We generally don’t write about Microsoft apps here at Macworld, but if you use Word on your Mac, you’ll love these two new shortcuts coming to the app.
In the latest beta of Microsoft Word for 365 Insiders (version 16.67.1113.0 or later), users get new keyboard shortcuts to zoom, so you don’t have to use the buttons on the screen anymore. To say that the shortcut is overdue is a bit of an exaggeration, as almost every productivity app ever created, including most from Microsoft, uses keyboard shortcuts to zoom.
The keystroke is familiar, and one you’ve probably tried before in Word to no avail. In an upcoming update, the commonly used keystrokes Command-Plus (+) and Command-Minus (-) will zoom in and out respectively. Each press increases or decreases the zoom by 10 percent, and Command-Zero (0) resets the view to 100 percent.
The other change involves an age-old feature getting a long-awaited shortcut. If you’ve ever had to paste a piece of text into a Word document, you’ve no doubt noticed that all the formatting comes with it and you have to surgically change everything: text size, color, bold, etc. Microsoft has a “Clear Formatting” option in the Edit menu, or you can hit the pop-up Eraser button, but the default Command-Shift-V keystroke didn’t work to paste plain text. In addition, Command-Option-C copies the current formatting in your document and Command-Option-V applies it to the text you selected.
Now it will. Microsoft added the simple keystroke to the latest Word beta in one of the most overdue features in apps history. Just press Command-Shift-V to paste the text without images or links. As Microsoft clearly states, “pasted content matches adjacent text formatting, rather than preserving the original font size, color, etc.” Genius.
Microsoft hasn’t said when the features will appear in the full version of Word, but we expect them to appear sometime in the spring. In the meantime, know that good things are on the way.
Microsoft Word is part of Office for Mac and is available with a Microsoft 365 subscription for $69.99/£59.99 per year or $6.99/£5.99 per month. There’s also a non-subscription Home & Student version available for $149.99, though this feature probably won’t appear until the next update later in 2023 or 2024.
