The Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys

By Raj | Sep 26, 2007

One of the key secrets of ergonomics in computer based jobs is to minimize the usage of mouse and to rely mostly on the keyboard. Most of the computer based typing jobs are done with the aid of Microsoft Word, and you can avoid reaching the mouse if you are familiar with the keyboard shortcuts (also called hot keys) for Microsoft Word.

Apart from ergonomics, you save a lot of time by learning shortcut keys. You’ll find that these Microsoft Word shortcuts will greatly increase your productivity as you aren’t taking your hands off the keyboard to fumble with the mouse. They literally put frequently used commands at your fingertips.

I have tried to table these keyboard shortcuts, much of them I commonly use with my career in medical transcription. Right from day one of training in medical transcription, one will be advised to memorize and practice many of these Word shortcut keys so as to avoid contracting repetitive stress injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome and to be more productive.

practice keyboard shortcuts to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome and improve productivity

Hence if at all you are in no way associated with medical transcription but a regular computer user or somebody involved with computer based typing job and want to avert the possibility of contracting carpal tunnel syndrome due to repetitive action, you may memorize these hot keys or take a printout of this page to stick somewhere near your monitor for future use.

shortcut keys can be obtained by going through the menus

In addition to the shortcuts listed here, one can find the shortcut keys of his most popular program by going through the menus as shown in the picture.

The table provided here may not be a complete list but we use many of these shortcuts in our chores. If you can contribute a few not listed here, please let me know through “comments.”

Shortcut Keys	Description
Ctrl + A	Select all contents of the page.
Ctrl + B	Bold highlighted selection.
Ctrl + C	Copy selected text.
Ctrl + E	Aligns the line or selected text to the center of the screen.
Ctrl + F	Open find box.
Ctrl + G	Go to
Ctrl + H	Find and replace
Ctrl + I	Italic highlighted selection.
Ctrl + K	Insert link.
Ctrl + L	Aligns the line or selected text to the left of the screen.
Ctrl + M	Indent the paragraph.
Ctrl + N	Create a new document.
Ctrl + O	Open a document.
Ctrl + P	Open the print window.
Ctrl + R	Aligns the line or selected text to the right of the screen.
Ctrl + S	Save the document.
Ctrl + U	Underline highlighted selection.
Ctrl + V	Paste the copied text.
Ctrl + X	Cut selected text.
Ctrl + Y	Redo the last action performed.
Ctrl + Z	Undo last action.
Ctrl + Shift + F	Change the font.
Ctrl + Shift + >	Increase selected font +1pts up to 12pt and then increases font +2pts.
Ctrl + ]	Increase selected font +1pts.
Ctrl + Shift + <	Decrease selected font -1pts if 12pt or lower, if above 12 decreases font by +2pt.
Ctrl + [	Decrease selected font -1pts.
Ctrl + Shift + 8	View or hide non printing characters.
Ctrl + <left arrow>	Moves one word to the left.
Ctrl + <right arrow>	Moves one word to the right.
Ctrl + <up arrow>	Moves to the beginning of the line or paragraph.
Ctrl + <down arrow>	Moves to the end of the paragraph.
Ctrl + Del	Deletes word to right of cursor.
Ctrl + Backspace	Deletes word to left of cursor.
Ctrl + End	Moves the cursor to the end of the document.
Ctrl + Home	Moves the cursor to the beginning of the document.
Ctrl + Spacebar	Reset highlighted text to the default font.
Ctrl + 1	Single-space lines.
Ctrl + 2	Double-space lines.
Ctrl + 5	1.5-line spacing.
Ctrl + Alt + 1	Changes text to heading 1.
Ctrl + Alt + 2	Changes text to heading 2.
Ctrl + Alt + 3	Changes text to heading 3.
Ctrl + F1	Open the Task Pane.
F1	Open Help.
Alt + Ctrl + F2	Open a document.
Ctrl + F2	Display the print preview.
Shift + F3	Change the text in Microsoft Word from upper to lower case or a capital letter at the beginning of every word.
Shift + Insert	Paste.
F4	Repeat the last action performed (Word 2000+)
F5	Open the find, replace, and go to window in Microsoft Word.
Ctrl + Shift + F6	Opens to another open Microsoft Word document.
F7	Spell and grammar check selected text and/or document.
Shift + F7	Runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted.
F12	Save as.
Shift + F12	Save.
Ctrl + Shift + F12	Prints the document.
Alt + Shift + D	Insert the current date.
Alt + Shift + T	Insert the current time.