How-To Guides: Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts save you time by allowing you to navigate through a word document without having to move your hand back and forth between the keyboard and mouse.  Below are some common keyboard shortcuts.          

 

1) To select text.

• Insert the cursor in front of the text you want to change.
• Hold down the Shift key.
• Move the right arrow key to highlight the text.
  

2) To change the size of text.

• Select/highlight the text (or text box) you want to change.

• Hold down Control+Shift.

• Tap the Greater Than > key to make the text larger.

• Tap the Lesser Than < key to make the text smaller.

 

3) To save or close multiple documents at the same time in Word

• Hold down the Shift key while clicking on File in the toolbar menu.
• This will bring up two hidden options in the File drop down menu. 

• Save All
• Close All.

• If you are going to save all the documents at the same time, select Save All.
• If you are going to close all documents without saving, select Close All.

 

4) To change letter case

• Double click within the word to highlight it or triple click within the sentence to change the complete sentence. 
• Press Shift+F3 to switch between the title case, upper case and lower case letters.

 

5) To start a new page

• Place the cursor where you want to enter a new page/page break.
• Hold down CTRL+Enter.
• This will insert a hard page break into your word document.

6) To find synonyms

• Highlight the word that you want to replace with a synonym.
• Press Shift+F7. 
• A dialog box appears with a list of synonyms.
• Choose the word that most fits your need.
• Click on Replace.

 

7) To minimize a Window

• To send an open window to the taskbar without using the mouse, press Alt+Spacebar+N. 
  

 

8) To insert a blank line in numbered lists or bulleted lists

• Place the cursor at the end of the line.
• Press Shift+Enter and a blank line appears.
• In the blank line, press Enter and the next line will appear with a number or bullet.

9) To scroll through a web page

• Press the Space Bar to scroll down a page. 
• Press Shift + Space Bar to scroll up a page.
• For some web pages, you may have to click on the web page to activate it before pressing the Space Bar.

[Posted on March 30, 2007]