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September 06, 2005
Ctrl-Space
In the category of learning something new every day, I was in a meeting today formatting a document that was being projected on a TV in a conference room (always nerve-wracking as people critique your Word skills...should I double-click to highlight a word, or click-drag over it?) and someone pointed out that you could use Ctrl-space to remove all formatting from highlighted text. Of course I had to try it right there and was amazed that a) it worked and b) I hadn't know about such a basic useful feature in Word.Walking back from the meeting I was asking everybody I met "Hey do you know what Ctrl-space does in Word?" and nobody knew.
Posted by AdamBa at September 6, 2005 09:55 PM
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Comments
Ah yes, one of the common formatting tasks in Word. I assume you know the keyboard shortcuts for bold, italic, underline, cut, copy, & paste. Here are a few other common formatting tasks shortcuts. Ctrl+Shift+ to increase font size. Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar for creating a nonbreaking space. Ctrl+Hyphyen to create a nonbreaking hyphen. Shift+F3 to change character case. Ctrl+Shift+A to format letters as all caps. Ctrl+Shft+W to underline words but not spaces.
Posted by: Aaron at September 6, 2005 11:29 PM
> should I double-click to highlight a word, or click-drag over it?
Ha! Trick question! You should use ctrl+shift+cursor key of course.
Mouse (maus) n. A device used to point at the window you want to type in.
Posted by: Andrew at September 7, 2005 09:19 AM
hehe.
It is very simple. Nobody reads the f* manual.
All users start by using mouse and clicking on menus and buttons. Then when they advance they look how to do the same with keyboard shortcuts.
So if there is no menu line or toolbar button, the feture is very likely to remain unknown.
You know 80%/20% :)
Posted by: Ivan at September 7, 2005 09:29 AM
+1 Informative!
Another one of my favorite 'unknown' Word features: Alt + Shift + mouse select. It lets you select a block of text without selecting the whole line. Try it to select the left half of several lines of text.
Posted by: Brad C. at September 7, 2005 11:05 AM
I never don't that because all Ctrl-space does is just changing input method. (I use Chinese Windows )
An I have to say the Alt + Shift + mouse feature is very impressive. :D
Posted by: Cheong at September 7, 2005 07:56 PM
Correction: don't -> know.
My hands read word from my head when typing... :P
Posted by: Cheong at September 7, 2005 07:58 PM
