Make The Most Out of Your Home and End Keys

Make the Most of Your 'Home' and 'End' Keys
Rick Broida
Feb 2, 2010 4:00 pm
You know me: I love a good keyboard shortcut. The Home and End keys aren't shortcuts in the traditional sense, but many users never bother to lay a finger on them--and that's a mistake.

Indeed, you may hold Home and End in the same regard as Pause/Break and Scroll Lock, but while those keys are downright useless, your Page Up/Page Down neighbors most certainly are not.

Here are three places the Home and End keys come in very handy:

In Microsoft Outlook:

While in Mail view, a tap of the End key jumps you to the bottom of your Folders list, Inbox, or individual message (depending on which pane is selected). Tapping Home jumps you back up top.

In Your Word Processor:

I'd wager Home and End were created with word processors in mind, as the programs make valuable use of them. Tapping End moves your cursor to the end (natch) of a line, while Home moves it to the beginning. Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End, meanwhile, jump you to the top and bottom of your document, respectively.

In Your Web Browser:

Borrowing from word processors, Web browsers use Home and End to jump to the top and bottom of a Web page. The only difference: no Ctrl key required.

Have you found any other dynamic uses for this venerable pair of keys? If so, shout 'em out in the comments!