I firmly believe that Ctrl-Backspace (or Option-Delete on a Mac) can improve lives. I also believe that most people don’t know about Ctrl-Backspace. One final belief — and this one’s crushing: most people who learn about Ctrl-Backspace will quickly ignore it.
Here’s the reason for those beliefs, using a completely non-scientific sample. In the last few months, I’ve told 10 people about Ctrl-Backspace. Of those 10:
- 1 already used it
- 1 quickly took it up, and often thanks me
- 8 went “Oh, that’s cool”, and promptly forgot
A 10% success rate. I’ll take that! Scale that up to 3.5 billion computer users and …
Is it possible? Could Ctrl-Backspace become huge? Because it should.
(If you don’t know about Ctrl-Backspace, start writing an email and give it a try. Next try Ctrl-Delete. Then the Ctrl + arrows. Finally throw in Shift. Feels great, right? It’s the second most fun you can have with a keyboard shortcut.)