More Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

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In our first posting about Essential Keyboard Shortcuts, we went over some really basic ones. This time we’re going to go over a few more that everyone should know and use daily. (The more you use them, the better you’ll get at using them.) As before, where there is more than one possible keystroke, I underline the one I like, but you’re welcome to use any that work.

File, rather than content:

  • Create new document – Ctrl-N
  • Open existing document – Ctrl-O or Ctrl-F12
  • Save document – Ctrl-S or Shift-F12 or Alt-Shift-F2 (Save often, to avoid losing your work)
  • Save document as new file name – Alt-F, A or F12 (use a timestamp, to keep track of version)
  • Close document – Ctrl-W
  • Print document – Ctrl-P or Ctrl-F2 or Ctrl-Shift-F12

Window instead of content:

  • Switch windows – Alt-Tab (to get to other programs)
  • Maximize the document window – Alt-Space, X or Ctrl-F10 (so you only see this one)
  • Restore window down from maximize – Alt-Space, R or Alt-F5 (so you can see multiple windows)
  • Minimize window – Alt-Space, N (hide it for a while, when you’re working on something else)
  • Close single document – Ctrl-F4 (if you’re done with just this one)
  • Quit program, close all docs and window – Alt-F4 (if you’re done with all open documents)
  • Expand or collapse the ribbon – Ctrl-F1 (gives you more room to see the important part)
  • Go to the next document window – Ctrl-F6 (if you have multiple documents open)
  • Go to the previous document window – Ctrl-Shift-F6
  • Go to the next pane or frame – F6 (access other parts of the screen)
  • Go to the previous pane or frame – Shift-F6

Undo and Redo:

  • Undo the last action Ctrl-Z
  • Redo the last action Ctrl-Y or F4

Help and Cancel:

  • Open help – F1
  • Cancel – Esc (“I keep hitting escape, but I’m still here.”)

Informational:

  • Word Count – Ctrl-Shift-G (you need to know that you’re progressing)
  • Start spellcheck and grammar check – F7 (useful, but not always right)
  • Go to next spelling or grammatical error – Alt-F7
  • Open thesaurus – Shift-F7 (handy if you keep using the same words over and over)

That’s about it for now. We’ll hit a few more useful ones in a later post.