Microsoft Office Shortcuts

Many people use MS Office every day but do not realise they are taking longer than needed to do common tasks.

For example to save a document people find the mouse, then go to filesave.

But you can just hit the Control (Ctrl) button and S, this can really speed up your work once you get used to using them.

Learning how to use small features in Office is great, but you can go to our Microsoft Office Courses to become an expert in all features big and small.

 

Why Use Office Shortcuts?

Office Shortcuts in a phrase, save you time. The average IT user will spend a great amount of time using Microsoft Office, meaning common small time saves really add up over time.

Even if the shortcut only saves you a few seconds, we have chosen shortcuts for very common activities. This means that over time your workflow will become smoother and your time will be saved.

 

Handy Shortcuts For Every Office User

These shortcuts can be used in all Office Programs.

Just to explain, the + sign means ‘and’, so you press the Ctrl key, hold that down and then hit the next key.

The Ctrl key can usually be found bottom left and/or right corners of most keyboards.

The ‘F’ keys are along the top of the keyboard.

Shortcut Task
Ctrl + o To open a document
Ctrl + s To save a document, it opens the ‘save as’ box
Ctrl + c To copy anything once you have highlighted it
Ctrl + x To cut anything once you have highlighted it
Ctrl + v To paste whatever you have cut or copied
Ctrl + z Undo whatever you did last
Ctrl + y To redo whatever you did last
Ctrl + p To print, opens the print box
F7 Spelling and grammar check
F5 Find and replace
Alt + Tab This will scroll through all programs you have open

 

 

How To Start Using Office Shortcuts

Breaking a habit can be tough.

The ways things are done have been done for years for a lot of people, and getting into using Shortcuts can be very hard.

As with a lot of new habits, the best way to do it is to go “cold turkey”. Keep reminding yourself to use the shortcuts, do things like keep sticky notes around your computer saying to use the shortcuts etc.

The best way to do something new is to do it!

 

Conclusion

This is just a small taste of what you can do with just the keyboard.

Whilst writing this I have been playing about and holding down keys and hitting others and discovered loads of things I didn’t know, like opening the find and replace box for instance.

Like most things, play around and you will learn.

About Ben Richardson

Ben is a director of Acuity Training. He writes about SQL, Power BI and Excel on a number of industry sites including SQLCentral, SQLshack and codingsight.