Character and Paragraph Formatting in Word 2007

Functions for character, paragraph and style formatting are found in three groups in the Home Category. However it can be a rather tedious affair to tab to the various formatting controls and it isn't easy to remember the new hot key for each control! The good news is that many of the keyboard commands so useful in previous versions are still used in Word 2007. Some of the most commonly used commands are listed below:

Jaws: to hear formatting information press Jaws+F

Font Formatting

Ctrl+D opens the Font dialog box for character formatting to format font type, style, size, colour etc.
Ctrl+Shift+F moves directly to the Font type field in this dialog box.
Ctrl+Shift+P moves directly to the Font size field in this dialog box.

The keyboard commands for font styles are also the same as in previous Office versions:
Ctrl+B Bold style
Ctrl+I Italic style
Ctrl+U Underline

Paragraph Formatting

To open the Paragraph formatting box press Alt+H,PG. (Alt+H takes you to the Home category, PG activates the control for the Paragraph dialog box). In this box you will find formatting options for paragraph alignment, setting an indent of a defined size and type, spacing before and after paragraph etc. which you will recognize from previous Word versions.

And many of the original keyboard commands for paragraph formatting functions remain unchanged:

Ctrl+M increase indent for paragraph
Ctrl+Shift+M decrease indent for paragraph

Ctrl+L Left paragraph alignment
Ctrl+E Centre paragraph alignment
Cttrl+R Right paragraph alignment
Ctrl+J Block Alignment

Ctrl+1 Single line spacing
Ctrl+2 Double line spacing
Ctrl+5 1.5 line spacing

Bulleted and Numbered lists

Select the list items and press Alt+H,U or Alt+H,N to display options for bulleted or numbered lists. Choose the desired type and press Space to apply.
Or to format a bulleted list with a standard round bullet type select the items and press Ctrl+Shift+L

Tabulators

We have previously used left aligned tabulators to position text at different places on the same line. Tabulator functions are now accessed using the Tabs button in the Paragraph dialog box:

1. Press Alt+H,PG to open the Paragraph box.
2. Press Alt+T to activate the Tabs button
3. Enter the tab stop position and choose OK

The focus is now back in the document. Press Tab. The cursor will move to the desired position and you can type the text.

Borders and Shading

Borders and shading are sometimes used to bring attention to specific paragraphs.
Applying a standard border is easier now. Choose Alt+H,B and chose the desired border from the list, Bottom border, top border etc. and press Space to apply. To format the border, change the thickness, colour etc choose Borders and Shading from the list (O). This opens the Borders and Shading dialog box. Choose the desired options and press OK.
Shading is not so accessible. Press Alt+H,B to open the Borders list and then press O to open the borders and shading dialog box. Press Ctrl+Tab to move to the Shading tab. Tab to the Fill field and open the colour palette using down arrow. Unfortunately left and right arrow doesn't seem to work here, preventing access to many of the colours.
Jaws: to hear border formatting change the Verbosity option to Borders and Pictures on. Press Jaws+V to open Verbosity options. Then press Alt+Shift+B to hear the border formatting. 

Copy formatting

Ctrl+Shift+C to copy format.
Jaws: Press Jaws+3 to pass through first.
Ctrl+Shift+V to paste format

Style Formatting

Ctrl+Shift+S now opens the Apply Styles task pane. Choose the desired style from the list using the arrow keys and press Enter. The style in the selected text changes and the focus has moved to the text. Press F6 to move back to the task pane and then press Ctrl+Space to open the menu and choose Close to remove this box.

Alternatively you can use the Styles control on the Home ribbon although this isn't easy to navigate as you need to use Down, Up, Left and Right arrow keys. Press Alt, H, L to open the Styles Control and then navigate to the desired Style. Press Space to apply the Style.

Alt+1 and Alt+3 will apply Heading 1 and Heading 3 formats respectively.

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