If you work with Microsoft programs on a daily basis, it’s helpful to know basic “hotkeys” – key combinations that accomplish formatting or other types of selections without having to lift your hands from the keyboard and use the mouse.

Basic Commands
Save – To save a document under the current file name, or to name and save a new file, press the Ctrl and “S” keys.
Open – To open an existing document, press the Ctrl and “O” keys.
New – To open a blank document, press the Ctrl and “N” keys.
Cut – To cut text or an object to be pasted elsewhere, highlight the material to be cut and press the Ctrl and “X” keys.
Copy – To copy text or an object to be pasted elsewhere, highlight the material and press the Ctrl and “C” keys.
Paste – To paste text or an object that has already been cut or copied (above), press the Ctrl and “V” keys.

Tools
Pointer/Text Tool (Visio) – Press the Ctrl, Shift, and “1” keys to turn on the pointer tool, and the Ctrl, Shift, and “2” keys to turn on the text tool.
Paragraph Tool (Word) – To view spaces, tabs, hard returns, and page or section breaks, press the Ctrl, Shift, and F8 keys.
Thesaurus (Word) – To use the Thesaurus, place the cursor on the word to be looked up, and then press the Shift and F7 keys.
Find Tool (Word, Visio) – To locate a specific word or phrase in the document, press the Ctrl and “F” keys.

Formatting Tools
Bold – To change the text formatting to bold, highlight the text and press the Ctrl and “B” keys.
Italics – To italicize text, highlight the text and press the Ctrl and “I” keys.
Underline – To underline text, highlight the text and press the Ctrl and “U” keys.
All caps – To change text to all caps, highlight the text and press the Ctrl, Shift, and “A” keys.
Small caps – To change text to small caps, highlight the text and press the Ctrl, Shift, and “K” keys.