Topic: Shortcut Keys

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A Fast Find-Next One of the handiest shortcut keys in all of Word is Shift+F4. Combining this shortcut with the Find feature allows you to quickly and easily repeat your searches. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Arranging Paragraphs Need to move a few paragraphs around in your document? Word provides a couple of handy shortcuts that make it very easy to move them in any direction you want. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Assigning a Macro to a Keyboard Combination A quick way to run a macro is to associate a shortcut key combination with the macro, and then use that shortcut to invoke the macro. Assigning shortcuts to macros is easy to do; just follow the steps in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Assigning a Macro to a Shortcut Key Macros are very powerful. You can make them handy—in addition to powerful—if you assign a shortcut key to your macros. The process is relatively easy, as this tip documents. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Assigning a Shortcut Key to Styles Shortcut keys are a great way to apply styles to text in a document. You can easily create a shortcut key assignment for any style you desire. This tip explains how. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Canceling a Menu Want to back out of whatever you are doing in a menu? As with many tasks, Word provides several different ways you can stop what you are doing. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Centering a Paragraph with the Keyboard Centering a paragraph with the Formatting toolbar is easy. Centering one with the keyboard is even easier, but few people know the shortcut to use. Here’s how to do it. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Font Size Using a Shortcut Key Word provides the Ctrl+Shift+P shortcut for changing font size. The behavior of the shortcut differs, however, based on whether the Formatting toolbar is displayed. This tip provides the details on how to use the shortcut. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Changing Text Case If you need to easily change the upper- and lower-case configuration of your text, Word has you covered. All you need to do is use the Change Case feature, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Changing Text Case with WordBasic Learn a shortcut for changing the case of your text, as well as a WordBasic macro for changing multiple instances in a document. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Converting Field Results to Text Fields provide a great way to insert dynamic information in your documents. Using the Ctrl+Shift+F9 shortcut, you can convert field results to straight text. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Converting Fields to Text Fields are dynamic. You can convert them to text to remove their dynamic nature. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Deleting Words Tired of pressing the Delete or Backspace key for every character you want to delete? Here’s a way you can make your editing much faster, with just a simple change to your deleting keypress. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Displaying Fields Fields are used quite extensively in some documents. If you want to see where the fields are located, you’ll want to use one of the methods described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Finding Default Shortcut Keys Shortcut keys are a helpful way to accomplish common tasks in Word. There are two ways you can see shortcut keys available in a document, and both methods are detailed in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Format Painter Shortcut The Format Painter is a great help when it comes to applying consistent formatting in a document. If you memorize two easy-to-use shortcuts, you can gain even more advantages by using the keyboard instead of the Format Painter itself. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Formatting Shortcut Key Behavior Changes in Word 2000 Ways in which the formatting shortcut keys changed in Word 2000. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000

Getting Context-Sensitive Help Word employs what is called a context-sensitive help system. This means that the program tries to direct you to the portion of the help system that is most likely to answer your question, based on what you are viewing or doing. There are several ways to invoke this type of help, as you learn here. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Inserting a Copyright Mark The copyright symbol is quite common in many types of documents. Here’s several quick ways you can add the symbol to your documents. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Jumping Between Columns If your document is divided into columns, you can use a handy shortcut to jump from one column to the other. One shortcut allows you to jump forward through the columns, while another allows you to jump backward. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Jumping Between Fields Fields allow you to insert all sorts of dynamic information in your document, but it is sometimes hard to figure out where they are. This tip presents a keyboard shortcut you can use to jump from one field to another in your document. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Jumping to the Ends of Table Columns How to get to the top or bottom of a table column. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Jumping to the Ends of Table Rows How to get to either end of a table row. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Keyboard Control of the Find and Replace Dialog Box Hate to take your hands off the keyboard? This tip explains how you can use the keyboard to work with the Find and Replace dialog box, without the need to use the mouse at all. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Locking a Field Fields are meant to be dynamic in nature—their results change to reflect the conditions when the field is updated or when a document is printed. If you want to, you can “lock” a field so that it is no longer dynamic and doesn’t update. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Messed-up Typing If you switch into overtype mode without knowing it, you can mess up your document in a hurry. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Moving Table Rows Quickly Word provides a great shortcut you can use to arrange the rows in your tables. Just use the Shift+Alt keys as you press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow keys, and you’ll be surprised at how easily you can rearrange your table. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Paragraph Formatting Shortcuts Word provides a number of different shortcuts you can use to format your paragraphs. This tip provides a list of the most common (and useful) shortcuts. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Picking Up Where You Left Off How to continue editing where you last were. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Potential Shortcut Key Problems Avoiding conflicts in shortcut keys. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Printing a Key Assignment List Many people customize Word so that macros, styles, and various commands are assigned to specific shortcut keys. This tip explains how you can get a printout of what key assignments have been made on your system. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Printing Shortcut Key Assignments Shortcut keys are great timesavers when you don’t want to remove your hands from the keyboard to mess with the mouse. Word even lets you define your own shortcut keys to augment the rich selection provided by the program. You may, for reference purposes, want to print out a list of all the assignments. You can do so by using the steps outlined in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Quickly Changing Document Windows Word provides a keyboard shortcut that you can use to cycle through document windows, but no way to do it using the mouse. You can get around this shortcoming by using the macro provided in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Quickly Changing Document Windows with WordBasic A shortcut and a WordBasic macro that you can use to switch windows. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95

