📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓
In this article
You don’t need a hundred shortcuts. About twenty cover most of the time you spend in Word, and learning them halves the mouse trips. Practise a few a day until your fingers remember.
Selecting
| Keys | Selects |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Shift+→ / ← | Word by word |
| Shift+End / Shift+Home | To the end / start of the line |
| Ctrl+Shift+↓ | To the end of the paragraph |
| Double-click / triple-click | A word / a paragraph |
| Ctrl+click | A sentence |
| Alt+drag | A vertical block of text |
| Ctrl+A | Everything |
Formatting
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+B / I / U | Bold / italic / underline |
| Ctrl+] / Ctrl+[ | Bigger / smaller font |
| Ctrl+E / L / R / J | Centre / left / right / justify |
| Shift+F3 | Cycle case: lower → UPPER → Capitalised |
| Ctrl+Space / Ctrl+Q | Clear character / paragraph formatting |
| Ctrl+Shift+C / V | Copy formatting / paste formatting |
| Ctrl+Alt+1 / 2 / 3 | Heading 1 / 2 / 3 |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | Normal style |
The one most people miss: F4
F4 repeats your last action. Applied a colour and spacing to one heading? Click the next heading and press F4. Inserted a table row? F4 inserts another.
Find and Replace
- Ctrl+F: find in the Navigation Pane, with every match highlighted.
- Ctrl+H: replace. More › Match case and Find whole words only prevent “Rs” matching inside “Rsvp”.
- Special lets you replace paragraph marks (^p) and tabs (^t): replace ^p^p with ^p to remove double blank lines from pasted text.
Moving around
| Keys | Goes to |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Home / End | Start / end of the document |
| Ctrl+↑ / ↓ | Previous / next paragraph |
| Shift+F5 | Back to your last edit (even after reopening the file) |
| Ctrl+G | Go to a page, section or heading |
Paste and editing
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Shift+V | Paste as plain text (no stray fonts) |
| Ctrl+Backspace / Ctrl+Delete | Delete a whole word left / right |
| Ctrl+Enter | Page break |
| Shift+Enter | New line in the same paragraph |
| Alt then letters | Press Alt to see ribbon key tips; e.g. Alt, H, F, S for font size |
More power tricks: wildcard Find and Replace.
Practice
Download the practice document below. Edit the report using only the keyboard, including a Find & Replace. The task list is at the top of the document; tick each one off as you go.
📎 Practice files for this article
- 📘Lesson 9 practice documentA report to edit using only keyboard shortcuts, including a Find & Replace task.⬇ DOCX · 36 KB
Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.
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