Keyboard Shortcuts

Frustrated that you can't use your mouse as well as you'd like? Try these keyboard shortcuts.

The first five are old standbys that work in most Microsoft Office programs and some other programs as well. The next group have to do with moving the cursor and graphical objects.

Right-handed users may find it fastest to use their right hand with the mouse to select items and place the cursor while using their left hand on the keyboard shortcuts for these:

Function	Menu Commands	Keyboard Shortcut
Cut	Edit, Cut	[Ctrl] + X
Copy	Edit, Copy	[Ctrl] + C
Paste	Edit, Paste	[Ctrl] + V
Select All	Edit, Select All	[Ctrl] + A
Undo	Edit, Undo	[Ctrl] + Z

 

Shortcuts for Moving Around and Moving Objects Around

There are no menu commands that correspond to these.

• Jumping one word at a time:
  [Ctrl] + [Left or right arrow]
   
• Jumping one paragraph at a time:
  [Ctrl] + [Up or down arrow]
   
• Selecting or deselecting one word at a time:
  [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Left or right arrow]
   
• Selecting or deselecting one paragraph at a time:
  [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Up or down arrow]
   
• Switching tabs in a multi-tab dialog box:
  [Ctrl] + [Tab]
   
• Switching taskbar tasks (programs or open files):
  [Alt] + [Tab]
   
• Nudging a currently selected element in Word or Access just a bit :
  [Ctrl] + [Any arrow key]
  Note: Your cursor can't be blinking inside the element. The element's outer border should be hashed when it is selected, and you should see its black square handles at each corner and on each side.
   
• Nudging a currently selected element of a PowerPoint slide just a bit :
  [Any arrow key]
  Note: Your cursor can't be blinking inside the element. The element's outer border should be hashed when it is selected, and you should see its black square handles at each corner and on each side.
   
• Nudging a currently selected element of a Publisher document just a bit:
  [Alt] + [Any arrow key]
  Note: Your cursor can't be blinking inside the element. The element's outer border should be hashed when it is selected, and you should see its black square handles at each corner and on each side.
   
• Moving sideways one screen at a time in Excel:
  [Alt] + [Pg Up] or [Alt] + [Pg Dn]
   
• Moving between worksheets in Excel:
  [Ctrl] + [Pg Up] or [Ctrl] + [Pg Dn]