Quickly Decreasing Point Size A shortcut for decreasing the point size of a font. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Quickly Increasing Point Size Need to increase the point size of some text in a hurry? You can do it using the Ctrl+] shortcut, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Quickly Removing Table Borders Insert a table and remove borders in one keystroke. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Removing a Macro from a Shortcut Key You can quickly assign shortcut keys to macros, but may later want to remove those associations. Here’s how to quickly remove the shortcut keys you no longer want. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Repeating Your Typing Want to repeat your last little bit of typing, or perhaps the last command you invoked? It’s easy to do with the F4 shortcut key, as described in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Resetting Default Character Formatting Sometimes you want to remove all the formatting from a text selection. This tip explains a fast and easy way to remove the formatting and return the text to whatever format is possessed by the underlying style. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Resetting Paragraph Formatting The keyboard shortcut to reset a paragraph to its default formatting is Ctrl+Q. This tip explains exactly what the shortcut does, as well as discussing how you can accomplish the same task using macro commands. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Restoring a Keyboard Shortcut Word uses keyboard shortcuts for all sorts of tasks. Sometimes you may create a shortcut that messes up one of the other shortcuts you really need to keep. This tip explains how you can “undo” a shortcut key assignment so that everything gets back to normal. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Revisiting Formatting Shortcut Key Behavior Changes in Word 2000 A second take on the issue of how Word 2000 changed the behavior of some formatting shortcut keys. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000

Selecting Default Paragraph Formatting You can easily and freely apply all sorts of formatting to a paragraph. When you want to remove all that explicit formatting, just one little shortcut key is all that is needed to do the trick. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Shortcut for AutoCorrect Dialog Box There is no built-in keyboard shortcut that will display the AutoCorrect dialog box. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t a variety of approaches you can use to create your own shortcuts—both keyboard and toolbar—for displaying the desired dialog box. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Shortcut for Full-Screen Mode Toggling back and forth between full-screen and normal modes is not something for which Word provides a dedicated shortcut. Here’s different ways you can do the toggling, including creating your own shortcut. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Shortcuts for Basic Style Formatting How to start applying styles to a document previously formatted with explicit formatting. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Stepping Through Common Point Sizes A shortcut for, well, stepping through common point sizes. Microsoft Word versions: 6 | 95 | 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Stepping Through Head Formats Documents can contain any number of heading levels to denote the organization of your text. Word provides shortcuts, detailed in this tip, that easily allow you to step through different heading levels. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

Strikethrough Shortcut Key One common type of formatting is strikethrough, which is normally applied from the Font dialog box. There is no built-in keyboard shortcut for the format, but you can make your own following the advice in this tip. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Using Extend Mode One of the lesser-used features in Word is extend mode, which is controlled with the F8 key. This tip explains how this selection mode can be very powerful and can actually make working with Word easier. Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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