To undo a mistake in Microsoft Word press [Ctrl]Z or choose Undo from the Edit menu right away. Keep pressing [Ctrl]Z to backtrack through and undo the most recent editing changes you’ve made.

Use [Ctrl]S or click the Save button on the Standard toolbar. Save your work frequently. You can also instruct Word to automatically save your work periodically. Open the Tools menu, select Options, click the Save tab, and activate the Save AutoRecovery Info Every option. You can specify an interval from 1 to 120 minutes.

To move to the top of a document, press [Ctrl][Home]. To move to the bottom of a document, press [Ctrl][End]. To go to the top of the next page, press [Ctrl][Page Down]. For the top of the preceding page, press [Ctrl][Page Up].

To open menus and select commands from the keyboard press [Alt] plus the letter that’s underlined to open a menu such as File, Edit, View, and so on. Once a menu is open, you don’t need to press [Alt] to select a command; just press the underlined letter of the command you want to select. Here are some common examples: Quick print preview: [Alt]F,V. Quick save as: [Alt]F,A. Quickly reopen the first document in the most recently used file list: [Alt]F,1.

Four ways to select a block of text.

• Use the mouse. Just click and drag the mouse to select text.
• Use [Shift] plus the arrow keys. Hold down [Shift] and press an arrow key to select text in the desired direction. To select a word at a time, press [Ctrl][Shift] and the left or right arrow key.
• Use the mouse with the [Shift] key. Move the mouse pointer away from the cursor position, hold down [Shift] and click to select all the text between the cursor and the place where you clicked.
• Frustrated when you try to select text with the mouse past the bottom of the currently visible page and Word leaps past what you want to select? Those are the times to use [Shift] plus the down arrow key instead of the mouse.

To select a word double-click on it. If a space immediately follows the word you select, the space gets selected, too. Punctuation is ignored.

To select a sentence hold down [Ctrl] and click anywhere in the sentence. Why would you want to select a sentence? To change something about the sentence’s appearance, to count the words or letters in the sentence by opening the Tools menu and choosing Word Count, to run a spelling or grammar check on the sentence, or to copy, move, or delete it.

To select a paragraph triple-click within the paragraph or move the mouse just past the left margin of the paragraph. When the pointer changes to a right-pointing arrow, double-click to select the whole paragraph.

Select a table by holding down [Alt] and double-clicking anywhere in the table.

To select all the text between the cursor and the end of the current line, press [Shift][End]. To select the text from the cursor through the end of the current paragraph, press [Ctrl][Shift] and the down arrow. To select the text from the cursor to the end of the document, press [Ctrl][Shift][End].

To select an entire document press [Ctrl]A. Why would you want to? To change the font or to add or remove formatting. Once you’ve selected the entire document, apply the formatting to everything, and either leave it applied or apply it again to remove it. For example, suppose some text in your document is underlined and you want nothing underlined. To avoid spending time visiting each underlined section of text and un-underlining it, select the whole document with [Ctrl]A. Press [Ctrl]U to apply underlining to the entire document, then press [Ctrl]U again to remove the underlining. Be careful when you use [Ctrl]A. If you accidentally press [Delete] or type a keystroke and erase everything, don’t panic and don’t fret. Just press [Ctrl]Z or choose Undo from the Edit menu.

The first three commands on the View menu are: Normal, Web Layout and Print Layout. You’ll probably want to work in Print Layout most of the time—it’s the WYSIWWP (“what you see is what will print”) view.

When you need to use an existing document as the basis for a new one, don’t overwrite the old document. As soon as you open it, press [Alt]F and then press A. (Or open the File menu and choose Save As.) Then immediately type a new name or change some part of the old one.

To address your envelopes in the printer type an address in a blank document or open a letter. Open the Tools menu and select Envelopes And Labels. Click the Envelopes tab, enter the return address if you want one, and click Print.

To access the built-in thesaurus press [Shift][F7] or open the Tools menu, select Language, and then Thesaurus. Word will display a list of synonyms for the word you’ve selected or the word closest to the cursor.

When you right-click on a block of text or a table cell the shortcut menu offers immediate access to some handy formatting options.

When you copy and paste text from a Web page or another document, the text brings its formatting into your document. To get around that behavior, copy the text and place the cursor where you want to insert the copy. Then, open the Edit menu, choose Paste Special, and select the Unformatted Text option.

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