

RELATED: The Modern PC Archetype: Use a 1970s Xerox Alto in Your Browser The Shortcuts Come to WindowsĪt the dawn of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) era for Microsoft, Apple licensed some elements of the Macintosh OS to Microsoft for Windows 1.0, but Redmond took care to not exactly duplicate the Macintosh interface.
#CTRL SHORTCUTS SOFTWARE#
It’s worth noting that while the Apple Lisa introduced the Z/X/C/V shortcuts, the actual concepts for Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste originated earlier with interfaces for software developed for the Xerox Alto in the 1970s. So on a Mac in 1984, as with today, you’d press Command+Z for Undo, Command+X for Cut, Command+C for Copy, and Command+V for paste. When Apple developed the Macintosh, it brought forward the Lisa’s Z/X/C/V keyboard shortcuts but adapted them for the Command key that was unique to the Mac platform. But its shape also symbolized the “Do-Undo-Redo” triad: top rightward stroke = step forward middle leftward stroke = step back bottom rightward stroke = step forward again. V was an upside down caret and apparently meant Insert in at least one earlier editor. The Lisa was the first system to assign XCVZ to cut, copy, paste and undo (shifted with the “apple” key). Myers of Carnegie Mellon University, Tesler described exactly why he chose those specific letters: Together, they made Apple+Z, Apple+X, Apple+C, and Apple+V. While developing the user interface for the Lisa, Apple programmer Larry Tesler chose to use the Z, X, C, and V keys in conjunction with the Lisa’s Apple key to represent Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste. The Apple Lisa (1983) introduced the Z, X, C, and V shortcuts. Ctrl + Shift + Plus Sign (+) Insert blank cells or rows and columns. F2 Edit active cell/put cursor at end of line.

Ctrl + Tab, Shift + Tab Move to the next/previous workbook. The Lisa was a precursor of the Macintosh and Apple’s first mouse-based computer. Ctrl + Page Up, Page Down Move to the next/previous worksheet. The earliest ancestor of these shortcuts appeared on the Apple Lisa computer in 1983.

The story of Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V shortcuts for Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste in Windows goes back to the very early 1980s.
