Top Row:

Esc - Escape.  You hit a menu option in some program, and a sub menu and another, then you change your mind.  Or you hit your right mouse key and get a menu that you have decided you don't want.  You want to go somewhere else.  Just hit your esc key one or more times and you will get back to where you were.

F1 - F12 - Function Keys.  e.g., F2 is the edit key in Lotus 1-2-3.  F8 - when you are rebooting your computer will take you to a menu before windows is loaded.  F5 will allow you to open windows in 'safe mode.'

Second Row:

~ is a Tilde.  You might see this character in some URL's.  You might use this in writing macros (macros are a kind of program within a program like WordPerfect and Lotus.)   You might also see a tilde in a file name.

The number keys and the shift-number keys are almost all obvious except - & is an ampersand, * is sometimes used as a multiplication key in a spreadsheet,  and ( ) are parentheses.  The parentheses are different from brackets [ ] or  curly brackets { }.  I bet this is more than you ever wanted to know, what?  Well, it will happen that someone will ask you to type in a curly bracket or a tilde or whatever and you will at least be familiar with the terms.

\ - Slash

/ - Back slash

Windows Symbol - is on the bottom row.  If you hit this it is the same as clicking on the start button with your mouse.

Arrows:  You have up, down, left and right arrows.  So.... If you hit the windows symbol and then arrow up you can shut down, run, settings, documents, programs, etc.  For example, hit your windows symbol, arrow up to programs, then hit left arrow and get a list of programs, arrow up, down, left or right, then hit the 'Enter' key.  You can't click on the icon on your desktop (if your mouse has died) but you can get there by arrowing up to the programs area on the start button.

Icons only?  No, no, no.  If I need to start something in my control panel and it has only icons and I don't have a mouse, what do I do?

1.  Hit your windows key.
2.  Arrow up to settings.
3.  Arrow right to Control Panel.
4.  Hit Enter.
5.  Hold down Alt and V.
6.  Arrow down to 'List'
7.  Enter
8.  Now instead of icons you have a List of your control panel icons and you can arrow down to the item you want.
9.  Hit Enter and you are there.
 
Now that I'm here, what do I do?  Use your Tab and your arrow keys.  If you tab through a menu or a list, each item will be highlighted or emphasized.  Follow me here:  When you hit Tab, the buttons that you see will say, for example, OK.  The button looks like any other OK but if it is an OK you want to hit, it will have an outline within the button - another frame inside the button made of dotted lines.  If you want to hit another key, like Cancel, just hit tab until the Cancel box has the dotted lines inside it and then hit enter.  If you go beyond the box you want, you can reverse the Tab direction by hitting Shift-Tab or you can just continue hitting Tab until you are back where you want to be.

Look at the menu categories on this page.  They are pretty typical of the sorts of choices you will have with each program you work in.  For example, File, Edit, View, Go, etc.  Almost every program will have at least File, Edit and Help.  Below the words File, Edit, View, Go, etc., are the buttons.  Back, Forward, Reload, Home, Search, etc.  If you don't have a mouse, how do you hit the button for 'search,' for example?  Easy.  Alt-E will give you the drop-down menu under Edit.  Then arrow down to 'search internet' and hit enter.  In other words, hit Alt-the letter that is underlined on the drop down menu.  It is nearly always the first letter, as in F for File, but if there are two 'F' words, like File and Fun, the computer needs to know which F word you want.  In this case, the F in File will be underlined and the u in Fun will be underlined, as in File, Edit, View, Go, Fun, Help.

Little of the above will not make much sense if your read it straight through.  This is the sort of page you should print out and follow along as the crisis arises.