Quick Links
Navigating Microsoft Word’s spaghetti junction of tabs, groups, and menus on the ribbon can slow your workflow, so it’s worth getting to know some of the program’s most useful keyboard shortcuts. In this article, I’ll share some shortcuts I regularly use that save me the most time.
The keyboard shortcuts in this article apply to Windows computers. The Mac versions are often the same, except Alt is Options and Ctrl is Cmd.
Getting Started and Saving
If your Word document is connected to your OneDrive account, it willsave automaticallyonce you’ve manually named and saved the document for the first time.
Open a new document
Create a new document
Save a named document
Ctrl+S
Save an unnamed document (or save a copy in another location)
F12
Selecting Text
Before you use your keyboard to affect the content in your Word document, it’s worth knowing how to select text without touching your mouse.
Select all content
Ctrl+A
Select individual characters to the left or right of the cursor
Shift+Left or Shift+Right
Select the rest of the line to the left or right of the cursor
Shift+Home or Shift+End
Select the line above
Select the line below
Select all text before the cursor
Select all text after the cursor
Copy the selected content
Cut the selected content
Paste text only(without formatting)
Copy the formatting of the selected text
Paste the formatting onto the selected text
Open the Paste Special dialog box
Alt > H > V > S
Delete the previous word
Use the Arrow keys to move the cursor to the end of the word to be deleted, and then press Ctrl+Backspace.
Applying Formatting
Before you apply formatting to individual chunks of text, make sure you know the difference between direct formatting andstyle formatting. Direct formatting only affects the selected items in your Word document, whereas style formatting is applied to all text that uses the same style. Direct formatting is good for emphasizing individual words or sentences, whereas style formatting is more effective if you want to make wholesale changes or enable consistency in your document’s layout.
Direct Formatting
To see the different direct formatting options, select the relevant text, press Alt > H, and then press the key that corresponds to the formatting you want to apply.
Here are some of my favorite direct formatting keyboard shortcuts that allow me to skip the Alt step.
Increase font size
Ctrl+] or Ctrl+Shift+>
Decrease font size
Ctrl+[ or Ctrl+Shift+
Apply or remove block capitals from selected text
Change selected letter case
Underline selected words only (not spaces)
Remove all formatting from the selected text
Open the Styles pane
Open the Apply Styles dialog box
Apply the Normal style to the selected paragraph
Ctrl+Shift+N
Apply the Heading 1, 2, or 3 styles to the selected paragraph
Controlling the Layout
There’s no point in having a Word document full of great content if it’s notproperly structured and organized. Here are some crucial keyboard shortcuts for achieving this.
Center text (direct formatting)
Left-align text (direct formatting)
Right-align text (direct formatting)
Justify-align text (direct formatting)
New paragraph
New line in the same paragraph
New style in the same paragraph (style separator)
Increase paragraph indent (direct formatting)
Decrease paragraph indent (direct formatting)
Move the selected paragraph up or down
Alt+Shift+Up or Alt+Shift+Down
Navigating Word
There are keyboard shortcuts for navigating Word’s ribbon, and there are different ones fornavigating your way through your document.
Navigating the Ribbon
To navigate the ribbon, first press Alt. You’ll then see different letters and numbers appear next to each tab on the ribbon for you to choose. For example, pressing Alt > N opens the Insert tab, and then pressing T will create a new table.
Find (navigation pane)
Replace (dialog box)
Go to (dialog box)
Go to the next page
Go to the previous page
Jump between words
Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right
Jump between paragraphs
Ctrl+Up or Ctrl+Down
Reviewing the Document
Press Alt > R to see the different reviewing tools in Microsoft Word.
See the print preview
Ctrl+P, and then Tab until the print preview is selected
Move to the next or previous page in print preview
Page Up or Page Down
Move to the first page in print preview
Move to the last page in print preview
Ctrl+End
Switch to the Print Layout view (if you have another view open)
Begin spellcheck
Activate or deactivate Track Changes
Close the document
Apply a hyperlink to the selected text
Insert today’s date
Insert the current time
Update selected field
Update all fields
Ctrl+A > F9
Another way to perform commands instantly is bycustomizing your Quick Access Toolbar. you’re able to decide which actions are ever-present at the top of your Word window, and you can also assign keyboard shortcuts to those commands to further speed up your work.
