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preston_gralla
Contributing Editor

Handy Word keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac

how-to
Apr 30, 20214 mins
MicrosoftMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office

You can accomplish a surprising amount without moving your hands off the keyboard in the Microsoft Word app for Windows or macOS.

Microsoft > Word [Office 365]
Credit: Microsoft

Word’s Ribbon interface is great for finding everything you might ever want to do in the word processor — particularly things you don’t do frequently, like inserting footnotes or doing a mail merge.

But if you’re looking to do common tasks fast, you’ll find keyboard shortcuts far more useful. Why bother to lift your hands from the keyboard if you want to open or close a document, apply formatting to text and paragraphs, do a spell check, navigate through a document, or undo and redo actions? With keyboard shortcuts you won’t have to.

There are keyboard shortcuts to accomplish a vast array of tasks in the Word desktop client, in both the Windows and Mac versions. (Fewer shortcuts are available for the Mac, but you can create your own custom keyboard shortcuts if you like.)

We’ve listed the shortcuts we’ve found the most useful below. Most work whether you’re using a subscription (Microsoft 365/Office 365) or non-subscription version of Word. For even more shortcuts, see Microsoft’s Office site.

Note: On Macs, the key is the same as the Command or Cmd key.

Useful Word keyboard shortcuts

Composing and editing

ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Create a new documentCtrl-N⌘-N
Open a documentCtrl-O⌘-O
Save a documentCtrl-S⌘-S
Open the Save As dialog boxF12⌘-Shift-S
Close a documentCtrl-W⌘-W
Print a documentCtrl-P⌘-P
Select everything in the documentCtrl-A⌘-A
Copy selection to the clipboardCtrl-C⌘-C or F3
Paste from the clipboardCtrl-V⌘-V or F4
Delete selection and copy it to the clipboardCtrl-X⌘-X or F2
Undo the last actionCtrl-Z⌘-Z or F1
Redo the last actionCtrl-Y⌘-Y
Add a commentCtrl-Alt-M⌘-Option-A
Turn revision tracking on or offCtrl-Shift-E⌘-Shift-E
Run spelling and grammar checkF7⌘-Option-L or F7

Text formatting

ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Make text boldCtrl-B⌘-B
Make text italicCtrl-I⌘-I
Underline textCtrl-U⌘-U
Double underline textCtrl-Shift-D⌘-Shift-D
Underline words but not spacesCtrl-Shift-W⌘-Shift-W
Make text strikethroughAlt-H, 4⌘-Shift-X
Make text all capsCtrl-Shift-A⌘-Shift-A
Make text superscriptCtrl-Shift-+⌘-Shift-+
Make text subscriptCtrl-=⌘-=
Make font size largerCtrl-Shift->⌘-Shift->
Make font size smallerCtrl-Shift-<⌘-Shift-<
Open the Font dialog boxCtrl-D or Ctrl-Shift-F⌘-D
Insert a hyperlinkCtrl-K⌘-K

Paragraph formatting

ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Left-align textCtrl-L⌘-L
Right-align textCtrl-R⌘-R
Center-align textCtrl-E⌘-E
Justify textCtrl-J⌘-J
Indent a paragraphCtrl-MCtrl-Shift-M
Remove paragraph indentationCtrl-Shift-M⌘-Shift-M
Change to single-line spacingCtrl-1⌘-1
Change to double-line spacingCtrl-2⌘-2
Change to 1.5-line spacingCtrl-5⌘-5
Remove paragraph formattingCtrl-Q 
Open the Apply Styles task paneCtrl-Shift-S 
Open the Styles paneCtrl-Alt-Shift-S⌘-Option-Shift-S

Document navigation and views

ActionWindows key combinationMac key combination
Move up one paragraphCtrl-Up arrow⌘-Up arrow
Move down one paragraphCtrl-Down arrow⌘-Down arrow
Move right one wordCtrl-Right arrowOption-Right arrow
Move left one wordCtrl-Left arrowOption-Left arrow
Move to the top of the documentCtrl-Home⌘-Home or ⌘-Fn-Left arrow
Move to the bottom of the documentCtrl-End⌘-End or ⌘-Fn-Right arrow
Open the Navigation pane to search for text, images, more (Windows) / use the search box (Mac)Ctrl-F⌘-F
Open the Search and Replace dialog box (Windows) / Find and Replace pane (Mac)Ctrl-HCtrl-H
Open the Go To dialog boxCtrl-G or F5⌘-Option-G or F5
Switch among the last four places in the document you editedCtrl-Alt-Z 
Switch to Print Layout viewCtrl-Alt-P 
Switch to Outline viewCtrl-Alt-O 
Switch to Draft viewCtrl-Alt-N 
Switch to Read Mode viewAlt-W, F 
Split the document window or remove the splitCtrl-Alt-S 
Display HelpF1 

Ribbon navigation

ActionWindows key combination
Hide or display the RibbonCtrl-F1
Display the Ribbon shortcut keysAlt
Go to the File tabAlt-F
Go to the Home tabAlt-H
Go to the Insert tabAlt-N
Go to the Design tabAlt-G
Go to the Layout tabAlt-P
Go to the References tabAlt-S
Go to the Mailings tabAlt-M
Go to the Review tabAlt-R
Go to the View tabAlt-W
Go to the Help tabAlt-Y
Go to the Ribbon’s search boxAlt-Q
Source: Microsoft

Looking for more help with Word for Windows? If you have an Office subscription, see “Word for Microsoft 365 cheat sheet.” If you have a non-subscription version of Office, see “Word 2016 and 2019 cheat sheet.” We’ve also got cheat sheets for an array of other Microsoft products, including older versions of Office.

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