Worst "muscle memory" keyboard shortcut?

Question

What's the worst shortcut you have in your "muscle memory"?

For example, mine is CTRL-L: compiles the current object in Sybase Powerbuilder, but deletes the current line in Visual Studio.

Answer 1

F5. I use it all the time in SQL Manager to run a query. In Visual Studio, it starts a debugging session, which is irritating when I've been looking at the VS window, but forgot to select it.

Answer 2

CTRL-L is also my pain point. It goes to the address bar in firefox, but also logs me out of my internal chat application.

People are always wondering why I'm going in and out of chats all the time, they must think I'm very confused.

Answer 3

I don't know why, but 3 out of 5 times I type

use string;

instead of

use strict;

when coding in Perl. I guess my muscles are accustomed to end a word beginning with 'stri' with 'ng'.

Answer 4

When switching between Eclipse and Visual Studio+Resharper, I always confuse the organize shortcuts.

Answer 5

SHIFT-delete

This permanently deletes a file instead of putting it in the recycle bin, helps a lot, hurts sometimes.

Answer 6

Used to be cntrl - alt - F4.

I used to run my IRC sessions on terminal 4 in linux - was a pain when I had to use windows and instead of switching me to my IRC client, it closed whatever window I had open ;)

Answer 7

Alt+F4, Y

I used this to close and save Notepad for, I don't know, decades, and they changed it in Vista. It took me a while to switch to Alt+F4, Enter, which will close without save in XP. Thanks, Longhorn!

Answer 8

I always type 'mysql' instead of 'myself' when writing personal emails, etc.

Answer 9

CTRL-Y.

In every application ever, it's Redo, except IntelliJ where it's Delete Line.

Answer 10

Eclipse - Run Java Application - Alt+Shift+X,J

Answer 11

CTRL + Y

In almost every application it performs a redo. However, depending on your settings in VS.Net 2008, especially under the default VB.Net programming shortcuts, performs a line delete.

Answer 12

My password.

Don't know how to write it on a phone or something else (ancient history: pencil) since i frankly don't know my own password except in muscle memory.

This is my best excuse for not switching to Dvorak layout.

Answer 13

As a longtime Vim user, h-j-k-l are my number one nemesis. :-) I'm constantly attempting to use them within other editors...somehow it just never works. You should see the number of times I randomly insert "jjjjjjjj" within a block of code before I realize what I've done.

I have found that you can map Alt+{h,j,k,l} within Eclipse and jEdit, which is better than nothing.

Answer 14

Ctrl-U: I'm used to it erasing the input line in Unix, but in Firefox, it's View Source. Often leads to annoyance when I try to erase the address bar quickly. Thankfully at least Opera follows the Unix way.

Answer 15

When I was working in Germany on a German configured machine:

Alt-F followed by S

I'm wanting, File|Save, instead I often got Fenster|Schließen (translates to Window|Close). Excel used to close the window without prompts, hardly what I was intending!

Answer 16

F9. In Delphi, it launches the program under the Debugger, in Visual Studio it toggles a breakpoint.

Also F12. In Delphi, toggles between Code and Design view, but in Visual Studio it Goes to a Definition.

F5 was already listed.

Answer 17

I'll sometimes hit CTRL-K/CTRL-Q to quit (or other Wordstar combinations) in vi thinking I'm in joe. Drives me up the wall. :D

Answer 18

Being a Mac owner but working in windows/visual studio. I forget many windows shortcut without really learning Mac ones.

Answer 19

F5 - In Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome it refreshes the page. In MSSQL Enterprise Manager, it refreshes the current query results. But in Zend Studio (which I use for PHP development) it starts a debug session... arrgh!

Answer 20

Backspace. It's backspace in everything except web browsers, where it goes back a page in your history depending on where the input focus is. Irritates the hell out of me, especially if I've just typed a huge forum entry that the browser decided not to cache.

Answer 21

I'm usually working in Vim, and I try to stay out of edit mode as much as possible. This means that I almost always hit escape after typing a string of text - even in my Outlook email.

