Undo: the most reassuring key there is
Take back the last thing you did — and the thing before that — in almost any program.
The reason people press so little on a computer is that every press feels final. It is not.
Undo takes back the last thing that happened. Press it again and it takes back the one before that, and the one before that. Most programs remember dozens of steps.
Key points
- Take back the last thing you did with Ctrl+Z — or Cmd+Z on a Mac
- Keep pressing to go back several steps, and use Redo if you overshoot
- Use undo in folder windows as well as in writing
- Recognize the short list of things undo cannot reach
What to remember
- Undo goes back further than one step. Keep pressing until things look right again.
- In a folder window, Ctrl+Z undoes the last move, copy or rename. Try it before you go looking.
- Folder windows keep a list of what you did. The Edit menu writes it out in words before it undoes it.
- The left-hand column is nearly everything you do all day. That is why undo makes a computer safe to experiment with.
Try this
Open anything you can type into, write a sentence, then press Ctrl+Z a few times and watch it disappear a word at a time. Then press Ctrl+Y to bring it all back.
Practice: Undo: the most reassuring key there is. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.