Favorite MS Word Keyboard Shortcuts

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From InfoWare:

1. CTRL + Spacebar – Remove all character formatting (font, bold, size, italics, etc.) from selected text. This keystroke saves time by not having to re-highlight text and remove an exact attribute. An entire document may be highlighted and all character formatting can be removed at once. This is helpful when you are reformatting old documents , making changes to one from opposing counsel, or if you are changing firms and need to update your precedents to meet the new firms document standards.

2. CTRL + Q – Remove all direct paragraph formatting. We’ve all experienced spacing issues that are troublesome to fix. This keystroke removes all of those at once and is applied only to the direct formatting by selecting the text and applying Ctrl + Q. This allows the block of text to go back into the style it was applied as. This is incredibly useful when spacing and paragraph issues arise as a result of exchanging document versions between colleagues.

3. ALT + Shift + Up/Down Arrows – Move a paragraph or table row. Click in a paragraph or row or select more than one and hold down Alt + Shift with your left hand. Use the up and down arrows to move the text up or down to a different paragraph. This is helpful in legal documents where you need to change the order of your arguments and saves time from the usual approach of copy and pasting and moving text around the document.

4. Shift + F5 – Return to the last three (3) edit points. If you have moved edited text and then moved to another location within your document, pressing Shift + F5 will move your cursor back to your previous edit. This is helpful in all documents, but specifically in contracts, pleadings and agreements, when you want to quickly return back to your last change without having to manually search for it.

5. CTRL + G – Navigate to a specific part of your document. This keystroke is especially helpful when working with larger documents. Using GoTo will take you to a specific page, section, bookmark or footnote within your document. If you are making changes to only a few clauses or sections, this tool is useful to find the relevant text faster. This keystroke can also give you access to Advanced Find and Replace in the same dialogue box, helping you get more done, faster.

Link to the rest at InfoWare

PG loves anything that will speed up his creation of documents, including TPV posts, emails, legal documents, etc.

He’s mentioned AutoHotkey before and uses it for almost every TPV post and lots of other things.

He also uses TheFormTool document assembly plugin for Word for a number of the legal documents he prepares on a recurring basis. He uses the free version, but has been thinking about upgrading.

HotDocs is another document creation program that has been around for a long time. PG hasn’t tried it out recently, but may need to do it again.

If anyone has any suggestions for other document assembly programs/plugins, etc., leave a comment.

One of PG’s complaints about a number of different classes of software, including document assembly, is that it seems like almost everyone wants recurring revenues for their software and is asking for monthly payments. In other words, software is less a product than it is a service.

3 thoughts on “Favorite MS Word Keyboard Shortcuts”

  1. PG,

    I don’t know if you ever have the need to edit plain text (ASCII) files, but if you do, I highly recommend Notepad++. It’s free and open source software, available mainly on Windows, but there are also versions for Linux, as well.

    It has an incredible number of features, and I use it daily both at work and at home.

    I also use AutoHotkey both at work and at home,as well as slightly-related package called AutoIt.

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