List of keyboard shortcuts for WordPerfect’s DOS-compatible keyboard (recent versions)

Many people who use WordPerfect still prefer the old-fashioned DOS-compatible keyboard they learned when they first started working with the program.

You can count me in that group. When Windows versions of WordPerfect initially became popular, I saw no reason to change to the Windows keyboard. The keystrokes didn’t strike me as particularly logical and, despite the fact that it’s also known as the Common User Access (CUA) keyboard, the reality is that most of key combinations — with a few exceptions — actually don’t have much in “common” with the standard keystrokes for other Windows programs. What is the logic, for instance, behind assigning F7 to Indent and Ctrl Shift F7 to Double Indent (L/R Indent)? Do people actually find those keystrokes easier to remember than F4 and Shift F4, the WPDOS key combinations for Indent and Double Indent? Somehow I doubt it.

In any case, I thought it might be useful to provide a list of selected keystrokes for WordPerfect’s DOS-compatible keyboard (the WP6.1 DOS keyboard). Some of the combinations probably look familiar; a few might not.

I’ll add a post sometime soon that lists a number of the shortcuts for the WordPerfect Windows (CUA) keyboard.

Keyboard Shortcuts for WordPerfect’s DOS-Compatible (WP6.1) Keyboard

Shortcuts That Use Function Keys

Shift F1 — Opens the Settings dialog

F2 — Opens the Find and Replace dialog

Ctrl F2 — Runs Spell-Check

F3 — Next Document (like Ctrl F6 in the Windows keyboard and in MS Word)

Shift F3 — Previous Document (like Ctrl Shift F6 in the Windows keyboard and in MS Word)

Alt Shift F3 — Show Ruler / Hide Ruler

F4 — Indent (paragraph from left)

Shift F4 — Double Indent (Indent Left / Right)

F5 — Open File

Shift F5 — Date Dialog (press Enter to insert the current date as text; press Alt K, Enter to insert the current date as a code)

Shift F6 — Center (Hard Center on Margins)

Ctrl Alt F6 — Flush Right

Ctrl F6 — Decimal Tab

Alt F7 — Create Table

F7 — Close Document; also moves the cursor out of the footnote editing screen and out of the header or footer editing screen (back to the main document screen)

Shift F7 — Print

Alt F8 — Styles

Ctrl F8 — Font Dialog

F10, Ctrl F12 — Save

Alt F10 — Play Macro

Ctrl F10 — Record Macro

F11 — In addition to toggling Reveal Codes on and off, F11 acts to scroll text upwards by a few lines. This function comes in handy when text is at the bottom of the page and you want to see it better without taking your hands off the keyboard to use the scroll bar.

Alt F12 — Envelope

Navigation Shortcuts

Alt + L/R arrow — Move to next or previous column (Columns feature)

Alt + Up/Dn arrow — Move to cell above or below (table)

Home Home Up — Go to Top of Document

Home Home Down — Go to End of Document

Home Left — Go to Beginning of Line

End — Go to End of Line

Ctrl L/R arrow — Go to previous or next word

Ctrl Up/Dn arrow — Go to previous or next paragraph

Shift + any of the above movement keys — Select Text

Shortcuts That Use the Ctrl Key

Ctrl Backspace / Ctrl Delete — Deletes the word your cursor is in (or immediately after)

Ctrl Enter — Page Break (the same as the Windows keyboard and MS Word)

Ctrl Tab — Hard Tab (use in tables)

Ctrl Spacebar — Hard (Non-Breaking) Space

Ctrl Shift A — Select All

Ctrl B — Bold

Ctrl Shift B — Insert Bullet

Ctrl C — Copy

Ctrl G — Go To

Ctrl Shift L — Line Break

Ctrl Shift N — New From Project

Ctrl P — Insert Page Number (current page)

Ctrl R — Repeat Next Action

Ctrl Shift R — Redo

Ctrl T — Insert Paragraph Numbering

Ctrl U — Insert Underlining (or you can use F8)

