Keyboard shortcuts are time-savers.
Taking the time to look around for an icon or setting, and then taking more time to move your mouse to it takes far more moments out of your bridge than you might think.
As a writer and journalist used to writing against the clock, I’ve had the right shortcuts save me a lot of chunks through the years.
Why spend hours of your life on the mouse click if there are easier ways to do it? I’m pretty sure that people (especially bridge players with time to save) never have to.
Shortcuts save time. That’s why they’re shortcuts.
You wouldn’t walk the longer route to town for no reason. You wouldn’t drive the long way around (except maybe for scenic reasons). So, why do things the longer way around?
Use shortcuts everywhere (for better online bridge & browsing). Maybe you can use the extra time you save to work on bidding!
From BBO Prime
The Prime Column has included a previous post about keyboard shortcuts and BBO Bridge. From how to bid with your keyboard through to playing your cards, an attached keyboard can make your game happen faster.
Read the full article at this link – or check Typing To Bid & Play below for an excerpt!
Typing to play & bid
Bidding and play can be triggered with the keyboard by typing these options into the Chat window.
When anything else is typed into the same window, it’s automatically interpreted as a Chat.
- Pass, Double & Redouble: To pass, double or redouble during a game, use P, D or R where appropriate.
- Bidding: To bid, use the appropriate number key (1-7) plus the first letter of the suit (C, D, H, S or N).
More shortcuts (for BBO & your browser)
Even though the first article was comprehensive, there are still more useful keyboard shortcuts bridge players can apply. Most of these apply to your browser – the vehicle you’re using to power BBO – and all of them can make your game just that little easier.
- Alt + F4 closes the browser or the tab, depending on what you have open.
- F5 refreshes the current page or website that you’re looking at. Use this as a quick way to reload pages that get stuck, or to fix connectivity hiccups.
- Alt + Home takes you to your browser’s set home-page. Set this to Bridge Base Online if that’s one of your first internet stops when your browser opens, and this keyboard shortcut will always get you there.
- F11 triggers a full screen view in your browser. It’s great for cutting any distractions out of your game.
- Home or End scrolls you to the beginning or end of a page. It’s faster than using the arrow keys or the scroll wheel, particularly with long discussions, posts, or documents.
- Ctrl + D adds a bookmark of the page. Use this to keep BBO close!
- Alt + Tab is an old classic shortcut that moves between browser windows. Effective, simple, and you never know when you might need to use it.