Short-cut keys
1. General
Ctrl+A Select All
Ctrl+J Justify
Ctrl+D Double Underline
Ctrl+E Centered
Ctrl+H Find and Replace
Ctrl+Shift+P Superscript
Ctrl+L Align Left
Ctrl+R Align Right
Ctrl+Shift+B Subscript
Ctrl+Y Redo last action
Ctrl+0 Apply Text Body paragraph style
Ctrl+1 Apply Heading 1 paragraph style
Ctrl+2 Apply Heading 2 paragraph style
Ctrl+3 Apply Heading 3 paragraph style
Ctrl+4 Apply Heading 4 paragraph style
Ctrl+5 Apply Heading 5 paragraph style
Ctrl+plus Calculates the selected text and copies the result to the clipboard.
Ctrl+Shift+- Non-breaking hyphen (is not used for hyphenation)
Ctrl+* (only on number
Run macro field
pad)
Non-breaking spaces. Non-breaking spaces are not used for
Ctrl+Shift+Space
hyphenation and are not expanded if the text is justified.
Shift+Enter Line break without paragraph change
Ctrl+Enter Manual page break
Ctrl+Shift+Enter Column break in multicolumnar texts
Inserting a new paragraph without numbering inside a list. Does not
Alt+Enter
work when the cursor is at the end of the list.
Inserting a new paragraph directly before or after a section, or before
Alt+Enter
a table.
Arrow Left Move cursor to left
Shift+Arrow Left Move cursor with selection to the left
Ctrl+Arrow Left Go to beginning of word
Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Left Selecting to the left word by word
Arrow Right Move cursor to right
Shift+Arrow Right Move cursor with selection to the right
Ctrl+Arrow Right Go to start of next word
Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Right Selecting to the right word by word
Arrow Up Move cursor up one line
Shift+Arrow Up Selecting lines in an upwards direction
Ctrl+Arrow Up Move cursor to beginning of the previous paragraph
Select to beginning of paragraph. Next keystroke extends selection to
Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Up
beginning of previous paragraph
Arrow Down Move cursor down one line
Shift+Arrow Down Selecting lines in a downward direction
Ctrl+Arrow Down Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph.
Select to end of paragraph. Next keystroke extends selection to end
Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Down
of next paragraph
Home Go to beginning of line
Home+Shift Go and select to the beginning of a line
End Go to end of line
End+Shift Go and select to end of line
Ctrl+Home Go to start of document
Ctrl+Home+Shift Go and select text to start of document
Ctrl+End Go to end of document
Ctrl+End+Shift Go and select text to end of document
Ctrl+PageUp Switch cursor between text and header
Ctrl+PageDown Switch cursor between text and footer
Insert Insert mode on/off
PageUp Screen page up
Shift+PageUp Move up screen page with selection
PageDown Move down screen page
Shift+PageDown Move down screen page with selection
Ctrl+Delete Delete text to end of word
Ctrl+Backspace Delete text to beginning of word In a list
Ctrl+Delete+Shift Delete text to end of sentence
Ctrl+Shift+Backspace Delete text to beginning of sentence
Ctrl+Tab Next suggestion with Automatic Word Completion
Ctrl+Shift+Tab Use previous suggestion with Automatic Word Completion
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V Paste the contents of the clipboard as unformatted text.
Use this combination to quickly dock or undock the Navigator,
Ctrl+Shift+F10
Styles and Formatting window, or other windows
Basic Parts and Functions of LibreOffice Writer
Title bar The Title bar is located at the top of the Writer window, and shows the file name of the current
document. When the document is newly created, the document name will appear as Untitled X, where X
is a number.
The Menu bar is located just below the Title bar.
Writer status bar is located at the bottom of the workspace. It provides information about the
document and convenient ways to quickly change some document features. It can be hidden by
deselecting it in the View menu.
To save a new document in Writer, do one of the following: • Press Ctrl+S. • Choose File > Save. • Click
the Save icon on the Standard toolbar. When the Save As dialog appears, enter the file name, verify the
file type, and click Save. To save an opened document with the current file name, choose File > Save.
This will overwrite the last saved state of the file. To save an opened document with a different file
name in order to preserve the original and have edits saved in another version, choose File > Save As,
give it another name and/or select a different file type. A document can be saved with the same file
name if the file type is changed, but must have a different name if the same file type is retained.
Function Clipboard Selection clipboard Copy content Edit > Copy or Ctrl+C Select text, table, or object.
Paste content Edit > Paste or Ctrl+V pastes at the cursor position. Clicking the middle mouse button
pastes at the mouse pointer position.
Cutting, copying, and pasting text Cutting and copying text in Writer is similar to cutting and copying text
in other applications. You can copy or move text within a document, or between documents, by
dragging or by using menu selections, icons, or keyboard shortcuts. You can also copy text from other
sources such as Web pages and paste it into a Writer document. To move (drag and drop) selected text
using the mouse, drag it to the new location and release it. To copy selected text, hold down the Ctrl key
while dragging. The text retains the formatting it had before dragging. To move (cut and paste) selected
text, use Ctrl+X to cut the text, insert the cursor at the paste-in point and use Ctrl+V to paste.
Alternatively, use the icons on the Standard toolbar.
Finding and replacing text and formatting
Find toolbar is not visible, you can display it by choosing View > Toolbars > Find from the menu bar or by
pressing Ctrl+F. The Find toolbar is shown docked at the bottom of the LibreOffice window (just above
the Status Bar)
click in the box and type your search text, then press Enter to find the next occurrence of that term.
Click the Find Next or Find Previous buttons as needed. Selecting the icon next to the arrows opens the
Find & Replace dialog and keeps the Find dialog open.
To display the Find & Replace dialog, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H or choose Edit > Find & Replace
from the menu bar. Optionally, click the More Options button to expand the dialog; the button changes
to Fewer Options. To use the Find & Replace dialog:
1) Type the text you want to find in the Search for box.
2) To replace the text with different text, type the new text in the Replace with box.
3) You can select various options, such as matching the case, matching whole words only, or doing a
search for similar words.
4) When you have set up your search, click Find. To replace the found text, click Replace.
Formatting paragraphs
The appearance of the icons may vary with your operating system and the selection of icon size and
style in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View.
These options are controlled in the Alignment page of the Paragraph dialog, reached by choosing Format
> Paragraph from the menu bar or by right-clicking in the paragraph and selecting Paragraph from the
context menu.
Formatting characters
Checking spelling and grammar
Spelling Writer provides a spelling checker, which checks to see if each word in the document is in the
installed dictionary. This can mean that proper names which are correctly spelled but which do not
appear in the dictionary will be flagged as misspelled. Also provided is a grammar checker, which can be
used separately or in combination with the spelling checker.
Grammar By default, Check grammar as you type is enabled in Tools > Options > Language Settings >
Writing Aids > Options.