Microsoft Word: Keyboard Shortcut Buster

Erin Smith | Published 12:29 pm February 14th, 2025

This Valentine’s Day we’re celebrating one of the most valuable love affairs in a bid and proposal writer’s life… The relationship between them and their keyboard.

If you work in Microsoft Word, you’ll understand the power of a keyboard shortcut. Bid and proposal pros spend a lot of time knee deep in documents—writing them, reviewing them, editing them, proofreading them, and so on. As trivial as they may sound, keyboard shortcuts can really save you some time on those tasks, and every second counts when a deadline’s approaching!

In honor of our Office Power-Up Event (click here for more info), we’ve rounded up some of our favourite keyboard shortcuts. Read on to get more familiar with your keyboard, update your keyboard preferences, or just test your shortcut knowledge.

You can also download the following in table form by clicking here.

The basics

The ones many of us know, love and rely on every day!

Copy: Ctrl+C (Windows) or ⌘+C (Mac)
Paste: Ctrl+V (Windows) or ⌘+V (Mac)
Print: Ctrl+P (Windows) or ⌘+P (Mac)
New document: Ctrl+N (Windows) or ⌘+N (Mac)
Open existing document: Ctrl+O (Windows) or ⌘+O (Mac)
Close a document: Ctrl+W (Windows) or ⌘+W (Mac)
Open the ‘save as’ dialogue box: F12 (Windows) or ⌘+Shift+S (Mac)
Undo: Ctrl+Z (Windows) or ⌘+Z (Mac)

Navigation

Navigate through your document with ease, without ever lifting your fingers from the keyboard!

Move forward and backward a word (instead of a single character): Ctrl+Left/right arrow key (Windows) Option+ Left/Right Arrow (Mac)
Select/highlight a character at a time: Shift+Left/right arrow key (Windows) Shift+Left/Right Arrow (Mac)
Select/highlight a word at a time: Ctrl+Shift+Left/right arrow key (Windows) Shift+Left/Right Arrow (Mac)
Select/highlight your whole document: Ctrl+A (Windows) ⌘+A (Mac)
Zoom in: Ctrl+Plus key (Windows) ⌘+Option+Plus key (Mac)
Zoom out: Ctrl+Minus key (Windows) ⌘+Option+Minus key (Mac)

Formatting

Quickly fix your formatting, change your document style or alter your font in as few clicks as possible!

Text

Bold: Ctrl+B (Windows) ⌘+B (Mac)
Italics: Ctrl+I (Windows) ⌘+I (Mac)
Underline: Ctrl+U (Windows) ⌘+U (Mac)
Underline just the words, not the spaces between them: Ctrl+Shift+W (Windows) ⌘+Shift+W (Mac)
Strike through text: Alt+H+4 (Windows) ⌘+Shift+X (Mac)
Pull up the font menu: Ctrl+D (Windows) ⌘+D (Mac)
Decrease the font size: Ctrl+Shift+< (Windows) ⌘+Shift+Minus key (Mac)
Increase the font size: Ctrl+Shift+> (Windows) ⌘+Shift+Plus key (Mac)

Paragraph

Center alignment: Ctrl+E (Windows) ⌘+E (Mac)
Justified alignment: Ctrl+J (Windows) ⌘+J (Mac)
Left alignment: Ctrl+L (Windows) ⌘+L (Mac)
Right alignment: Ctrl+R (Windows) ⌘+R (Mac)
Paragraph indent: Ctrl+Shift+M (Windows) ⌘+Shift+M (Mac)
Change to single spacing: Ctrl+1 (Windows) ⌘+1 (Mac)
Change to 1.5 spacing: Ctrl+5 (Windows) ⌘+5 (Mac)
Change to double spacing: Ctrl+2 (Windows) ⌘+2 (Mac)
Page break: Ctrl+Enter (Windows) ⌘+Shift+Enter (Mac)

Editing

Make the dreaded edit a breeze using these handy tricks!

