Microsoft Word Shortcuts, Tips, and Tricks

(All descriptions based on Word 2007 for Windows, unless noted, but should work in all subsequent versions as well)

To use these shortcuts, unless instructed differently, simply press the modifying key(s): ctrl, alt, and/or
shift -- and then the primary key (usually a letter), and then release them both. They do not need to be
held down for more than a moment.

Most Useful Shortcuts

Ctrl + z This is undo, and can quickly become your best friend. You can undo all changes you
have made from when you last opened the document by pressing this enough times (or
just holding it down). Once the document is closed though, the undo history is lost.
Ctrl + y This is Ctrl + z’s counterpart, and re-does what was just undone. This can be helpful
when comparing two different options or versions of something in a document.
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Ctrl + o Opens the “Open file” dialog box
Ctrl + n Creates a new document
Ctrl + s This is the shortcut to perform a save. To avoid headaches, press this often. If the
document has not been saved before, it will bring up the “Save As” dialog box. This
first time you will need to give the file a name and the location you want the file saved
to, but after that pressing Ctrl +s will save whatever changes you have made since the
last save, in the same location you originally saved it. This does not change the Ctrl + z
ability to undo. That is only affected after closing the document.
F12 If you have already done a save and want to save the file with a different name, this
opens up the “Save As” dialog box
Ctrl + p Print. Nice and simple, this brings up the print dialog box.
Ctrl + F2 Gives a quick Print Preview
Ctrl + w Close the open Word file (NOT the program, just the file)
Alt + F4 Close the Word program (not just the file, but the program itself. This works on almost
all programs in Windows, not just Word)
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Ctrl + a Select all - this will “select” (visually you can confirm this because all selected elements
will be highlighted) everything in the window/program in which you are currently
active. This is very useful if you need to copy or cut all the text (and/or other elements)
in a document to put somewhere else.
Ctrl + c Copy - whatever you have highlighted/selected will be copied into the clipboard (the
temporary internal memory area). Then you can use the next shortcut…
Ctrl + x Cut. Very similar to copy, this takes whatever you have selected through highlighting
and puts it into the clipboard. The difference between “copy” and “cut” is that copy
leaves the original, while cut takes it away.
Ctrl + v Paste. This takes whatever you have in the temporary memory and inserts it wherever
you have your insertion point (wherever in your document you have either just clicked
your mouse pointer – or moved the I-beam insertion point with the arrow keys, or other
movement keys – but more on that later)
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Ctrl + b Change the selected text (or whatever you type after you make this change) into bold
text.
Ctrl + i Change the selected text (or whatever you type after you make this change) into
italicized text.
Ctrl + u Change the selected text (or whatever you type after you make this change) into
underlined text.
 Most Useful Shortcuts (Continued)
Ctrl + f Opens the Find dialog box
Ctrl + h Opens the same dialog box as above, but goes straight to the Find/Replace tab
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Ctrl + 1 Changes selected text (and/or whatever you type after changing modes) into single
spaced text
Ctrl + 2 Changes spacing to double spaced
Ctrl + 5 Changes spacing to space and a half
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Ctrl + Alt + 1 Convert the selected text to Heading 1 (or 2 for Heading 2, or 3 for Heading 3)
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Ctrl + l Aligns text to the left
Ctrl + e Aligns text to the center
Ctrl + r Aligns text to the right
Ctrl + j Justifies text (this means that Word will try to distribute the text evenly so that all the
lines in a paragraph appear to be the same length)
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Ctrl + Enter Inserts a page break (This forces the next section of text to go to the next page)
Shift + F3 Cycles through capitalization options (works on selected text, and cycles though initial
capitalization, all caps, and no caps)
– or –
Ctrl+Shift+a Converts the selected text to ALL CAPS
Ctrl + Shift + k With text selected, this toggles using SMALL CAPS
Shift + F7 Do a thesaurus search for the word you either have currently have selected (just having
your insertion point in it counts as well)
F7 Perform a grammar and spelling check
Ctrl + Shift + 8 Toggles invisible characters on and off (invisible characters include paragraph marks
(¶), spaces (·), tabs (), and non-breaking spaces (¬), for a few examples.
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Ctrl + Shift + c Copies the format of the selected text
Ctrl + Shift + v Pastes the format of the selected text
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Ctrl + m Creates an indent in the currently selected paragraph (where your insertion point is)
Ctrl + q Remove paragraph formatting from selected paragraph
Ctrl + t Apply a hanging indent to the selected paragraph

Special symbols
Ctrl + Alt + c © - copyright symbol – (can also enter (c) for this symbol)
Ctrl + Alt + r ® - registered symbol – (can also enter (r) for this symbol)
Ctrl + Alt + t ™ - trademark symbol – (can also enter (tm) for this symbol)

