In our über competitive society, efficiency in the workplace means everything.
Just like Microsoft Excel hosts a variety of Excel formulas, Microsoft Word has its own set of tricks to make you more productive. If you find yourself wondering how you can perform better and faster at work, then you’ll want to take a look at these Microsoft Word shortcuts.
There is a substantial amount of shortcuts, and some you may have never been aware of until today, but don’t be alarmed. Use this article as your reference sheet, and come back to it as many times as you need.
Before you know it, you will be a shortcut expert and have the ones that are most useful to you in your day-to-day memorized.
TIP: These shortcuts are intended for Office 2012 and newer on Mac |
Popular shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Undo the last action | Control + Z or + Z |
Cut text | Control + X or + X |
Copy text | Control + C or + C |
Paste text | Control + V or + V |
Choose the Go To command | Option + + G |
Open Spelling and Grammar box | Option + + L |
Save As | + Shift + S |
Change letters to uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case | Shift + F3 |
Look up selected text on the Internet | + Shift + L |
Close the window | + F4 |
Shrink a selection | Shift + F8 |
Find or Find and Replace |
Control + F for Find Control + H for Find and Replace |
Open the Thesaurus | Shift + F7 |
Print a document | + P or Control + P |
Add a footnote | + Option + F |
Add an endnote | + Option + E |
Open drawing mode | + Control + Z |
Cursor shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Move one word to the left | Option + Left arrow |
Move one word to the right | Option + Right arrow |
Move one paragraph up | + Up arrow |
Move one paragraph down | + Down arrow |
Move one cell to the left (in a table) | Shift + Tab |
Move one cell to the right ( in a table) | Tab |
Move to the end of a line | + Right arrow or End |
Move to the beginning of a line | + Left arrow or Home |
Move to the end of the document |
+ Home On a MacBook keyboard: + fn + Left arrow |
Move to the beginning of a document |
+ Home On a MacBook keyboard: + fn + Left arrow |
Text editing shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Copy a style | + Shift + C |
Paste a style | + Shift + V |
Copy text or image to the Scrapbook | Control + Option + C |
Move text or image | + X or F2, then move the cursor and press + V or F4 |
Create AutoText | Option + F3 |
Insert AutoText | + Option + Shift + V |
Paste special | + Control + V |
Paste and match the formatting of the surrounding text | + Option + Shift + V |
Delete one word to the left | + Delete |
Delete one word to the right | + |
Alignment and format shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Center a paragraph | + E |
Justify a paragraph | + J |
Left-align a paragraph | + L |
Right-align a paragraph | + R |
Indent a paragraph from the left | Control + Shift + M |
Remove a paragraph indent from left | + Shift + M |
Creat a hanging indent | + T |
Remove a hanging indent | + Shift + T |
Start AutoFormat | + Option + K |
Insert a nonbreaking space | Option + Spacebar |
Apply Normal style | + Shift + N |
Apply Heading 1 style | + Option + 1 |
Apply Heading 2 style | + Option + 2 |
Apply Heading 3 style | + Option + 3 |
Text and graphics selection shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Select the entire document | + A |
Select to the beginning of the document | + Shift + Home |
Select to the end of a document | + Shift + End |
Select multiple items not next to each other | Select the first item, hold down , then select additional items |
Select one character to the right | Shift + Right arrow |
Select one character to the left | Shift + Left arrow |
Select one word to the right | Shift + Option + Right arrow |
Select one word to the left | Shift + Option + Left arrow |
Go to the end of the paragraph | + Shift + Down arrow |
Go to the beginning of the paragraph | + Shift + Up arrow |
Line spacing shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Set line as single space | + 1 |
Set line as double space | + 2 |
Set line as 1.5 space | + 5 |
Add or remove one line of space directly before a paragraph | + 0 |
Character format shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Change the font | + Shift + F |
Increase font size | + Shift + > |
Decrease font size | + Shift + < |
Increase font size by 1 point | + ] |
Decrease font size by 1 point | + [ |
Change the case | Shift + F3 |
Change to all capital letters | + Shift + A |
Bold text | + B |
Underline text | + U |
Underline words but not spaces | + Shift + W |
Double underline | + Shift + D |
Italicize text | + I |
Apply strike-through formatting | + Shift + X |
Special character shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Add an ellipsis | Option + ; |
Add the trademark symbol | Option + 2 |
Add the registered trademark symbol | Option + R |
Add the copyright symbol | Option + G |
Add a nonbreaking hyphen | + Shift + Hyphen |
Add a column break | + Shift + Return |
Add a page break | + Enter |
Add a line break | Shift + Return |
Add an empty field | + F9 |
Field shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Add a DATE field | Control + Shift + D |
Add a LISTNUM | + Option + Shift + L |
Add a PAGE field | Control + Shift + P |
Add a TIME field | Control + Shift + T |
Add an empty field | + F9 |
Unlink a field | + Shift + 9 |
Update selected fields | F9 |
Go to the next field | F11 |
Go to the previous field | Shift + F11 |
Lock a field | + F11 |
Unlock a field | + Shift + F11 |
Outline and edit documents shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Promote a paragraph | Control + Shift + Left arrow |
Demote a paragraph | Control + Shift + Right arrow |
Demote to body text | + Shift + N |
Expand text under a heading | Control + Shift + ‘+’ |
Collapse text under a heading | Control + Shift + ‘-‘ |
Expand all body text and heading or collapse all body text | Control + Shift + A |
Show the first line of body text or all body text | Control + Shift + L |
Show all headings with the specified heading level | Control + Shift + <Heading level> |
Go to the end of the lost of comments | + End |
Go to the beginning of the list of comments | + Home |
Go to the end of a comment | End |
Go to the beginning of a comment | Home |
Turn track changes on or off | + Shift + E |
Insert a comment | + Option + A |
Function key shortcuts
To: | Press: |
Undo | F1 |
Cut | F2 |
Copy | F3 |
Paste | F4 |
Choose the Go To command | F5 |
Open Spelling and Grammar box | F7 |
Extend a selection | F8 |
F9 |
Take all the shortcuts you want
These handy tricks are the type of shortcuts you are encouraged to take at work! Implementing these into your daily business practice will not only make you more efficient and confident in the business world, but you will have learned valuable skills that will be useful on a variety of platforms for the rest of your career.
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