Answer 22

Left Ctrl + Shift + Left/Right arrow keys, when working on a laptop with the leftmost Fn key (where Ctrl should be), it's frustrating...

Answer 23

Emacs Meta-W (copy region) is one of my often-used key commands. Works great... except when I forget that I am using the terminal app on my wife's Mac. (Meta-W is Command-W => Close window.)

The "muscle-memory" kicks in faster than the supervisor thought process. I can almost feel that part of my brain saying "wait, don't do... D'oh too late!" every time I do that.

Actually, Emacs in general has turned into muscle-memory, and when I get deep into coding, I sometimes forget that I'm in an alternate editor universe, and then quickly get into a mess when I rapid-fire type in navigation command streams.

It's also my Emacs-ish tendency that has me preferring to use Control-ESC (instead of the dedicated Windows key) to bring up the Windows Start Menu. It's normally not a problem, except my laptop's Fn+ESC invokes system Standby, which leads to a 30 second penalty-box-time as I go into suspend and then re-wake the machine. If I had a network connection (SSH or Network file copy), I also lose the network connection because the suspend kills the connection. Aargh!

Answer 24

After programming in C# for most of the day, I always type "string" rather than "String" when declaring a string variable. Then I see the little red squiggly line in Eclipse...

Answer 25

"ESC" when I'm done typing in non-vi/vim environments. Most apps ignore the escape, but in a lot of IM clients ESC seems to mean "throw away all the stuff I just wrote". Since I usually only do it after I've typed a lot, I usually lose quite a bit of information.

tappitytappitytappitytappitytappity-tap-AAARGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

Answer 26

As a VI user, pressing esc, :w to save my work or :q to close MS Word (for example)

Answer 27

I have a mac at home, but use VS2008 at work. I often find myself doing Win+ instead of ctrl+.

Answer 28

Control-Enter. In my chat client, this inserts a newline into the usual single-line input field, but in Outlook, this sends a mail, in its current incomplete and embarrassing state.

Answer 29

In the spanish versions of many office applications (MS looking at you), Ctrl + S, instead of saving, it underlines text, so when you quit carelessly you can end with no changes saved ...

Answer 30

Ctrl-X, S. In Emacs, it saves the current buffer. In Visual Studio 2005 (with Visual Studio 6 key bindings), it cuts the current line and then saves the file.

Answer 31

Crtl+z and this is because in VMWare it suspends your virtual machine and I accidently hit this in the middle of a presentation.

Needless to say we just laughed and had a 5 min. break before moving on.

Answer 32

Weird, no-one has mentioned the infamous Quake claw :)

Answer 33

In Bash (simulating Emacs-like keybindings), Alt-[blah] is basically an extended version of [blah]: Ctrl-D is delete, Ctrl-Alt-D is delete word, etc.

Sometimes I use Ctrl-H for backspace, other times I use the actual Backspace key. Sometimes I use Ctrl-Backspace because my left hand has already decided to press Control before my right hand has decided whether to hit H or Backspace.

I use Ctrl-Alt-H or Alt-Backspace for backword. The problem comes when unintentionally I hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace instead of either of the above: this resets X, which kills everything I'm working on.

Solution: Option "DontZap" "on". I just have to remember to do this on every new system I set up.

Answer 34

I'm an old gamer... I still type WASD alot without meaning to. :( Phone numbers are pretty bad... I can type out most of the phone numbers of people I know I just cannot recite them.

Answer 35

CTRL-L: Focuses the location bar in Firefox, but clears the conversation history in Pidgin. I switch between the two frequently.

Answer 36

Browser testing on Mac running Parallels.

Bouncing between Ctrl-R and Cmd-R

Not horrible, but that's the one that gets me the most.

Answer 37

l33t. Using numbers instead of letters. f0r ex4mpl3 I'll t3nd t0 us3 l0ts and l0ts 0f 0s instead 0f o's. Du3 t0 th3ir use in p455w0rd5

Answer 38

Ctrl-X is used as the prefix for a lot of things in Emacs. It's often bad when I hit that when Emacs is not the app with focus.

