Windows has a very long list of Keyboard shortcuts that resolve regular actions quickly and can be very useful to all types of users. Among them, the most popular can be considered Ctrl+Z.which allows us to undo actions on the computer and is admitted by many programs. Not just the last; executing it more times the system continues to retreat and undo the previous actions, which facilitates working without fear of making mistakes since, in this way, they can quickly revert. But, with all the popular that is Ctrl+Z, something that many users do not know is Alternative shortcut which also allows the same action and, more important, the one who performs the opposite action.
The alternative a Ctrl+Z. is ALT + backmuch less used because it requires both hands, given the situation of those keys at the opposite ends of the keyboard.
But if you are reading this article, it is because you want to know how to perform the action to redo with the same agility that it gives Ctrl + Z.and that is Ctrl + and. Probably, the reason why it is not so well known is because also forces to use both handswhat remains efficacy to shortcut. It also has an alternative, but it is a bit more complex: CTRL + CAPITALS + Zalthough it has the advantage that the 3 keys used are very close to each other, which makes it more practical.
The most used keyboard shortcuts in Windows come from Apple
The truth is that the most popular keyboard shortcuts -we include here also those of copy (Ctrl+c), cut (Ctrl+x) and paste (Ctrl+v)- They have a story that starts long before Windows.
In 1974the text editor Xerox Parc Bravo It was the first program to incorporate the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z. To undo an action. Among the programmers of the Xerox editor was Larry Teslerwho started working in Apple in 1980.
Next to Bill Atkinsonthey advocated the inclusion of the shortcut, in this case using the key Applecurrently known as Commandrather Ctrl. They managed to convince the company to introduce into the software of the Smooththe first computer with Apple mouse launched in 1983a level of undo and remake, but not multiple as they intended, something that would come later.
Developing the graphical user interface, Tesler also decided to use the X, C and V keys together with the Apple key to add the cut, copy and paste actions. Interestingly, at this stage Ctrl+Z. It served so much for undo as redo. If you wanted the first, A z pulsation; If the second one was sought, we had to add A second pulsation quickly.
In an email sent to Dr. Brad A. Myers of the University Carnegie Mellon In 2016, Tesler explained how they came to them: ‘The Lisa was the first system to assign the X, C, V and Z keys to cut, copy, paste and undo (combined with the Apple key). I chose them myself. The X It was a standard elimination symbol. The C It was the first letter of Copy (copy). The V It was an inverted circumflex accent and, apparently, meant inserting in at least one previous editor. The Z I was next to the Xthe C and the V On the American Qwerty keyboard, but Its form also symbolized the triad “to make-dishearse-refresh”: the upper line to the right = a step forward; the medium line to the left = a step back; The lower line to the right = a step forward again ‘.
How the Apple keyboard shortcuts arrived in Windows
Windows 1.0launched in 1985was the first Microsoft operating system with a graphical user interface. Apple had graduated some elements of his Macintosh OS to the company Bill Gatesbut did not replicate them in the same way.
Until Windows 3.0 (1990), Microsoft used different keyboard shortcuts for the following actions:
- Undo: Alt + backward
- Cut: Capital letters + su
- Copy: CTRL + INSERT
- Paste: Capital letters + insert
These inherited shortcuts still work in Windows 11 And they have their fans. It was with Windows 3.1in 1992, when Microsoft included in its operating system those that have been subject to this article, although they had begun to be available a year earlier in Microsoft Word 2.0. Today, more than four decades later, all these shortcuts continue to make the work easier for millions of people, both in computers with Windows as with Macin addition to other operating systems such as Linux.