Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 11, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021
Maury can press the Home key to go to the beginning of a line or End to go to the end. However, if he has a document with markup displayed, and he zooms in on the document, the markup will usually extend past the right edge of the program window. Maury wonders if there is a key combination he can use to scroll the entire window left or right so he can go to the left edge or right edge of the window content.
Most Word users quickly learn that pressing the Home key moves the insertion point to the beginning of the current line of text and pressing the End key moves to the end of the same line. This is, in fact, what Maury already knows. What he wants to do, however, has nothing to do with lines of text and the insertion point. It has to do with program content (generated by Word) that is wider than what will fit in the size of the program window.
Program windows are controlled by Windows itself, not by Word. This is why you can resize program windows to whatever size desired so that they can be arranged on your desktop. When a program window is too small, horizontally, to display the contents of the window, then Windows adds a horizontal scroll bar to the window. Click in the scroll bar and you can adjust what is viewed within the horizontal confines of the window.
There is no keyboard-only shortcut that I've been able to discover that will tell Windows (again, not Word) to move the content left and right within the program window. The closest I could come up with is that some mice—the ones with the scroll wheel between the two buttons—can be used to scroll content horizontally. If the horizontal scroll bar is visible, you can hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and move the mouse wheel. Move the wheel up, and the content should move toward the right; move the wheel down, and the content moves in the opposite direction.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12909) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.
Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!
When you start Word, it displays what is called the Start screen. If you just want to see a blank document as in earlier ...
Discover MoreYou get your document set up just the way you want it, and then notice that all of a sudden Word doesn't show any top or ...
Discover MoreWant to get rid of almost everything on the screen except your document? Here's how to easily maximize what you see.
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2022-06-11 11:41:04
I have a mouse with a scroll wheel, but Shift+Wheel does not work for me. Some mice have tilted wheel that can scroll right and left certain number of characters per tilt, but I expect this to work only within the page text.
AS Allen mentioned, there is no built-in shortcut key for horizontal scrolling of the document pane. However, two simple macros will accomplish the task:
Sub ScrLeft()
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.LargeScroll Toleft:=1
End Sub
Sub ScrRight()
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.LargeScroll ToRight:=1
End Sub
The parameters ToLeft and ToRight specify how many screens to scroll. The macros are equivalent to clicking just before or just after the scroll boxes on the horizontal scroll bar.
You can assign each of these macros to a keyboard shortcut of you choice. Good choices would be "Alt+," and "Alt+." These are the same keys that have < and > on them. You can also use Alt+Shift+< and Alt+Shift+>
All these combinations are not assigned by default on my machine, but it would be a good idea to check. Also, beware that other-language keyboards may have different symbols on the specific keys, e.g. Italian keyboard has ;: instead of <> over ,.
Note that once the page edge was reached the macro stops doing anything.
Tested in Word MS365 with Win10 Pro.
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.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2024 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments