Even the best laptops for writers on a budget can perform shortcuts on keyboards that will help them perform efficiently.
A keyboard shortcut is a set of keys that allows you to quickly access a certain function within computer software. You can access your computer more quickly if you use these shortcuts.
You’re delaying and slowing down your typing speed if you have to continually reach for the mouse. Because keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time, here’s a list of the most useful keyboard shortcuts that writers can start utilising right away.
20 Great Keyboard Shortcuts for Writing and Editing
| Keyboard Shortcuts | Description |
| 1. CTRL + A: Select All | One of my favourites for altering large blocks of text. This is far faster than clicking and dragging your cursor across a 7-page document to copy the entire document or alter the typeface or font size. |
| 2. CTRL + C: Copy | Copies the thing you’ve chosen to your clipboard. |
| 3. CTRL + X: Cut | The selected item is removed from the text while copied to the clipboard. Instead of clicking and dragging, this is useful for moving stuff about on a document. |
| 4. CTRL + V: Paste | The copied item from your clipboard is inserted. The original format of the text will be used. |
| 5. CTRL + F: Find | Opens a new tab that allows you to search your document for any incidence of a term or phrase. You may also use this tab to substitute something else for any instance of this word or phrase. |
| 6. CTRL + P: Print | Uses your default settings to quickly print whatever document you’re working on. |
| 7. CTRL + F2: Print Preview | Allows you to see a preview of your printed document and make changes to your print settings before pressing the print button. |
| 8. CTRL + S: Save | This is what you should do. Often. It’s pointless to lose hours of work due to a power outage or unexpected crash simply because you forgot to save—and it’s never been easier with a keyboard shortcut! |
| 9. F12: Save As | Make a new version of your document and save it under a different name. |
| 10. CTRL + Z: Undo | Removes the most recent change to your document. Multiple entries of the command will undo multiple modifications in the reverse order in which they were made. |
| 11. CTRL + Y: Redo | Restores a change that was undone by using the Undo command. Multiple entries of the command will reinsert multiple modifications in the sequence they were made until there are no more “undone” changes. |
| 12. CTRL + B: Bold | Select text to be bolded or unbolds material that is already bold. |
| 13. CTRL + I: Italics | Removes italics from italicised text or italicises chosen text. |
| 14. CTRL + U: Underline | Select text to be underlined or removed from being underlined. |
| 15. CTRL + L: Left-justify | Left-aligns chosen text or images or the current paragraph where your cursor is. |
| 16. CTRL + E: Center-justify | The cursor is moved to the centre of the selected text or image or the current paragraph. |
| 17. CTRL + R: Right-justify | Right-aligns chosen text or images and the paragraph in which your cursor is presently located. |
| 18. CTRL + J: Justify | Gives your page beautiful, clean edges by uniformly distributing selected text and graphics between the margins. |
| 19. CTRL + N: New | This command creates a new document. It also takes you to a new web page. |
| 20. CTRL + SHIFT + MINUS: En-dash | Inserts an en-dash (a shorter dash used in numerical or date ranges, such as 2000–2018). This only works with the minus sign on a numeric keypad, not the minus symbol on a laptop’s number bar. |
How to Make Your Keyboard Shortcuts on Microsoft Word?
Writers are generally using MS Word to write their stories, blogs, novels. The good thing of this software is that users can create custom keyboard shortcuts.
Here’s how to create keyboard shortcuts on MS Word –
1. Open the Microsoft Word.
2. Click on the MS Office Button showing in the top left corner.
3. Select Word Options.
4. Go to Customize.
5. Click on Keyboard Shortcuts Customize button.
6. Start Selecting Categories and Assigning new keyboard shortcuts.
7. Once you’re done, click on Assign.
Note: If your chosen keyboard shortcut has already assigned to a category then choose other combination of keys.
Final Words
So, this was all about 20 keyboard shortcuts for writers. If you want your everyday writing work to be more effective, try to memorise all the above keyboard shortcuts.
