Microsoft Word Tips

via

I know this is kind of random for me to post something so technical, but stuff like this is what takes up a large chunk of my work day and every once in awhile, I get excited about it.

While looking for a keyboard short cut to center justify text in Word, I came across this lovely blog. It’s a little outdated with the last posting back in 2010 and all the tips are catered to Word 2003, but many of them translate to newer versions just fine.

Here are a few that I found myself gasping or giggling with delight when I tried them out. I haven't tried them on my Mac at home, but I'll check it out and let you know.

Text justification. First, the reason for my search. Make sure your cursor is somewhere in the line you want to justify and then… CTRL+E to center justify…CTRL+L to left justify…CTRL+R to right justify.

Selecting text. You can select the text of a whole document to or from a certain point without holding down your mouse while scrolling. Just put your cursor where you want the text selection to start or finish. To select the text before your cursor to the beginning of the document CTRL+SHIFT+HOME. To select the text after your cursor to the end of the document CTRL+SHIFT+END.

Selecting a square block of text without having to select the whole line. This is really cool. Just hold down the ALT key while you click and drag your cursor. You can select text in vertical columns without needing to be in a table.

I figured this one out myself, but if you hold SHIFT and press HOME, it will select all the text in the line your cursor is in.

And while we're at it...Using HOME and END keys. HOME takes you to the beginning of the line your cursor is in. END takes your cursor to the end.

Increase or decrease fonts. CTRL+] increases your font by 1 point. CTRL+[[ decreases it by 1 point.

I am learning, maybe a little late in my word processing lifetime, how much more efficient (time and energy saving) it is to keep my hands on the keyboard as much as possible, rather than moving back and forth to the mouse. I'll save my mouse energy for the fun artsy stuff.

What are your favorite keyboard shortcuts?