Keyboard Shortcuts That Save My Life
Any writer can tell you that most of the time spent working on a draft isn’t actually in the writing — it’s in the editing.
If I had to put numbers on it, I would estimate that for any given project I spend 30% of my time writing and 70% editing (this doesn’t include research and planning).
As a technical writer, a healthy portion of my editing time is done live. That is to say, I generally have to edit on the fly in meetings with my subject matter experts (SMEs). When you’re trying to be quick and efficient in noting edits during review meetings, you tend to pick up a few shortcuts.
Here are the keyboard shortcuts I can’t live without.
Formatting
I’ve omitted oldies everyone should know (no one needs a list of how to bold and italicize) and focused on lesser-known gems.
- CTRL + SHIFT + V
Paste without formatting. Saves me a lot of time fixing weird fonts when I’m gathering information or updating trackers. - CTRL + >
Superscript. - CTRL + <
Subscript. - CTRL + ALT + 1
Set text to Heading 1 (h1). The same can be done for subsequent heading levels by using the respective number.
Navigating and Selecting
Or “How to not bother taking your hand off your keyboard to move around”.
- CTRL + →
Moves one word to the right. - CTRL + SHIFT + →
Selects one word to the right. I use this shortcut most often in combination with inserting links (CTRL + K) or applying formatting changes.
💡 For maximum speed, hold CTRL + SHIFT and spam your arrow button until you've selected your desired text. You can hold the arrow as well, but I find that goes a bit too fast for my brain to keep up. - SHIFT + →
Selects one character to the right. Same tip as above. - SHIFT + END
Selects from your cursor to the end of the line. - HOME
Moves to the beginning of the current line. - END
Moves to the end of the current line. - CTRL + HOME
Moves to the beginning of the document. - CTRL + END
Moves to the end of the document.
Special Characters
⚠️These shortcuts only work if you use the numeric keypad.
- ALT + 0149
Creates a bullet point (•). Works great if you’re writing in an editor that doesn’t support bullet points (like LinkedIn). - ALT + 0151
Creates an em dash (—). - ALT + 0150
Creates an en dash (–). - ALT + 0134
Creates a dagger (†). I only tend to use this as a second asterisk option when differentiating versioned content.
Bonus: Browser Shortcuts
Admittedly not related to editing, but these are too good not to include.
- CTRL + SHIFT + T
Opens your last closed tab. I use this one a lot. - CTRL + TAB
Cycles between currently open tabs. For when you’re too lazy to move your hand over to the mouse. - CTRL + W
Closes your current tab. - CTRL + L
Jumps to the address bar. It automatically highlights the current address, making it convenient for endless Google searching or sending someone a link.
And that’s a wrap! Go forth and be a keyboard speed demon.
