Software & Apps MS Office 26 26 people found this article helpful The Top 10 Most Frequently Used Microsoft Word Shortcuts Shortcut keys in Word let you execute commands with a keystroke by James Marshall Writer James Marshall is a pro journalist who covers technology and computer troubleshooting. He is also skilled with Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, and other word processors. our editorial process James Marshall Updated on April 17, 2020 Tweet Share Email The Ultimate Guide to Keyboard Shortcuts The Ultimate Guide to Keyboard Shortcuts Introduction Windows Timesavers The Best Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Better Productivity How to Use the Shortcut Alt + Underline Shortcut to Create New Folders Essential Shortcuts for iTunes Mac, iOS & iPad Quick Tricks The Best Mac Shortcuts Keyboard Shortcuts for Finder Mac Startup Keyboard Shortcuts 18 Shortcuts for Apple's iOS Shortcuts App iPad Keyboard Tips and Smart Keyboard Shortcuts Android & iPhone Shortcuts The Best Android Shortcuts You Should Be Using Create and Use iPhone X Shortcuts Email Shortcuts The 30 Best Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts for 2020 How to Use Yahoo Mail Keyboard Shortcuts The Complete Apple Mail Shortcut List Shortcuts in iOS Mail Delete Shortcut Keys for Popular Email Programs How to Use Outlook.com Keyboard Shortcuts Create Text Snippets With Shortcuts in Mac OS X Mail Online & Browser Shortcuts Top 36 Shortcuts for Edge and IE 11 Keyboard Shortcuts: Google Chrome for Windows Create Web Page Shortcuts in Chrome for Windows Control Safari Windows With Keyboard Shortcuts Shortcuts for Safari Toolbars Shortcuts for Safari on OS X & Sierra Excel Shortcuts The 23 Best Excel Shortcuts Shortcut Excel's Fill Down Command Shortcut the Current Date/Time Formatting Numbers Adding Worksheets Shortcut to Saving Your Work Creating a Chart MAX Function Shortcut More Office Shortcuts Top 10 Microsoft Word Shortcuts The 5 Best Hidden Word Shortcuts Add Shortcut Keys to AutoText Entries Uppercase Shortcut Key How to Reset Keyboard Shortcuts in Word Shortcut to Speed Up PowerPoint Presentations Other Useful Shortcuts The Best Google Docs Shortcuts 18 Shortcuts for Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon Changing Linux Mint Cinnamon Shortcuts Fedora GNOME Keyboard Shortcuts Maya Keyboard Shortcuts Create or Reassign Keyboard Shortcuts in MS Office Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Photoshop CC Time-Saving Fill Tool Shortcuts in Photoshop The 5 Most Useful GIMP Keyboard Shortcuts How to Use the GIMP Keyboard Shortcut Editor Shortcuts to Type a Tilde Mark Shortcut keys, sometimes called hotkeys, execute commands that, for example, save documents and open new files quickly. Don't search through the menus to perform frequent tasks. Instead, use the keyboard. You'll increase your productivity when you keep your hands on the keyboard and quit reaching for the mouse. Instructions in this article apply to Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, and Word for Mac. How to Use Shortcut Keys In Windows, most shortcut keys for Word use the Ctrl key combined with a letter. The Mac version of Word uses letters combined with the Command key. To activate a command using a shortcut key, hold the first key for the shortcut, then press the correct letter key once to activate it. Then, release both keys. Best Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys There are many commands available in Microsoft Word, but these 10 keys are used most often: Windows Hotkey Mac Hotkey What It Does Ctrl+N Command+N (New) Creates a new blank document. Ctrl+O Command+O (Open) Displays the Open dialog box to select a file to open in Word. Ctrl+S Command+S (Save) Saves the current document. Ctrl+P Command+P (Print) Opens the Print dialog box to print the current page. Ctrl+Z Command+Z (Undo) Cancels the last change made to the document. Ctrl+Y N/A (Repeat) Repeats the last command executed. Ctrl+C Command+C (Copy) Copies the selected content to the Clipboard without deleting the content. Ctrl+X Command+X (Cut) Deletes selected content and copies the content to the Clipboard. Ctrl+V Command+V (Paste) Pastes the cut or copied content. Ctrl+ F Command+F (Find) Finds text within the current document. Medioimages / Getty Images Function Keys As Shortcuts Function keys — the F keys along the top row of the keyboard — behave similarly to shortcut keys. These function keys execute commands by themselves, without using the Ctrl or Command key. Here are a few examples: F1 opens the Word Help.F5 opens the Find and Replace tool.F12 opens the Save As dialog box to save the current document with a different name or file extension (for example, to save a DOCX file to DOC format). In Windows, some of these keys can be combined with other keys: Ctrl+F1 hides the Ribbon menu in Word.Ctrl+F9 inserts curly brackets, or braces, before and after the cursor location. This makes it easier to enter text inside brackets.Ctrl+F12 displays the Open dialog box to select a new file to open in Word. This key combination bypasses the File menu. Other Microsoft Word Hotkeys In Windows, press the Alt key any time you're in Word to see how to work with only the keyboard. This trick helps you visualize how to use chains of shortcut keys to perform tasks. For example, press Alt+G+P+S+C to open the dialog box to change paragraph spacing options, or press Alt+N+I+I to insert a hyperlink. Microsoft keeps an all-inclusive list of Word shortcut keys for Windows and Mac that quickly do different things. In Windows, make custom MS Word shortcut keys to take your hotkey usage to the next step. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit