# Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F



## Big Don (Aug 19, 2011)

Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F
By Alexis Madrigal
The Atlantic EXCERPT:

Aug 18 2011, 5:37 PM ET 77

This week, I talked with Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google, about the time he spends with random people studying how they search for stuff. One statistic blew my mind. 90 percent of people in their studies don't know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page! I probably use that trick 20 times per day and yet the vast majority of people don't use it at all.

"90 percent of the US Internet population does not know that. This is on a sample size of thousands," Russell said. "I do these field studies and I can't tell you how many hours I've sat in somebody's house as they've read through a long document trying to find the result they're looking for. At the end I'll say to them, 'Let me show one little trick here,' and very often people will say, 'I can't believe I've been wasting my life!'"
END EXCERPT
A whole lot don't know how to use F5 either...


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## Big Don (Aug 19, 2011)

What shortcuts do you use frequently that others may not know about?
Crtl C copy
Crtl V paste 
alt 0188 ¼ alt 0189 ½ alt 0190 ¾


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## Steve (Aug 19, 2011)

I use ctrl tab, ctrl a, ctrl z a lot.  In word, ctrl I and ctrl b.Windows e to open an explorer windoe.f5 to refresh.I use a lot of Other shortcuts.  I do so much writing that I hate to waste time moving to the mouse.


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## Steve (Aug 19, 2011)

On phone so sorry for formatting.  But another one I like in word is --- enter to insert a line.


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## Big Don (Aug 19, 2011)

SHIFT TAB to go back one field


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## Carol (Aug 19, 2011)

ctrl z for undo, ctrl y for redo

In a web browser and some other apps:

ctrl + to make what's on the screen look bigger, or ctrl - to make what's on the screen look smaller


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## Big Don (Aug 19, 2011)

stevebjj said:


> In word, ctrl I and ctrl b.


Now I feel dumb, my mind blanked and I had to open word to see what those do. 
*they work here too...*_see and CRTL U too_


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## Sukerkin (Aug 19, 2011)

I am gabberflasted at the lack of basic knowledge of most people in this supposedly computer literate age.  I guess they've been spoiled by software designers working like mad to make everything mouse + context menu driven.

Mind you, I didn't know the --- + Enter one that Steve mentioned above .


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## Touch Of Death (Aug 19, 2011)

big don said:


> crazy: 90 percent of people don't know how to use ctrl+f
> by alexis madrigal
> the atlantic excerpt:
> 
> ...


wow!


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## granfire (Aug 19, 2011)

roflmao!!

90% of the people don't write anything longer than a short email/forum post!

Alt F4 is a doosie tho....(Ok, only noobs can be had with that)


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## seasoned (Aug 19, 2011)

It would be nice to have a list. For the computer illiterate of course.


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## Sukerkin (Aug 20, 2011)

There is one, my friend.  You might have to dig about a bit in the help files of something like Word or Excel but it's there ... or at least it used to be!


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## Sukerkin (Aug 20, 2011)

In fact, just browse to here:

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard.aspx


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## Tez3 (Aug 20, 2011)

I doubt it's laziness on peoples' parts just lack of knowledge, many work places and colleges etc put on courses for people to learn how to use a computer,as it's not knowledge we are born with! Like martial arts, one has to be taught (even if it's self taught in the case of computers) so people shouldn't really look down their noses at people who don't know how to use various bits of computers, one should never be smug, it's not a good look and I hope we wouldn't do it if we were talking about lower grades in martial arts. Shock, horror, 90% of white belts don't know how to do a good round house kick!


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## Jenna (Aug 20, 2011)

I like some of these shortcuts listed and but I do not see my most esoteric MSWord shortcut ever. And so until I find it, I will have to call it Jennas Secret Section Highlight shortcut  I would have used this to select a rectangular section (eg. tab-separated columns of text) in an MSWord document regardless of the document carriage returns etc. :

It is *Ctrl* + *Shift *+ *Alt*, and *click/drag your cursor* over the text you want to highlight.  

You can then cut n pasta or whatever else you might do with selected text.  It may be useful to you some time and there is no other way to do it  Also remember, you may sometimes have to <Esc> out of this otherwise Word will go into one of its total end of the world freaky freak modes


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## seasoned (Aug 20, 2011)

Jenna said:


> I like some of these shortcuts listed and but I do not see my most esoteric MSWord shortcut ever. And so until I find it, I will have to call it Jenna&#8217;s Secret Section Highlight shortcut  I would have used this to select a rectangular section (eg. tab-separated columns of text) in an MSWord document regardless of the document carriage returns etc. :
> 
> It is *Ctrl* + *Shift *+ *Alt*, and *click/drag your cursor* over the text you want to highlight.
> 
> You can then cut n pasta or whatever else you might do with selected text. It may be useful to you some time and there is no other way to do it  Also remember, you may sometimes have to <Esc> out of this otherwise Word will go into one of its total end of the world freaky freak modes



I'm feeling empowered.


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## Jenna (Aug 20, 2011)

seasoned said:


> I'm feeling empowered.


And but like all power, it must not be abused!


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## Cyriacus (Aug 20, 2011)

Oh dear...

Then... My ability to code Batch Files makes me feel so... So...


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## Steve (Aug 20, 2011)

Tez3 said:


> I doubt it's laziness on peoples' parts just lack of knowledge, many work places and colleges etc put on courses for people to learn how to use a computer,as it's not knowledge we are born with! Like martial arts, one has to be taught (even if it's self taught in the case of computers) so people shouldn't really look down their noses at people who don't know how to use various bits of computers, one should never be smug, it's not a good look and I hope we wouldn't do it if we were talking about lower grades in martial arts. Shock, horror, 90% of white belts don't know how to do a good round house kick!


I agree. I know just about all of the keyboard shortcuts simply because of what I do.  In addition to writing a ton for work, I was one of two trainers for employees with disabilities on adaptive equipment.  JAWS is a text recognition software and is very common where I work for people who cannot see to the point where even screen magnification doesn't work.  

It was a real eye opener for people who are not blind.  I would train them, as well, so that they can support the program and it was always a shock when I would turn the monitors off and ask them to navigate our systems using only their keyboards and their ears. 

Point is, people learn if there's a need and an inclination.


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## Big Don (Aug 20, 2011)

Tez3 said:


> I doubt it's laziness on peoples' parts


 If it was laziness, they'd know all the shortcuts...


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## MaxiMe (Aug 22, 2011)

And speaking of power abuse:
cntrl-x  
Just cut it out.


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