Keyboard shortcuts - what are they and how can they help me?

As the name suggests, they provide quick ways of doing things that otherwise might take a long time to do.

One example - Ctrl+P - used if you want to print the Microsoft Word document you've been writing. Just hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter P on the keyboard - the print dialogue will appear instantly.

My most commonly used Windows keyboard shortcuts:(for Macs, substitute the Apple key for the Ctrl key)
•    Ctrl+C (Copy)
•    Ctrl+X (Cut) - think of the X as a pair of scissors
•    Ctrl+V (Paste) - possibly derived from the printer's insert mark
•    Ctrl+Z (Undo) - no I don't know why it's Z!
•    Ctrl+A (Select All) - can be used in a program, such as Word, or within a folder
•    Ctrl+S (Save)
•    Esc (Cancel the current task)
•    Oh, and did you know that, in the print-dialogue window and many other dialogues, pressing the Enter key is equivalent to clicking on the OK button? And it's a lot easier to do that than use a mouse.

My favourite keyboard shortcuts:
•    CTRL+] (ie right-hand of the two square brackets - increase size of highlighted text in Word by one point)
•    CTRL+[ (ie the left-hand of the two square brackets - decrease size of highlighted text in Word by one point)

My Windows get-out-of-jail keyboard shortcuts:
•    CTRL+F4 (closes the program or window that is active)
•    CTRL+Alt+Del (brings up Task Manager) - will often let you shut down the PC if it has become locked up. Also lets you selectively close running programs