I think the first advanced GUI I saw was either Microsoft Word or Excel.įor many year’s I’ve been hoping to find a particular keyboard shortcut. I just use them to put my computer to sleep, or to change what happens when I start the computer, e.g., to enter the BIOS/UEFI setup, or to temporary change the boot order.īesides WordPerfect, there was a database program called dBase. I suppose this was much better than a GUI if that is what you mainly used, but a GUI is much better for non-experts.
They didn’t have a Windows key back then. Each key could do multiple functions, depending on what key was pressed along with it (e.g., control, fn, shift). I think WordPerfect had a little template that you laid down on top of the Function keys (above your number keys). If I recall correctly, most tasks were done with key combinations. In ancient days, like 30 years ago, I have a recollection the GUI interface was not as developed as today. You ask “Did computer users know and use keyboard shortcuts and other tricks more in the past? ” Here is a combination of shortcuts that will work all the time: use Ctrl-End to jump all the way down, then Home to jump to the first cell of that row, and then Ctrl-Up to the last cell of the table with data. Home - Jumps to the first cell of the active row.End - Jumps to the last cell of the row with data.Ctrl-Home - Moves the cursor to the first left-most cell of the table.Ĭtrl-Home works all the time whereas Ctrl-End may jump too far down and to the right so that you may readjust the position again after the jump has been made.Ctrl-End - Moves the cursor to the last right-most cell of the table.It is still faster than using the Down-key or scrolling but not the fastest option. If you have lots of blank cells, you need to activate the shortcut multiple times. Ctrl-Up - The shortcut moves the cursor to the first row with data before a blank row.Ĭtrl-Down works well if there are no blank cells in the table.Ctrl-Down - The shortcut moves the cursor to the last row with data before the first blank row that is encountered this may be the last row in the table ideally, but only if there are not any blank rows in the table.Here are the keyboard shortcuts that you need: