Shortcuts are powerful tools to enhance the convenience of using Microsoft Word. This article will help you speed up your work by showing you the most important shortcuts you need to know.
Shortcuts for selecting and editing a text in Microsoft Word
For selecting and editing a Word document you will mainly need the arrow keys, the Ctrl button and the Shift button.
Ctrl+A: Select the whole document
Ctrl+X: Cut selected section to the Clipboard
Ctrl+C: Copy selected section to the Clipboard
Ctrl+V: Paste contents from the Clipboard
Shift+Home: Extend selection to the beginning of the line
Shift+End: Extend selection to the end of the line
Ctrl+Shift+End/Home: Extend selection to the end or beginning of the document
Backspace: Delete one character to the left
Ctrl+Backspace: Delete one word to the left
Delete: Delete one character to the right
Ctrl+Delete: Delete one word to the right
Ctrl+Shift+ Arrow Left/Right: Widen the existing selection by one word to the left or right
Shift+ Arrow Left/Right: Widen the existing selection by one character to the left or right
Ctrl+Shift+ Arrow Up/Down: Widen the existing selection to the beginning or end of the paragraph
Shift+ Arrow Up/Down: Extend selection one line up or down
Shift+ Page Up/Page Down: Extend selection one screen up or down
Alt+Shift+R: Copy the header or footer from the previous section of your document
Shortcuts for formatting a MS Word document
Word offers a big number of shortcuts for formatting characters and paragraphs. We will show you the most important ones.
Ctrl+Shift+< or >: Change font size one preset size at a time
Ctrl+[ or ]: Change font size one point at a time
Ctrl+U: Set underline formatting
Ctrl+Shift+D: Set double underline formatting
Ctrl+I: Set italic formatting
Ctrl+B: Set bold formatting
Ctrl+E: Center a paragraph
Ctrl+L: Left-align a paragraph
Ctrl+R: Right-align a paragraph
Ctrl+Shift+C: Copies the character formatting of a selected text
Ctrl+Shift+V: Pastes formatting to a selection
Ctrl+Shift+K: Formats all letters as lowercase
Ctrl+Shift+A: Formats all letters as uppercase
Ctrl+Q: Remove all paragraph formatting
Alt+Ctrl+1: Change to Heading 1 style
Alt+Ctrl+2: Change to Heading 2 style
Using shortcuts in Word can make working and formatting a lot easier. (c) Pixabay/fancycrave1
How to create your own shortcut in Microsoft Word
If there are operations you need very often, you may consider creating your own shortcut for them. This is how it works:
Open a Word document and navigate to the area “File” and choose “Options”. A new window will open.
Choose “Customize Ribbons” and find the button “Customize”.
How to customize ribbons in Microsoft Word (c) Screenshot
A new window will open. Here you can choose the function, you want to create a new shortcut for and assign a shortcut.
Please keep in mind, that all shortcuts need to include either the “Alt”, the “Ctrl” or “Shift” button.
If you are trying to assign a shortcut, which is already used for another function, Microsoft Word will ask you to change this shortcut first.
