Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Repeating Your Typing.

Repeating Your Typing

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 7, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


If you type a word, phrase, or other passage of text, you can use either the F4 shortcut key or the Ctrl+Y shortcut to repeat the typing at another location in your document. These shortcuts must be used before you use any other Word command or type any other text.

Note that if you select a few letters before you start typing (so that your typing replaces what you selected), then any subsequent use of F4 or Ctrl+Y will not repeat everything you typed. For instance, if you select the word "goodbye" and then type "hello," the subscquent use of F4 or Ctrl+Y will result in "ello" being what is repeated.

This happens because Word seems to consider the deletion of the original text ("goodbye"), which is triggered by pressing the "h", as a separate act from the typing of "ello". Pressing F4 or Ctrl+Y only repeats the last repeatable act, so only "ello" (the last act) is repeated.

Even so, the F4 or Ctrl+Y shortcuts can come in very handy when you want to repeat the insertion of a special symbol or you want to repeat some other action, such as searching for a word or phrase.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9569) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Repeating Your Typing.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Creating Superscript and Subscript Buttons

Want a quick way to apply superscript and subscript to selected text within a cell? This tip shows how the formatting can ...

Discover More

Printing a Number of Different Pages

If you don't need to print an entire workbook, it can be confusing to figure out how to print just certain pages. This ...

Discover More

Resizing a Disk Partition

Windows provides you with the built-in tools to change the size of partitions on your hard drives. Here's how to use the ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Pasted Text Converted to a List

When you paste information into a document right after the end of a bulleted or numbered list, Word may convert that ...

Discover More

Returning to Where You Were Before Finding Something

When you use the Find and Replace dialog box to do editing, you could easily lose track of where you were before ...

Discover More

Inserting Different Dashes

Dashes have a lot of different uses in writing. Word supports three types of dashes, as discussed in this tip.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is nine minus 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.