You can quickly accomplish tasks you perform frequently by using shortcut keys — one or more keys you press on the keyboard to complete a task. For example, pressing CTRL+B changes the selected text to bold, just as clicking Bold on the Formatting toolbar or selecting Bold in the Font dialog box (Format menu) changes the selected text to bold.

Quick-tip - Try this (a very useful shortcut when you're running more than one program):   

• ALT+TAB:    see this in action ...
  Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key a few times to view programs currently running in the task-switching window.  Release the TAB then the ALT key when you're on the program you want, and you'll switch to that program without needing to use the mouse.)

Some of the most useful shortcuts 
while you're typing:

• CTRL+C: Copy
• CTRL+X: Cut
• CTRL+V: Paste
• CTRL+Z: Undo
• CTRL+B: Bold
• CTRL+U: Underline
• CTRL+I: Italic

• ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu
• ALT+F4: Closes the current window
• CTRL+F4: Closes the current document

Keyboard shortcuts for Windows  by Computing Out Loud - a GREAT, detailed document about shortcuts with links to other programs and utilities to help!  A must-read! 

Windows Keyboard Shortcuts   Highlighting Text with Keyboard Shortcuts  
Lists of Windows Keyboard Shortcuts - Each page contains several Windows Keyboard Shortcuts. Print them and put them next to your computer so you can learn them quickly. Attempt to use each one of the keyboard shortcuts in the next week, to impress them in your memory.