I learned computer skills and Microsoft office packages at the age of 9 going on 10. My father had enrolled me back then in a daily series of training and teachings including that of Microsoft. I learned quite fast! May be…because he had initially promised me a PC and you can imagine the joy it would have brought to me at that age.

Then I rounded up and daddy didn’t keep to his promise (Lol!) but he later did, and that was right after high school. I really showed off with it (Lol!) and I can recall seeing the ‘Uncle’ that tutored me few years later, and my Dad was telling him all that I have been involved with (proud dad moment…Lol!) and he was super impressed that I had learnt very well.

Shortcuts are life savers! And for you to use Microsoft Word effectively, one must learn these shortcuts very well especially for career people. Though ‘Uncle’ didn’t teach me all the shortcuts back then, he did show me the necessary ones and as I sharpened my skills, I learnt more. This has aided and improved my level of efficiency in the use of MS Word, MS Excel, etc.

This is why, I decided to share some of the top useful MS Word shortcut keys including their functions to aid you as well. So, here we go!

  • Shift + F3: Change from UPPER CASE to lower case
  • Ctrl + J: Justify or align text to the center, Ctrl + R: Align text to the right, Ctrl + L: Aligns text to the left
  • Ctrl + Shift + <:  Decrease font size by 1 value, Ctrl + Shift + >: Increase font size by 1 value
  • Ctrl + [: Increase font size by 1 point, Ctrl + ]: Decrease font size by 1 point
  • Ctrl  + Backspace: Delete one word to the left, Backspace: Delete one character to the left
  • Ctrl + Shift + G: Opens and shows you the word count dialog box for a specific paragraph at the bottom of the document
  • Ctrl + K: Insert hyperlink
  • Ctrl + D: Opens font dialogue box and let’s you change font styles, Ctrl + Shift + F: Change font space
  • Ctrl + F: Opens find navigation bar for finding text, formatting and special items
  • Ctrl + N: Create a new document, Ctrl + O: Opens a document, Ctrl + W: Close a document
  • Ctrl + Alt + F: Insert a footnote, Ctrl + Alt + M: Insert a comment
  • Ctrl + Enter: A page break, Shift + Enter: A line break, Ctrl + Shift + Enter: A column break
  • Shift + Alt + Page up: Select a column, Shift + Alt + Page down: Select a column
  • Shift + Delete: Delete a selected text permanently
  • Ctrl + Arrow up: Move one paragraph up, Ctrl + Arrow down: Move one paragraph down
  • Esc: Exit layout preview, Home: Go to the beginning of a document, End: Go to the end a document
  • F12: Save as, F9: Refresh, F1: Opens help, F7: Spell check of a selected text
  • Ctrl + G: Go to a page, bookmark, footnote, table, comment, graphic, or other locations
  • Alt + Shift + P: Insert a page field, Alt + Shift + L: Insert a listnum field
  • Alt + Shift + D: Insert a date field, Alt + Shift + T: Insert a time field
  • Alt + Shift + Arrow Up: Move selected paragraph up, Alt + Shift + Arrow Down: Move selected paragraph down
  • Alt + Ctrl + 1: Apply the Heading 1 style, Alt + Ctrl + 2: Apply the Heading 2 style, Alt + Ctrl + 3: Apply the Heading 3 style
  • Alt + Shift + N: Merge a document, Alt + Shift + M: Print the merged document
  • Alt + Ctrl + I: Switch in and out of print preview
  • Ctrl + Space: Remove paragraph or character formatting
  • Ctrl + I: Make letters ITALIC, Ctrl + U: Underlines a selected text
  • Ctrl + X: Cuts a selected text, Ctrl + V: Pastes a selected text, Ctrl + P: Print a document
  • Ctrl + A: Selects entire text, Ctrl + B: Make letters BOLD, Ctrl + C: Copy a selected text
  • Ctrl + S: Saves a particular document, Ctrl + Z: Undo the last action, Ctrl + Y: Redo the last action
  • Ctrl + Alt +C: The Copyright Symbol ©, Ctrl + Alt + T: The trademark symbol ™ , Ctrl + Alt + R: The registered trademark ®

NOTE: The + sign actually mean that you should hold down both keys at the same time.

Do you make use of shortcuts while typing? What shortcut keys works best for you? When did you learn computer skills? What was your experience like? Do you know of other shortcut keys? Kindly share your thoughts with me below..

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