Add a comment: Highlight text first, then Ctrl+Alt+M (Windows) ⌘+Option+A (Mac)
Remove entire word before the cursor: Ctrl+Backspace (Windows) Option+Delete (Mac)
Remove entire word after the cursor: Ctrl+Delete (Windows) Option+Fn+Delete (Mac)
Find a word or phrase and replace with a different word or phrase: Ctrl+H (Windows) ⌘+Shift+H (Mac)
Turn tracked changes on and off: Ctrl+Shift+E (Windows) ⌘+ Shift+E (Mac)
Remove all document formatting: Ctrl+A followed by Ctrl+Space (Windows)
Change capitalization of highlighted text: Shift+F3 (Windows) Fn+Shift+F3 (Mac) [NOTE: pressing once will capitalize all text, twice will put all text in lowercase, and three times will put text into intercaps]
Run spelling and grammar check: F7 (Windows) Fn+F7 (Mac)

Special characters

Whether you’re writing in another language, using one of those ‘borrowed’ words, or writing a brand name with a special character, these shortcuts should help you!

Accent grave (à, è, ì, ò, ù): Ctrl+`, followed by the letter you need (Windows) Option + `, followed by the letter you need (Mac)
Accent acute (á, é, í, ó, ú): Ctrl+’ , followed by the letter you need (Windows) Option+E, followed by the letter you need (Mac)
Circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û): Ctrl+Shift+^, followed by the letter you need (Windows) Option+I, followed by the letter you need (Mac)
Tilde (ã, ñ, õ): Ctrl+Shift+~, followed by the letter you need (Windows) Option+N, followed by the letter you need (Mac)
Umlaut (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü): Ctrl+Shift+:, followed by the letter you need (Windows) Option+U, followed by the letter you need (Mac)
Æ: Ctrl+Shift+&+A (Windows) Option+’ (Mac)
Œ: Ctrl+Shift+&+O (Windows) Option+Q (Mac)
Ç: Ctrl+,+C (Windows) Option+C (Mac)
Ð: Ctrl+’+D (Windows) Option+D (Mac)
Ø: Ctrl+/+O (Windows) Option+O (Mac)
ß: Ctrl+Shift+&+S (Windows) Option+S (Mac)

Alt codes

If you’ve got a number pad on your laptop or external keyboard, here are a few codes you can use to get special characters easily. Make sure your Num Lock is on, and shortcut away!

Arrows

Up arrow (↑): Alt+24
Down arrow (↓): Alt+25
Right arrow (→): Alt+26
Left arrow (←): Alt+27

Currency

Dollar sign ($): Alt+36
Pound sign (£): Alt+156
Euro sign (€): Alt+0128
Cent sign (¢): Alt+0162
Yen sign (¥): Alt+0165
Franc sign (₣): Alt+8355
Peso sign (₱): Alt+8369
Rupee sign (₹): Alt+8377
Russian Rouble sign (₽): Alt+8381
Turkish Lira sign (₺): Alt+8378

Punctuation

Inverted question mark (¿): Alt+168
Inverted exclamation mark (¡): Alt+173
En dash (–): Alt+0150
Em dash (—): Alt+0151

Mathematical

Half fraction (½): Alt+171
Quarter fraction (¼): Alt+172
Three quarters fraction: (¾): Alt+243
Divide symbol (÷): Alt+246
Degree symbol (°): Alt+248
Squared symbol (²): Alt+0178
Cubed symbol (³): Alt+0179
Greater than or equal to symbol (≥): Alt+8805
Less than or equal to symbol (≤): Alt+8804
Square root symbol (√): Alt+8730
Pi (𝝅): Alt+120645

Intellectual property

Trademark symbol (™): Alt+0153
Registered mark (®): Alt+0174

Want more Office tips and tricks? Our Office Power-Up Microsoft Workshop Day dives much deeper into the ins and outs of your trusty Office tools. Join us on Wednesday 19 February for actionable advice and strategies you can start applying immediately! REGISTER NOW