The Most Useful Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are the cheapest productivity upgrade there is. Each one saves a second or two, but the ones you use dozens of times a day add up quickly. You don’t need to learn hundreds: a dozen or so cover most of an office day.

All the shortcuts below were checked against Microsoft’s own lists for Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 in October 2026. Where you see “+”, hold down the first key (or keys) and tap the last one.

The everyday basics

These work in almost every Windows app, including Word, Excel, Outlook and your browser.

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + A	Select everything (all the text, or all the files in a folder)
Ctrl + C	Copy
Ctrl + X	Cut
Ctrl + V	Paste
Ctrl + Z	Undo the last thing you did
Ctrl + Y	Redo
Ctrl + F	Find on the page or in the document
Ctrl + Backspace	Delete the whole word to the left (in Word and most editors)

Copy, cut and paste also work on files and folders in File Explorer, not just text.

Windows 11 shortcuts worth learning

Shortcut	What it does
Windows key + L	Lock your computer
Windows key + V	Open clipboard history
Windows key + Shift + S	Take a screenshot of part of the screen
Alt + Tab	Switch between open windows
Windows key + D	Show or hide the desktop
Windows key + E	Open File Explorer
Windows key + Z	Open Snap layouts, to arrange windows side by side
Windows key + left or right arrow	Snap the current window to one half of the screen
Windows key + H	Start voice typing (dictation)
Ctrl + Shift + Esc	Open Task Manager

A few of these deserve a word of explanation.

Windows key + L: lock your screen

If you learn only one shortcut, make it this one. Walking away from an unlocked computer leaves your email, client files and systems open to anyone passing. In an office with visitors, or for anyone handling client data, locking your screen every time you stand up is a basic data protection habit. It takes less than a second.

Windows key + V: clipboard history

Normally Windows only remembers the last thing you copied. Clipboard history keeps a list, so you can copy several things (an address, a reference number, a paragraph) and then paste each one where it’s needed. The first time you press it, Windows asks you to turn it on.

Be careful what you copy: passwords and client details will sit in the history too. A password manager that fills passwords in for you is a better habit than copying and pasting them.

Windows key + Shift + S: screenshots

Draw a box around any part of the screen and the picture is copied, ready to paste into an email or a Teams chat. It’s the quickest way to show your IT support exactly what an error message says, and much clearer than a photo of the screen taken on a phone.

Windows key + Z: Snap layouts

Puts two, three or four windows neatly side by side. Useful for working on a document while reading the email it relates to, or comparing two spreadsheets.

Outlook

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + R	Reply
Ctrl + Shift + R	Reply all
Ctrl + F	Forward
Ctrl + N (new Outlook) or Ctrl + Shift + M (classic Outlook)	New email
Ctrl + Enter	Send
Ctrl + 1 / Ctrl + 2	Switch to Mail / Calendar
Ctrl + E	Search
Insert	Flag a message
Ctrl + Q	Mark as read

Take care with Ctrl + Shift + R: “reply all” to a large internal list, or to the other side in a transaction, is one of the most common ways information ends up with the wrong person.

Teams

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + Shift + M	Mute or unmute yourself in a meeting
Ctrl + Shift + O	Turn your camera on or off
Ctrl + Shift + K	Raise or lower your hand
Ctrl + E	Go to search
Ctrl + N	Start a new chat
Ctrl + .	Show all keyboard shortcuts

Word

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + Shift + V	Paste text only, without the original formatting
Shift + F3	Switch selected text between upper case, lower case and title case
Ctrl + H	Find and replace
Ctrl + K	Insert a hyperlink
Ctrl + Enter	Insert a page break
Ctrl + Space	Remove character formatting from selected text
F7	Check spelling and grammar

Ctrl + Shift + V is the one most people wish they’d known sooner: no more pasted text arriving in someone else’s font and colour.

Excel

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl + ;	Enter today’s date
Ctrl + Shift + ;	Enter the current time
Ctrl + T	Turn a range of data into a table
Ctrl + Shift + L	Turn filters on or off
Ctrl + arrow key	Jump to the edge of the data
Ctrl + Shift + arrow key	Select to the edge of the data
Alt + =	AutoSum
F4	Switch a cell reference between relative and absolute ($A$1) while editing a formula
Ctrl + 1	Format cells
Ctrl + E	Flash Fill, which spots a pattern and fills the rest of the column

Going further: PowerToys

Microsoft PowerToys is a free set of extra Windows utilities from Microsoft. It includes Always On Top (pin a window above everything else), Awake (stop the computer sleeping), Keyboard Manager (remap keys and create your own shortcuts) and Text Extractor (copy text out of an image or a screenshot).

In a business, check with whoever looks after your IT before installing it. Many companies, rightly, don’t let staff install software themselves, and some PowerToys features change how Windows behaves.

Help that knows your set-up

Shortcuts are a small thing, but small things are often what slow a team down. If your staff would like a hand getting more out of Windows and Microsoft 365, that’s part of the day-to-day help included in our managed IT support. You might also like our eight ways to organise your work devices.