The Mouse Trap
How to Use Your Computer
More Efficiently:
Stay on the Keyboard
July 21, 2006
A couple of years ago, I interviewed Jef Raskin, co-father of the interface most of our computers now use, as well as of the Apple Mac and all the clicking and dragging that we do with a mouse. Sadly, Mr. Raskin died in 2005. In his last years, he was somewhat disillusioned with the way we interact with our computers: The mouse, he felt, was overused, while the alternative -- using a keyboard -- was worse: "Using the rather arbitrary keystroke combinations now available is a finger-twisting exercise that is frustrated by the inconsistent way they are used in different applications," he wrote in an email. "Often there are no keyboard methods for some tasks. The present ad hoc keystroke combinations are pathetic." His conclusion: "Users should demand better software; there is no way to use the present interfaces well."
Not a lot has changed. I've written about a few efforts to create new interfaces, most of which are based loosely around the ideas of maps, in either two or three dimensions. But how about if we just want to use the interface we've got now -- but use it better? Here's what I've learned from nearly 20 years of sitting at a computer: Don't get off the keyboard unless you really, really have to.
Any move away from the keyboard for your fingers interrupts the flow of your concentration, whether you're writing the sequel to "War and Peace" or a groveling email to your boss. After all, for most of us the computer is a glorified typewriter, and we touch-typists were taught to hover our fingers over the keys even when we weren't typing anything. And the fact is that most things you do with a mouse, whether it's to select text or access a function in a menu, can be done via your keyboard, which means you don't have to move your hands. These are done by keystrokes -- combinations of keys, such as Control and Z, for example, to undo the last thing you did.
Mr. Raskin was right, however: Keystrokes are confusing and aren't standard, so Control and Z will undo something in one program, but either won't do anything in another program, or will do something scary like turn off all the lights. The obvious answer here is to learn all the keystrokes that matter, and, in the old days of DOS software such as WordStar, an early word-processing program, that was what we did. (If you are now a Microsoft Word user and remember all those WordStar keystroke combinations, you can download a plug-in from Microsoft's Web site that makes all of them work in Word. Converting a $200 state-of-the-art program into a 20-year throwback is what passes for progress.)
Remembering 100 or so keystroke combinations may not be the solution. But some obvious keystrokes that work in all Windows programs are worth mastering, if you haven't done so already. (Macs are a bit different, though replacing the Control key with the Mac's Command key in the examples below will sometimes work.) Control and Shift, for example, works with the arrow keys to select text by word (if you're going sideways) or line (if you're going up or down). Some keys are intuitive and standard: With Control, B emboldens text, I italicizes it, U underlines it, S saves, O opens a file, A selects all of it, C copies text and F finds it in a document; less intuitively, Z, as noted, undoes what you just did, Y sometimes redoes it (great for repeating a command), X cuts text and V pastes it. I have no idea why V, X, Y and Z are assigned to those functions, except that the more obvious U, R, C and P were already taken. Still, memorizing those keystrokes will save you a lot of bother.
Some combinations of keys, known as global shortcuts or keystrokes, take this universality of function a step further. Rather than just always doing the same thing within the program you're currently using, they can operate or activate other programs that are either not in focus (behind your main program, or minimized) or not even running. So, for example, if you have the Google Deskbar installed on your computer (desktop.google.com), just hit Control, Alt and G and the cursor will move to the Google search box, whatever program you're in.
That's not all. In the days before the mouse, computer users would have to do everything with the keyboard and, as Mr. Raskin pointed out, a lot of what we do with the mouse is time wasting. The mouse is great if you're a graphic designer, or playing games, or doing anything visual, but why do we have to use it to open programs, move between windows, or look something up when we're typing? Programs such as ActiveWords ($50 from
www.activewords.com; as with all programs mentioned here, a free trial version is available) have tackled this conundrum by allowing you to assign words to tasks. Say you're typing away in Microsoft Word and you want to launch a spreadsheet. Type "excel" in the document you're working on and hit the space bar twice; ActiveWords is alerted by the double space that the preceding word is a command, not just a word, and it launches Microsoft Excel. These commands can be tweaked and customized, so loading specific files, searching for words on Google, and more or less anything else you do on your computer can be automated via a brief command. Without reaching for the mouse.
