Keyboard shortcuts offer us a much more optimized way of working with the computer. Operating systems, like Windows, macOS, and Linux, have their own keyboard shortcuts. Also, most of the programs we use on a daily basis have their own shortcuts to help us be more productive. Writer is one of the best alternatives to Word that we can find, one of the LibreOffice suite programs , a totally free and open source suite. And, as expected, this program has its own keyboard shortcuts that allow us to work more efficiently when writing our documents.
Surely some of the keyboard shortcuts we are going to talk about are familiar to us, either because they are universal (such as Control + C or Control + V for copy and paste), or because they are very similar, or the same, to those that we can use in other programs.
Next we are going to see what are the quick commands that any user of this word processor should know.
Essential keyboard shortcuts for Writer
The following keyboard shortcuts must be memorized, as they will be useful to us whenever we are working with this processor:
- Ctrl + E – Select all.
- Ctrl + C – Copy selected text.
- Ctrl + V – Paste selected text.
- Ctrl + Alt + Shift + V – Paste plain text.
- Ctrl + G – Save document.
- Ctrl + I – Italic.
- Ctrl + N – Bold.
- Ctrl + J – Justify.
- Ctrl + D – Double underline.
- Ctrl + E – Center.
- Ctrl + H – Find and replace.
- Ctrl + L – Align left.
- Ctrl + R – Align Right.
- Ctrl + Z – Undo last change.
- Ctrl + Y – Redo last action.
- Ctrl + 0/1/2/3/4/5 – Apply titles.
- Ctrl + Enter – Page break.
- Ctrl + Backspace – Delete to the beginning of the word.
- Ctrl + Del – Delete to the end of the word.
- Ctrl + right arrow / left arrow – Go to the beginning or end of the word.
- Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow / Left Arrow – Select the entire word.
- Start – Go to the beginning of the line.
- End – Go to the end of the line.
- Control + Tab – Next word to auto-complete.
Other keyboard shortcuts
In addition to the above, this program has a series of additional keyboard shortcuts that allow us to access other functions and tools of the word processor. Many of the word processor functions can be opened using the keyboard shortcuts F:
- F2 – Open in formula menu.
- F3 – Execute automatic text input.
- F5 – Open browser.
- F7 – Check spelling.
- F8 – Extended selection activated.
- F9 – Fields.
- F11 – Styles.
- F12 – Numbering.
- Ctrl + F2 – More fields.
- Ctrl + F3 – Automatic text.
- Ctrl + F5 – Sidebar.
- Ctrl + F7 – Synonyms.
- Ctrl + F8 – Mark fields.
- Ctrl + F9 – Field names.
- Ctrl + F10 – Format marks.
- Ctrl + F11 – Fix focus on combo box.
- Ctrl + F12 – Table.
- Shift + F4 – Go to the next frame.
- Shift + F5 – Restore edit view.
- Shift + F8 – Activate multiple selection.
- Shift + F9 – Calculate table.
- Shift + F11 – New.
- Shift + F12 – Bullets.
- Ctrl + Shift + F4 – Data sources.
- Ctrl + Shift + F5 – Go to page.
- Ctrl + Shift + F8 – Blocked area.
- Ctrl + Shift + F9 – Update input fields.
- Ctrl + Shift + F11 – Update.
- Ctrl + Shift + F12 – Disable numbering.
We can also find specific keyboard shortcuts for when we work with tables within Writer. The most common are:
- Ctrl + A – If the cell is empty, select the entire table. Otherwise, select the content of it.
- Ctrl + Home – If the cell is empty, it goes to the beginning of the table. Otherwise, it is placed at the start of the box.
- Ctrl + End – If the cell is empty, it goes to the end of the table. Otherwise, it is placed at the end of the box.
- Ctrl + Tab – Add a tab stop.
- Alt + arrows – Increase or decrease the size of the rows and columns.
And of course to move and resize images and text boxes, like:
- Esc – Exit the selected box.
- F2 – Open edit mode.
- Alt + arrows – Move the selected box.
- Alt + Ctrl + arrows – Resize to the selected corner.
- Ctrl + Tab – Select the width of the object.
How to customize them
In addition to the keyboard shortcuts that come by default in Writer, which are the ones we have just seen, we can also create our own keyboard shortcuts in the program. And even modify the default shortcuts to make them as useful as possible.
For this, what we must do is open the main window of the program, and choose the menu section Tools> Customize.
We can see a new window like the one below, where we will find all the customization options that the program offers us. The section that interests us is that of the “Keyboard” tab.
Here we are going to see a complete list with all the possible keyboard shortcuts that we are going to be able to use in Writer. And each of these shortcuts with its corresponding function. We will be able to see all the available shortcuts, change the ones we want (for example, if we want the F2 key to do something else) or assign new functions to the keys, or key combinations, that are not being used.
In the upper right part of the customize window we will find two options. These allow us to switch between Writer-specific and LibreOffice-specific keyboard shortcuts. If we select this second we will find global shortcuts that can be used equally in all the programs in this suite. We can also add new keyboard shortcuts to this list or modify those that are already defined. Of course, it is advisable to be careful to avoid that the same keyboard shortcut does two different things, or we will have problems.
We can load and save our keyboard shortcut settings, and even reset all changes to return to the default settings.
It is true that LibreOffice Writer does not offer us much freedom to create our own shortcuts, but rather we have to adapt, in part, to the keys that appear to us. But in the list we will be able to find almost any combination that we want to use, so we will surely not miss anything.