Keyboard shortcuts are an effective way to enhance your productivity in Google Docs. By incorporating them into your work, you can quickly format text and perform a variety of actions without having to take your hands off of the ⌨️ keyboard.
- What are keyboard shortcuts and why are they useful?
- Who can use them?
- Eight helpful Google Docs keyboard shortcuts
- Paste copied text without formatting
- Add a hyperlink
- Undo/redo
- Select all
- Find and replace
- Apply headings
- Add a comment
- Switch between editing, suggesting and viewing modes
- Making use of shortcuts
What are keyboard shortcuts and why are they useful?
Keyboard shortcuts are key combinations that allow you to execute commands instantly. They're a useful tool for anyone looking to boost their productivity and use their 🖱️ mouse less frequently. By adding just a few of these shortcuts to your arsenal, you can transform the way you work in Google Docs, saving you time and effort on every project.
Who can use them?
Who says you need to be a pro to use keyboard shortcuts? Whether you're a 🧑💻 beginner or an expert, anyone can take advantage of using keyboard shortcuts in their everyday work to speed up their workflow in Google Docs. With shortcuts that work across Windows, ChromeOS and Mac, everyone can benefit.
💡 Note: where you see "Ctrl / ⌘" in the shortcuts below, Windows and ChromeOS users will press the Ctrl key while Mac users will use the ⌘ (Cmd) key. The Option key on Mac is represented by the ⌥ symbol.
There are countless shortcuts you can use in Docs. Here are some everyday essentials to get you started:
- Bold: Ctrl / ⌘ + B
- Italics: Ctrl / ⌘ + I
- Copy: Ctrl / ⌘ + C
- Paste: Ctrl / ⌘ + V
- Cut: Ctrl / ⌘ + X
- Word count: Ctrl + Shift + C
If you're ready to learn more, keep reading for some more advanced shortcuts that will boost your productivity even further.
💡 Note: many of these shortcuts also work in other apps too, not just Google Docs!
Eight helpful Google Docs keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl / ⌘ + Shift + V: Paste copied text without formatting
Copying and pasting text from an external source like a 🌐 website, an ✉️ email or another 📄 document can sometimes bring over unwanted formatting, such as different fonts, colours and sizes. This can make your document look messy and inconsistent and requires you to spend time manually cleaning it up, which can be a tedious process.
Whilst pasting with the standard Ctrl / ⌘ + V will include all of this formatting, using the shortcut Ctrl / ⌘ + Shift + V pastes only the content, not the 🎨 formatting, so the text automatically matches the existing style of your Google Doc. It's a quick and simple way to ensure your document always maintains a clean and consistent look, regardless of where the content originated.
Ctrl / ⌘ + K: Add a hyperlink
To add a 🔗 hyperlink to a word or phrase in your document, rather than clicking through menus, you can highlight the text you want to link and press Ctrl / ⌘ + K.
This will instantly bring up the “Insert Hyperlink” dialog box, allowing you to paste your URL, link another document or link a specific location within your document. It's a seamless way to cite sources, link to references or connect related content as you 📝 write.
Ctrl / ⌘ + Z and Ctrl / ⌘ + Y: Undo and redo
When you want to quickly ↩ reverse a series of changes or correct a mistake, like accidentally deleting a paragraph or applying the wrong formatting, you can press Ctrl / ⌘ + Z on your keyboard.
This immediately undoes your last action and you can repeatedly press “Z” while holding Ctrl or ⌘ to backtrack through multiple changes until you reach your desired state. And if you undid too much? Just press Ctrl / ⌘ + Y to ↪️ redo.
💡 Tip: Ctrl / ⌘ + Y can also be used to repeat the last action which can be helpful for tasks such as inserting an extra row or column into a table: whilst you would use the right-click menu on the mouse to insert the first additional row or column, the Ctrl / ⌘ + Y shortcut would be a quick way to repeat this multiple times.
Ctrl / ⌘ + A: Select all
If you want a fast and accurate way to select all content in your document, simply press Ctrl / ⌘ + A on your keyboard. This will instantly select everything in the document and ensure you don't miss a single character.
