Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions.  The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Word – General Shortcut Keys Part 2

• Press Control+O to open a new document. You will be placed in the Backstage view where you can press Up/Down arrows to select from the list of Backstage categories, press Left/Right to choose the Tabs for the selected category, and press Enter to open a Tab. The Recent Tab allows you to browse a list of recently used documents. The Document Tab lets you browse your computer folders.
• While editing a document, press F6 to cycle between the document pane, the status line at the bottom of the screen, and the ribbon. Press Shift+F6 to cycle in the reverse direction.
• Press Control+F6 to cycle between documents if you have more than one document opened.
• Press Control+F to search the document. Press Escape to exit the Find dialogue and return to the document.
• Press Control+PageDown to find the next search item or Control+PageUp to find the previous search item.
• Press Control+H to search and replace within the document. Note this search and replace dialogue has an option to replace one or all of the search items. For example, you could replace all occurrences of John with Jane.
• Press Control+Shift+E to toggle the Track Changes feature on or off. With Track Changes on, your revisions will be highlighted so others can see what you have changed in the document.
• Press F3 to toggle lower/upper case.
• Press F7 to spell check your document.
• Press F12 to Save a new document (Save AS window).
• Press Control+S to save an amended document that has been previously saved.
• Press Control+W or Control+F4 to close a document window. If you have modified the document since you last saved it, you will be prompted to save or don’t save it.
• Press Control+P to print a document.
• Press Control+Z to undo your last action. This is valuable to restore something you accidentally delete or type or paste. You can undo multiple actions by pressing Control+Z multiple times.
• Press Control+Shift+C to copy the formatting of the current paragraph (e.g. font, bullets, indentation etc.). You can then position to another paragraph and press Control+Shift+V to apply that same formatting to the other paragraph.
• Press Control+Shift+N to restore the default formatting of the current paragraphs or selected text. This is a quick way to remove headings, font changes, underlining, bolding, bullets or any other formatting that you may have accidentally applied. The text will simply be returned to your default document format.
• Press Alt to focus on the Office upper ribbon. Press the left/right arrow to move among the upper ribbon tabs.
• Press TAB to move to the first command for a given ribbon tab. Press TAB and Shift+TAB to move forward and backward among the commands. Press Control+Left/Right arrow to move from one command group to another.
• For button items, press spacebar or Enter to activate. For a split button, which acts like a menu with multiple choices, press Enter to activate the default choice, or press Alt+Down arrow to open the split button menu and then press Tab or arrow keys to move between the other choices.
• If you reach a ribbon item you want to use often, press the Applications key to open a context menu for that item . Arrow down the menu and press Enter to add the item to the Quick Access Tool Bar. The next time you require that item, press Alt to reach the ribbon, then up arrow to focus on the Quick Access Tool Bar and then arrow to the required item. Finding an item from the Quick Access Tool Bar is typically much faster than finding it on the ribbons.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.