Ctrl V — Paste

Ctrl Shift V — Paste Simple (similar to but not quite the same as Paste Special – Unformatted)

Ctrl W — Symbols

Ctrl X — Cut

Ctrl Z — Undo

Ctrl Shift Z — Undelete

Miscellaneous Shortcuts

Ins Shift — Paste

Ins Ctrl — Copy

Alt Ins — Insert Table Row (above the current row)

Alt Del — Delete Table Row

Believe it or not, this list is not comprehensive. For more keyboard shortcuts, click the Help menu, Help Topics, then type key words such as “DOS keystrokes” — without the quotation marks. You’ll see several relevant topics. To read the instructions, either double-click one of the topics or click once to select/highlight a topic, then click the “Display” button above the topic list.

New! Surveys (see the Polls page)

I’ve just added a separate page dedicated to reader surveys (polls).  A bit of an experiment to get a modicum of feedback about my books, this blog, and some of my other projects.

The newest poll (posted on August 23) asks which word processing program you use most of the time; there’s also a poll geared toward discovering how this site has been helpful to you (if at all).  

If you have an opinion on either topic, please feel free to cast your vote.

Thank you!

— Modified on August 23, 2009

Close a document without closing Word (Word 2007)

Many people are accustomed to closing individual documents by clicking the “X” (the “Close” button) at the upper right-hand corner of the document window. That option has been available in both WordPerfect and Word through many, many versions.

Now along comes Word 2007, and by default there is no “Close” button for individual documents. Indeed, the “Minimize” and “Maximize/Restore” buttons are missing, too. The only “Control buttons” in Word 2007 are for the program window. Thus, when people click on the “X” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, the program itself closes — to some people’s surprise and consternation.

In this post, I provide an easy way to display a document window with the familiar trio of Control buttons (Minimize, Maximize/Restore, and Close) — as well as other tips for working with multiple document screens in Word 2007.

To Add A “Close Document” Button Below the Title Bar in Word 2007

(Thanks to Herb Tyson, MS MVP and author of The Word 2007 Bible, for this first tip. I have rephrased and expanded slightly on Mr. Tyson’s explanation, which I found in an online newsgroup.)

Click the Office Button, Word Options, and click Advanced (in the navigation bar on the left). Then, from within the Advanced options screen, scroll down to the Display category.

Note whether “Show all windows in the taskbar” is checked. If it is, click to uncheck it and then click OK to save your change.

Now you should see a second set of “Control buttons” at the upper right side of the screen — one for the program and one for the document. As in prior versions, the “X” on the lower rung is the one you should use to close the current document. (The “X” on the upper rung closes Word altogether.)

There are other ways to close a document, of course. If you are a “mouse person,” you can simply click the Office button, then click Close. If you are a “keyboard person,” you can use one of the methods outlined below.

Keyboard Shortcuts to Close the Current Document

Ctrl F4 will close the current document, as will Ctrl W.

My own preference is to use Alt F, C, the key combination I became accustomed to in earlier versions of Word (Alt F opens the File menu in previous versions and C executes the Close command). That key combo also works in WordPerfect.

Cycling Through Open Documents

Perhaps you just want to go back and forth among documents without closing any of them. It’s relatively simple to move from one open document to another in Word 2007. As in previous versions of the program, the key combination Ctrl F6 will cycle through all of your open documents. However, using that keystroke doesn’t tell you which documents you have open, and you might have to cycle among several before you find the one you want.

To see a list of open documents and navigate quickly to one in particular, click the View tab, then navigate almost all the way to the right side and click the Switch Windows drop-down. Note that you can add a Switch Windows button to the Quick Access Toolbar, also known as the QAT. (Click the Office button, Word Options, Customize. Change the drop-down at top left from Popular to All Commands, then click somewhere in the Command List and — in order to move the cursor quickly down through the lengthy list — press the letter “T” to go to the first command that starts with a T and scroll up to “Switch Windows.” Click to highlight it, click the Add button to put the icon on the QAT, and OK out of the Word Options. That’s all there is to it!)

