Shift key: What is it for?

The Shift key is possibly one of the most used on your keyboard, although you may not have realized it, we are going to tell you everything about this key and you will also see all the uses that you can give it since it will help you to execute different actions on your computer.

The European keyboard has just over 100 keys and in all of them we find the Shift key in at least two different places , it is one of the only ones that is that many times, unlike what happens with the rest that you will only find in a certain site.

You can easily identify it because it is represented by the drawing of an upward arrow and, in addition, it is well located, because on different keyboards they are a little larger than the letter keys. Also, the Shift key is located on the sides of the keyboards and you can even find it with the inscription “Shift”.

In our case, the Shift key is located just above the Ctrl key and below the Shift key, in the lower left part, there is also another one just below the Enter key and above the Ctrl key. Depending on the keyboard, its position may vary slightly, but there are usually 2.

Uses of the Shift key

By itself it is not good for much because if you press it nothing happens, it is different if it is used in combination with other keys. The most common uses of the Shift key are the following:

1. Capitalize: it is used to capitalize when we write any letter, but for that you have to press Shift + the letter in question. For example, pressing Shift + letter G, what you do is that letter is written in uppercase if you press that combination, from the moment you stop pressing the Shift key, it is written in lowercase again. It is a quick way to capitalize the beginning of a text.
2. To press the upper keys: notice that in the upper numeric keyboard that is above the letters, those keys have different symbols apart from the numbers and they are right at the top of the key, to write them you have to press on the key Shift + that key, for example, the opening exclamation mark is above the number 1, to type it you would have to press Shift + 1.
3. To execute certain tasks or actions: by combining the Shift key with other combinations, you can carry out actions or tasks more quickly, as you will see below with the keyboard shortcuts.

You may have noticed that the Shift key by itself doesn’t offer functionality , but it is necessary to type capital letters and the symbols that are on top of the number keys or also those that are on the symbol keys.

Shortcuts with the Shift key for Windows 10

Apart from these, there are other shortcuts with the Shift key that you should know to make the experience in Windows 10 more comfortable, you probably already knew what actions some combinations perform, others possibly not, we leave you some below:

1. Shift + letter: uppercase.
2. Shift + numeric key of the upper numeric keyboard: symbol of the part above.
3. Shift + symbol keys: symbols from the top.
4. Shift + tab key: switch tabs in Chrome.
5. Windows + Shift + S – Opens the Windows 10 capture utility.
6. Shift + F10: opens a context of the selected.
7. Shift + Insert: Paste what’s on the clipboard into Word and another word processor.
8. Ctrl + Shift + Escape: Open the task manager.
9. Ctrl + Shift + N – Create a new folder in Windows 10.
10. Shift + Delete: delete a file without going through the recycle bin.

Shortcuts with the Shift key for Mac

If you have a Mac , you have a series of very interesting shortcuts to use with the Shift key, some of which are these:

1. Shift + Command + C – Opens Computer.
2. Shift + Command + D – Opens the Desktop folder.
3. Shift + Command + F – Opens the Recents window.
4. Shift + Command + I: Open iCloud Drive.
5. Shift + Command + K: Open the Network window.
6. Shift + Command + N: a folder is created.
7. Shift + Command + O: open Documents.
8. Shift + Command + R: Open the AirDrop window.
9. Shift + Command + T: Show or hide the tab bar in Finder windows.
10. Shift + Command + U: Open the Utilities folder.

As you can see, in some cases you even need to press up to two additional keys apart from the Shift key to be able to execute an action, so you probably won’t remember it when you go to apply it because they are not very common. The most used, without a doubt, is the one that capitalizes.