Microsoft Word Shortcuts and Commands

girl typing on laptop

Getty Images / Geri Lavrov

There are many shortcuts for common functions in Microsoft Word. These shortcuts or commands can come in handy when typing a report or term paper, or even a letter. It is a good idea to try some of these functions before you actually begin a project. Once you become familiar with the way they work, you may become hooked on shortcuts.

Executing Shortcuts

Before you can use shortcuts commands, it's important to understand a few requirements. If the shortcut involves a section of text (words you have typed), you will need to highlight the text before typing the command. For instance, to bold a word or words, you must highlight them first.

For other commands, you may only need to place the cursor at a specific place. For instance, if you want to insert a footnote, place the cursor in the relevant position. The commands below are sectioned into groups by alphabetical order to make it easier to find the ones you need.

Bold Through Italics

Boldfacing a word or group of words is one of the handiest shortcut commands in Microsoft Word. Other commands, such as centering text, creating a hanging indent, or even calling for help can be useful shortcuts to know. The latter command—calling for help by pressing the F1 key—brings up a printed helpfile to the right of your document, which even includes its own search function. (The last section of this article contains instructions for the search command.)

Function

Shortcut

Bold

CTRL + B

Center a paragraph

CTRL + E

Copy

CTRL + C

Create a hanging indent

CTRL + T

Decrease the font size by 1 point

CTRL + [

Double-space lines

CTRL + 2

Hanging Indent

CTRL + T

Help

F1

Increase the font size by 1 point

CTRL + ]

Indent a paragraph from the left

CTRL + M

Indent

CTRL + M

Insert a footnote

ALT + CTRL + F

Insert an endnote

ALT + CTRL + D

Italic

CTRL + I

Justify Through Single-Space Lines

Justifying a paragraph will make it flush left and flush right rather than ragged-right, which is the default in Word. But, you can also left-align a paragraph, create a page break, and even mark a table of contents or index entry, as the shortcut commands in this section show.

Function

Shortcut

Justify a paragraph

CTRL + J

Left-align a paragraph

CTRL + L

Mark a table of contents entry

ALT + SHIFT + O

Mark an index entry

ALT + SHIFT + X

Page Break

CTRL + ENTER

Print

CTRL + P

Remove a paragraph indent from the left

CTRL + SHIFT + M

Remove paragraph formatting

CTRL + Q

Right-align a paragraph

CTRL + R

Save

CTRL + S

Search

CTRL = F

Select All

CTRL + A

Shrink Font One Point

CTRL + [

Single-space lines

CTRL + 1

Subscripts Through Undo

If you're writing a science paper, you might need to place certain letters or numbers in subscript, such as in H20, the chemical formula for water. The subscript shortcut makes it easy to do this, but you can also create a superscript with a shortcut command. And, if you make a mistake, correcting it is only a CTRL = Z away.

Function

Shortcut

To type a Subscript

CTRL + =

To type a Superscript

CTRL + SHIFT + =

Thesaurus

SHIFT + F7

Remove Hanging Indent

CTRL + SHIFT + T

Remove Indent

CTRL + SHIFT + M

Underline

CTRL + U

Undo

CTRL + Z

Format
mla apa chicago
Your Citation
Fleming, Grace. "Microsoft Word Shortcuts and Commands." ThoughtCo, May. 31, 2021, thoughtco.com/microsoft-word-shortcuts-and-commands-1856936. Fleming, Grace. (2021, May 31). Microsoft Word Shortcuts and Commands. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/microsoft-word-shortcuts-and-commands-1856936 Fleming, Grace. "Microsoft Word Shortcuts and Commands." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/microsoft-word-shortcuts-and-commands-1856936 (accessed March 19, 2024).