Keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word on Windows

This article shows all keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word. For users with mobility or vision disabilities, keyboard shortcuts can be easier than using the touchscreen and are an essential alternative to using a mouse. This article itemizes the keyboard shortcuts for Word on Windows.

Get these keyboard shortcuts in a Word document at this link: Word 2016 for Windows keyboard shortcuts.

Notes: 

• The shortcuts in this topic refer to the US keyboard layout. Keys for other layouts might not correspond exactly to the keys on a US keyboard.
  
• Commands that require you to press and release multiple keys together are indicated with a plus sign (+). Commands that require you to press multiple keys in order are indicated by a comma sign (,).

 

Frequently used shortcuts

This table shows the most frequently used shortcuts in Microsoft Word.

To do this	Press
Go to "Tell me what you want to do"	Alt+Q
Open	Ctrl+O
Save	Ctrl+S
Close	Ctrl+W
Cut	Ctrl+X
Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste	Ctrl+V
Select all	Ctrl+A
Bold	Ctrl+B
Italic	Ctrl+I
Underline	Ctrl+U
Decrease font size 1 point	Ctrl+[
Increase font size 1 point	Ctrl+]
Center text	Ctrl+E
Left align text	Ctrl+L
Right align text	Ctrl+R
Cancel	Esc
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Re-do	Ctrl+Y
Zoom	Alt+W, Q, then tab in Zoom dialog box to the value you want.