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Here’s a list of the most useful Word keyboard shortcuts grouped by category.
For many people Word is the best text editor there is, especially if they’re familiar with the entire Microsoft Office suite.
Knowing the important keyboard shortcuts in Word can save you a ton of time, if you edit documents frequently.
As you already know I’m a big fan of using keyboard shortcuts for work. When I learn a new program I always look at the list of keyboard shortcuts to speed up as much as possible the most repetitive tasks.
Microsoft Office is the most used office suite at the moment, even if there are plenty of competitors out there that are sometimes free. That doesn’t matter, as Microsoft is still the go-to suite, mostly because the trio consisting of Word-Excel-Powerpoint and the document formats associated with these programs is widely adopted and integrated with third-party services, not just with Microsoft’s own.
Microsoft Office is the Xerox of document editing and Word is the word processor of choice. It doesn’t matter if you are just using it for basic documents or for serious work. You need to know at least some of the Word keyboard shortcuts below:
Open the thesaurus. If a word is selected, Shift + F7 looks up that particular word in the thesaurus.
Moving Inside The Document
Shortcut
Action
Left / Right Arrow
Move the 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
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
Page Up / Page Down
Move up or down one screen
Ctrl + Page Up / Page Down
Move to the previous or the next browse object (after performing a search)
Alt + Ctrl + Page Up / Page Down
Move to the top or bottom of the current window
F5
Open the Find dialog box with the “Go To” tab selected, so you can quickly move to a specific page, section, bookmark.
Shift + F5
Cycle through the last three locations where the cursor was placed. If you just opened a document, Shift + F5 moves you to the last point you were editing before closing the document.
Selecting Text
Shortcut
Action
Shift + Left / Right Arrow
Extend current selection by one character to the left or right
Ctrl + Shift + Left / Right Arrow
Extend 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 by one screen
Ctrl + A
Select the entire document
F8
Enter selection mode. In this mode, you can use the arrow keys to extend your selection. Press F8 up to five times to extend the selection outward (SHIFT + F8 works backward). The first press enters selection mode, the second press selects the word next to the cursor, the third press selects the whole sentence, the fourth press selects all the characters in the current paragraph, and the fifth press the entire document. Press Esc any time to leave selection mode.
Ctrl + Shift + F8
Selects a column. Once the column is selected, you can use the left and right arrow keys to extend the selection to nearby columns.
Editing Text
Shortcut
Action
Backspace
Delete one character to the left of the cursor
Ctrl + Backspace
Delete one word to the left of the cursor
Delete
Delete one character to the right of the cursor
Ctrl + Delete
Delete one word to the right of the cursor
Ctrl + C
Copy selected text to the Clipboard
Ctrl + X
Cut selected text to the Clipboard
Ctrl + V
Paste the Clipboard contents
Ctrl + F3
Cut selected text to the Spike. The Spike is a variant of the regular clipboard. You can keep cutting text to the Spike and Word remembers everything. When you paste the Spikes contents, Word pastes everything and places each item on its own line.
Ctrl + Shift + F3
Paste the Spike contents
Alt + Shift + R
Copy the header or footer used in the previous section of the document
Character Formatting
Shortcut
Action
Ctrl + B
Apply bold formatting
Ctrl + I
Apply italic formatting
Ctrl + U
Apply underline formatting
Ctrl + Shift + W
Apply underline formatting to words, but not the spaces between words
Ctrl + Shift + D
Apply double underline formatting
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 + =
Apply subscript formatting
Ctrl + Shift + Plus key
Apply superscript formatting
Shift + F3
Cycle through case formats for your text. Available formats: sentence case (capital first letter, everything else lower case), lowercase, uppercase, title case (the first letter in each word capitalized), and toggle case.
Ctrl + Shift + A
Formats all letters as uppercase
Ctrl + Shift + K
Formats all letters as lowercase
Ctrl + Shift + C
Copies the character formatting of a selection
Ctrl + Shift + V
Pastes formatting onto the selected text
Ctrl + Space
Removes all manual character formatting from a selection
Paragraph Formatting
Shortcut
Action
Ctrl + M
Increases a paragraph’s indent one level each time you press it
Ctrl + Shift + M
Reduces a paragraph’s indent one level each time you press it
Ctrl + T
Increases a hanging indent each time you press it
Ctrl + Shift + T
Reduces a hanging indent each time you press it
Ctrl + E
Center a paragraph
Ctrl + L
Left-align a paragraph
Ctrl + R
Right-align a paragraph
Ctrl + J
Justify a paragraph
Ctrl + 1
Set single-spacing
Ctrl + 2
Set double-spacing
Ctrl + 5
Set 1.5 line Spacing
Ctrl + 0
Remove one line spacing preceding a paragraph
Ctrl + Shift + S
Open a popup window for applying styles
Ctrl + Shift + N
Apply the normal paragraph style
Alt + Ctrl + 1
Apply the Heading 1 style
Alt + Ctrl + 2
Apply the Heading 2 style
Alt + Ctrl + 3
Apply the Heading 3 style
Ctrl + Shift + L
Apply the List style
Ctrl + Q
Remove all paragraph formatting
Inserting
Shortcut
Action
Shift + Enter
Insert a line break
Ctrl + Enter
Insert a page break
Ctrl + Shift + Enter
Insert a column break
Ctrl + hyphen (-)
Insert an optional hyphen or em dash. This tells Word not to use a hyphen unless the word breaks at the end of a line. If it does, Word will use a hyphen where you placed it.
Alt + Ctrl + hyphen (-)
Insert an em dash
Ctrl + Shift + hyphen (-)
Insert a non-breaking hyphen. This tells Word not to break a word at the end of a line, even if there’s a hyphen there. Useful for something like a telephone number you want to appeared on one line.
Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar
Insert a non-breaking space
Alt + Ctrl + C
Insert a copyright symbol
Alt + Ctrl + R
Insert a registered trademark symbol
Alt + Ctrl + T
Insert a trademark symbol
Outlines
Shortcut
Action
Alt + Shift + Left / Right Arrow
Promote (move to the left) or demote (move to the right) a line
Ctrl + Shift + N
Demote an outline level to the regular body text
Alt + Shift + Up / Down Arrow
Move the line with the insertion point up or down in the outline
Alt + Shift + Plus or Minus keys
Expand or collapse text under a heading
Alt + Shift + A
Expand or collapse all text or headings in an outline
Alt + Shift + L
Show the first line of body text or all body text
Alt + Shift + 1
Show all headings that have the Heading 1 style applied
Alt + Shift + any other number key
Show all headings up to that level
Tables
Shortcut
Action
Tab
Move to the next cell in a row and select contents
Shift + Tab
Move to the previous cell in a row and select contents
Alt + Home / End
Move to the first or last cell in a row
Alt + Page Up / Page Down
Move to the first or last cell in a column
Up / Down Arrow
Move to the previous or next row
Shift + Up / Down Arrow
Select the cell in the row above or below the cursor or selection. Keep pressing the shortcut to select more cells. If there are multiple cells in a row selected, the combo selects the same cells in the row above or below.
I'm obsessed with technology, science, and gadgets. I write about them since 2003. I make websites because I like to build stuff. I'm also passionate about digital marketing and graphic design. I watch movies and play games in my spare time. I'm also reading books, mostly SciFi.
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