7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word
August 4th, 2007 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 53 Comments
Many of us writerly types spend a lot of time in Microsoft Word, and I even know a few Web designers who like to use it and Microsoft Excel for doing simple site prototyping work. Whether you’re sentenced to use Word all day by a dictatorial IT department, or it’s simply your word processor of choice, you can save time and have more options by mastering a few easy shortcuts.
The seven tips I’ll list here are very easy to learn. They work in most versions of Word, and under Windows or on a Mac:
Where Was I? I get up and walk around frequently when I’m writing—gets the blood flowing. Sometimes I close a document I am editing, and when I come back to it and open it up, I just hit Shift + F5 to return to the exact place in the document where I was editing.
Serial Saves. If you’re like me, you often have many documents open at once. For safety’s sake, I like to frequently save all of them at once. To do this, hold down the Shift key when you go to the File menu. This changes Save to Save All.
Paragraph Hopping. You can circumvent the multi-step process of cutting, pasting and deleting to move paragraphs with an easy paragraph hopping feature. Often when I’m writing, I decide that a given paragraph would work better above or below another one. Do this: Go into a document with several paragraphs and put your cursor at the beginning of one of the middle paragraphs. Hold down the Shift and Alt keys in unison, then use the up and down arrow keys to “hop” the paragraph to new positions in the document.
One Fell Swoop Word Deletion. You can delete entire words with your keyboard. Just put your cursor at the beginning of the word and press Ctrl and Del together. This is very useful when editing.
Customize Line Spacing and Alignment. The Ctrl key is your best buddy when you want to experiment with line spacing and alignment variations. Ctrl + 1 provides single spacing, Ctrl + 2 provides double spacing and Ctrl + 5 provides 1-1/2 line spacing. Ctrl + R right aligns a paragraph, Ctrl + L left aligns one, and Ctrl + E centers one.
Quick Selecting. You can select all text between the current location of your cursor and the end of the current paragraph by hitting Ctrl + Shift and the down arrow.
Serial Undo. Many Word users are familiar with using Ctrl + Z to undo the last change that was made to a document, but did you know you can serially undo the last several changes you made? Just keep hitting Ctrl + Z to do so.
Do you have any Word shortcuts to share?
53 Comments Post your own comment
Ahmad Tarek says: August 4th, 2007 10:16pm
Great tips, I know some of them but most of them are great.
Getting the Most Out of MS Word at TechBlog says: August 5th, 2007 7:23am
[...] Web Worker Daily has an easy post on making simple edits and jumping around your Microsoft Word document. Some of these might not be new to you, however they are good practice, especially in the amount of [...]
Miguel Vera says: August 5th, 2007 8:33pm
I think you should add CTRL + J which justifies the text. I had no idea about the first three, thanks a lot. Cheers.
Business Hacks » 7 Great Microsoft Word Tips on BNET says: August 6th, 2007 6:00am
[...] (or even just snack on it occasionally), you’ll want to check out Web Worker Daily’s 7 tips for getting the most out of Word. I’ve used the program for longer than I can remember, and I wasn’t aware of most of [...]
Gopinath M says: August 6th, 2007 6:07am
Great tips. Especially going to the page where we left the document.
I shared MS Excel Tip - Create In-cell Bar Graphs Very Easily at my blog http://mgopinath.blogspot.com.
Nepkarel says: August 6th, 2007 6:21am
ctrl + [ or ], de- or increases the font of the selected text with 1 point.
Very handy if you want to make a headline page wide.
RNav says: August 6th, 2007 6:37am
ctrl + “+” for subscript
and
ctrl + shift + “+” for superscript
:D
ryanoneil says: August 6th, 2007 7:33am
These are great.
shift + F3 changes the case of selected text — UPPER — lower — Sentence case.
Carputers News and Computer Tips » Blog Archive » Seven tips to get the most out of Microsoft Word… says: August 6th, 2007 8:47am
[...] The seven tips I’ll list here are very easy to learn. They work in most versions of Word, and under Windows or on a Mac: [...]
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Carolyne says: August 6th, 2007 9:18am
hi,
if i want to put this in my company newsletter, whom do i speak to?
thanks
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Sitting Here Listening to This Recording says: August 6th, 2007 10:03am
[...] to get the most out of Microsoft Word. I realized the other day that I really hate Microsoft Word. How come everything else has come so [...]
