Creating a shortkey will quickly become a favorite with your students. I use it for the snipping tool–because we use that a lot in class–but you can create one for any program you use a lot. Depdending upon the device you use will dictate how you do this.
Windows
- Go to Start
- Right click on the desired program
- Select ‘properties’
- Click in ‘shortcut’
- Push the key combination you want to use to invoke the snipping tool. In my case, I used Ctrl+Alt+S
- Save
Here’s a video to show you:
Now all I have to do is remember the shortkey!
iPad
Called hotkeys. These are built in on some devices and require an app on others. On the iPad go to:
Settings > General Settings > Keyboard Settings
Scroll down and click “add new shortcut.” The one drawback is that it does not include new paragraphs on the ipad/ iphone. To do that you’ll need Text Expander, but because Text Expander isn’t supported in every app, I just use this. So, for example, at the top of every Journal Entry I like to have:
Other
Use the Auto Hotkeys program
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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor/author of dozens of tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and dozens of books on how to integrate technology into education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, a tech ed columnist for Examiner.com, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
