Word tips and keyboard shortcuts for Office 365

We all know peo­ple who look highly effi­cient at their work, and no less so when it comes to using Microsoft Word. They accom­plish all sorts of tasks and com­mands in just sec­onds by using var­i­ous key­board short­cuts. Well, there’s no mys­tery involved: they have mas­tered the tricks of the soft­ware to make their work eas­ier. You don’t need to be an IT pro to ben­e­fit from the wealth of avail­able func­tions. What the pros can do, so can you! With the help of these tips and tricks, you’ll not only run cir­cles around the would-​be “pros” but also get the most out of word pro­cess­ing as you enhance pro­duc­tiv­ity, sim­plify cum­ber­some tasks and save time.

Tip #1: key­board short­cut for the last 5 mouse clicks in the doc­u­ment

Work­ing on large doc­u­ments can become exas­per­at­ing, what with often hav­ing to nav­i­gate back and forth between pages for the pur­pose of ref­er­enc­ing, review­ing or copy­ing infor­ma­tion. A lot of time is lost scrolling back and forth. Use the key­board short­cut [SHIFT+F5] to say good­bye to fin­ger cramps. With this sim­ple key­stroke com­bi­na­tion, Word returns to the posi­tion of the last action per­formed.

Tip #2: key­board short­cut to for­mat text

In many cases there’s no need to reach for the mouse. And text for­mat­ting is one of them: change the font at the stroke of a key through the use of cer­tain short­cuts.
• [CTRL+B] To bold­face text
• [CTRL+U] To under­line text
• [CTRL+I] To ital­i­cise
• [CTRL+D] To change font set­tings
• [CTRL+8] To decrease the font size by 1 pt
• [CTRL+9] To increase the font size by 1 pt

Tip #3: Your spe­cial F8 key

Some keys – like the F8 key for exam­ple – con­ceal handy and use­ful func­tions. The F8 key offers a par­tic­u­larly easy-​to-​use high­light­ing option. The con­ven­tional high­light­ing steps are famil­iar, such as
• press­ing and hold­ing the left mouse but­ton to high­light the desired text selec­tion
• double-​clicking to high­light the desired word
• [CTRL+A] to high­light the entire text

The F8 key takes high­light­ing to a new level:
• first, posi­tion the cur­sor at the begin­ning of the selected text that you wish to high­light
• now press the F8 key. You only need to press it once (click)
• finally, move the cur­sor to where you want the high­light­ing to end
• the selected text should now be high­lighted
• use the ESC key to undo the high­light­ing

Tip #4: remov­ing exist­ing for­mat­ting

• Key­board short­cut [CTRL+Q] removes para­graph for­mat­ting such as before/​after line spac­ing.
• Key­board short­cut [CTRL+Space] removes char­ac­ter for­mat­ting such as bold, italic and under­line.

Tip #5: using the key­board to per­form com­mands from the Rib­bon

The key­board is more than enough to select and exe­cute the var­i­ous func­tions in the Rib­bon. Click the ALT key to open the list of Rib­bon tabs. Var­i­ous key­board short­cuts take you directly to the desired tab.
• Press the up-​, down-​, left– or right-​arrow key to nav­i­gate within the Rib­bon
• The TAB key allows you to tog­gle between com­mands
• Move between the Groups in the Rib­bon with [CTRL+RIGHT ARROW] /​[CTRL+LEFT ARROW] The key­board short­cuts are directly dis­played for the indi­vid­ual posi­tions.

The most impor­tant key­board short­cuts at a glance

[CTRL+O] Opens doc­u­ment
[CTRL+S] Saves doc­u­ment
[CTRL+W] Closes doc­u­ment
[CTRL+N] New doc­u­ment
[CTRL+X] Cuts selected text
[CTRL+C] Copies selected text
[CTRL+V] Pastes selected text
[CTRL+A] Selects all con­tents of the doc­u­ment
[CTRL+D] Changes font set­tings
[CTRL+E] Cen­tres text
[CTRL+L] Left-​aligns text
[CTRL+R] Right-​aligns text
[ESC] Can­cels cur­rent task
[CTRL+Z] Undoes last action
[CTRL+Y] Redoes last action
[Pos 1] Jumps to begin­ning of line
[Ende] Jumps to end of line

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