Sentences are a fundamental writing unit, so it’s hard to imagine why Word omitted them when setting up the standard keyboard shortcuts. This article begins to remedy that oversight by assigning shortcuts to some hidden Word sentence commands.
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Where are the sentence editing shortcuts?
We can move between or delete whole words with a keystroke. Select or navigate up or down by lines, paragraphs, or even pages. Why are sentences left out of the easy editing mix?
They’re just a little bit maybe slightly important to almost anything anyone would ever do in Word. Fortunately, Microsoft included several almost hidden commands which we can assign to keyboard shortcuts ourselves.
I prefer to sidestep these commands entirely and write my own macros, but let's stick with this easier approach for a few minutes.
Defining custom keyboard shortcuts
The steps below illustrate manually assigning custom shortcuts through the menu interface in Word for Mac. A corresponding video shows how to do the same in Word for Windows. Both sets of directions are general, so we could further assign a shortcut to any command or macro.
Word for Mac
Word for Mac has a streamlined shortcut customization dialog.
For those that prefer text directions, the steps are:
- In the top menu, choose Tools → Customize Keyboard… The Customize Keyboard dialog will pop up.
- Select the "All Commands" option in the top-left Categories list box.
- Choose a command (which is SentLeft in the example) in the top right Commands list. The search bar can narrow the list.
- Click into the "Press new keyboard shortcut:" edit box near the middle.
- Tap the new shortcut key combination (which is Option+Left arrow in the example)
- Click the Assign button on the right
If any shortcuts are already assigned to the desired key combination, they will show up in the "Current keys:" box. Having multiple shortcuts for the same command is okay. Repeat the steps for any other desired shortcuts or close the dialog.
Word for Windows (video)
In Word for Windows, a previous video on my YouTube channel shows how manually assign shortcuts to Word commands or macros. The interface is clunkier than for Mac (not bashing Windows), but similar basic steps apply. Select a command in the resulting dialog and assign a key combination. Repeat as needed.
Hidden sentence commands
As you're digging through the command list, the "hidden" Word commands to edit sentences are:
- SentLeft moves to the beginning of the previous sentence or the current sentence if the insertion point starts somewhere inside the sentence.
- SentRight jumps to the beginning of the next sentence.
- SentLeftExtend selects content from the current position to the beginning of the current sentence (or the previous sentence if already at the beginning)
- SentRightExtend selects content from the current position to the beginning next sentence.
With the two selection commands, only part of the sentence is selected unless the insertion point (i.e., the blinking I-bar) is positioned at the start of the sentence, but a macro can select the whole sentence from any position if you prefer (see the extended content in our delete current sentence article).
It’s a little strange why Microsoft didn’t connect these to any standard Word shortcuts. The commands already exist, and any shortcuts to manipulate sentences would be much more practical than some of the other standard shortcuts. Nevertheless, they’ll help us get started editing faster in Word.
Keyboard shortcuts
In Word for Mac, I would assign Option+Left Arrow (or Alt on Windows) to SentLeft and Option+Right Arrow to SentRight.
Similarly, I would assign SentLeftExtend and SentRightExtend to Option+Shift+Home (or Alt+Shift on Windows) and Option+Shift+End, respectively. These are not consistent with the above movement shortcuts, but I already had the arrow key combinations assigned to a pair of macros that move a sentence left or right in the document (or see the big sibling member version). I use those macros more often, so they took priority in my workflow.
Some key combinations don’t work
Certain key combinations just won’t work. The specific ones vary between Mac and Windows, but you can test them in the respective Customize Keyboard… dialog to find any key combinations that won’t register all inside Word. Some will show gibberish for the shortcut (more so in Windows), but others won't show anything.
Keyboard shortcut patterns
I try to maintain some consistency with my keyboard shortcuts. For sentence commands and macros, I usually use some key combination including the Option (or Alt on Windows) key. It’s not a perfect system since there are only so many key combinations, but the pattern helps me remember and actually use them which is one of the bigger challenges when trying to write and edit faster.
Can I do this faster?
Okay … so you have twenty-eleven macros?
Yeah, me too. Is there a better way?
The above process is nice and visual for a few shortcuts, but it becomes tedious for any more. This is compounded when Word sometimes "forgets" our shortcuts (such as when the Normal.dot template becomes corrupted and is automatically regenerated).
If you prefer to automate the process, a more technical article shows how to assign the shortcuts within a macro (or if you prefer the best approach, check out a different member version as the culmination of an article series). With these macros, we can (re)assign dozens of shortcuts at the same time.
Variations
Other articles show how to delete the current sentence (or check out the fluffier member version that accounts for parentheses or double quotes in dialog), create a new paragraph with the current sentence, or move a sentence left or right (or the big sibling member version) with a single keystroke. Several more macros handle various sentence editing tasks, so search the list of articles for whatever interests you.
