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Keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7’s WordPad

Keyboard ShortcutsMost people begin computing by poking their way through menus, picking and choosing tasks as they stumble across them.

When you’ve worked with a program for awhile, you might prefer learning a few keyboard shortcuts: quick key combinations that perform tasks faster than you can click a menu. Windows 7 offers zillions of keyboard shortcuts; some are new, some have been around since the first version of Windows.

These keyboard shortcuts all work in Windows 7’s WordPad program:

Ctrl+N Create a new document
Ctrl+O Open an existing document
Ctrl+S Save changes to a document
F12 Save the document as a new file
Ctrl+P Print a document
Alt+F4 Close WordPad
Ctrl+Z Undo a change
Ctrl+Y Redo a change
Ctrl+A Select the entire document
Ctrl+X Cut a selection
Ctrl+C Copy a selection to the Clipboard
Ctrl+V Paste a selection from the Clipboard
Ctrl+B Make selected text bold
Ctrl+I Italicize selected text
Ctrl+U Underline selected text
Ctrl+= Make selected text subscript
Ctrl+Shift+= Make selected text superscript
Ctrl+L Align text left
Ctrl+E Align text center
Ctrl+R Align text right
Ctrl+J Justify text
Ctrl+1 Set single line spacing
Ctrl+2 Set double line spacing
Ctrl+5 Set line spacing to 1.5
Ctrl+Shift+> Increase the font size
Ctrl+Shift+< Decrease the font size
Ctrl+Shift+A Change characters to ALL CAPITALS
Ctrl+Shift+L Change the bullet style
Ctrl+D Insert a Microsoft Paint drawing
Ctrl+F Find text in a document
F3 Find the next instance of that text
Ctrl+H Replace text in a document
Ctrl+Left Arrow Move the cursor one word to the left
Ctrl+Right Arrow Move the cursor one word to the right
Ctrl+Up Arrow Move the cursor to the line above
Ctrl+Down Arrow Move the cursor to the line below
Ctrl+Home Move to the beginning of the document
Ctrl+End Move to the end of the document
Ctrl+Page Up Move up one page
Ctrl+Page Down Move down one page
Ctrl+Delete Delete the next word
F10 Display keytips
Shift+F10 Show the current shortcut menu
F1 Open WordPad Help

Windows 7 offers many other keyboard shortcuts; many of them work in Windows Vista and Windows XP, as well.

Comments

Comment from Ron
Time July 14, 2010 at 7:21 am

Unable to justify in wordpad
Tried ctrl J
Do I hold ctrl down while tapping J ??

Comment from Andy Rathbone
Time July 14, 2010 at 11:36 pm

Ron, to enter the shortcut key, you hold down the Ctrl key, press J, then let go of the Ctrl key. That’s the way all shortcut keys work, whether you’re using the Ctrl or the Windows key. You hold down the one key while pressing another.

Comment from judi mohler
Time September 17, 2019 at 6:56 am

I use Wordpad to record FREECELL games I have played. Just installed 2016 Office and Ctl-s in Wordpad now scrolls down a page instead of saving. I have been using short cuts since the first release of these products. suggestions?

Comment from Andy Rathbone
Time September 17, 2019 at 1:05 pm

Judi: It sounds like another program has grabbed that shortcut key for itself, which is odd, because pressing Ctrl+S saves the file both in my copy of WordPad and Microsoft Word 2013. Perhaps something changed with Word 2016.
Either way, as a workaround, try pressing Alt+F+S to save Wordpad’s currently open file.
When you press and release the Alt key, Wordpad places shortcut letters that will bring down the menus. Pressing F brings the File menu, for example, which drops down, complete with a list of shortcut letters.
Pressing S at that point saves the file.

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