#249 Word: Cliffs Notes Version

These days most of us are trying to squeeze more work into less time. Ironically, one of the first things that usually gets dropped is taking time for learning new things to help you become more efficient. I hope you’ll view opportunities for learning as a wise investment of your time instead.

If you ever design or deliver these opportunities for learning I hope you’ll respect the investment your audience is making by keeping them focused and easily digestible. After all if you don’t make that investment pay off they won’t be coming back the next time. And with that I thank you for the investment you make each week by reading these emails — I hope you have realized a worthwhile return.

Being busy is no excuse for making crappy documents. Here are a few shortcuts that can help.

The Basics:

CTRL + N ↔  Create a New document

CTRL + O  ↔  Open an existing document

CTRL + S  ↔  Save current document

CTRL + P  ↔  Print

Formatting:

CTRL + 1  ↔  Apply single line spacing

CTRL + 2  ↔  Apply double line spacing

CTRL + 5  ↔  Apply 1.5 line spacing.

CTRL + L  ↔  Left align.

CTRL + R  ↔  Right align.

CTRL + E  ↔  Center align.

CTRL + M ↔  Indent paragraph

CTRL + T  ↔  Hanging indent

CTRL + ]  ↔  Increase font by 1 point

CTRL + [  ↔  Decrease font by 1 point

Styles:

CTRL + ALT + 1  ↔  Applies Heading 1 style

CTRL + ALT + 2  ↔  Applies Heading 2 style

CTRL + ALT + 3  ↔  Applies Heading 3 style

Editing/Proofing:

CTRL + F  ↔  Find

CTRL + H  ↔  Find & Replace

F7  ↔  Run Spell Check

SHIFT + F7  ↔  Open the Thesaurus

SHIFT + F3  ↔  Cycle through capitalization options

If you are curious you can check out the full list of Word shorcuts.

What do you think? Do you like this ‘cheat sheet’ format? Should I do one for Excel & PowerPoint too?