NOTE: All shortcuts referenced in this guide are the default ones. You can change them, create new
ones, or delete them. If someone else has used your computer, it is possible that they might have
changed one of these, or overwritten a different shortcut and used one of these key combination.
Software add-ons (such as MathType) can also change shortcuts around. For example, I personally map
my keyboard so that Ctrl + q is the same as Enter and Alt + q is the same as hitting Backspace. But,
MathType (an add-on program for inserting math equations) resets Alt + q as the shortcut to start its
dialog box. Each time I start Word, I have to reset my personalized shortcut, because MathType
overrides it. This is not a standard situation, but it can happen.
 All The Rest (Usefulness will be dependent on what you are working on)
Ctrl+0 (zero) Toggles a space before the paragraph(s) selected/currently active in (this is
independent of line spacing)
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Ctrl + d Opens the Font dialog box
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Ctrl + Shift + h Apply hidden text formatting to the selected text (makes it invisible so that it is not
visible and will not print. The only way to see it is to turn on invisible characters.
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Shift + F5 Return to last editing point. Essentially, what this does is return your focus to
wherever you last were working. Say you are working on a long document and are
on page 17, but need to look at something from the first page (or last page) - just
hit Ctrl + Home (or Ctrl + End) to go to the beginning (or end) of the document.
You get the info you need, and then you can hit Shift + F5 to go right back to
where you were (where you left your insertion point/I-bar). This can be much
easier than a scrolling back and forth.
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Ctrl + k Convert the selected text into a hyperlink (make text clickable to open a web page)
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Ctrl + Shift + n Apply the “Normal style” setting to the selected text
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Ctrl + Shift + l Inserts bullet point/Starts a bulleted list
Alt + Ctrl + Period Insert an ellipsis
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Ctrl + Shift + > Increases the selected text's font size by one point
Ctrl + Shift + < Decreases the selected text's font size by one point
or
Ctrl + ] Increase the selected text's font size by one point
Ctrl + [ Decrease the selected text's font size by one point
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Ctrl + Equal Sign Subscript the selected text
Ctrl + Shift + Plus Sign Superscript the selected text
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Ctrl + Shift + D Double-underline the selected text
Ctrl + Shift + W Underline the selected text, but skip the spaces
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Alt + Ctrl + Minus Sign Insert an em dash —
Ctrl + Minus Sign Insert an en dash –
And in case you were wondering the difference…
An en dash (–) is bigger than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash (—). The names come from an obscure typographical
measurement system, but the dashes have now taken on a life of their own in grammar. The em dash is the spork of English
grammar: It ain’t particularly pretty, but you can use it for most anything. Em dashes can replace colons or sets of parentheses,
or represent a sudden change in thought or tone.
But if the em dash is a spork, then the en dash is nothing less than a salad fork: We often forget what it looks like and when to
use it. But here are the two basic uses of en dashes:
1. To show numerical ranges, signifying “up to and including”—of dates, ages, pages, etc. (Example: “I read pages 7–22 last
night.”)
2. The storied “compound adjective hyphen,” an event so rare in the English language that proofreaders shiver with excitement
whenever they come across it. Basically “pro-American” gets a regular hyphen because “American” is only one word, whereas
“pro–Falkland Islands” gets an en dash because “Falkland Islands” is two words. So, too phrases like “Civil War–era.”
From: http://www.mentalfloss.com/difference/en-dash-vs-em-dash/
Random Word tips
 Double clicking on the blue area of the ruler above your paper will open up the page setup dialog box.
This is a quick way to change margins and page orientation.
 If you are working in print layout view, moving your mouse to the bottom of a page. When you are in
the right spot, the I-bar of the insertion point will turn into two arrows pointing at each other. Double-
clicking when the mouse looks like this will cause the pages to move closer, visually. What it is actually
doing is hiding the margins. This can be helpful when you are working on long documents, and the space
between the end of one page and start of the next is distracting.
 Password protect a document. If you have sensitive material you want to keep safe, you can password
protect your Word document. Just open the “Save” dialog box (for example, by clicking File - Save), and
in the lower left-hand corner where you’ve probably never looked before, there is a drop-down menu
labeled “Tools.” Click on that, choose the “General Options” selection, and give it a password. You can
either do this for full encryption (can’t even open the file without the password - and I mean this - so
make sure that you Do Not Lose Your Password), or just for modification rights. It’s up to you.
 Selecting text - there are many ways to do this, most commonly with the mouse. But, if you prefer to
keep your hands on the keyboard, you can do so using combinations of the arrow keys, Ctrl key, and Shift