Especially annoying for me is that when I run Emacs in an X window on my Windows desktop, the cursor is always blinking in Emacs, even when that window is not active. So I often think it is active when it isn't.

Answer 39

Alt-Spacebar, C. I use a Model M at home and there's this satisfying "click-thunk-click" sound every time it's typed.

It's also a great way to confuse newbie and mouse-only Windows users, since they'll see something flash momentarily and suddenly the whole window's gone.

I don't know if it'd qualify as muscle-memory, but when I'm thinking about something while seated at my keyboard I find myself hovering over the wasd keys, a side-effect of too much CS and TF2, I'm sure. :)

Speaking of which, here's a fun tip: Go to Google Maps and find a place that has street view. Open the street view window and give wasd a try. :)

Answer 40

Ctrl-W.

I use it all the time in VIM to navigate between panes. Unfortunately, in every other editor I use (I have various IDEs I use depending on the language), it's "close window".

It's especially bad in netbeans, where I installed the jvi plugin. So most VIM commands work, but occasionally I forget to avoid Ctrl-W and accidentally close a file.

Answer 41

At work, my systems are connected to a switch box. If I cut-and-paste something (using Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V) too quickly I activate the "Switch to next machine" function of the switch box (Ctrl, Ctrl). *sigh

So, usually, I just use Shift-Insert for Paste. This works great until I have to use my wife's PC. Her Insert key is in a different location... so I end up hitting Shift-Del instead. *sigh

Sometimes you just can't win.

Answer 42

F5 is refresh in most sane worlds, but in Lotus Notes, it's "Lock Screen". Extra frustrating to be in the middle of something.

Answer 43

The paste shortcut - Ctrl+V. When I switched to Dvorak, the V key became the 'K' key changing Ctrl+V into Ctrl+K - the shortcut to delete the current line in Linux(KDE) systems.

Answer 44

I am switching between Macs and Windows Machines on a regular basis. On Windows, Alt-Q writes an @, on the Mac, it quits many programs. Every CMD-XX shortcut from the Mac invokes the Windows start menu.

But the worst thing I ever whitnessed is a numeric pad that used a telephone-key-layout. It took five tries until I figured out what was wrong with my PIN.

Answer 45

I alt-f4 within MSDEV to close a code window - and of course it closes the whole IDE.

I have not figured out a shortcut for just closing the current window/file - anyone care to supply it?

Similarly I alt-tab thinking it will change source windows, but I get to a new app instead.

Answer 46

I have two, which have the same source of the problem. I do a fair amount of COBOL and ASP and .NET combined. (More of the former than I really prefer, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.)

In most of the IDEs that I use F3 will do a repeat search, in TSO that command will close the member that you are editing/browsing.

In my TSO settings, the repeat search is F5, which is of course a refresh in a browser.

Answer 47

my password! also Win + D, Ctl + E, ... , Alt + Space (for launchy), Alt + Tab, Shift + Delete

the mouse wheel counts?

Answer 48

In Windows, CTRL+DEL deletes the whole word in front of the cursor everywhere ...

Except on StackOverflow, where the markdown editor sets me up to do a quote and graciously moves the entire line I was working on beneath said quote. D-Oh! (Yes, this bites me almost daily.)

I shouldn't gripe -- the editor is outstanding in every other conceivable way, and supports all the other keyboard shortcuts I use routinely ... But still. You asked. :)

Answer 49

Mouse gestures in Opera. I often find myself trying to use them in IE. Fail!

Answer 50

Ctrl-X Ctrl-S

In emacs, this saves the current file. In Visual Studio, this deletes the current line, then saves.

I really wish there was a way to make Visual Studio work like all other Windows apps, where Ctrl-X does nothing if nothing is selected.

Answer 51

Ctl-Alt-Del <my password>

I used to have my (Windows XP) workstation's time-to-idle set to a nice value --- just low enough that my monitor would go dark at about the same time that my computer would lock itself. If I happened to be in the office, I would catch the monitor going dark, jiggle the mouse, and keep my session alive; if I wasn't, then I would simply relog into my system when I got back to my desk. Unfortunately, a group policy was imposed across our network, because some users either never enabled or would disable the autolock, and this value was higher than my old setting. So, for a while, I would come back to my desk, see the monitor was off, type Ctl-Alt-Del <my password> to unlock my computer which wasn't actually locked, and my desktop would start shutting down....