It's remarkable how doing this can save time and minimize disruption of the Muse. (It's also great on airplanes if you're physically constrained from using a mouse or the touchpad by the inevitable sumo wrestler parked next to you.) ActiveWords is the most versatile of this kind of tool out there, but 1st TurboRun ($20 from
www.turborun.com) is also worth a look, as is PC-Com (free, or Pro version $10, from
www.boletrice.com). All are unobtrusive, but will save you oodles of time hunting around for programs and files you use a lot.
Lastly, don't be fooled by my advice. I use all of these tools, but I don't pretend to use them as efficiently or as often as I could. If you can, study yourself using your computer and see if there's a simpler, faster way of doing it. There usually is -- with all fingers still on the keyboard.
跳出鼠标陷阱
我在几年前曾采访过杰夫?拉斯金(Jef Raskin)。他是目前大多数电脑所用界面的发明人之一，并且是苹果电脑(Apple Mac)以及我们现在使用鼠标进行点击以及拖动等操作的创始人之一。令人伤心的是，拉斯金在2005年逝世。在他生命的最后几年中，他对我们与电脑的“互动”方式大失所望：他认为人们在过度使用鼠标，而键盘的使用情况更糟糕。他在一封电子邮件中写道：使用现有可用的快捷键组合来进行各种操作简直是扭曲手指，这些快捷键太随意，在不同的应用软件中没有统一的组合标准。这太令人失望了。另外，有些操作根本没法通过键盘来完成。目前这些专门的快捷键基本没什么作用。他最后的结论是：电脑用户应该呼吁更好的软件问世；否则无法把现有的电脑界面充分利用。
双语阅读
? The Mouse Trap到目前为止，没有发生太多的变化。我曾写过为一些关于开发新界面的文章。大多数新界面都以地图形式为基础，采用二维或三维的模式。但如果我们只想用已经熟悉的界面，不过想更好地使用它呢？以下就是我使用了近20年电脑后得出的经验：不要离开键盘，除非你真的不得不这样做。
任何将手指从键盘移开的动作都会干扰你的集中力，不论你是在写《战争与和平》(War and Peace)的续集，还是给老板写一封低声下气的电子邮件。对我们大多数人来说，电脑毕竟只是一台被美化了的打字机，我们这些不用看键盘就能打字的人从开始就被灌输：即使不输入任何东西，手指也要停留在按键上。其实，无论是选择文档还是从菜单中点击某个功能，这些你通常用鼠标来完成的操作都能通过键盘来实现。这样话你的手就不必移来移去了。事实上，键盘操作都是通过快捷键来完成的，比如同时按下Control键和Z键可以取消你的上一个操作。
拉斯金是正确的，快捷键容易混淆，而且没有统一的标准。Control键和Z键在一种程序中的作用是取消上一个操作，但在另一个程序中可能根本不起作用，它还有可能作出一些吓人的事情，比如熄灭所有的灯。现在答案很明显，那就是：要学会所有重要的快捷键组合。在很早以前使用DOS系统的时代，要想使用诸如早期文字处理程序WordStar等软件，我们就得学会很多重要的快捷键组合。（如果你现在是微软(Microsoft) Word的用户，而且你还记得所有WordStar的快捷键组合的话，你可以从微软网站上下载一个插件，它能够使WordStar所有的快捷键在Word中发挥同样的作用。把一个价值200美元的现代程序转化成它20年前的同类也可以被看作是一种进步吧。）