key. This works as follows:
L/R arrow + Shift – Select text one character at a time
L/R arrow + Ctrl + Shift – Select text one word at a time
Up/Down + Shift – Select text one line at a time
Up/Down + Ctrl + Shift – Select text one paragraph at a time
Also, as a side note, you can move your insertion point through your text in the same manner - Using
just the arrows keys and the Ctrl key will move you through the text in the same manner, just without
selecting it as it goes.
BONUS - Rarely needed, but extreme time saver when you do need it, is vertical text selection. This is
done by pressing and holding the Alt key and then dragging a box around the text that you want. This
can be very useful if you want to select just one section of the text in a tabbed list, for example. The
thing to remember is that wherever your insertion point is when you press the Alt key is where the
corner of your selection will be.
 Scraps (Older versions of Word) - Want to save (even temporarily) a chunk of text from your
document to use later? You can do this without creating another new document by simple selecting the
text and then dragging it to your desktop. If you are working in a maximized Word screen, jus press
Windows Key + D to quickly show the desktop, drop the selection of text, and then press Windows Key +
D again to go back to what you were working on.
 Related to Scraps is Spike, which doesn’t “save” the information per se, but instead takes it from the
document and stores it temporarily, until it is reinserted. The way this works is two-fold.
• First, select the text or object/image you want to remove and use somewhere else. Press Ctrl + F3 and the
selection disappears. It is now stored in a temporary memory area.
• Do this for each item you want to remove and use somewhere else - the information from the first
selection will not be lost - each new thing you add to the Spike is just collected in a list form for
reinsertion.
• When you are finished, place the insertion point where you want the text and/or objects you pulled from
the document to be reinserted, and press Ctrl + Shift + F3.
• Everything you removed and put in the Spike is now pasted into the document where you have the
insertion point.
 Text generation. If for some reason you need to generate text, you can do so in two ways. The first
gives you readable English, the second gives you nonsensical text. The numbers in parentheses refer to
amount of text generated. The first number is for how many paragraphs you want, the second controls the
number of sentences per paragraph. Each are as follows:
=rand(3,5)
=lorem(4,7)
Random Microsoft Windows tips
• Alt + Tab - Pressing this quickly will swap between the two most recently active screens/programs you
were in. This can be very useful when working from or on multiple documents. If you press and hold
down the Alt key when tapping the Tab key, you can cycle through all the programs that you have open.
Pressing Alt + Shift + Tab will cycle through the programs in reverse order.
• Ctrl + Esc - This will open or close the Start Menu
• Holding Shift while inserting a CD - prevents the disk from auto-running
• Holding Ctrl while dragging a file - copies the file
• Pressing Alt - Enter with a file highlighted/active - opens the Properties dialog box for that file
• The F2 button is the quickest way to rename a file. It also allows you to quickly edit a data cell in
Microsoft Excel.
• Shift + Delete deletes a file without sending it to the recycle bin. Use with caution.
• In the Run dialog box, type in “osk” for “On-Screen Keyboard” - this is of limited usefulness, but if you
need it, you really need it.
• Alt + Spacebar - opens the systems menu, which allows keyboard to Minimize and Maximize (and Move
and Size if you use the mouse as well. This can be useful if a window opens up and those selection are not
accessible via the normal mouse method)
• Alt + Print Screen - Does a screen capture of whatever application or program is currently active (and
visible on the screen) - but just that program/window. This different than just pressing Print Screen,
which captures the entire screen.
• Need to make the document you are working larger (or smaller)? If you have a mouse with a scroll
wheel on it, just press down Ctrl while scrolling the wheel, and it will increase or decrease your zoom.
This will work in Excel and PDF documents as well

Windows Key functions

• Windows Key + d - Minimizes all the windows and shows the desktop. If nothing else is clicked or
pressed in between, it will also restore all the windows if pressed again. (The Windows Key is usually
located on the left side of the keyboard between the Ctrl and Alt, and often has the Microsoft flag
• Windows Key + r - Opens the Run dialog box. If you don’t know what this is, don’t worry about it.
• Windows Key + f - Opens the Find dialog box in Windows
• Windows Key + Pause/Break key - Opens the System Properties window
• Windows Key + m - Minimize All function (minimize all windows to the taskbar)
• Windows Key + Shift + M - Undo the Minimize All function
• Windows Key + Tab key - Cycle through items on the taskbar (sometimes this is more intuitive that
using the Alt + Tab com
• Windows Key + l - locks the computer,
• Windows Key + u - starts the utility manager, which controls the Magnifier, Narrator, and On-Screen
keyboard.
• Windows Key + Pause/Break key - opens

Additional Sources
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/jan/12word.htm
http://www.worldstart.com/the-big-keyboard-shortcut-list/
http://sabes.org/northeast/Documents%20to%20link/Wicked_Good_Shortcuts.doc

Nathaniel Rice
Chabot College
Alternate Media Technology Specialist
nrice@chabotcollege.edu