The TR Company

Keyboard Shortcuts for Translators

The computer and its programs are, for every translator, the most essential tools, and the difference between using only the most basic functions and gaining a deeper knowledge of some advanced features may bring about a huge difference in our productivity. We should also keep in mind that, many a time, ignoring some of these more advanced tools may cause problems that will make us waste time – time no one will pay us for. At the end of the day, in most cases, we charge for the words or pages we translate, and any delay we have will only be bad for us.

 

Among some of the topics we need to know like the back of our hands, I believe keyboard shortcuts ranks among the top 5. The mouse is a great tool for many things, but it can also be a double-edged sword, given how practical it may seem sometimes. It may not look like much, but, if you consider how many times you do it throughout the days or months, moving your hand away from the keyboard to use the mouse may imply a lot of wasted time. Moreover, personally, I find it way easier to do whatever I can from the keyboard instead of looking for certain features using the mouse.

Below is a list with some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word. As translators, I believe that there are two shortcuts we should be able to use even in our sleep – Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Save (Ctrl+S). You should bear in mind that some of these depend on the language you are using Word in, and these will work in the English versions of this program. There is another way of learning what the shortcut for a given feature is – just let your mouse pointer hover over the button with the feature you want and you’ll get a brief description together with its shortcut.

OPERATION	SHORTCUT
Apply bold format to selection	Ctrl+B
Underline selection	Ctrl+U
Apply italics format to selection	Ctrl+I
Small Caps	Ctrl+Shift+K
Superscript	Ctrl++
Find	Ctrl+F
Find and replace	Ctrl+H
Left-align a paragraph	Ctrl+L
Right-align a paragraph	Ctrl+R

Center a paragraph	Ctrl+E
Justify a paragraph	Ctrl+J
Open the Font preferences window	Ctrl+D
Cut	Ctrl+X
Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste	Ctrl+V
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Undo	Ctrl+Y
Select all	Ctrl+A
Go to	Ctrl+G

Print	Ctrl+P
Save	Ctrl+S
Save as	F12
Repeat last action (except highlighting)	F4
Move one word to the left/right	Ctrl+left/right arrow
Move one paragraph up/down	Ctrl+up/down arrow
Go to the beginning/end of the document	Ctrl+Home/End
Select text	Shift+a combination of the above
Create new document	Ctrl+N
Open document	Ctrl+O
Close document	Ctrl+F4

 

There are also certain shortcuts that work in the entire Windows environment, and are not limited to just Word. These are some of them:

OPERATION	SHORTCUT
Switch between windows	Alt+Tab
Close window	Alt+F4
Show desktop	+ D
Open file explorer (“My computer”)	+ E
Open file search window	+ F
Open “Run” window	+ R
Zoom	Ctrl + mouse scroll

 

The “Run” window deserves a few lines on its own. With this feature, we can run programs without looking for them in the Start menu. Below I have included the commands for the programs I use more often:

OPERATION	SHORTCUT
Calculator	calc
Word	winword (I usually run winword /w to open a new blank document)
Excel	excel
Paint	mspaint
Notepad	notepad
Shut down PC	shutdown -s -t 0
Restart PC	shutdown -r -t 0

 

Lastly, in most Internet browsers, we can also use the following:

OPERATION	SHORTCUT
Switch between tabs	Ctrl+Tab
Open new tab	Ctrl+T
Close current tab	Ctrl+W

 

We really hope these are useful for you. If there are other shortcuts you use and that are not included in the article, please leave us a comment below. And don’t forget to share!

The TR Company is a translation firm that serves leading businesses, governments, and non-governmental organizations. We help our clients communicate effectively. Over 20 years, we’ve built a firm uniquely equipped to this task.