Three summers ago (2005) the waterfalls in Yosemite were flowing at a phenomenal rate from all the rain we'd had earlier in the year. I was fortunate enough to have some time to visit while the show was still going on. Going to Yosemite was a last minute decision so I left for the valley without any reservations. I was fortunate enough to find one of the last walk-in camp sites available.

First, the bad news: there were mosquitoes everywhere. The water that was feeding the falls also created ideal breeding conditions for the tiny vampires.

I set up my tent the first night in record time. Inside the tent was about the only place where I could find refuge from the blood-thirsty, buzzing hordes. As fast as I worked, I wasn't fast enough to avoid getting bitten. As quickly as I opened the tent door, dove in and zippered the door behind me, I wasn't quick enough. A few of the buggers managed to follow me in. Eventually, I hunted every last one of them down and settled in for a good night's sleep.

The good news was that I went to sleep every night listening to the thundering sound of Yosemite Falls. Not a bad trade off.

One more group of keyboard shortcuts: those you can use to give commands. Many of the most commonly used commands such as copy and paste have a keyboard shortcut. If you think about it, most of the time when are using a computer, you are typing. If you have one hand on the mouse, either you are typing with one hand or you aren't typing at all. Besides letting you give commands more quickly, one of the best aspects of keyboard shortcuts is that your hands never leave the keyboard. Here are some of my favorite shortcuts.

Instead of clicking the OK button, press the Enter key. Instead of clicking the Cancel button, press the Escape key.

The commands I've listed below mention the Control key. If you are using a Mac, you press the Command (Apple) key instead.

Use Control C or Command C on a Mac to copy something, Control X to cut and Control V to paste.

Control P to print, Control S to save, Control O to open and Control W to close a document.

Press the Tab key in a dialog box to move from one section of the dialog box to the next one.

These shortcuts are the same in almost all computer programs. In addition to these, most programs have shortcuts that apply only to the specific program. If you want to explore the shortcuts available in a program, open the Help program and search for help on the term keyboard or keyboard shortcuts.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about keyboard shortcuts and that you'll give them a try. You may wonder why it took you so long.

Yesterday I wrote about keyboard shortcuts that let you move the insertion point. Today I'll talk about shortcuts that let you select text. As with using the keyboard to move the insertion point, these shortcuts also work anywhere you enter text such as word processing documents, email messages or even dialog boxes.

The shortcuts used to select text are almost the same as the shortcuts used to move the insertion point. The only difference is that to select text, you hold down the shift key; that's it.

For example, to move the insertion point one character at a time to the right, press the right arrow key. To select one character at a time to the right of the insertion point, hold down the Shift key and while holding it down, press the right arrow key.

To move the insertion point to the end of a line, press the End key. To select text from the location of the insertion point to the end of a line, hold down the Shift key, and while holding it down, press the End key.

To select text from the location of the insertion point to the end of a document, hold down shift and then press control end. This works no matter how long the document may be. The longer the document, the more time you save.

Tomorrow I'll discuss one more set of shortcuts, those that let you give commands.

Keyboard shortcuts are grouped according to the functions they perform. Two groups of shortcuts used most frequently are those that move the insertion point or that select text. Today I'll list some common shortcuts for moving the insertion point. These shortcuts are designed to work anywhere you enter text such as word processing documents, email messages or even dialog boxes. They work on Windows computers as well as Macintoshes. Because laptop keyboards don't always have all the keys found on a full-sized keyboard, some of the shortcuts may not work on a laptop.

Arrow keys

The left and right arrow keys move the insertion point one character at a time to the left or the right. Left and right arrow keys can be especially helpful when the text is small.

The up and down arrow keys move the insertion point up or down one line at a time.

Page up and Page down

How much you move when you press page up or page down depends on the program you are using but generally these keys move the insertion point up or down a screen at a time.

Home and End keys

Pressing the Home key moves you to the beginning of a line while pressing the End key moves you to the end of a line of text.

The Control key

When you combine pressing any of these keys with the Control key, you increase the distance pressing any of these keys moves the insertion point. For example, if you hold down the Control key and while holding it down you press the left or right arrow, you move left or right a word at a time.

Control plus the up or down arrow key moves the insertion point up or down a paragraph at a time.

Pressing Control plus Page up or Page down moves the insertion point up or down a page at a time.

And the longest distance of all: press Control and the Home key to move to the beginning of a document while Control plus End moves to the end of a document.

These key combinations also word in dialog boxes. For example, when you are entering a file name in the Save As dialog box, pressing Home moves to the beginning of the file name while pressing End moves to the end of the file name.

Using keyboard shortcuts isn't difficult but it can present you with a challenge. The challenge? Breaking the habit of automatically reaching for the mouse. If you try using the keyboard, I think you'll find you can move around in your documents faster than you can with a mouse. In the end, all I am saying is give keys a chance :)

Petaluma is one of the most photogenic places I've ever been. Finding an interesting subject to photograph in Petaluma is about as difficult as catching fish in a barrel with a net. Once upon a time when the sun was shining down upon our fair city, I snapped these photos of the Boulevard Cinemas.