Save all open documents and other easy tips for MS Word says: August 6th, 2007 11:47am
[...] The seven tips I’ll list here are very easy to learn. They work in most versions of Word, and under Windows or on a Mac: Source: Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive 7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word « [...]
kalpesh says: August 6th, 2007 11:55am
Nice tips. However great these tips may be the point is Microsoft is just not suited for our trust. Anyways thumbs up for these tips which will help people understand Microsoft product more easily.
7 Tips for Word « MogBlog says: August 6th, 2007 2:37pm
[...] 7 Tips for Word link [...]
Mike Janssen says: August 6th, 2007 2:52pm
Some of these need to be adapted for Macs, or at least mine. To delete a whole word when your cursor is before the word, Mac users can use Function+Cmd+Del. As for juggling paragraphs, it’s Ctrl+Shift+Up or Down Arrow. That one is a gem–I didn’t know about it, and I’m sure I’ll use it all the time now. Thanks!
Top Posts « WordPress.com says: August 6th, 2007 4:58pm
[...] 7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word Many of us writerly types spend a lot of time in Microsoft Word, and I even know a few Web designers who like to use it […] [...]
More boring stuff from the Net :|»Boringest :| - Moolah!!! says: August 6th, 2007 5:43pm
[...] Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive 7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word « shift + f5 (tags: word) [...]
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TrainingTime says: August 7th, 2007 4:14am
Regarding Ctrl Z to serial undo, if you go to far, you can step back your changes by using Ctrl Y.
Sometimes you might realise that you deleted some text that you still need, but have made changes since then. Simply Ctrl Z to before you deleted the text, highlight it and use Ctrl C to copy the text. Then you can use Ctrl Y repeatedly to get back to where you were and then user Ctrl V to paste the text back in again.
Balachander says: August 7th, 2007 4:55am
Thanks for tips. I like the shift+F5 one. The other ones are familiar. My favourites are 1. Shift+F3 which lets you change the case of a word from all all small to sentence to all caps to small again!
2. ctrl+shift+k which lets you format a word or set of words to small sized caps.
3. ctrl+shift+> for increasing font and ctrl+shift+< to reduce font.
btw, i use MS Office 2000.
jeremy says: August 7th, 2007 11:07am
great tips! the ctrl+del word deletion is a great one, thanks!
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Chris says: August 7th, 2007 6:36pm
One tip I found useful is to use Ctrl + Del, which deletes the word to the right of the cursor, in combination with Ctrl + Backspace, which deletes the word to the left of the cursor. Sometimes if I’m working within a paragraph and want to make multiple edits inside, I combine those two commands with Ctrl + -> and Ctrl + <- to navigate my cursor without having to use my mouse.
Jayce Ooi says: August 7th, 2007 6:40pm
Thanks for the info. ;)
Alex says: August 7th, 2007 11:27pm
Thanks for the tips! The paragraph hopping trick is really useful for editing.
Does anyone know how to send a paragraph/highlighted text to the beginning or end of a page or document?
Suresh Ponnusamy says: August 7th, 2007 11:37pm
The given tips are handy and I had known all of them except Shift + F5 (Jumping to the location).
One more tip from me!
Press Control + Shift + C to copy the formatting and styles.
Select the location of the text where the formatting and style needs to be applied, and then
Press Control + Shift + V to paste the style and formatting (including Colors, Fonts, Font sizes, Paragraph styles, Headings and everything else).
This comes in handy while editing / applying formatting to a large selection of text.
Alan Whitelaw says: August 8th, 2007 12:28pm
Hold Alt when selecting text to select no linnier content (table columns)
Flaphead says: August 9th, 2007 3:50am
Check out: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290938
Carpe Diem: Flaphead.com @ Home : 7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word says: August 9th, 2007 3:50am
[...] every day is a school day .. Found this and am amazed at a couple of the tips! Source: http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/08/04/getting-the-most-out-of-ms-word/Many of us writerly types spend a lot of time in Microsoft Word, and I even know a few Web designers [...]
Archwium Blogów » Blog Archive » Niesamowite wordoskróty says: August 9th, 2007 1:36pm
[...] podstawie 7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word. 09 Aug 07 | [...]