Two new (five-star) reviews on Amazon; future plans for the book

A little more shameless self-promotion: My Word 2007 book received two new reviews on Amazon.com within the past couple of days — each with a five-star ranking. One of the reviews came from a training client in Sacramento who actually bought the book for personal use before the organization hired me to do the training.

I’m so pleased that people have found the book useful. My ultimate goal is to help folks get their work done more quickly, more efficiently, and with less stress.

I am continuing to write additional handouts for Word 2007, at least some of which I will incorporate into a second edition of the book. I’m planning to expand on and/or clarify a few of the existing sections of the book, as well. With luck, I’ll be able to publish the second edition before year’s end (though I’ve got additional book projects in the pipeline, as well as training and teaching commitments). For those of you who have purchased or are planning to buy the current edition, I’m thinking of making the added and modified material available separately at a fairly nominal cost so that you don’t have to pay the full price for another complete book.

Another possible supplement to the book, inspired by comments from some paralegal instructors around the country, would include brief instructions for formatting pleadings to comport with the requirements of different state and local jurisdictions. So far, I’ve had inquiries from people in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Oregon. Someone posted a question in the Word Forum of Woody’s Lounge (www.wopr.com) about how to tweak a pleading in such a way as to comply with new Oregon rules; I responded to her post and also attached a sample pleading that I tweaked to get it to fit within the 26 lines while leaving a 1″ margin at the top and ample space in the footer for the page number, document identifier, and firm name and address (as required by the rules). She hasn’t responded yet, so I’m not sure my sample pleading is exactly right for Oregon, but the information I provided about the ways in which I modified the formatting should be enough to put her on the right track. At least, that’s my hope.

Meanwhile, if you have any constructive suggestions for topics not included in the current edition that you would like me to cover in a second edition, or sections of the book you think need clarification, feel free to drop me a detailed note at CompuSavvy’s e-mail address, which you can find on our web site.

Keyboard merges (WordPerfect, recent versions)

A keyboard merge is a specialized type of merge that prompts the user for input. This type of merge can be extremely useful for retainer letters, collection letters, memos, or similar form documents where you typically reuse most of the text but change certain specific bits of information (such as the retainer amount and the nature of the work to be undertaken).

To create a form file that uses keyboard merges, proceed as if you were creating a typical merge form file.

1. Starting with either a new document or an existing form file, position the cursor at the first point where you want users to enter information. Then click Tools, Merge, then click the Form document button, Create Form Document, Use file in active window.

2. When prompted, click No Association.

3. The Merge toolbar appears. Click the Insert Merge Code button, Keyboard.

4. In the Enter Prompt box, type a prompt to remind the user to input certain information, such as the retainer amount, the nature of the work, the hourly rate, etc., then click OK.

5. Repeat this step at each point in the form where you want to prompt the user to input information.

6. Format the form document exactly as you wish (for example, in a memo form, you might want to insert a date code on the Date: line), then click File, Save or File, Save As and give the form a name. Do not add a file extension; WordPerfect automatically adds the .frm extension to indicate that the file is a merge form file.

7. Close the file.

8. When you are ready to perform a keyboard merge, click Tools, Merge or press Shift F9. If you don’t see the document listed to the right of the Form Document button, click Form Document, File on Disk, and use the Browse button to locate the form file. Then click the Merge button.

9. A copy of the merge form file will open (the form file remains intact for future use). Enter the specific information for which you are prompted and either click the Continue button on the Merge toolbar or press Alt Shift C. That will take you to the next prompt.

10. Continue in this fashion until you have filled in all of the information (you can press Alt Shift C again or click the Stop button when you are done), then save the file as a separate document.

Aligning text with pleading line numbers in Word (substantially rewritten)

One of the most common questions I hear from training clients and others in the legal profession has to do with text that is out of alignment with the line numbers in pleading paper. The problem usually occurs in documents that are based on a pleading template originally generated by Word’s “Pleading Wizard” (a deprecated / retired feature that was available in versions of the program prior to Word 2007).  Because of the way the Wizard stretched the line numbers to make them equidistant and to fit them within the space allocated for text — assuming a 1″ top margin, a 1″ bottom margin, and a 12-point font — the line spacing of the line numbers ended up being a fraction of true double-spacing.

