10+ lesser-known shortcuts for formatting Word text

Some common Word formatting tasks don’t come with handy built-in toolbar buttons — and that’s when knowing a few shortcuts can be a real timesaver.

Your users probably have a few favorite keyboard shortcuts for formatting text - like Ctrl + B for applying boldface, Ctrl + I for applying italics, Ctrl + U for underlining, and maybe Ctrl + L to left-align text. But Word provides buttons for those tasks on the Formatting toolbar, so any efficiency gains are kind of a toss-up.

The real convenience lies in knowing some more obscure keyboard shortcuts - ones that have no default button equivalents and that can save users from having to scrounge around dialog boxes looking for the appropriate options. Here are some shortcuts that are especially good for users to have under their belt.

Note: This article originally appeared in our 10 Things blog.  A comprehensive list of 80 Word shortcuts is available as a PDF in the TechRepublic Downloads Library.

The shortcuts