Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Word

Provided by Molly Pell, Senior Systems Analyst

The Basics

Many of you already know these favorite shortcuts, but I suggest learning them if you don’t!

• [Ctrl+C] and [Ctrl+V] to copy and paste text (respectively).
• [Ctrl+B], [Ctrl+U], and [Ctrl+I] to make text Bold, Underlined, or Italicized (respectively).
• [Ctrl+Z] to undo the last action, and [Ctrl+Y] to redo the last action.

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Repeat Actions

• [F4]: Repeat your last action, including searching, typing, and formatting.

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Paragraph Navigation / Editing ßáâ

• [Ctrl+à] to move the cursor over a single word and [Ctrl+â] to move the cursor up or down an entire paragraph.
• [Shift+à] to select a single character, [Ctrl+Shift+à] to select an entire word, and [Ctrl+Shift+à] to select an entire paragraph.
• [Ctrl+Backspace] to delete an entire word to the left of the cursor, and [Ctrl+Delete] to delete the entire word to the right of the cursor.

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Zoom and Font Size

• [Ctrl]+Mouse Scroll Up to increase the zoom size, and [Ctrl]+Mouse Scroll Up to decrease the zoom.
• [Ctrl+Shift+>] to increase font point size, and [Ctrl+Shift+<] to decrease font point size.

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Heading Styles

• [Ctrl+Alt+1] to change the current paragraph’s style to “Heading 1”.
• [Ctrl+Alt+2] to change the current paragraph’s style to “Heading 2”.
• [Ctrl+Alt+3] to change the current paragraph’s style to “Heading 3”.

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Paragraph and Page Breaks

• [Shift+Enter] to add a line break or ‘Soft Return’. Use this to add a new line that is not a separate paragraph.
• [Ctrl+Enter] to add a page break.
• [Ctrl+Shift+Enter] to add a section break.

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Change Font Capitalization

• [Shift+F3] to change the case/capitalization of the selected text.
• [Ctrl+Shift+A] to capitalize the selected text.
• [Ctrl+Shift+K] to change the selected text to Small Caps.

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Menu Item Shortcuts

• [Ctrl+S] to save.
• [Ctrl+P] to open the Print dialog for printing the document.
• [Ctrl+D] to Open the Formatting menu.
• [Ctrl+F] to open the Find dialog, [Ctrl+H] to open the Replace dialog, and [Ctrl+G] to open the “Go To” dialog.

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Additional Shortcuts

The shortcuts listed above are my favorites, but many more are listed here:

Keyboard shortcuts in Word

These shortcuts take a little bit of practice to get used to, but it’s well worth it when you consider how much time they save over time.

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