Key combinations for Word and to use the Ribbon menu bar

When working on the computer, in most cases you work with Microsoft Word, the Office program for writing and editing documents . Word is easy to use, in theory you just have to write on the keyboard as you would with the typewriter. To use Word in an advanced way we must learn the keys to press and the combinations of keys, so as to speed up the work and write correctly, with formatted text and the right layout. There are many features that, if used correctly, allow you to save a lot of time trying to work on a document, its formatting, pagination, correction and so on.
In this article we will therefore show you what are the most useful combinations or shortcuts when writing with Word, so that we can use them quickly when we are writing a very long or important document.
READ ALSO: Special Word functions to always use when writing a document

The best key combinations for Word

Below we have collected all the main combinations of keys or keyboard shortcuts for Word ; obviously remembering them all is impossible, but we can learn the ones we think we use more often when writing.
All combinations are valid from Word 2007 up to Word 2019, i.e. the newest version of the famous Office program.

1. Copy and paste the formatting: Ctrl + Shift + C and Ctrl + Shift + V
2. Move the cursor back: Shift + F5
3. Select all: Ctrl + A
4. Save the document: CTRL + S
5. Open new document: CTRL + O
6. Bold: Ctrl + B
7. Italic Ctrl + I
8. Underlined: Ctrl + U
9. Copy, cut and paste: Ctrl + C, Ctrl + X and Ctrl + V
10. Transform selected text from upper case to lower case and vice versa with Shift + F3
11. Align paragraphs: Ctrl + L (left), Ctrl + E (center) Ctrl + R (right) and Ctrl + J (justified)
12. Ctrl + Alt + V: Paste special
13. Ctrl + Shift + V: Paste the formatting only
14. Ctrl + Z: Undo the last action
15. Ctrl + Y: Repeat the last action
16. Ctrl + F: Opens the Find
17. Ctrl + H: Open the find and replace
18. Ctrl + Space: to remove the formatting from the text selection
19. Select entire lines of text: we make three quick clicks in succession or by clicking once while holding down the Ctrl key
20. Select a word: double click
21. Select a sentence within a paragraph: hold down Ctrl while clicking or press Alt while clicking and drag with the mouse to select a block of text
22. Delete the tables: click the cross icon at the top and press Del or Del
23. Go to the beginning and end of the document: Ctrl + Home and Ctrl + End (Home and End by themselves move to the beginning and end of a line)
24. Move to the previous / next word: Ctrl and left arrow / right arrow.
25. Select everything before or after the cursor: Ctrl + Shift + Home / End
26. CTRL + [o]: Increase or decrease the font size by one point

Switch between menus in the Word Ribbon Bar

The Ribbon Bar is certainly one of the most significant inventions of Word and of all the other programs included in the Office suite: it provides various tools based on the type of content we are writing and groups the main functions, so that we can work intelligently on the text .
If during writing we need to position ourselves in another menu of the Ribbon Bar, simply hold down the Alt key on the keyboard and press the corresponding key indicated on all menus.

In order of appearance, we can press the following key combinations:

1. Save the document: Alt + 1
2. Undo the last action: Alt + 2
3. Repeat the last action: Alt + 3
4. File menu: Alt + F
5. Home menu: Alt + H
6. Insert menu: Alt + C
7. Design Menu: Alt + A
8. Layout menu: Alt + L
9. Menu References: Alt + D
10. Letters Menu: Alt + W
11. Revision menu: Alt + R
12. View menu: Alt + N
13. Help menu: Alt + E
14. Interactive menu: Alt + X

If we want to navigate inside the Ribbon Bar without ever touching the mouse, we can select the various menus and keys using the following shortcuts (after going to the menu with the Alt key):

1. Move in the ribbon: DOWN arrow key
2. Move between commands press TAB or SHIFT + TAB.
3. Move to the selected group: press the DOWN arrow.
4. Move between groups of a ribbon, press CTRL + RIGHT arrow or CTRL + LEFT arrow.
5. Activate a selected button: SPACEBAR or ENTER
6. Activate a combined menu, i.e. a button that opens a menu of other options: press ALT + DOWN arrow
7. Open list button: we press the DOWN arrow key to open it and the UP arrow or DOWN arrow keys to move between the various options.
8. Open a collection: press the SPACEBAR or ENTER to select it, then use the TAB key to move between the elements.

How to create new key combinations on Word

In the latest versions of Word you can create new custom text combinations, so you can open the menus or perform the desired actions much faster.
To carry out this customization, press ALT + F, press O to open the Word Options dialog and finally go to the Ribbon Customization menu.

Here we can find all the buttons and commands supported by Word: we can freely position them in one of the Ribbon Bar menus and, by pressing the Customize button next to the Keyboard shortcuts item, we can also add a combination of keys or a keyboard shortcut not still used (in case of conflicts, however, Word will warn you so as to avoid overwriting a useful shortcut set by the program itself).
At the end of the configuration, simply press OK at the bottom to make the changes effective.

Conclusions

Using only the keyboard we can quickly access all the menus and options of Word, avoiding having to stop to move the mouse (in some ways annoying when we are writing a long document and we don't want distractions). Some commands are simple to learn (many are also used on other programs), others require some practice to be used without worries during advanced writing.
Always on the subject of shortcuts, we invite you to read our guide on how to use the computer without ever touching the mouse, so as to improve professional use using very little the mouse. In another guide, however, we showed you how to reprogram a crazy keyboard and keys that do not work, so you can recover lost functionality with the sudden break of a key.