Why Applying True Double-Spacing Doesn’t Work

People often attempt to fix the problem by applying true double and single spacing to the document text.  Doing so usually makes things worse.  That is because of an aspect of typography called “leading” (rhymes with “sledding”), which refers to the vertical distance between lines of type – often adjusted to improve readability.

As a result of leading, true double spacing varies between 220% and 270% of the size (height) of your chosen font, and true single spacing varies between 110% and 135% of the size (height) of that font.[1]  Thus, if your body text font is Times New Roman set at 12 points, double-spaced lines actually are spaced about 27.6 to 28.8 points apart. (A “point” is a unit of measurement that refers to the height of characters.  There are 72 points in a vertical inch.[2])  By contrast, the Pleading Wizard compresses the area where the line numbers appear, resulting in line spacing (i.e., line height) for the line numbers that is significantly smaller / more compressed vertically — typically 22.75 points. (I often call this figure “pleading double spacing” to differentiate it from true double spacing.)  Thus, applying true double spacing usually results in text that is “taller” than the pleading line numbers.

Changing the Line Spacing in the Document to Match That of the Line Numbers

To fix the problem, you must start by determining the existing line spacing for the pleading line numbers in your document.  To do so, open the header editing screen by double-clicking within the white space at the top of any page  (or, alternatively, right-click at the top of any page, then choose “Edit Header”).  Next, right-click somewhere within the line numbers and choose “Paragraph.” When the Paragraph dialog opens, note the figure shown under Spacing, Line spacing.  Usually it is set at “Exactly” a certain number of points – for example, 22.75 pt, or 23.15 pt, or 24 pt, or some such figure.  Note:  This figure can vary from document to document, because template designers often tweak the line spacing of the pleading line numbers, whether the original template was created with the Pleading Wizard, downloaded from the Internet, or created from scratch by some ambitious techie.

Make note of this figure.  To get the text to align with the pleading line numbers, you’ll need to adjust the line spacing of the “pleading double spaced” paragraphs in the document to match it. Just select each of those paragraphs, open the Paragraph dialog, and change the line spacing to “Exactly” and the number of points you noted for the line numbers.

You’ll also need to select any “pleading single-spaced” paragraphs in your document and use the same technique to apply “Exactly” spacing that is half the number of points set for the line numbers. In other words, if the line numbers are spaced Exactly 22.75 points apart, you’ll need to set the “pleading double-spaced” paragraphs at 22.75 points and “pleading single-spaced” paragraphs at 11.375 points. (Word usually changes the 11.375 pt to 11.4 pt. That’s fine.)

Why Not Simply Adjust the Spacing of the Line Numbers?

People sometimes ask – logically enough – why it’s necessary to change the line spacing of all of the text in the document to match (or, in the case of “pleading single spacing,” be exactly half of) the spacing of the line numbers.  Wouldn’t it be simpler to change the line spacing of the line numbers?

Although the idea seems sensible in theory, it doesn’t work well in practice.  More often than not, changing the line spacing of the line numbers causes one or more additional problems.  Sometimes, for example, it hides some of the line numbers.  If you then drag the bottom margin of the “frame” that contains the line numbers in order to show all of the numbers, the body text might not appear on the last numbered line of the page, in which case you have to change the bottom page margin.  Also, if there are section breaks in your document, you need to tweak the spacing of the line numbers – and maybe also the “frame” that contains them – in each section.  Now this apparently simple solution is looking more and more complicated.

Using a Line Break When Necessary After “Pleading Single-Spaced” Text

Even after applying “Exactly” line spacing to all of the text in the document, you might find the transition between “pleading single spacing” and “pleading double spacing” tricky.  In particular, “pleading single-spaced” headings and block quotes that span an even number of lines (2, 4, 6, etc.) can be problematic; when you press the Enter key after typing the text, the cursor usually ends up between line numbers.

