keyboard shortcuts ii
Today, the battery of my mouse has run out, hooray. In an hour or so she will be back to torment me. So NOW is the perfect time to give a second-write up about keyboard shortcuts.
Here is last year's post -> keyboard shortcuts pt. i (keyboard shortcuts i actually use)1 And for the second installation of this series we have:
- tools - a hardware update and listing the software involved in this
- vimium - a separate section for the GOAT browser extension ā
- how to bookmark a Google Sheet spreadsheet - where I share with you how I completed a mundane task that would take 5 seconds with a mouse but it took me half an hour to figure out how to do it with only a keyboard
- resources
Feel free to jump š¦
tools
Major hardware update: I now have an AULA F75 mechanical keyboard2 and am currently writing on my PC, the specs I will soon list and link in a uses page (soon, Promise).
Software relevant to this post
- Obsidian
- Firefox
- Google Sheets
- Vimium (browser extension)
vimium
First of all, I would like to thank the person who suggested this to me after I posted my first keyboard shortcuts post. This recommendation was very helpful to me & one of the best I have ever received!
Thank you <3
Vimium is a browser extension that gives you more keyboard shortcuts.
Essentially it gave my keyboard a territory in the browser with so much depth. Like it is in steroids. I'd say it takes a while getting used to, actually remembering the keys and figuring out what sites to exclude (depends on you, what you're working on and all that).
I am not able to use the extension extensively on my work laptop but have been using it on my PC on and off, enough to know the basics and what it can be used most for, which I'd say is the action of opening a link in the current tab - achievable by pressing the letter f on your keyboard.
Here's how it works:
- Press
f - The page will show letters or letter pairings in which you can press to open that specific link
- Press the letter associated with the link you wish to open
- Ta-da, you have navigated to that page
Okay it seems so much work writing those steps. You better just install the extension and see it for yourself. I'd say the best site to use it for right now is the Bear discovery page and it's how I've been doing my browsing when I'm on the PC.
My Honorable Mentions
jandkfor scrollingggto scroll to the topyycopies the link of the tab you're onHto go back to the previous page?to view the other shortcuts
And then you'll survive and see already if this is something that you like or can get used to. Or if you like your mouse very much I will be no judge of that....
In light of getting back to my blog after some inactivity, I have also taken my time figuring out how to write better (optimizing/making my process repeatable) and where. In previous posts I have been using vscode, Google Docs, my self chat thread in Messenger ~ which amounts to a ridiculous clutter of ideas and actual writings.
Finally, I give Obsidian another shot after contemplating if I should move everything about my blog in vscode. Then I watched this video and created my version of the setup, discovered Obsidian's Hotkeys, then completed some life admin tasks with Google Sheets.
So far I've only set up one hotkey of my own: Alt + M to move a file to a specific folder. I'm still on Day 1 Obsidian so looking forward if this changes or the actual tool sticks with me.
At some point this afternoon my mouse died on me >< and I was in the middle of editing a spreadsheet in Google Sheets that I wanted to send to r via email and add to my bookmarks bar.
This part, I think I was just really bored and treated it like a brain exercise. Here's one of those times I truly enjoy my keyboard and using it like a wand in a magic trick. It feels, to me, oddly satisfying completing tasks with only a keyboard ~ but this time, for this mundane task, the Tab key is used but not abused.
To workarounds š„
how to bookmark a Google Sheet spreadsheet
Firefox's Ctrl + D to bookmark a page does not work. It only duplicates a cell or something. So with the power of vimium and knowledge of Google Sheets' shortcuts and lastly opening the Firefox Library to edit bookmarks is the only way to successfully bookmark a spreadsheet on a browser. Vimium, seemingly at first, will not work because it will just type a buncha stuff in the cells, as well.
With all those obstacles in mind, my idea was to bookmark a dummy link as a placeholder.
Ctrl + Tš¦- open a new tab and search for a page - any as long as it is not yet in your bookmarks
Ctrl + Dš¦- bookmark that page, remember it is a dummy
Ctrl + Tabš¦- use to navigate back to the spreadsheet
- or if you have not yet opened it, go to Google Sheets and use
f
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + mš- moves the focus out of the spreadsheet
yyšµ- copies the link of your spreadsheet
Ctrl + Shift + Oš¦- opens the Firefox Library, which is the home of all your bookmarks
Taband arrow keys- find the dummy page
- navigate through the Library window with these keys
- OR simply search for the dummy page using Search
Ctrl + V- when you find the dummy page, use Tab to arrive to the name and link field and paste your link
Done!
Up until now that I finish writing this in Obsidian, I still have not touched my mouse. I had fun with this exercise <3 Until the next one !!!! If this has interested you in any way or have any questions or if anything doesn't work feel free to yell at me via email ~