Google Docs is great and all, but Microsoft Word is still the de facto standard when it comes to putting words to digital page. But how well do you know this decades-old program?
Familiarity breeds complacency. Most of us just keep on using Microsoft’s productivity powerhouse the same way we have for years. If you want to up your Word game, here are 15 extremely useful keyboard shortcuts you’ll want to master, ranging from basic to little known.
These shortcuts work for both Word for Windows 2013 and 2016.
- Keyboard Access to the Ribbon: Just like Excel, Word has a method that lets you access menu items using only your keyboard. Just press Alt or F10 and letters will appear next to each visible menu item. Press the corresponding letter to activate a particular menu option. To get rid of the labels, press Esc.
- Ctrl + F1: Display or hide the Ribbon.
- Ctrl + K: Insert a hyperlink for the selected text.
- Ctrl + F: Open the search box in the navigation pane.
- Alt + Ctrl + S: Split or remove split in the document window.
- Ctrl + Backspace: Delete one word to the left.
- Shift + F3: Change the case of the selected letters.
- Alt + Shift + W: Underline the selected words, but not the spaces included in the selection.
- Ctrl + 1: Set single-line spacing.
- Ctrl + 2: Set double-line spacing.
- Ctrl + 5: Set 1.5-line spacing.
- Ctrl + Y: Re-do the last action.
- Ctrl + Enter: Insert page break.
- Ctrl + W: Close the current document.
- Alt + F4: Close the program.
If you want more Microsoft Office tips check out our primers on Excel keyboard shortcuts and 15 simple Excel functions. Also head over to PCWorld’s Max Productivity blog, where we dish out efficiency tips every week.