No words. Mostly LOLs

I’m pretty proficient at using keyboard shortcuts. In fact, if programs and browsers would let me, I probably wouldn’t even need a mouse or trackpad. Of course, this shaves of a large amount of time from surfing the Internet, but it also makes blogging so much easier. Here are over 60 keyboard shortcuts that will make you a more efficient blogger.

Copy and Paste

As a blogger, I do a ton of copying and pasting – into my blog posts, into word documents, into Facebook group and email among other locations. I save so much time by relying on my keyboard rather than my mouse. Here’s how.

• Copy selected text/data – Ctrl+C
• Copy all text/data in an area or on a page – Ctrl+A
• Undo – Ctrl+Z
• Paste – Ctrl+V
• Paste without formatting – Ctrl+Shift+V

Text Editing

These are Windows shortcuts that will work in WordPress, Google Drive and word processing programs. I do not know that they work with Blogger, but I imagine they do.

• Make selected text bold — Ctrl+B
• Make selected text italic – Ctrl+I
• Make selected text underlined – Ctrl+U
• Use heading 1 – Ctrl+1
• Use heading 2 – Ctrl+2
• Use heading 3 – Ctrl+3

WordPress Shortcuts

I keep forgetting about these keyboard shortcuts even though the are amazing. These work in the visual editor.

• Navigate through comments – j (next) and k (previous).
• Approve selected comment – a
• Send comment to spam – s
• Delete comment – d
• Undo comment action – z
• Reply to comment – r
• Quick edit comment – q
• Move to comment edit screen – e
• Add blockquote — Ctrl+Q

Press “Shift” with any of these keys to perform the action on multiple comments.

If you’re using the HTML editor, shortcuts are a little different.

• Bold — Alt+SHIFT+b
• Italic — Alt+SHIFT+i
• Blockquote — Alt+SHIFT+q
• Strikethrough — Alt+SHIFT+d
• Code —  Alt+SHIFT+c
• Link — Alt+SHIFT+a
• Unordered List (ul) —  Alt+SHIFT+u
• Ordered List (ol) — Alt+SHIFT+o
• Insert date/time — Alt+SHIFT+s
• Insert IMG URL —  ALT-SHIFT-m
• Line Break —  SHIFT+Enter
• List Item (li) — Alt+SHIFT+l
• Add “Read More” — Alt+SHIFT+t
• Publish  —  Alt+SHIFT+p

Modify the elements within your posts with these shortcuts:

• Insert link on selected text – Ctrl+K
• Add address to selected text – Ctrl+9
• Increase width of editor in full-screen mode – Ctrl +
• Decrease width in full-screen mode – Ctrl – (minus)
• Reset editor in full-screen mode – Ctrl 0

Blogger Shortcuts

All the copy and paste and text edit keyboard shortcuts should work for Blogger. You can also easily add a blockquote in HTML edit mode by pressing Ctrl+l.

• Save post – Ctrl+S
• Publish post – Ctrl+P
• Preview post – Ctrl+Shift+P
• Add link – Ctrl+Shift+A

Browser Shortcuts

It doesn’t matter whether you use Chrome or Firefox – we all hope you’re just not using Internet Explorer! – there are shortcuts that will save you tons of time.

• Open a new tab – Ctrl + T
• Close a tab – Ctrl + W
• Reopen last closed tab – Ctrl, Shift, T
• Switch to tab on right – Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl Page Dn
• Switch to tab on left – Ctrl + Page Up
• Open a new window – Ctrl+N
• Open a link in a new window – Click+Shift
• Open link in new tab – Click+Ctrl
• Go back in history – Backspace
• Go forward in hiastory – Shift+Backspace
• Search in address/search bar – Ctrl+E
• Add bookmark – Ctrl+D
• Bookmark all open tabs — Ctrl+Shift+D
• Open page source code – Ctrl+U
• Add .com to a domain name and go to that domain — Ctrl+Enter
• Add .net to complete domain name and go to domain — Shift+Enter
• Complete and go to .org domain — Ctrl+Shift+Enter

Facebook Shortcuts

Let’s face it, you probably spend a lot of time on Facebook if you’re a blogger. On a daily basis, I update my Facebook page and communicate in almost a dozen different groups. These shortcuts are a life-saver!

When browsing Facebook in Firefox, press Shift+Alt+ the corresponding number to move to these common pages. In Chrome for Windows, just press Alt+ the number. Ctrl+Opt+ the # in Mac will work in either browser.

• 0 – Help
• 1 – Home
• 2 – Timeline
• 3 – Friends
• 4 – Inbox
• 5 – Notifications
• 6 – Settings
• 7 – Activity Log
• 8 – About
• 9 – Terms
• m – New Message

In your news feed, use the following shortcuts to perform common actions:

• Post a new status – p
• Like a post – l
• Comment on a status – c
• Share a post – s
• Search using the search bar – /e
• Open all shortcuts – ?

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

Many bloggers rely on Gmail to check their email from their PC, tablet or phone. If I didn’t use Thunderbird, I would rely on Gmail to check my email via IMAP or POP3. Of course, all Android users have a Google account, so plenty of people rely on Gmail for personal reasons, too. These keyboard shortcuts will help you get around.

• Send message from “Compose” screen – Ctrl+Enter
• Change “From” in Compose screen – Ctrl+Shift+F
• Expand or collapse a message – Enter
• Move between messages in a thread – n (Next), p (previous)
• Move through message list – Up and Down arrows, Enter to open

Google offers a bunch more Gmail shortcuts that are not turned on by default. Enable them by clicking the gear icon, choosing “Settings”and selecting “Keyboard shortcuts on.”