Answer 52

CAPS + (anything)

I have the Caps Lock key on my keyboards mapped to Ctrl, so every time I'm on someone else's machine I end up spraying random capital letters into whatever I'm editing.

Answer 53

Ctrl+Z, I get to used to it on my computer and then I try to use it when I'm writing with Pencil/paper.

Answer 54

Escape when using MYOB - it exits the current transaction or whatever you are doing, no matter what the complexity, with NO confirmation dialogue. I dumped it because of this

Answer 55

DLJessup, my response to that group policy would have been to break group policies. If you have admin on your local box (and what programmer doesn't?), breaking group policies is easy.

Answer 56

CTRL+D.

In Notepad++ it duplicates the line, in Eclipse it deletes the line. :(

EDIT: I'm very unhappy with Notepad++ VS Eclipse shortcuts. I just discovered CTRL+L Goes to a line in Eclipse, but in Notepad++ it deletes the line.

Answer 57

My phone number. I can't remember it without a num pad.

Answer 58

CTRL+W

Deletes one word on the command line and in Firefox on OSX; closes the tab in Firefox on Windows and Linux.

I usually use this shortcut when I'm typing in a textarea, and decide to edit/erase the last few words I just typed. Which means that I go:

type type typetypetype type type ^W^W^W-- and AGH promptly lose three tabs of work.

Answer 59

When writing code samples in this MarkDown window on Stack Overflow, I copy 4 spaces into the clipboard and then use CTRL+V instead of tab to indent.

When I switch back to actually doing some work, I find myself pressing Paste instead of Tab.

Answer 60

With Launchy you type Alt-<space> <progname> to launch a program.

With focus in a remote desktop window (to a machine without Launchy), I try to launch Google Chrome. But Alt-<space> c closes the active window. Happens every day.

Answer 61

Typing my credit-card PIN number into the coffee machine!

Answer 62

Different debugger shortcuts in different IDEs for Step Over and Step Into: Delphi, VS, Eclipse. Is it F5+F6, F7+F8, or F9+F10

Management Studio has F5 for table refresh, but CTRL-R for query refresh

Answer 63

Ctrl-Delete is delete-word in Visual Studio, but it's insert-blockquote at Stackoverflow. Gets me every time. I delete words a lot. (I also use it in VS to strip leading whitespace from a line)

Answer 64

f5. Press it about 100 times a day in visual studio to make things "go", so every time I switch apps and I want make things "go" I automatically press it without thinking. Usually it doesn't do anything, but occasionally it has negative effects (like refreshing a webpage when you're in the middle of streaming a large video--ouch)

Answer 65

This afternoon, after a day of working with VMware player in the lab, I found myself back at my desk pressing [Ctrl] + [Alt] to get out of Firefox.

Answer 66

CTRL+BACKSPACE! Expecting to delete till the beginning of the previous word but in some applications you only get . Thank God this behaviour is starting to disappear as it became a standard action in about every platform.

Answer 67

!r

when on unix and the last command you ran was "rm -rf *" and you have since changed to the root directory or if your lucky your home directory.

Answer 68

I sometimes press Ctrl+Z when I regret something in FPS games where I use the keyboard for moving around.

That's primate logic, isn't it?

Answer 69

I struggle to do my office pin number without the pad, which is also my extension (hey, I don't have to call myself!).

I also have a lot of fun with Ctrl + Space (VS show intellisense), Option + Space (launch QuickSilver in OS X) and Command + Space (open Spotlight in OS X).

I'm forever doing to wrong one in the wrong time as I run Windows in a VM so all three are valid in any given context!

Answer 70

I use Control-Z in real life.

Like, shit I shouldn't have said that to her, Control-Z. Damn! Doesn't work!

Answer 71

\ (backslash) Because it's in a different location on just about every keyboard!

