Pressing The Alt Key While At The Same Time Pressing Another Key.

[anotheoldgit]

The other day I read a tip which included pressing the Alt key whilst pressing another key at the same time, but I can't remember what the other key was or what useful operation it carried out, anyone help please?

[jim360]

There are literally hundreds of possible things you can do with the Alt Key. You will need to be more specific.

A few useful ones that I can think of:

Alt+Tab can switch quickly between windows (on Windows 10).
Alt+F4 shuts down a program.
Alt+(up to four numbers on the number keypad) types various special characters, according to, eg, this list:

https://pics.me.me/alt-codes-reference-sheet-hold-down-the-alt-key-then-22632642.png

[beso]

In many programs, pressing Alt enable menus to be selected by pressing the character that is underlined in the menu or item.

[Buenchico]

As long as you've got the your keyboard's number lock on (which it commonly is by default anyway) and you use the numeric keypad on your keyboard (and not the numbered keys across the top of it), you can use Alt codes to type foreign letters, such as é ñ µ and ß, as well as characters such as ▲ ♦ ♪ and ♫

See here for a list:
http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/altchrc.html

[Baldric]

https://www.alt-codes.net/

[anotheoldgit]

I am sorry I am being rather vague, but I am sure it consisted of holding down the Alt key whilst pressing one particular key on the top line of letter keys.

I am sure it did something with the screen display, something like taking a screen shot.

I know at the time I thought that is useful, but now I am wracking my brains out trying to remember what it was.

[Old_Geezer]

Alt prt scn

Why not give all possible options a try ?

[ichkeria]

Most keyboards I think have a key to the right of the function keys along the top marked PRT SC or some other abbreviation.
Then you press it with alt, ctrl or shift to print the screen.
On my machine this works with any of the above

[ichkeria]

... and this usually doesn't actually print anything but copies an image to the clipboard which you can then paste.

[Buenchico]

For clarification of the above (if it's needed), pressing PrtScn (which might be labelled slightly differently on your keyboard) takes a snapshot of the whole of your screen and places it on your clipboard. You can then go to a relevant application (such as Paint or a Word document) and paste the image into it.

If you press PrtScn and Alt together you get an image of just the top window from your screen, rather than of the whole screen.

However the PrtScn button is now largely redundant because (from Windows 7 onwards) Windows now comes with the Snipping Tool, which is far more flexible in that it permits you to choose exactly which part of your screen you wish to capture. (It's found via Start > All Programs > Accessories).