This method is especially useful for 📖 long, multi-page documents when you want to copy the entire document, apply a universal font or clear the document’s content to start over.
💡 Tip: pressing Ctrl / ⌘ + A in the body of the document will skip content such as headers, footers and footnotes. The select-all shortcut will work within these sections if you click into them first – and then it will ignore content in the body of the document.
Ctrl / ⌘ + H: Find and replace
When you need to 🔎 locate specific text – potentially to change it across your entire document – the Find and Replace function is an invaluable tool. And to get access to it even quicker, you can use Ctrl / ⌘ + H on your keyboard. After pressing the shortcut, you get prompted to input the word or phrase you’re seeking and can optionally add the word or phrase with which to replace it.
The function offers an efficient way to make document-wide changes whilst minimising errors. It speeds up the ✏️ editing process, automatically highlighting every time the word or phrase appears in the document, ensuring that every instance of the target text is found and, if desired, replaced.
💡 Tip: if you only need to find a specific location and not replace it with anything you can use the Ctrl / ⌘ + F shortcut.
Ctrl / ⌘ + Alt + 1/2/3...: Apply headings
Applying headings is a great way to add structure to your documents. For a fast and efficient way to add them, use Ctrl / ⌘ + Alt + 1 for Heading 1, Ctrl / ⌘ + Alt + 2 for Heading 2 and so on, up to 6, with 1 being the top-level heading. This allows you to apply heading styles as you type without interruption.
Applying headings also enables the 📑 document outline function, which acts as a table of contents. This feature, which you can open on the left side of your document, makes it easy to jump to different sections of your document and improves accessibility, making your content easier to both read and navigate. The document outline will dynamically update to match your structure, automatically nesting sections as subsections of each other.
💡Tip: you can also apply headings using Markdown, a widely-supported way of formatting text by writing plain text characters in a document. To use Markdown to create headings, on a new line type a single hash (#) followed by a space and then your heading to create Heading 1; for Heading 2, type two hashes, and so on up to Heading 6.
Ctrl / ⌘ + Alt + M: Add a comment
When you’re in the middle of a document and want to leave a 💬 comment for your team or yourself, you can seamlessly add one by selecting some content and pressing Ctrl / ⌘ + Alt + M on your keyboard the moment you identify text that needs a note, question or suggestion.
This keeps your momentum going and is perfect for 🕵️ reviewing content, 👥 collaborating with others or leaving 🔔 reminders for your future self. This approach also ensures your comments are always exactly where you intend them to be.
Switch between editing, suggesting and viewing modes
Google Docs offers three distinct modes – editing, suggesting and viewing – to help you collaborate and review documents efficiently. Whilst you can switch between them using a dropdown menu in the upper-right corner of the screen, using keyboard shortcuts allows for a seamless transition.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Z (or ⌘ + ⌥ + Shift + Z on Mac)
✏️ Editing mode, the default mode for writing and making direct changes to the text
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + X (or ⌘ + ⌥ + Shift + X on Mac)
📝 Suggesting mode, any change you make appears as a suggestion that can be accepted or rejected
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + C (or ⌘ + ⌥ + Shift + C on Mac)
👁️ Viewing mode, a read-only mode that is perfect for when you want to read a document without the risk of making accidental changes
By using these shortcuts, you can quickly switch your perspective on a document, moving effortlessly from making direct edits to providing suggestions or simply reading without distractions.
⭐ Bonus Shortcut ⭐
If you want to explore even more ways to speed up your work in Google Docs, you can press Ctrl / ⌘ + / within Docs to pull up a complete (and searchable!) list of all of the available keyboard shortcuts, making it easy to check if there’s a shortcut for what you need.
Making use of shortcuts
These are just some of the many Google Docs keyboard shortcuts that are able to transform the way you work. By integrating even a few of these into your daily routine, you could find yourself clicking less, typing more and navigating your documents faster.
Ultimately, these shortcuts can help lead you to a smoother, more efficient and more productive experience in Google Docs, providing an alternative way to manage formatting, quickly embed links and collaborate with others.
Why not try some out in your next document? You might be surprised at how quickly these small changes add up.
Explore Further
For more tips and tricks relating to improving productivity in other Google Workspace apps, take a look at these: