Shortcut Keys for Scrolling Window Left and Right

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 11, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

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, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.

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

Transferring Data between Worksheets Using a Macro

Macros can be used for all sorts of data processing needs. One need that is fairly common is the need to move data from ...

Discover More

Problem Printing Quotation Marks

If you go to print a document and find out that your quotation marks aren't printing properly, there could be a number of ...

Discover More

Losing Information in a Network Document

Saving documents on a network drive can be convenient. It can also be frustrating if it seems like your changes aren't ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Understanding the Clipboard

You can use the Clipboard to move information around in Word. You actually have access to two different clipboards in ...

Discover More

Canceling a Command

Tired of waiting for a command to finish running? You can use the same shortcut to cancel a command that you use to ...

Discover More

Shortcut for Show/Hide

Hate to take your hands off the keyboard? Here's a handy keyboard shortcut you can use to display (or not display) the ...

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 7 - 7?

2022-06-11 11:41:04

Tomek

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.


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.