<P> Under MS - DOS , individual programs could decide what each function key meant to them , and the command line had its own actions ( e.g. , F3 copied to the current command prompt words from the previous command ) . Following the IBM Common User Access guidelines , the F1 key gradually became universally associated with Help in most early Windows programs . To this day , Microsoft Office programs running in Windows list F1 as the key for Help in the Help menu . Internet Explorer in Windows does not list this keystroke in the help menu , but still responds with a help window . F3 is commonly used to activate a search function in applications , often cycling through results on successive presses of the key . ⇧ Shift + F3 is often used to search backwards . Some applications such as Visual Studio support Control + F3 as a means of searching for the currently highlighted text elsewhere in a document . F5 is also commonly used as a reload key in many web browsers and other applications , while F11 activates the full screen / kiosk mode on most browsers . Under the Windows environment , Alt + F4 is commonly used to quit an application ; Ctrl + F4 will often close a portion of the application , such as a document or tab . F10 generally activates the menu bar , while ⇧ Shift + F10 activates a context menu . F2 is used in many Windows applications such as Windows Explorer , Excel , Visual Studio and other programs to access file or cell edit functions . </P>
<P> Under MS - DOS , individual programs could decide what each function key meant to them , and the command line had its own actions ( e.g. , F3 copied to the current command prompt words from the previous command ) . Following the IBM Common User Access guidelines , the F1 key gradually became universally associated with Help in most early Windows programs . To this day , Microsoft Office programs running in Windows list F1 as the key for Help in the Help menu . Internet Explorer in Windows does not list this keystroke in the help menu , but still responds with a help window . F3 is commonly used to activate a search function in applications , often cycling through results on successive presses of the key . ⇧ Shift + F3 is often used to search backwards . Some applications such as Visual Studio support Control + F3 as a means of searching for the currently highlighted text elsewhere in a document . F5 is also commonly used as a reload key in many web browsers and other applications , while F11 activates the full screen / kiosk mode on most browsers . Under the Windows environment , Alt + F4 is commonly used to quit an application ; Ctrl + F4 will often close a portion of the application , such as a document or tab . F10 generally activates the menu bar , while ⇧ Shift + F10 activates a context menu . F2 is used in many Windows applications such as Windows Explorer , Excel , Visual Studio and other programs to access file or cell edit functions . </P>
in excel what does the f1 key on the keyboard do
in excel what does the f1 key on the keyboard do
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