Writing Tips: Favorite Typing Shortcuts
Wednesday Writing Weekly #95 Best Keyboard Shortcuts
I am an avid windows Microsoft Word user. Ever since I learned how to type back when the paperclip, Clippy, was tapping on my screen, I always wanted to make the process easier. Don’t want to retype something? I’ll paste it. Tired of typing? I’ll switch to dictation.
Keyboard shortcuts really make my day possible. I am using them constantly, but I’ve also realized over the years that people either know them or have no idea they are there in the first place.
I am here to help you build your writing tips toolbox, so here are some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word!
Microsoft Word vs Other Programs
As a note before we dive into my writing tips… other devices (such as Mac computers) or other programs all have different shortcuts and keyboards. Today we’ll be going over Microsoft Word and Windows only.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Here is a list of some of my favorite shortcuts! For the shortcuts to work, there are usually two to three buttons on your keyboard that you need to press at once for these to activate.
For example, to use the shortcut, “ctrl + z” you will press and hold down, “ctrl” and then while holding that down, click, “z” next.
Ctrl + A: Select/ highlight the entire doc. This is great if you want to copy and paste it elsewhere!
Ctrl + Z: Automatically undo your last action. Instead of hitting backspace a gazillion times, this can save you some keystrokes. But sometimes it is a little iffy. Sometimes only a letter at a time is deleted, sometimes an entire word is deleted… so, proceed with caution.
Ctrl + Y: Reverse and redo your latest deletion! If you delete too much with Ctrl + Z, undo that and bring your work back!
Ctrl + C: Copy text, images, or objects. You can use this universally online and in most programs on a windows computer.
Ctrl + V: Paste copied text, images, or objects. When pasting, you’ll have different options. You can use Ctrl + Shift + V to paste the text into the same formatting as the document you are adding it too or if you right click your mouse to paste, you can select if you want to paste only the text or an image, if you have selected an image.
Ctrl + F: Search words or phrases. This is great if you have misspelled something! I was writing a story about a character named, “Silo,” but accidentally spelled, “Shilo” a few times. Ctrl + F let me make sure there were no more stray “Shilos” in the doc.
Ctrl + H: Search and replace words or phrases. If you have misspelled “Silo” over thirty times in one document, it might be better to automatically find and replace with this trick. But make sure you do not add any extra spaces when typing the replaced text and have it properly capitalized (as needed) to make sure everything replaces correctly.
Ctrl + E: Align text to the center. I use this for titles!
Ctrl + L: Align text to the left. The most common format.
Ctrl + J: Align text to the center, justified. This is centered text but now all the lines are straight on both the left and right edge. This can look nice when printed but it can get wonky while editing. I suggest completing your edits in the left-aligned text or center-aligned text and then changing the doc to justified when you are all done.
Ctrl + R: Align text to the right.
Ctrl + I: Italic text. Click this while typing to switch over or highlight a word or section to change to italic text.
Ctrl + B: Bold text. See “Italics.”
Ctrl + U: Underline text. See “Italics.”
Ctrl + S: Save your document. Save your document as you go! I automatically type this after every time I strike the enter button.
Ctrl + Enter: Make a page break, start a new page.
Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Keys: Highlight entire words automatically. This is nice if you want to delete or select large sections of text and don’t want to reach for your mouse or click around letter-by-letter with the arrow keys.
Ctrl + Shift + Home: Automatically go to the top of the document.
Ctrl + Shift + End: Automatically go to the end of the document.
Shift + Home: Automatically move cursor to the start of the line.
Shift + End: Automatically move cursor to the end of the line.
Shift + Enter: Start a new line with no space before the new paragraph.
Window + Arrow Keys: Move program window to the left, right, etc. of your screen. This is a fantastic tip if you want to easily open and configure more than one window on your screen at once. I do this if I want to keep my outline up and open on one side and my story document on the other. This works great if you want your research and have your outline up while you develop your story or if you are a multi-tasker in need of some background noise, put a YouTube video up alongside your writing document to stay focused.
Try these out and see what ones help you and your writing process! Some may work for you and others may seem pointless. It all depends on your writing style and what you need. Hopefully there are a few that you can add to your repertoire!
Conclusion
As a bonus, do you want to know my favorite shortcut? Ctrl + Shift starts a new line without adding space between the lines but if you do this in a single cell in Microsoft Excel, it lets you create a new line inside the same cell! And Ctrl + M shifts an entire paragraph into a unified indent. That is good for long quotes!
What other shortcuts do you use? I can only assume I’ve just scratched the surface here!
If you want to learn more, visit Writing Daydreams to Reality for more resources!