Category: Taking Ctrl

For the keyboard shortcuts mini series.

Taking Ctrl: Undo and Redo

The Problem

Maybe you have deleted a lot of text and changed your mind, or decided you wanted it after all. Maybe you undid some of your work but changed your mind. How can you get it back without starting from scratch? You can use Undo to reverse your last action, or Redo to put it back. You can undo and redo up to 20 of your last actions in Microsoft applications.  All actions must be undone or redone in the order they were done.

The Method

UNDO

Windows: Ctrl + Z
Mac: Command + Z

REDO

Windows
Microsoft and other software: Ctrl + Y
Adobe Software: Ctrl + Shift + Z

Mac
All software: Command + Shift + Z

The Result

Your text is restored without you having to type it all in again. Whatever action you previously undid you can redo (there are exceptions though, and the Undo and Redo commands will be unavailable if the previous actions cannot be undone or repeated, e.g. clicking a command on the File tab in Microsoft applications.)

Taking Ctrl: Paste text without Formatting

The Problem

I often copy and paste bits of text from one place to another, but don’t necessarily want the formatting that comes with the text. Just using Ctrl + V, or selecting ‘paste’ brings that formatting across. This means that text might look ‘odd’ when pasting it into another document, or something like a Canvas page.

The Method

  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + V
  • Mac: Option + Shift + Command + V

The Solution

This means you just keep the characters, meaning your pasted text looks the same as the rest. This works in lots of desktop applications.

Microsoft Applications

To do this in Word, right-click and select ‘paste without formatting’ as below.

Try it today!

How did you do that so fast? Introducing Taking Ctrl

Introducing a new series – Taking Ctrl – a guide to keyboard shortcuts that can save you time!

Many of the tasks we do using the computer have a ready keyboard shortcut to speed up the task, though we might not always know what these are. We have asked the FMS TEL team to share their favourite keyboard shortcuts in this series. This is the team at their most geeky – enjoy, and see how much time you can save!

Our first keyboard shortcut is Windows key + E. This opens up your file explorer – much faster than looking for that icon.