Word: Create your own shortcuts

With your own shortcuts, you can equip Word with individual key combinations and thus make your work easier. Here we show you how to program shortcuts for the word processor.

Work faster - own shortcuts in Word

To define your own shortcut, for example to give the "Insert footnote" option a quick selection, proceed as follows:

1. Open Word, navigate in the tab to the point to which you want to assign a shortcut (for example, click the "References" tab for footnotes).
2. Now press "Alt Gr" and "+" at the same time on your keyboard. A loop should now appear.
3. Use the loop to click the button you want to assign a shortcut to (for example, "insert footnote"). A window opens with the name "Adjust keyboard".
4. Click the "New key combination:" field and press the key combination on the keyboard that you want to assign to the option (for example "Ctrl + ö").
5. Under "Save in:" you select the documents for which this shortcut is to be valid. If you select "Normal.dotm", the key combination will be used for all documents.
6. Finally, click the "Assign" button. Your own Word shortcut has been saved. If you press the specified key combination, your programmed shortcut will be executed.

This practical tip relates to Word 2010. The procedure may vary with other versions of Word. Here you will get to know the pre-saved Word shortcuts. In this article, on the other hand, we will show you which key combinations you can use to operate other office programs more efficiently. And shortcuts are always practical too: Read the best for Windows 7 here.