Commands for MS Word

Ctrl+N - When you already have one document on the screen, this will open a new document.

Ctrl+O - When you highlight a file, this will open it.

Ctrl+S - will save any changes you make to the text (it’s a good idea to save work frequently).

Ctrl+A - will highlight all of the text in your document.*

CtrL+C - will copy all of the text you highlight.

Ctrl+X - will cut all of the text you highlight.

Ctrl+V - will paste all of the text that you copy or cut.

CtrL+1 - will single-space the document.

Ctrl+2 - will double-space the document.

Ctrl+B - will turn highlighted text into boldface.

Ctrl+I - will italicize highlighted text.

Ctrl+U - will underline highlighted text.

Ctrl+E - will move cursor to the title

Ctrl+Z - will undo any previous changes you make to the text prior to saving it.

Ctrl+F - will find specific words & phrases in whatever document you have open.

Ctrl+P - will open the print window.

Ctrl+W - will close the window or document that you are working on.

Ctrl+Q - will quit the MS Word program. Be sure to save all of your work before you quit!

* To highlight text, click the cursor to the beginning of the text, hold down the mouse button, and drag the cursor through the text you want to highlight, or hold down the shift key and use the arrow keys. Any highlighted text will be deleted if you hit the delete or return/enter keys, which is why Ctrl-Z (undo) is such a valuable command.

While there are several other commands, these are the most commonly used when writing a paper. You can also access these commands by clicking File or Edit on the toolbar menu, but it’s far too much of a pain. Using these keyboard commands rather than messing with the mouse will save valuable time.

For Macs: The commands are the same but rather than using the Ctrl key, use the Apple key.