Essential Word Functions You Must Know
To help you navigate Word more quickly, we've put together some top Microsoft Word shortcuts, providing quick access to some of the most commonly-used features. In addition, we've compiled a handy cheat sheet with over 100 essential shortcuts, which you can print out and keep on your desk.
Navigating
Word makes it very easy to quickly navigate your way around a document – later versions advertise that you can “pick up where you left off” when you re-open them, but Word has had this feature for years – when you open a file, immediately hit Shift+F5 to return to the last known cursor location.
You can also use this when you’re working on a document, as Word remembers the last three cursor locations, so just repeatedly press it to cycle through them.
Alternatively, press Ctrl+G to display the ‘Go To’ dialog box and enter any page number to be able to jump to it. Try entering x% where ‘x’ is a number between 1 and 100 to jump, say, halfway (50%) through the document.
Rearranging document text
Usually if we want to move the text around in a document, we select the text, Cut it, then Paste it back in where required. However, Word provides a couple of shortcuts to move the current paragraph up or down the document:
- Click anywhere inside the paragraph that is to be moved
- Press Alt+Shift+↑ or Alt+Shift+↓ until the paragraph is in the correct place
Selecting (highlighting) text
Word provides a number of ways that you can quickly select text, and these can also now be used in Outlook and PowerPoint:
- Word: double-click the word
- Sentence: Ctrl+ click anywhere on the sentence
- Paragraph: triple-click anywhere in the paragraph
- Document: press Ctrl+A
Changing case
How many times have you looked up from the keyboard and discovered that you typed the last three lines with the Caps Lock key on?
- Select the text that needs correcting
- Click HOME > Change Case > and select the required option; alternatively press Shift+F3 to flick through the most likely settings
Watermarks
To apply a watermark to only part of a document:
- Split the document into different sections – PAGE LAYOUT > Breaks > Section (Next Page)
- Edit the Header and Footer for the document – INSERT > Header, or INSERT > Footer
- Switch off ‘Link to Previous’ – HEADER AND FOOTER > Link to Previous
- The watermark can now be applied to any sections that need it:
- Word 2007/10: PAGE LAYOUT > Watermark
- Word 2013/16: DESIGN > Watermark
Don't forget to check out our cheat sheet for even more handy shortcuts.
Want to learn more about Word? Our Word training courses can help you improve your skills.