Rather than fiddling with the line spacing, which often causes more headaches, try this simple solution:  Place the cursor at the very end of a “pleading single-spaced” paragraph (a heading or a block quote) and press Shift Enter before pressing the Enter key.  Shift Enter creates a Line Break (sometimes called a Soft Return), which extends the “pleading single-spaced” paragraph by one line rather than creating a new paragraph.  Usually, that is sufficient to bump the following paragraph down so that it is aligned with a pleading line – assuming that all of the “pleading single” and “pleading double” paragraphs in the document are formatted correctly.[3]

Other Possible Causes of Misalignment

The inconsistency in line spacing between the line numbers and the text is the most frequent cause of the alignment problem, but there are other factors that can contribute to it.  For now, I’ll go over only two other “usual suspects.”

Page Setup — Page Margins and Header/Footer Distance From Edge

Sometimes you can fix text alignment problems in pleadings by fiddling with the top and/or bottom page margin.

When you launch the Page Setup dialog (by clicking the dialog launcher in the lower right-hand corner of the Page Setup group on the Page Layout / Layout tab[4]), you might notice that the margins for the pleading are negative numbers. This seemingly odd phenomenon is actually by design in Word. I’ve never quite understood the reasoning behind it, but if you’re interested you can read more about it in MS Knowledge Base Article 211611.

Be careful to note the original margins in case your changes don’t work and you have to restore them.

If changing the page margins doesn’t work, try changing the distance of the header and/or footer from the edge of the virtual paper.  You can do so from within the Page Setup dialog (click the Layout tab and navigate to “Headers and footers” – “From edge”) or by going into the header or footer editing screen (double-click in the white area at the top or bottom of a page or right-click in that area and choose “Edit Header” or “Edit Footer”), then adjusting the settings in the “Header from Top” or “Footer from Bottom” box in the Position group.

Compatibility Options

Other little-known settings that can affect text alignment in pleadings are located under “Compatibility Options.”

In pre-Ribbon versions of Word, you can find these settings by clicking the Tools menu, Options, Compatibility tab.  In Word 2007, click the Office Button, Word Options, Advanced, and scroll all the way down to — and click the plus sign to the left of — Layout Options.  In Word 2010 and later, click the File tab, Word Options (or Options), Advanced, and scroll to Layout Options.

In particular, look for “Don’t add extra space for raised / lowered characters,” “Don’t add leading (extra space) between rows of text,” and “Don’t center ‘exact line height’ lines.” I would suggest testing one option at a time, since otherwise you won’t necessarily know which of the three options worked.  (Note that some of those options are not available in versions later than Word 2010.) I’ve had particular success fixing alignment issues by enabling the last option (“Don’t center ‘exact line height’ lines”). Your mileage may vary, as they say.

There are some additional features that can affect text alignment. But the troubleshooting tools I’ve provided here should be of considerable help.

Keep in mind that it’s usually best to try the least drastic remedy first, and also remember that more than one setting could be causing the problem. Troubleshooting by reviewing the settings in the Paragraph and Page Setup dialogs might turn up a relatively easy fix.

Good luck!

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[1] For more information about line spacing in Word, and the effects of “leading,” see this post.

[2] For more information about points, see this post (entitled “What Are Points, Anyway?”).

[3] If you can’t get it to work and you’re working on deadline, consider clicking within the paragraph that won’t quite align with the line number, launching the Paragraph dialog, and adding 3 points or 4 points of “Spacing Before.” Just remember that the additional “Before” space will be copied to the following paragraph when you press the Enter key (because paragraph formatting instructions are contained in the paragraph mark at the end of every paragraph – whether visible or not – and are copied to the following paragraph when you press Enter).  I don’t recommend this method unless you’re in a time crunch and you need a “quick ‘n’ dirty” solution.

[4] Another way to open the Page Setup dialog is by clicking the Page Layout / Layout tab, clicking the Margins drop-down, then clicking Custom Margins.

Note: This article, first published in 2009, has been substantially rewritten as of 3/22/2016.