Mastering Word - Shortcuts That Will Save You Time

Almost all of us use Word in one form or another and there are countless shortcuts and hacks to make your Word experience more efficient.

We have compiled the top 20 Microsoft Word shortcuts that you need to know:

Document Navigation

These Microsoft Word shortcuts will help you go from top to bottom, left to right quickly

• Ctrl+End: Move to the end of the document
  Home: Move to the beginning of the current line
  Ctrl+Home: Move to the beginning of the document
• F5: Open the Find dialog box with the “Go To” tab selected, so you can quickly move to a specific page, section, bookmark, and so on.
  Shift+F5: Cycle through the last three locations where the insertion point was placed. If you just opened a document, Shift+F5 moves you to the last point you were editing before closing the document.
  Page Up/Page Down: Move up or down one screen
  Ctrl+Page Up/Page Down: Move to the previous or next browse object (after performing a search)
• Left/Right Arrow: Move the insertion point (cursor) one character to the left or right
  Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow: Move one word to the left or right
  Up/Down Arrow: Move up or down one line
  Ctrl+Up/Down Arrow: Move up or down one paragraph
  End: Move to the end of the current line
  Alt+Ctrl+Page Up/Page Down: Move to the top or bottom of the current window

Formatting

Use these Microsoft Word shortcuts to quickly format your text. My personal favourite is Shift+F3.

• Ctrl+Shift+A: Formats all letters as uppercase
  Ctrl+Shift+K: Formats all letters as lowercase
• Ctrl+B: Apply bold formatting
  Ctrl+I: Apply italic formatting
  Ctrl+U: Apply underline formatting
• Ctrl+Shift+D: Apply double underline formatting
• Ctrl+=: Apply subscript formatting
  Ctrl+Shift+W: Apply underline formatting to words, but not the spaces between words
  Ctrl+D: Open the Font dialog box
  Ctrl+Shift+< or >: Decrease or increase font size one preset size at a time
  Ctrl+[ or ]: Decrease or increase font size one point at a time
  Ctrl+Shift+Plus key: Apply superscript formatting
  Shift+F3: Cycle through case formats for your text (this is so handy)
  Ctrl+Shift+C: Copies the character formatting of a selection
  Ctrl+Shift+V: Pastes formatting onto selected text
  Ctrl+Space: Removes all manual character formatting from a selection

Editing Text

General text editing Microsoft Word shortcuts, The Spike is a very handy and not well known tool that Microsoft Office has.

• Ctrl+Backspace: Delete one word to the left
  Delete: Delete one character to the right
  Ctrl+Delete: Delete one word to the right
  Ctrl+C: Copy or graphics to the Clipboard text
• Alt+Shift+R: Copy the header or footer used in the previous section of the document
• Ctrl+X: Cut selected text or graphics to the Clipboard
  Ctrl+V: Paste the Clipboard contents
  Ctrl+F3: Cut selected text to the Spike. The Spike is a variant on your regular clipboard. You can keep cutting text to 'the Spike' and Word will remember it all. When you paste from 'the Spike', Word pastes everything you have cut, and places each item on its own line.
  Ctrl+Shift+F3: Paste the Spike contents

General Office Shortcuts

These shortcuts are standard throughout the Microsoft Office suite and are very useful!

• Ctrl+N: Create a new document
  Ctrl+O: Open an existing document
  Ctrl+S: Save a document
  F12: Open the Save As dialog box
  Ctrl+W: Close a document
• Ctrl+F2: Print Preview View
  F1: Open the Help pane
  Alt+Q: Go to the “Tell me what you want to do” box
  F9: Refresh the field codes in the current selection
• Ctrl+Z: Undo an action
• Ctrl+Y: Redo an action
  Alt+Ctrl+S: Split a window or remove the split view
  Ctrl+Alt+V: Print Layout View
  Ctrl+Alt+O: Outline View
  Ctrl+Alt+N: Draft View
  Ctrl+F: Search a document
  F7: Run a spelling and grammar check
  

Text Selection

You can try using some of these Microsoft Word text selection shortcuts, with some of the formatting shortcuts. Might save you a bit of time and a few mouse clicks!

• Shift+Left/Right Arrow: Extend your current selection by one character to the left or right
  Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right Arrow: Extend your current selection by one word to the left or right
  Shift+Up/Down Arrow: Extend selection up or down one line
  Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down Arrow: Extend selection to the beginning or end of the paragraph
  Shift+End: Extend selection to the end of the line
  Shift+Home: Extend selection to the beginning of the line
  Ctrl+Shift+Home/End: Extend selection to the beginning or end of the document
  Shift+Page Down/Page Up: Extend selection down or up one screen
  Ctrl+A: Select the entire document

Which are your favorites? Add a comment and let us know!