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Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are incredibly useful, and when used correctly, will help save time and preserve sanity.

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

In Word for Mac:

You will be able to assign many keyboard shortcuts using the Tools>Customize Keyboard… dialog.

In Word for PC:

The path to Customizing keyboard shortcuts is: File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Keyboard Shortcuts: Customize.

Details for both Mac and PC:

When you are customizing your keyboard, and "Press a new Keyboard Shortcut", it will tell you if the shortcut you have input has already been assigned to another command. If it has, you can either leave it as is, and choose another key combination, or you can Assign it to the command. If you do this, you may need to navigate to the Command which it was already assigned to, and remove the keyboard shortcut from this command (this depends on your version of Word - some will automatically remove it from the original command when you assign it to a new command).

If you want to assign a shortcut to a style in the NNELS Template, or to one that you have created, then you can access the dialog through the drop-down menu in the Modify Styles dialog box.

The table below offers a list of suggested Keyboard Shortcuts. Some of these were default, but most of them needed to be created.

Make sure you hit "Assign", and not just "OK" after inputting a new keyboard shortcut, and be sure to save it in the NNELS Template.

If you want to be able to use your keyboard shortcuts in your next work, When you add or change a keyboard shortcut, be sure to Save changes in: the NNELS template, as pictured below:

Sample Shortcuts for Styles, Functions, and Commands

Below is an example list of shortcuts. You may prefer different shortcuts. In Word for Mac, Command + Option + 4/5/6/7/8/9/0 may be unassigned, and therefore easy to apply. Shortcuts in regular font are built-in to word, while shortcuts in italics were created. This list is not inclusive of all of the styles from the NNELS Template; in my experience, the ones not included were not used frequently enough to warrant the creation of Keyboard Shortcuts, but you are of course encouraged to create them for any Style, Function, or Command that you want.

Command Windows Shortcut Mac Shortcut
Styles Heading 1 Alt+Ctrl+1 Command + Option + 1
Heading 2 Alt+Ctrl+2 Command + Option + 2
Heading 3 Alt+Ctrl+3 Command + Option + 3
Normal Ctrl+Shift+N Command + Option + 4
Blockquote (DAISY) Command + Option + 5
Emphasis Command + Option + i
Strong Command + Option + s
Citation Command + Option + t
Language Command + Option + 8
Clear Formatting Command + Option + x
Inserting Insert Endnote Alt+Ctrl+D Command + Option + e
Insert Picture (Opens dialog) Alt+N+P Command + Shift + i
Tools & Views Advanced Find and Replace Command + Option + f
Navigation Pane Ctrl+F1 Command + Option + 0 (zero)
Styles Pane Alt+Ctrl+Shift+S Command + Option + Shift + S

1 This will open up the Find function in the Navigation Pane, and you will need to click "Headings" if that is what you wish to see. If you want to have a Keyboard Shortcut that automatically opens the Headings area, you can assign one. Detailed directions can be found here.

Shortcuts for Selecting Text

Getting comfortable with using these types of shortcuts will help you to quick navigate your document, and select items when you need to. Using them also helps to give you more control over your selections. For example, if you needed to select all of the text of a chapter, and scrolled too far with your mouse, you do not have to start again - you can just use the shortcuts to de-select as many paragraphs or lines as you want!

For Word for PC, a detailed list of text-selecting keyboard shortcuts can be found on this page, under the heading "Select text by using the keyboard".

For Word for Mac, a similar list can be found on this page, under the heading "Select text and graphics".

public/nnels/etext/keyboard-shortcuts.1532031677.txt.gz · Last modified: 2018/07/19 13:21 by leah.brochu