Below are 10 shortcuts, tips, tricks, and timesavers to supercharge your Microsoft Word experience. (Most of these suggestions work with all versions, but some are exclusive to newer versions like Word 2013, 2016, or 2016 for Mac.) Try them out today and let us know what works for you!
Microsoft Office Shortcut Techniques
Copy, Paste, and Do It with Keyboard Shortcuts.
For those who know these shortcuts — say CTRL + C to Copy, Ctrl + V to Paste, and CTRL + X to Cut — master these three basic commands first and you’ll find yourself zooming through document creation at a surprising speed.
Quickly Zoom In or Out to save eye strain.
Some people like to work at 150% zoom in a Word window, while others prefer to zoom in at 75% to eliminate the need to scroll left and right or up and down to see a full document. Either way, use the Window > Zoom button to choose the setting that works best for you — or find the "100%" tab with a slider at the bottom right of the document to easily zoom in or out.
Delete an Entire Word at Once.
This one's as simple as you might think: Instead of slowly tapping away at the keyboard to delete text or holding down Backspace to eliminate words or entire sentences, press CTRL+Backspace with the cursor positioned after the word you want to delete one word at a time, making a tedious task much easier.
Use Smart Lookup to search the Internet.
Anytime you highlight a word or phrase and right-click, you'll see "Smart Lookup," which acts as a quick shortcut for browsing the web—without the hassle of opening a separate browser window. From word definitions to news scans, this powerful tool can turn a simple query into a wealth of knowledge.
Remove unwanted formatting.
Trying to turn a document from an external source into something that works for you? Odd formatting can slow you down, so instead of trying to fix one thing at a time, press CTRL+Space or click the All Formatting button (in newer versions, an Eraser on the Home tab) to remove the formatting from the highlighted text and start fresh with your own style.
Tell the program exactly what you want it to do.
Most newer versions of Word have a handy "Tell me" field at the top of the toolbar. Type a word or phrase related to any command, and the program can quickly identify the command you're looking for.
Use multiple clicks to select chunks of text.
Instead of employing the tedious drag-and-highlight method, you can use your mouse to select parts of text: double-click on a word to highlight it, or triple-click to highlight an entire sentence or section.
Quickly insert links into a document.
Similar to the Copy/Paste/Cut commands, learning the keyboard shortcut for adding a Web Link to a document — CTRL+K — will save you a lot of time and quickly become a sharp tool in your kit.
Choose the default font you want
Don’t like Calibri or Cambria? Prefer Arial to Times New Roman, or like the modern nature of Verdana? The best part about Microsoft Word is that you can choose the default font — this command varies by version, but the most reliable way is to click Format > Font, select the features you want, and then click Default.
Find any word you want quickly and easily.
Instead of using your mouse to navigate to the Find command, in older versions of Word, click Ctrl+F to open the window or automatically move the cursor to the Find in Document menu, which always appears on the toolbar in newer versions.