So you don't like to reach over to the mouse for functions that can be performed on the keyboard? Makes sense; follow these tips to learn how to quickly do things from the keyboard and how to customize the keyboard shortcuts in Word to best fit your needs.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' topic. Click the article''s title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

   Applying Numbers from the Keyboard
Creating a numbered list is often done by using the tools available on the ribbon. With a bit of preparation you can create numbered lists using keyboard shortcuts.

   Assigning a Shortcut Key to Styles
Shortcut keys are a great way to apply styles to text in a document. You can easily create a shortcut key assignment for any style you desire. This tip explains how.

   Changing Characters on Keyboard Keys
Want to assign some fancy characters to keyboard keys for characters you seldom use? There are a couple of ways you can map different characters to keys, as described in this tip.

   Entering a Page Break from the Keyboard
Need to force Word to move text to the top of the next page? It's easy when you use the keyboard shortcut for a page break.

   Keyboard Shortcuts for Zooming
For whatever reason, Microsoft has never seen fit to provide built-in keyboard shortcuts for zooming in and out. Here are some ideas on how you can overcome this oversight.

   Protecting Custom Shortcut Keys
If you spend time creating a rich set of custom shortcut keys, it can be rather frustrating if they suddenly disappear. This tip examines why this may happen and what you can do about it.

   Resetting a Single Shortcut Key
Need to get rid of a keyboard shortcut key you previously defined? It's easy to do if you follow these steps.

   Resetting All Shortcut Keys
At some point you might want to wipe out all the custom shortcut keys you've created in Word. This is easy to do by following the steps in this tip.

   Restoring a Keyboard Shortcut
Word uses keyboard shortcuts for all sorts of tasks. Sometimes you may create a shortcut that messes up one of the other shortcuts you really need to keep. This tip explains how you can "undo" a shortcut key assignment so that everything gets back to normal.

   Shortcut Key for Non-Breaking Space
Most of the time you'll use regular spaces between words in a document, but there may be times you want to use a special space that keeps those words on the same line. That's the purpose of a non-breaking space, and this tip shares the way you can quickly enter it using a keyboard shortcut.

   Shortcut Keys Don't Work as Expected
We all come to depend on shortcut keys to perform tasks in Word. If those shortcut keys don't do what we expect, it can be a real pain. This tip takes a look at how you can get your shortcut keys to, once again, function normally.

   Spell-Checking from the Keyboard
If you hate to take your hands from the keyboard, even to right-click on a word, you'll love the information in this tip. You'll discover that you need the mouse even less than you thought!

   Strikethrough Shortcut Key
One common type of formatting is strikethrough, which is normally applied from the Font dialog box. There is no built-in keyboard shortcut for the format, but you can make your own following the advice in this tip.

   Using Function Keys
Want a great list that shows the purpose of each function key in Word? Here's the detail you need!