Answer 72

This is pretty minor, but Command+Shift+Backspace, Enter. In the Finder, it empties the Trash, which I've come to do rather frequently as I'm running low on disk space. In Firefox, it clears private data, deleting all of my cookies and history and such, which slows down my browsing for a little while afterwards.

Answer 73

Ctrl+V.

Paste in Visual Studio (at home), page down in Xcode (at work). It's not cancelled by pressing page up, though, as page up doesn't take the cursor with it, while Ctrl+V does.

Every time I want to move a line of code from one place to another, it's accompanied by mild swearing and the clicky scrolling of my mouse wheel.

Answer 74

Premature email sent from outlook because it has so many keyboard shortcuts for sending mail and at least one maps to a common emacs key binding. The key press is so subconscious that I usually don't even remember what I just typed to cause the email to send.

Answer 75

Ctrl+Z. Because on Windows in everything except Emacs in works as UNDO and in Emacs it suspends it (minimizes and put in the end of Tab app switch queue). Really annoying.

Answer 76

Pressing ESC on the TortoiseSVN commit dialog box to get out of the autocomplete closes the window instead of canceling the autocomplete dropdown.

Very annoying after typing out a long message explaining what changes are included in the commit, and then pressing ESC to get out of an annoying autocompletion, and having the window close losing the comment.

Answer 77

On an old project, we were using Vi for most editing, and this 4GL tool (showing how long ago this was) for creating the user interface.

The pain of it was, pressing the escape key in the 4GL would close your currently open window without saving, no passing go, no collecting $200.

We ended up getting in the habit of putting a bottle top over the escape key when switching to the 4GL so we couldn't hit it accidentally...

(You use the escape key a lot in Vi for switching from editing mode to command mode, in case you didn't know.)

Answer 78

Ctrl Z I used to work in the QWERTY world, and in my current job (location) I all have is AZERTY. Z and W are replaced, in the keyboard. Ctrl Z becomes Ctrl W, which in most apps closes the current window. Yes I get a Are you sure pop up. But many a times I have intended Ctrl Z + Enter (or kept typing, and somehow Y came before N)...

Answer 79

F12

• In Word etc. it means Save as.
• In Photoshop it means Revert to last saved version - no questions asked!

Answer 80

In English Windows ALT+space + X maximizes a window. In Hebrew Windows X is mapped to the Hebrew letter ס (samech) which happens to be the first letter of the word סגור (close). I can't count the number of times I've tried to maximize a window and closed it instead.

Answer 81

:w when in firefox. or in pidgin I often type it then immediately press enter when done with a message.

Answer 82

ESC is used in vi to switch from edit mode to command mode. Unfortunately, it's used in Outlook to close open messages, even if you're still editing them. Need I say more?

Answer 83

I use the same Apple wireless keyboard for Mac and Windows. Ctrl vs Command is terrible.

Unfortunately no Vista64 driver for the keyboard, so I use a keyboard mapper to remap copy, paste, cut and some others to work with the Windows key (Command key acts as Windows key.) Not perfect, ut at least the major shortcuts work.

Sometimes I want "del", but instead I hit the eject button.

Answer 84

Accidentally pressing CTRL + s while editing a file in vi.

Countless times I've done this and even after learning that a CTRL + q will undo it, I still get a bit nervous and start hitting ESC.

Answer 85

Using CTRL+W to fast backspace URLs in Firefox address bar. On OS X, it works like CTRL+W in a shell, on Windows, Firefox is usually closed down by the time I realize what I'm doing (closing tabs).

Answer 86

CTRL-ENTER: in my IM client (since forever) it sends the message. In Outlook it does too. But I'm used to typing a single sentence in IM and sending that, then typing the next sentence; this doesn't work well in e-mail. I've sent three messages in a row once, each appologizing for the previous message not being complete.

Answer 87

ctrl+Y usually redoes, but in Aqua Data Studio (a great tool) it deletes the line.

Answer 88

Command-anything except tab This constantly causes me problems at school, but at least command-tab and alt-tab have the same keyboard positions.

