Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Speeding Up Cursor Movement.

Speeding Up Cursor Movement

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 9, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Do you ever become impatient when using the cursor control keys (the arrows) to scroll through text in your document? Depending on your system settings, it can be a painfully slow process to move through a document a single character at a time.

To speed things up considerably, just hold down the Ctrl key and press either the left or right arrow keys. This causes the insertion point to jump from word to word, rather than character to character. The increase in speed is dramatic.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (665) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Speeding Up Cursor Movement.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Conditionally Highlighting a Milestone Cell

Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out the exact formula you should use to properly apply a conditional formatting ...

Discover More

Adding a Group of Words to the Custom Dictionary

If you have a bunch of words you want added to a custom dictionary, there are several ways you can accomplish the task. ...

Discover More

Turning Off Automatic Resizing of Tables by Default

You can format your tables to either keep cell sizes static or to automatically resize based on cell contents. By ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Jumping to a Page within a Section

In long documents it is often helpful to jump directly to a particular page. Word provides several tools you can use to ...

Discover More

Jumping to the End without Repaginating

When you open a document and try to jump to the end of it, Word may go through the sometimes long process of ...

Discover More

Jumping to a Footnote

Jumping to a specific footnote can be very handy if your document has a lot of footnotes in it. Word provides the ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 2 + 2?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.