Oops, I did it again

A very noobie thing to do is to panic when you’ve accidentally erased something important when using your computer. Listen up noobies! It’s time for you to meet Ctrl-Z.

Ctrl-Z is a key combination that can be used by holding down the Ctrl key located at the bottom left or bottom right of your computer keyboard (sorry Mac users this tip is for PC users only). While holding down the Ctrl key, click the Z key and then let go.

Ctrl-Z is the equivalent of Undo in the majority of Microsoft Windows compliant software. There is no guarantee that it will work in every software program you use but please try it first and if it doesn’t work, then panic.

Practice makes perfect so go ahead and try it out for yourself. Open up Microsoft Word. Type a sentence or two. Then select all of the text with your mouse and delete it. Oops. Want it back? Hit Ctrl-Z. Open up your My Documents folder and delete a file (really, go ahead). Oops. Want it back? Hit Ctrl-Z. Open up Microsoft Outlook and start typing a new e-mail. Then select all of the e-mail text with your mouse and delete it. Oops. Want it back? Hit Ctrl-Z.

One last tip. Most programs also support a history of Undo actions which means you can click Ctrl-Z several times. Each time you click it, your software program will attempt to undo one action at a time.