Graphical user interfaces are super friendly to computer users. They were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs).
However, they often require more resources, are less powerful and hard to automate via scripting.
As a computer expert, we want to be more efficient and do our jobs better. We know that command words may not be easily discoverable or mnemonic, so we try to list some common tasks that you might be tempted to do in GUI.
copy a file
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE 👎
Copy readme.txt
to the documents
directory
duplicate a file
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A FILE 👎
More advanced:
copy a directory
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A DIRECTORY, OR CMD/CTRL + C, CMD/CTRL + V A DIRECTORY 👎
Copy myMusic
directory to the myMedia
directory
duplicate a directory
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DUPLICATE A DIRECTORY 👎
move a file
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A FILE, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A FILE 👎
Always use a trailing slash when moving files, for this reason.
rename a file
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A FILE 👎
move a directory
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING A DIRECTORY, OR CMD/CTRL + X, CMD/CTRL + V A DIRECTORY 👎
rename a directory
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND RENAME A DIRECTORY 👎
merge directories
STOP DRAG AND DROPPING TO MERGE DIRECTORIES 👎
create a new file
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW FILE 👎
create a new directory
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND CREATE A NEW DIRECTORY 👎
show file/directory size
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND SHOW FILE/directory INFO 👎
show file/directory info
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND SHOW FILE/DIRECTORY INFO 👎
open a file with the default program
STOP DOUBLE CLICKING ON A FILE 👎
zip a directory
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND COMPRESS DIRECTORY 👎
unzip a directory
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND UNCOMPRESS DIRECTORY 👎
peek files in a zip file
STOP USING WinRAR 👎
remove a file
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A FILE PERMANENTLY 👎
IMPORTANT: The rm command deletes my_useless_file permanently, which is equivalent to move my_useless_file to Recycle Bin and hit Empty Recycle Bin.
remove a directory
STOP RIGHT CLICKING AND DELETE A DIRECTORY PERMANENTLY 👎
list directory contents
STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎
tree view a directory and its subdirectories
STOP OPENING YOUR FINDER OR FILE EXPLORER 👎
find a stale file
STOP USING YOUR FILE EXPLORER TO FIND A FILE 👎
Find all files modified more than 5 days ago
show a calendar
STOP LOOKING UP WHAT THIS MONTH LOOKS LIKE BY CALENDAR WIDGETS 👎
Display a text calendar
Display selected month and year calendar
find a future date
STOP USING WEBAPPS TO CALCULATE FUTURE DATES 👎
What is todays date?
What about a week from now?
use a calculator
STOP USING CALCULATOR WIDGET 👎
force quit a program
STOP CTRL + ALT + DELETE and choose the program to kill 👎
check server response
STOP OPENING A BROWSER 👎
view content of a file
STOP DOUBLE CLICKING A FILE 👎
search for a text
STOP CMD/CTRL + F IN A DIRECTORY 👎
view an image
STOP USING PREVIEW 👎
show disk size
STOP RIGHT CLICKING DISK ICON OR OPENING DISK UTILITY 👎
check performance of your computer
STOP OPENING YOUR ACTIVITY MONITOR OR TASK MANAGER 👎
Quick tips
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Hotkeys