Kolz Blog » Blog Archive » Microsoft Word Tip: Go back to where you left off in a document says: August 12th, 2007 6:32pm
[...] the Web Worker Daily weblog. What are your favorite Microsoft Word tricks? Do tell in the comments. 7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word [Web Worker [...]
predrag says: August 20th, 2007 12:32am
meni je wordperfect ipak bio bolji i od nekoliko kasnijih verzija worda
regards
Writerly Time-Saving Tips for MS Word « Web Worker Daily says: August 30th, 2007 4:00pm
[...] ways–on documents all day. While I’ve covered Word keyboard shortcuts and the like before, these tips are aimed squarely at getting writerly tasks done more [...]
jab says: August 31st, 2007 12:25am
I recommend a web site called keyxl.com as a reference source for keyboard shortcuts. They have list of shortcuts for literally hundreds of program (win, mac and linux)
http://www.keyxl.com
Flak says: September 3rd, 2007 12:28pm
Mos helpful Short key is Alt+F4 then Enter when you get bored on Word.
steve.ruble.name » Microsoft Word tip says: September 12th, 2007 9:25am
[...] After you open the document, hit Shift+F5 to zip straight back to the location of the last change you made. Handy! Find this and a few other great Word tips over at the Web Worker Daily weblog. [...]
Natasha says: September 14th, 2007 1:57am
Nice tips. Thanks
GVRD PC - Computer servicing in Metro Vancouver plus free tips, tutorials, and reviews. says: October 10th, 2007 12:29pm
[...] you like this handy tip, be sure to check out Web Worker Daily for many more equally cool Microsoft Word tips. If you have any useful Word tips, please share them [...]
GVRD PC says: October 11th, 2007 12:31am
Return to where you left off in MS Word
Ever been firing on all cylinders, writing that paper or book chapter, where the words are flowing like beer at the bar? Only today’s the next day and you’re itching to get back into your masterpiece in the making, right where you left off…
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Making Documents Look Much Better in MS Word « Web Worker Daily says: October 24th, 2007 4:00pm
[...] features that can make you more efficient at it, and make your documents look better. In a previous post I compiled time-saving shortcuts for Word, and readers chimed in with a slew of tips of their own. [...]
Kolz Blog » Blog Archive » Making Documents Look Much Better in MS Word says: October 31st, 2007 3:19pm
[...] features that can make you more efficient at it, and make your documents look better. In a previous post I compiled time-saving shortcuts for Word, and readers chimed in with a slew of tips of their own. [...]
frank says: November 29th, 2007 7:22pm
I have a question
i herd my friend talking about this way to increase the size font for the periods in your
does anyone know how to do it
5 façons de bien commencer 08′ | LifeManiac says: January 1st, 2008 5:24am
[...] votre utilisation de vos outils quotidiens. Vous utilisez Word tous les jours? Je suis certains que vous n’en connaissez pas tous les ressorts . Votre souris vous convient? Mais savez vous réellement tout ce que vous pourriez en [...]
Rhett says: January 16th, 2008 8:56am
Keyboard shortcuts can be useful, however, just trying to memorize them is the downside of them. Anyway, I really liked Word until this 2007 version. They took a great word program and really screwed it up. Unless you deal in equations and writing books and long ofice correspondence, it can be really complicated to find the old commands.
Megan says: February 6th, 2008 7:41am
Right I accidently deleted a portion of text I needed to keep, I pressed a delete column button or something and control + z is not working at all, help? How do I go back if I can not press the undo button to get it back?
Lonny says: February 20th, 2008 12:05am
Hi Megan,
It is probably too late, but just in case it is not (for you or someone else) - save as a different file name, then use compare with the old document name to see what has been changed, copy what you want and your good to go.
Good luck.
7 Tips to Get the Most Out of MS Word « VIVA says: March 27th, 2008 6:54pm
[...] Read complete article.… [...]
Web Worker Daily » Archive Time-Saving Keyboard Tips for MS Word « says: April 18th, 2008 4:00pm
[...] all day long, picking up some tips on how to work more efficiently can go a long way. I previously posted a series of writerly tips for Word, and readers had many additions to the list. In this post, I’ll [...]
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[...] of us write in Microsoft Word most of the time. If you do, check out this post with seven little-known tips for Word. These include instructions on how to hop paragraphs around [...]
nicole says: November 19th, 2008 4:39am
great article, for me im using hibernater. it helps me to save alot of time and trouble.