What are your favorite keyboard shortcuts? Should I add any to this list? Let me know in the comments!

I follow several feminist blogs, Tumblrs, authors and communities. It’s a topic that is near and dear to my heart even when something so horrible as a young man hunting down and murdering 6 people isn’t in the news because even when it’s pretty “good” to be a woman, it’s still pretty bad. The typically sudden but sometimes overt viewpoints, words and actions condoned by a society that hasn’t made nearly enough progress since the 1950s — I don’t care what you say — has led to the death of those 6 people. In addition, another young woman named Alyssa took her own life after harassment for being in a porn flick.

This past week has been littered with women dying because it is essentially a crime to be a woman and expect to be more than chattel. I don’t know how to express my frustration except that I know it shouldn’t be discussed and thought about only by people — mostly women — who already realized what a problem exists in this misogynistic world  and most certainly it shouldn’t be a topic only when the “really” terrible things happen. We should be talking about it every day to make this a better place not just for our children but for us right here and right now.

The longer we let this bullshit go on, the more women die. More men rape women because they don’t understand what rape is. More men continue to stalk. And more people, men and women alike, blame the victims for this as if they can control predatory and sexist behavior.

And the longer men continue to be miserable and angry because they don’t understand that their entire line of thinking — the worldview that they’ve been taught for their entire lives — is wrong. If you really care about men’s rights, then will recognize the only way to improve their lives is first by providing true equality and safety for women. There is no other answer.

And I am pissed as a feminist. How could I not be? But I am simply angry as a decent human being who would like people to stop dying because of hatred for women, because of a belief that women are not real people.

As much as I want to be angry at Elliot Rogder, I recognize that he didn’t deserve this, either. He didn’t deserve to die. He deserved a chance at a happy life and not through becoming rich or finally having sex. He deserved a world where he would be taught that he wouldn’t always get what he wanted and this didn’t have to mean unhappiness for him.  But the lesson that would have literally saved his life went with him to the grave.

Elliot was obviously looking for answers. I’d hazard a guess that many men are. Even some women. Unfortunately, the answers he found led to his death and that of six other people. Because those answers were wrong:

Because this is what the Men’s Rights Movement does: it spreads misogyny, it spreads violence, and most of all it spreads a sense of entitlement towards women’s bodies.

It’s easy to write this off as a one-time thing. Many people have. This terrible event has sparked discussions about mental health and gun rights. I am all for conversations about this when the time is right. Now is not that time. Because what Elliot did wasn’t a one-time thing of a “lunatic.” It was a symptom of something even greater.

You only have to look toward the next headline, the tragic suicide of Alyssa, to see this. While Elliot was angry at women who wouldn’t have sex with him, Alyssa was slut-shamed. Two sides of the same damning coin. She had sex on camera so she’s a slut even though a man wouldn’t receive the same treatment. It gets worse, though. She kills herself and the Internet is full of comments such as “You deserved to die but I watched and liked your video, anyway.” I can’t even comprehend how someone could think that this is okay. But it’s clear that if you’re a woman, you cannot win. Or even live.

I don’t know how we can live in a society where people are allowed or even influenced to think in ways that promotes this behavior. The harassment. The rape. The assault. The stalking. The entitlement to a woman’s body. The murder. But here we are in that society. And I think I will not rest until it is no longer that society.

If you’d like to be supportive or to understand how damaging rape culture and msyogny are to women, you only have to look at the hashtag #YesAllWomen on Twitter. Or Facebook. Or Tumblr. Just beware that you’re going to see ignorant and hate-fueled arguments in returns because “OMG what about men’s rights?!” and “She had it coming.”

• If I go to your house and there’s no soap in the bathroom. Or if there’s soap but no hand towel. Do you not wash your hands? Gross!
• If you don’t wash your hands when cooking for other people. I don’t need to eat your food, thanks.
• If you’re a shitty tipper. Seriously? We’re not neanderthals.
• If you drop food and pick it up and eat it. From the ground.
• If you share food with your animals. I am a crazy cat lady, but this is seriously weird.
• If you doubt that dinosaurs actually walked the Earth. They did, okay?
• If you come over to spend time with me but spend the entire time on your phone.
• If you refuse to have fun because you’ve convinced yourself you won’t.
• If you say you’re not into drama but every damned thing you do creates it.

Maybe this makes me a judgmental person, but I feel like most of these things make me a clean and hygienic human being. And there’s a basic foundation that I need to even feel somewhat human so I just don’t understand when other people can bypass all these things and not.

I’m not going to leave the house without being clean and dressed. I can’t even spend a day without taking a shower. Now, it won’t kill me, and I certainly adjust my way of thinking when I am in another person’s home, but these things still cross my mind.

The thing is.. I won’t tell you that I they cross my mind. I won’t say a thing to embarrass you because that’s rude. But I will wonder, and you may see evidence of this cross my face for just an instant because I have nothing close to a poker face.

But, hey, maybe you’re happier than I am anyway.

As I sit here typing this, it’s storming outside. I feel and hear the thunder. I see the lightning through the cracks of my curtains. It reminds me of a different time in my life.

Rain has always been a welcome soundtrack. It lulls me to sleep when I am tired. The pitterpatter mirrors my heart when I am excited. The moisture washes away the dirt on the world just as it does the dirt on my skin and the mess from my mind. Rain is cathartic, it truly is.

And rain is sexy. It makes me want peel away my clothing, open the blinds and turn off the light so that only the lightning illuminates bodies and expressions in the middle of the night.

It is spring, and with spring comes rain, a rain that I, for one, am glad to see.