记住100多种快捷键可能不是一个理想的解决方法。但是如果你还没有使用过快捷键，把在所有Windows程序中通用的一些快捷键掌握了还是很有用的。（苹果电脑略有不同，不过把下面例子中的Control键换成苹果电脑的Command键，有时候也是有效的。）比如，同时按下Control键和Shift键以及方向键可以选中文本。如果你使用左右方向键，这个快捷键组合就会逐字选中文本；如果你使用上下方向键，就会逐行选中文本。一些快捷键一目了然而且很标准，Control键和以下字母键的组合就是如此（这些字母都是这些功能对应英文单词的首字母）：和B键可以加重文本字体，和I键可使文本字体变为斜体，和U键为文本加下划线，和S键保存文本，和O键打开一个文件，和A键全选一个文本，和C键复制文本，和F键可以在文件夹中找到文本。还有一些不那么直观，比如Control键和Z键取消上一个操作，和Y键有时候会重复上一个操作（重复一个命令的时候非常好用），X键剪切文本，V键粘贴文本。我不知道为什么要使用V、X、Y以及Z来实现这些操作，我能想到的唯一原因是U、R、C以及P都已经另有他用了。尽管如此，记住这些快捷键会让你避免很多麻烦。
一些全球闻名的捷径或快捷键组合将功能通用性上升到一个新高度。它们不仅能够在你目前操作的程序中发挥作用，还能够在其他程序中运行，甚至激活其他程序，而这些程序可能是在主程序后运行，或被最小化了，或者根本没有处于运行状态。举个例子，如果你的电脑里安装了谷歌(Google)的Deskbar(desktop.google.com)，不论你在哪个程序中，只要同时敲击Control、Alt以及G键，光标就会自动移到谷歌搜索框内。
这些当然不是键盘操作的全部功能。在鼠标出现以前，电脑用户必须使用键盘来完成所有操作。正如拉斯金指出的那样，我们用鼠标做的很多事情都非常浪费时间。如果你是一个动画设计师，或者你要玩游戏，或做一些需要视觉配合来完成的事情，鼠标是个不错的选择。但是当我们打字的时候，为什么非得用它来打开程序、在窗口之间切换或者查找东西？ActiveWords等软件通过把用户输入的词语转化成命令成功地解决了这个难题。比如，你正在使用微软Word软件，这时候你想打开一个电子表格。你只要在正处理的文档中输入excel，然后再按两下空格键（这个操作提醒ActiveWords，之前输入的这个单词是一个命令，而不是一个普通的词），ActiveWords就会自动打开微软Excel。另外，用户可以调整这些命令，并且可以根据自己的习惯进行定制。因此，下载文件、在谷歌上进行搜索以及其他你在电脑上做的事情都可以通过一些简短的命令自动实现，根本用不著鼠标。ActiveWords的价格是50美元，可以从
www.activewords.com购买。和这里提到的所有软件一样，它有免费的试用版本。
键盘操作能够显著地节省时间，并将对思路的打断降至最低。（在飞机上，当你的邻座恰好是一个“重量级”人物，使你无法自如地使用鼠标时，键盘操作就是很棒的选择。）ActiveWords是此类软件工具中功能最全的一个。不过1st TurboRun（
www.turborun.com，价格是20美元）以及PC-Com（免费，Pro版本价格是10美元，
www.boletrice.com）都值得一试。这两个软件都不太起眼，但是在你苦苦寻找经常使用的软件以及文档的时候，它们能够帮你节省许多时间。
最后，希望你们别被我的建议糊弄了。我确实使用所有这些工具，但是我并没有尽全力把它们的效率和使用频率发挥至最大。如果你能做到这一点，请你自己研究一下如何更有效地使用电脑吧，看看是否有更加简便、快捷的方法。这样的方法总是有的──即使你的手指根本不离开键盘也能实现。
Jeremy Wagstaff
（编者按：本文作者Jeremy Wagstaff是《华尔街日报》科技专栏“Loose Wire”的专栏作家，栏目内容涉及科技产品、电脑、软件等相关领域。）
