13 Using Keyboard Shortcuts

What keyboard shortcuts are

Keyboard shortcuts enable you to carry out simple commands by simply pressing the appropriate keys. Using keyboard shortcuts saves time and effort as it avoids you having to switch from the keyboard to the mouse and searching through menus.

Commonly used keyboard shortcuts

The list of keyboard shortcuts below are the ones you are most likely to need and should be referred to when using Word until you are used to them.

Note: A plus sign indicates that the key before it should be held down and the key after it should be given a short press, before both keys are released.

Document actions

Command	Keyboard shortcut
Open a document	CTRL+O
New document	CTRL+N
Close a document	CTRL+W
Save As	F12
Save	CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12
Print Preview	CTRL+F2
Print	CTRL+P
Show/Hide Paragraph Symbols	CTRL+*
Spelling and Grammar	F7
Help	F1
Find	CTRL+F
Replace	CTRL+H
Go To	CTRL+G

Cursor movement

Select all - entire document CTRL+A
Select from cursor to beginning of line SHIFT+Home
Select from cursor to end of line SHIFT+END
Go to beginning of line HOME
Go to end of line END
Go to beginning of document CTRL+Home
Go to end of document CTRL+End

Formatting

Cut CTRL+X
Copy CTRL+C
Paste CTRL+V
Undo CTRL+Z
Redo CTRL+Y
Format painter CTRL+SHIFT+C
Left alignment CTRL+L
Center alignment CTRL+E
Right alignment CTRL+R
Justified CTRL+J
Delete previous word CTRL+Backspace
Apply bulleted list CTRL+SHIFT+L
Indent CTRL+M
Page break CTRL+Enter

Text Style

Font face CTRL+SHIFT+F
Font size CTRL+SHIFT+P
Bold CTRL+B
Italics CTRL+I
Underline CTRL+U
Double underline CTRL+SHIFT+D
Word underline CTRL+SHIFT+W
All caps CTRL+SHIFT+A
Change case SHIFT+F3
Subscript CTRL+=
Superscript CTRL+SHIFT+=
Make web hyperlink CTRL+K

Tables

Go to next cell Tab
Go to previous cell SHIFT+Tab
Go to beginning of column ALT+PageUp
Highlight to beginning of column ALT+SHIFT+PageUp
Go to end of column ALT+PageDown
Highlight to end of column ALT+SHIFT+PageDown
Go to beginning of row ALT+Home
Highlight to beginning of row ALT+SHIFT+Home
Go to end of row ALT+End
Highlight to end of row ALT+SHIFT+End
Column break CTRL+SHIFT+Enter

Miscellaneous

Copyright symbol - © ALT+CTRL+C
Date field ALT+SHIFT+D
Go to footnotes ALT+CTRL+F
Show/Hide ¶ CTRL+SHIFT+8
Thesaurus SHIFT+F7

To print a list of all the shortcuts in Words:

1. Click on Tools on the menu bar, then click on Macro, then click on Macros.
2. In the Macros In drop-down menu, click on Word Commands.
3. Click on ListCommands from the macro listing.
4. Click on Run.
5. Click on Current Menu and Keyboard Settings from the popup window and click OK.
6. Word will automatically open a new document containing a table of keystrokes. You can then print the document so you keep it handy.

Exercises

1. Open up any of the documents that you have saved in your folder.



2. Try out some of the short cut keys.

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