APC Australia - September 2019

10 word-processing shortcuts

AllshortcutsworkinbothWordandLibreOfficeWriterexceptwherestated

Shortcut Action

Ctrl-K Create a hyperlink

Ctrl-arrow keys Move to previous/next word

Home/End Move to the beginning/end of the line

Ctrl-Home/Ctrl-End Move to beginning/end of document

Ctrl-1, 2 or 5 Set single, double or 1.5 line spacing (Word only)

Alt-Ctrl-0, 1, 2, 3 Apply Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 styles (Alt not required in Writer)

F7 Open spellchecker

Ctrl-L/Ctrl-R/Ctrl-E Align text left, right or centre

F11 / Shift-F11 / Ctrl-Shift-F11 Manage Styles / New Style / Update Style (Writer only)

Ctrl-Enter / Ctrl-Shift-Enter Insert a page/column break

suggestions (select one to replace the
text with it) or choose Thesaurus to
open the Thesaurus pane or dialog.

CHANGE TEXT CASE
Both Microsoft Word and LibreOffice
Writer make it easy to change the case
of a selected sentence – look for the ‘Aa’
button on Word’s Ribbon for options
including sentence case, all caps and
toggle case. LibreOffice buries its
case-change features under the Format

Text menu. The same options are
available in both suites, along with a
Cycle Case option that cycles between
uppercase, lowercase, capitalise each
word and sentence case – press
Shift-F3 to do so.

MORE CASE CHANGES
You can also change case through a
Find and Replace action: make sure
that Match Case isn’t ticked (under
‘More>>>’ in Word), then type the word
or phrase in the Find dialog box before
repeating it – with the case set
correctly – in the Replace box. This
ensures all instances of that word or
phrase will be converted when you
click ‘Replace All’.
If you’d like to change case using
formatting – in other words, apply small
caps or all caps – then click the Format
button and choose Font to apply them in
Word; In Writer, you will find the
options hidden away under the Effects
drop-down on the Font Effects tab.

REDUCE LINE SPACING
Click the Line Spacing button on the
Ribbon (look under Home > Paragraph
in Word; Format > Paragraph > Indents
& Spacing in Writer) to access advanced
line spacing options. Want to reduce
the gap between lines, for example?

Check that both Above and Below

spacing options are set to 0.

What if you want to reduce the

spacing to below 1? In Word, set the

Line Spacing drop-down to Multiple,

then enter a figure less than 1 (for

example, 0.7). Click ‘OK’ to see the

effect. Writer users should choose the

Proportional setting, then enter a

percentage figure less than 100.

CHANGE ORDER OF STYLES

The Styles section on Word’s Ribbon is

a little cramped, meaning that often

you can only access a handful of styles

with a single click. One way to improve

matters is to streamline the list:

right-click an unused style and choose

‘Remove from Style Gallery’. Another

option is to reorder the list, so you’re

most-used styles appear first.

You can also change the way the

items are sorted by clicking ‘Options...’

on the Styles pane using the ‘Select

how list is sorted’ drop-down, but a

better way is to click the Manage

Styles button immediately to the left of

‘Options...’. Switch to the Recommend

tab and you’ll see controls for moving

styles up and down the list, enabling

you to change their running order.

BUILD IN NAVIGATION ELEMENTS

Styles aren’t just used to provide some

consistent formatting to your

document; they’re also useful for

building in navigation elements. Get

into the habit of organising your

document using Heading and Body

styles, and you’ll be able to quickly and

easily build a table of contents using

the heading styles to automatically

mark chapter and section points.

Look for the table of contents

controls on the References tab on the

Word and Writer Ribbons; if you’re

sticking with the classic (that is

non-Ribbon) look in Writer, you’ll find

all the navigation tools you need on the

Insert menu.

Change the order that St yles are

displayed in Word to make

favourite options more accessible.