| Keystroke |
Function |
Notes |
| Shift + F3 |
Toggles through capitalization options. |
This one isn’t perfect — for instance, it insists on capitalizing articles and prepositions in Title Case mode — but it’s still a big timesaver. |
| Ctrl + Shift + N |
Applies the Normal style. |
If you work with documents that are riddled with obscure and specialized styles (typically other people’s), it’s handy to turn them into Normal paragraphs on the fly. |
| Ctrl + Shift + C |
Copies the formatting of selected text. |
Once you’ve copied the format, you can press Ctrl + Shift + V to paste the formatting onto a new selection. Yeah, I know — Format Painter does this, too. But Format Painter forgets the formatting as soon as you’re finished with it. This shortcut remembers what you copied until you close out of Word. |
| Alt + F9 |
Toggles the display of field codes on and off. |
Unless you work with field shading turned on — and I don’t know many users who do — you can’t necessarily tell what’s literal text and what’s being generated by an underlying field code. A quick peek using this shortcut can prevent the headache of inexplicable changes and unwanted editing consequences. |
| F4 |
Repeats your most recent action. |
This might be the all-time best shortcut (except for Undo, which I’m not including in this list because for me, at least, it’s like breathing and requires no conscious thought). The F4 shortcut will repeat nearly all the actions you take on document text: typing: formatting, deleting.It will also let you repeat the action of adding or removing table rows, but it isn’t well implemented with tables overall. For instance, changing table properties is not replicable via this shortcut. |
| Ctrl + H |
Opens the Find And Replace dialog box with the Replace tab selected. |
Replace functionality is my constant companion, so this one is essential for me. Ctrl + F opens to the Find tab if you just want to locate something in a document (or make sure something isn’t in there). |
| Ctrl + drag text or an object |
Creates a copy of the text or object. |
Apologies to the keyboard purists, but this useful trick does require mouse action. It’s handy when you need to copy an object and control where that copy ends up. For example, a picture or other object that has certain positioning attributes may land in some unpredictable location if you use the standard copy and paste functions. This shortcut lets you drag it exactly where you want it.Just make sure you drop the text or object before you release the Ctrl key or Word will move the original instead of copying it.
BONUS: If you hold down Shift along with Ctrl as you drag, Word will keep the copy aligned with the original.
|
| Ctrl + Q |
Removes paragraph formatting that isn’t part of the style assigned to a selected paragraph. |
When you want to strip out manually applied formats and return to only those characteristics defined by a paragraph style, this is the quickest way to get there. Ctrl + Spacebar works the same way for character formatting. |
| Ctrl + 0 (zero) |
Applies or removes 12 points of space above the current paragraph. |
This sounds a little lame, but you can improve readability of selected text in about two seconds using this trick. For instance, table text is often jammed up against top borders. Select the table and hit Ctrl + 0 and you’ll get an instant improvement. |
| Alt + drag the mouse vertically |
Make a vertical text selection. |
Another keyboard/mouse hybrid, this one is obscure but useful. Some users have trouble making it work, but the problem is usually sequence. Just make sure you press Alt before you press the mouse button and drag. Then, release Alt before you release the mouse button. |