Sometimes menus aren't fast enough in Microsoft Word. This was the case for me when I needed to add a slew of bookmarks to a report. Instead of clicking through several menus each time, I decided to customize Word so I could access this command with two keystrokes. I assigned a keyboard shortcut to that Word command. It may not sound like much, but the shortcut saved clicks and reduced my editing time. (Includes tutorial and instructions for finding all Word commands.)

Many of you may be wondering why I'm complaining about a few extra keystrokes. I suspect if I seldom used bookmarks, I would use the menu or drag the command to a toolbar. I could even use the default assigned shortcut of Ctrl+Shift+F5. But those are 3 keys and require both hands. Since I needed to insert about 50 bookmarks for this one report, I decided to find an easier keyboard shortcut using two keys with my right hand. I settled on using the Alt+\ key combination. No finger gymnastics required.

I suspect there are commands that you frequently use that could be assigned a keyboard shortcut. My motivation was speed and the Word menus were just too slow for this command. I'm sure if you glance down the long list of commands, you'll see plenty of ideas. Once you know how to assign keyboard shortcuts to Word commands, you'll start finding more ways to use this trick.

How to Create a Keyboard Shortcut for a Microsoft Word Command,

1. From the Tools menu, select Customize

2. On the Customize dialog, click the Keyboard button at the bottom.

3. On the Customize Keyboard dialog, click the Category for your command. If you're not certain, select All Commands.

4. On the right side, select your Command. You can press the first letter of your command to jump through the list.

5. Click in the Press new shortcut key: text box.

6. Type your desired key(s). The minimum is one key if you use one of the top F Keys. Otherwise you must use the Alt, Shift or Ctrl keys in combination with some other key.

7. Verify that you're not using an existing keyboard shortcut. Word will display if the shortcut is used and by which command. In some cases, you may not use the default command so it's OK to reassign.

8. By default, the assignment will use your normal.dot template. You can assign to another template by clicking in the Save changes in: box.

9. Click the Assign button.

10. Click the Close button twice.

Some of you may be wondering how I knew Bookmark had a default shortcut key assignment of Ctrl+Shift+F5. If you look at the menu item, no such key combination displays. The trick is to get Microsoft Word to display all the commands and short cuts

How to find all Microsoft Word Commands and Shortcuts,

1. From the Tools menu, select Macro.

2. From the side menu, select Macros

3. On the Macros dialog, click in the Macros in: box and select Word commands.

4. In the Macro name: box above, delete the current macro name

5. Type lis to advance the macro name list.

6. Click ListCommands.

7. Click the Run button on the right

8. On the List Commands dialog, click Current menu and keyboard settings.

9. Click OK.

A rather long document (9 pages) appears showing the Command Name, Keyboard shortcut (modifier + key) and menu. An even longer list appears if you select All Word documents. One caveat is that the Menu column references the Word menu and not the category. As example, Bookmark is on the Insert menu, but appears in the Edit category on the Customize Keyboard dialog.

Related Word Command & Shortcut Tutorials

• 2 Minute Screencast - Creating Word Keyboard Shortcuts
• Increasing Word Efficiency with AutoText
• Creating AutoText Submenus in Microsoft Word