Microsoft Word: Business Writing 2; Check out These 24 Time-Saving Keyboard Shortcuts

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Author: Carol Bentley

Direct Response Business writing is different to ordinary business writing and many of the automatic features in Word are an absolute nightmare!

In the first of this series of mini-articles I explained how to stop Word being 'bossy' and taking over your document.

Now you can discover 24 of the keyboard shortcuts (split into 5 categories) you can use whilst typing. Some, I've no doubt, are familiar. Others are neat tricks that can save you having to reach for the mouse and so save you a considerable amount of time (and maybe even RSI problems!)…

(Valid for Word 97 and later)

Formatting - Characters

1) Format text as you type with these keyboard shortcuts:

Bold ………………. Ctrl & B
Italics ………Ctrl & I
Underline ………Ctrl & U
Word Underline ………..Ctrl, Shift & W
SMALL CAPITAL Ctrl, Shift & K
Switch Case (from CAPS to Proper Case to lower case) ……..Shift & [F3]
Increase Point Size (by 2 points) …….Ctrl, Shift & >
Decrease Point Size (by 2 points) …….Ctrl, Shift & <
Increase Point Size (by 1 point) ……Ctrl, Shift & [
Decrease Point Size (by 1 point) ……Ctrl, Shift & ]

2) Stop two words splitting at the end of a line, e.g. keep a date number and month together, by using a 'non-break' space - press Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar

3) In reports, emphasise a paragraph. Use the Drop Cap feature: Click on Format, select Drop Cap..

Formatting - Paragraphs

4) If you format titles (headlines & sub-headlines) of your text using the headings style you can modify a style and the change ripples through the whole of your document. A brilliant time-saver in long documents with lots of section headings. Plus you can use them to create a list of section contents, automatically (see the tip in the article Microsoft Word: Business Writing; 8 Tips To Save More Time).

Use these keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl + Alt + 1 ……Heading Style 1

Ctrl + Alt + 2 ……Heading Style 2

Ctrl + Alt + 3 ……Heading Style 3

Change the formatting for a specific heading using Styles (Styles & Formatting on Word XP), on the Format menu.

5) Format paragraphs, whilst typing, with these keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl & M ……. Indent the paragraph

Ctrl, Shift & M …….. Decrease the paragraph indent

Ctrl & T ……….. Create a hanging indent

Ctrl, Shift & T …….. Decrease a hanging indent

Ctrl & 1 ……… Single line spacing

Ctrl & 2 ………Double line spacing

Ctrl & 5 ……… 1.5 line spacing

Ctrl & 0 ……… Add / Close a line space before the paragraph. (Number 0)

In the other articles in this mini-series I share another 20 tips:

* Preparing Word - How to Stop Word being 'bossy' and taking over your document.

* Page formatting including Page borders; page numbering (starting at the number YOU want); and a brilliantly easy way to create underlines for forms (No, it is not the line drawing tool!) amongst others.

* Creating Contents lists; quick tips for spell checking and hyphenation

* More on Paragraph numbering and spacing (to stop your numbers and bullets disappearing when you want a line gap between paragraphs!)

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