Though I’ve long known of the Windows Alt- and Mac Option-key codes for producing extended characters, I’ve only recently discovered a couple different shortcuts that allow the same thing under Linux.

A discussion at Daily Writing Tips about em-dashes, specifically regarding when to use them, spun in the direction of how to produce em-dash characters.

The immediate and obvious suggestion was to rely on word processors’ automatic character replacement—which generally involves swapping out two minus signs for “—” as-you-type. It was also pointed out, however, that there are specific key sequences you can use within different OSes to produce these characters without benefit of a word processor.

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned about becoming a more productive computer user, it’s this: keyboard shortcuts are the holy grail. In my average workday, I would guess that I could shave over an hour off my time on a lengthy project, just by learning and judiciously applying keyboard shortcuts.

Obviously, this will be most effective for people who already spend most of their time with their fingers on the home row (writers & coders), but many of the best mouse-centric programs often have single-letter or one-handed shortcuts that are very beneficial.

Though I’m planning to write a few posts dealing with specific applications that I use every day, and my favorite or most frequently used shortcuts in those applications, there is also quite a bit that is available by default in most modern operating systems. In this post, I’m going to try to give you a few common shortcuts that will work on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

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