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Friday 7 March 2008

Keyboard shortcut of the week: undo and redo

Just about every windows application has an 'undo' feature and most have a 'redo' feature. These are a lifesaver on those frequent occasions that we make a mistake in what we are doing, and in the case of 'redo', when we realise that we were right the first time.

The undo/redo feature will either be available as toolbar buttons (as shown) or from the 'Edit' menu. Alternatively there are, unsurprisingly, a couple of keyboard shortcuts for them. To undo the last thing you did hold down the Ctrl key and press Z; to redo the last thing you undid, hold down the Ctrl key and press Y.

49 comments:

Anonymous said...

This tip was a life saver just now!! I never knew about Ctrl Y until today. *Phew* Thanks!!!!

Borkiman said...

Anon: To be honest, I tend to forget about it myself and use the menu item. Thanks for the comment.

Anonymous said...

great tip for the redo!!!

Manoj Kumar said...

Many Thanks !

Farhana said...

This just saved a paragraph on my English paper, for which I am eternally grateful. Thank you, and thank google for leading me to you.

Borkiman said...

F: Glad to be of service. Thanks for the comment

scheherazada said...

Ditto all the praise the others have made! Google led me here and I have bookmarked you quickly.

Scheherazada

Borkiman said...

Scheherazada: Thanks for the comment. This is easily my most popular post.

Anonymous said...

Thanks sooooo much that save me! Now I know Ctrl+y!!!!!

Borkiman said...

Anon: Feel free to check out the keyboard shortcuts on this blog.

Max Turetsky said...

I knew [ctrl+z], but I didn't know [ctrl+y]. Thanks!

Borkiman said...

You're welcome

Bill said...

Nice post, thanks :D there are a few shortcuts you missed on www.usingcomputers.co.uk take a gander

Anonymous said...

I knew undo but when you go too far you need redo!! Thanks!!!

Borkiman said...

Bill: That's a good list that they have there. Thanks for the link.

Anon: You're welcome.

Suzanne said...

You are truly a god-send! I just googled "undo shortcut" and found your website. I knew there was some code for undo, but didn't know what it was. You're in my favorites now..,, and forever!
Mahalo nui loa!

Borkiman said...

Suzanne: Glad you found it helpful. I have to say that this post has been good to me, bringing so many new readers.

Ashleigh said...

Lifesaver!! Thank you!

Borkiman said...

Ash: You're welcome

Faysal said...

thanks u so much..........ooooowwwwww man.........i was looking for this shortcut for so many days............but today i find out..........thanks for telling the shortcut of redo...........

hh said...

Thank you very much you are great!!

Ankur Saxena said...

Thanx a million, the shortcut key for undo just saved my work, else I would have completely lost it as I was working on my mail.
This was a awesome shortcut for me....almost as a Time saver.....thanks to u

Anonymous said...

great tip. Life saver

Sharaj said...

Thank you very much for your helpful article on windows shortcut. I was known how to undo but didn't know how to redo again. I became scared. Finally I found your blog, and helped me to resolve. I appreciate :)

Anonymous said...

....One click on the website, catching my eyes with " ...To undo the last thing you did hold down the Ctrl key and press Z; to redo the last thing you undid, hold down the Ctrl key and press Y" specially in bold and top of the page... the only thing I can say is:" FABULOUS AND MANY THANKS"

... quick and easy

Anonymous said...

....One click on the website, catching my eyes with " ...To undo the last thing you did hold down the Ctrl key and press Z; to redo the last thing you undid, hold down the Ctrl key and press Y" specially in bold and top of the page... the only thing I can say is:" FABULOUS AND MANY THANKS"

... quick and easy

Borkiman said...

I'm glad you found my post useful

Pure Awesomeness said...

OMG THANK YOU :D !!!!

Anonymous said...

how do you undo the d shortcut that takes you to IE favourites

Borkiman said...

Anon: What do you mean by 'undo the d shortcut'?

Sharkbytes said...

I use ^Z all the time. Tonight I needed the keyboard for redo, and found it on your blog. What fun. I'll remember ^Y!

Anonymous said...

Ctrl Z just saved me an email that took a long time to write. Many thanks.

Borkiman said...

Glad to be of service

Anonymous said...

tnx!!! I've been working with computers for ages and I did not know what the redo cmd shortcut was until I read it here.

:)

Alexander Gordon Jahans said...

Did not know redo, for some reason I thought it was control shift zed, lol what a noob.

Seriously you just saved me.

Borkiman said...

You're welcome

Anonymous said...

In GIMP it's Ctrl+Shift+Z, so that's why I kept doing that in word too!

Arcy said...

for ages, like many others, I knew the Ctrl Z. If I ever needed to redo something on word I would just click on the arrow. Today I had written a good chunk on FB and all of a sudden poof it was gone! I panicked! My first thought was, well if there is a undo short cut, surely there is a redo one! And voila, ctrl Y!!!

Thanks Stepterix!!

Borkiman said...

Anon: Is that the GIMP on Linux, because my Windows version has undo as Ctrl+Z?

Arcy: You're welcome

Anonymous said...

Look at all of the people you have saved banging their heads against their desks in agony! You saved me today too in a work program where there is no undo/redo menu button so THANK YOU! :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for redo... I was not knowing that..it is of great help.

DolphinArtist said...

I could just kiss you! I could only remember the zed.
***muah***
cheers

Danniele said...

Wow this is an OLD post!

Thank goodness it's still here and thank goodness I found it!

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Thank you! I just lost my email and there was no undo button. You just saved my sanity (and my laptop from a sudden death!!).

DoMeN8r said...

what i am looking to do is change how many "undos" i can use in Chrome Google Docs (and on Facebook, where the bloody thing keeps disappearing text on me). Any insight of how to do that? if you could e-mail me royster7@gmail.com as well as post here most helpful cuz i don't see a way new posts are notified via e-mail.

Borkiman said...

LeRoy: I suspect that the number of undos is hard-coded into Chrome. Short of hacking the source code, I do not know of any other way to change this.

Anonymous said...

My headphone jack isn't working properly. How long would it probably take if I had apple repairs my 8gb 3rd gen ipod touch?

Do you know any way to get it repair quicker than normal, because I use my ipod touch as a communication device as I'm non-verbal. I don't have any other communication devices to use while its being repaired.

Borkiman said...

Anon: Sorry, I have no idea how long Apple would take to make that repair, assuming they can do it at all.

Unknown said...

I never knew this shortcut until today. Thanks sooooo much!
It saved me from having to do an entire assignment again. I was freaking out before I found your website.