A specific keystroke that is burned into my hands is Command-L followed by g/ or w/. My computers are set up such that g/ and w/ followed by some text will preform google or wikipedia searches respectively, the beauty of the way that it is set up is that it automatically works in all web browsers on all computers on my home network. But when I try it with IE at school it ends up as an invalid DNS request and internet explorer usually crashes.

Answer 89

Well its the 3rd time that I've been embarrased by sending incomplete emails. I am sick of this, I dont know if there is a way to change this shortkey in OUTLOOK. Mousa

Answer 90

Ctrl+Shift+f.

In firefox it turns on the web dev extension highlighter. In eclipse it autoformats your code to HTML (even if you're working in CSS)

Guess how that turned out on launch day.

Answer 91

YA emacs answer.

I constantly find myself pushing C-p to move up a line. And if I'm not using emacs, it usually takes me a moment to figure out why a print dialog box inevitably comes up.

Answer 92

When Running MS-SQL Server Management Studio in VMWare.

Ctl-E in SQL is run the query

Ctl-E in VMware is power the machine off .. Instantly .. no waiting!!

You really have to be careful which system has focus.

Answer 93

Ctrl + P is nice. It's always "Print file". ALWAYS. In every application.

Not in (the German) Notus Notes. There it is: Close the current tab. Nice... very nice, since it's soo fast to open it again :-|

Answer 94

Because of the spanish ambigüity:

CTRL-S, CTRL-G    For saving
CTRL-A, CTRL-E    Select All

I always get confused, because i have to cognitize what program I am using before applying the shortcut (I am on VStudio, mmm then CTRL-S will work )...

Answer 95

Ctrl-w

Deletes the current selection in the various editors I use for programming. Closes the window in various other programs (ex, my email client)

It used to be Ctrl-e, which moved to the end of the line in my editors, but sent the email I was working on in my email client... but my current email client doesn't have that behavior.

edit: changed 'line' to 'selection'

Answer 96

CTRL-M

At my first software job, we had wyse50 and tvi925 terminals, but the one I got the first couple of months didn't have a return key (it was broken). So, I learned to type CTRL-M for a return. It was MANY MANY MANY years before I broke that habit.

Answer 97

Delete-Enter in Windows. I got used to using this keystroke combination to delete a file, and then hit "Yes" when Windows asked me if I was sure.

It worked fine until Windows XP, where the small delay before the "Are you sure?" dialog comes up is just enough time for the Enter keystroke to launch whatever I had selected.

I've done this with hundreds of high-res photos selected. The only way to kill it was a hard reboot.

Answer 98

In VS2008 in my old job I could Build hitting F6, here at my new job (VS 2008 too), I have to hit Alt + B, U. Which is kind of annoying because from time to time, I hit F6 and nothing happens and I'm like "what the hell?"

Answer 99

CTRL-W in Visual Studio to select word (or Extend Selection with resharper) closes my browser window while editing entries in Sharepoint. Extremely painful.

Answer 100

CMD in Mac and Ctrl in Windows

Answer 101

Ctrl+Shift+S

This will save all documents in Visual Studio but will produce an unprintable and uncompilable character in Visual FoxPro.

Answer 102

When I open the refrigerator door at home, I occasionally catch my fingers "pressing" Command+Space, (or Spotlight search on the Mac).

Terribly embarrassing, but more so disappointing.

Answer 103

QWERTY's X is in the same place as Dvorak's Q. While I was learning Dvorak, I closed out of X-Chat IRC many a time while trying to type Ctrl+X to cut something.

Answer 104

:wq (colon-w-q) on the vi editor in linux. I got so used to doing this I tend to do it a lot on notepad++ and other various IDE's.

Answer 105

Ctrl + X on any line I want to just delete. Stems from VS, and I do it everywhere

Answer 106

ENTER for sending an IM, but hey a new window popped up and your computer is now restarting! - just like you requested it to do.

Answer 107

Tab and Shift + Tab in web browsers

Especially on SO...

I always set tab to be 4 spaces in any editor I use so hitting tab to indent is one of those things that's just hard-wired for me.

The problem is, when I want to insert a code example online (on SO or on online wikis) I automatically hit Tab and Shift-Tab without thinking. It's a major wtf for me on a daily basis.