to the Taskbar.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "Ronnie

They don't appear to be different from a users point of view? They both
minimize all open windows to the Taskbar.

Close, but not quite the same. You can see the difference if an
application "minimizes" to the tray (which will happen with M, but not
D), plus a few other edge cases.

More importantly, you can revert D if you press it a second time before
opening any other windows, you can't revert M.

Most users probably don't care. Most don't know about CTRL-SHIFT-ESC,
Wn+R, or that you can right click from within the File --> Open common
controls, or various other advanced features of Windows.