Your friendly neighborhood copywriter uses these keyboard shortcuts virtually every day.
As much as I love writing and editing, I can’t stand the click and select (or click-select-select-select) part. You know, where you have to pretty the doc up, add links, format, boot up a tool, etc.
(I’m gonna blame 7 years of nursing charting with Cerner. Shortcuts are devastatingly limited.)
Some of these puppies may seem obvious. Oh well. I forget stuff easily so it helps me to have a personal glossary for reference.
Plus, I’m forever in debt to the nice internet folks who took the time to create step-by-step directions to my random problem. YouTube & how-to blogs are the backbone of everything I do. Maybe this humble post will give you that nugget of time-saving you never knew was in reach.
OK: no question, my most used keyboard shortcuts are:
Copy shortcut: ⌘C
Paste shortcut: ⌘V
Undo shortcut: ⌘Z
Bold text shortcut: ⌘B
Underlined text shortcut: ⌘U
Italicized text shortcut: ⌘I
You bet I used them fifteen thousand million times for just this blog.
Don’t forget!
If you can’t remember a shortcut, but you CAN find it in the toolbar, hover to discover.
It’ll often reveal the keystrokes to the shortcut.
Here are my other favorites:
View word count shortcut: Select text, ⌘ + Shift + C
Select the text and key in the shortcut.
I base some of my work on length. I also need to view character count when I’m putting together stuff with limits, like meta descriptions.
Need to view the whole doc’s word count?
⌘A (this selects everything)
⌘ + Shift + C
Activate (Google doc) voice dictation shortcut:
⌘ + Shift + S
I’m telling you, it’s the ultimate time-saver for those first drafts. And brain dumps.
Change text format shortcut:
⌘ + ALT + (text number)
No more clicky-click-clicking through a million menu subcategories. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for Title and Subtitle but I don’t use those super often.
H1: ⌘ + ALT + 1
H2: ⌘ + ALT + 2
H3: ⌘ + ALT + 3
Find words/symbols in doc shortcut: ⌘F
Excellent for finding a section of a long doc. Or seeing if you’ve overused a word.
I also tag sentences with ELEPHANT when I need to add something later, like a link. That way, I just ⌘F and enter ELEPHANT to find all the places I bookmarked.
Add link shortcut: ⌘K
If you’ve already copied the link to your clipboard, adding a link is as simple as:
Select text you want to link
⌘K
⌘V
Enter/Return
Adjustable screenshot grid: ⌘ + Shift + 4
I’ll use this bad boy when I need screenshots of an example to include in a blog or client work.
Full-screen screenshot: ⌘ + Shift + 3
I’ll use this option when my screenshot needs to include something my mouse is hovering over. The screenshot automatically shows up on my desktop. I can then crop the image to what I need.
Strikethrough Text shortcut: ⌘ + Shift + X
I use this to cross out stuff I’m finished with but don’t want to forget.
For example, I’ll copy/paste a client’s email with copy requests into the doc. Then I’ll strike through the details I’ve covered.
Superscript shortcut: ⌘.
Sometimes when I’m creating a blog (especially if my client is in the medical profession), I’ll format my references with a superscript that’s linked.
Emoji menu shortcut: Control + ⌘ + Spacebar
It pulls up the good emoji menu 😘 The one with your recents. And that’s big enough to see.
I use this one for some of my client work that has emojis, like emails and social media ads.
Zoom in screen view shortcut: ⌘+
The toolbar has preset options by the 25%. No me gusta.
⌘+ zooms in smaller increments. 110% is my sweet spot.
Zoom out screen view shortcut: ⌘-
Wanna set it back? Hit that subtract key. Finally, an intuitive shortcut.
Insert bullets shortcut: ⌘ + Shift + 8
An internet friend just introduced me to this one, and I’m over the moon! I use bullets in everything I write.
It makes your text not look like a brick.
People who like to skim-read love it.
It’s so much easier to organize my thoughts.
And here’s a few things that can’t entirely be done with keyboard shortcuts, but are still total life hacks:
Find & replace shortcut
Amazingly handy when I realize I’ve spelled a name/company/product wrong. Or consistently used an incorrect punctuation mark.
⌘F
Click the ፧ symbol on the right-hand side (for more options)
Enter the replacement you want
Hit “replace all”
Title Case shortcut (make the first letter of all words in a selected text upper case)
turn this lame headline formatting >> Into This Awesome Headline Formatting
Select “Text” (in the left-hand toolbar)
Select “Format”
Select “Capitalization”
Select “Title Case”
Add Weird Symbols & Characters shortcut
90% I’m using it to find the ™ symbol. Or the right kind of dash.
Select “Insert” (in the left-hand toolbar)
Select “Special Characters”
Type out the symbol name (or if you don’t know the name, draw it in the box).
Need a shortcut for your writing needs?
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Writing all that website copy, email sequences, and readables is time-consuming. Plus, it’s a massive time sink if you delegate it to a team member that’s doing other valuable work.
If writing isn’t your work’s main squeeze…then it’s time to outsource.
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