Over the years I’ve seen how people use word-processors. In fact the term has almost gone completely out of vogue. Most people in work environments use Microsoft Word. In the pandemic period documents would regularly have been shared in a group on a big screen and somebody would be typing. That experience over the last year was a big eye-opener. But what I saw was not significantly different from pre-pandemic. It was just that in the pandemic period, I saw more of the same.

People would resist using keyboard shortcuts, with all sorts of comments such as, “I’m not good at IT.” or “I’m lazy.” etc. Even when I told them and they used the common CTRL + C for example, they would return minutes latter to copying and pasting with mouse-clicks. It was not that they could not remember what to do with the keyboard. It was mainly about habits. As I’ve said umpteen times before, a habit is a pattern that constrains thinking and behaviour to a certain sequence. In the video below, I point out some very common and basic keyboard controls. No one is obliged to view the video or change their ways. I created it because I need to bring one my teams to a higher level of functioning.  Below the video is a set of common keyboard shortcuts or controls. A free printable cheat sheet of controls is available to download somewhere in the video.

In all of the following, for keyboard controls, capital letters (uppercase) can be lowercase e.g. N or  n  – A or a, work fine.

Saving & Printing

1. CTRL + S – Saves changes to any document. Do it on opening a document and every few minutes.

2. CTRL + P – to Print.

Navigating within document

1. HOME – moves cursor to beginning of line of text

2. END – moves cursor to end of a line of text.

3. CTRL + → (arrow right) – moves cursor to beginning of the next word.

4. CTRL + ← (arrow left) – moves cursor to beginning of the previous word.

5. CTRL + Home – Go to beginning of document

6. CTRL + End – Go to end of the document

7. CTRL + N – Open a new document, if already you have a Word Document open.

Changing words

Capital letters (uppercase) can be lowercase e.g. N or  n  – A or a, work fine.

1. CTRL + F – Searches documents for a word. (This actually works on webpage and RIO).

2. CTRL+ Z – Undo an whatever you just typed.

3. CTRL+ Y – Puts back what you deleted or undid.

4. F7  – to spell or grammar check

Basic formatting of text

Capital letters (uppercase) can be lowercase e.g. N or  n  – A or a, work fine.

1. CTRL + B  – Bolds text before you start typing or can be applied to selected text.

2. CTRL + U – Underlines text before you start typing or can be applied to selected text.

3. CTRL + I – Italicises text before you start typing or can be applied to selected text.

Selecting and moving text – the SHIFT BUTTON is important

Capital letters (uppercase) can be lowercase e.g. N or  n  – A or a, work fine.

1. CTRL + A – selects everything in an open document

2. SHIFT + CTRL +  →  (arrow right)– Select the next word

3. SHIFT + CTRL + ←  (arrow left) – Select the previous word

4. SHIFT + HOME – selects from where you are to beginning of line

5. SHIFT + END – selects from where you are to end of line.

7.  CTRL + C (or c) – to copy whatever has been selected.

8. CTRL + X (or x) – to cut selected text. ( The X resembles and open scissors).

9. CTRL + V (or v) – to paste text.

Disclaimer & Guidance