Control (Ctrl) + H

Keys Used = Ctrl + H

What it Does: In Microsoft Word, this command will open "Find and Replace." In Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefoxe, Ctrl + H will open up the browser's History.

Part 1: Microsoft Word and Ctrl + H

Find and Replace is one of the more common tools we use in Word. To quickly access it, simply use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + H. Open a Word document and try it. The application will launch and you will be in the Find area of the applicaiton.

image of find and replace applicaiton in Word

Navigating the "Find and Replace" application using the keyboaard.

Once you open up "Find and Replace" you may be tempted to reach for the mouse. But you don't have to. You can use keyboard commands to navigate that menu. If you look at the menu (and you have to look pretty close) you will see certain letters underlined. Those are the command letters that go with the Alt key to activate or navigate (or both) most Word menus, including this one. So, if you will look at the maginfication below (or squint at the "Find and Replace" application, you will see the i in With underlined. If you press Alt + I, you will be taken right to the With portion of the menu. Now, try Alt + N to go back to the Find portion. If you press Alt + M, you will open the More submenu and you will see a list of options, all of which have letters underlined. For example, if press Alt + Y, you will check the "Match Whole Words Only" option. If you want to uncheck / unselect it, press Alt + Y again.

magnified section of 'Find and Replace' application showing command leters

NOTE if you someehow get out of the "Find and Replace" application, which can sometimes happen by alt-tabbing over to another application (a web browser, say) you will have to (sigh....) click in the application with the dreaded mouse to activate it. At least for now. I haven't learned the keyboard command for activating a "de activated" helper applicaiton in Word. I am sure one exists.

Find and Replace Extra

Did you know that you can not only "Find and Replace" words but also formatting? For example, suppose you want to get rid of extra paragraph returns--these suckers image of a paragraph return To do this simply use the paragraph return character equivalent ^p in the Find and do nothing in the Replace. This creates an empty space. Then you can begin to delete paragraph returns with glee. Likewise, to delete (or insert) tab returns use ^t. Below is an image of a Find and Replace that will locate whitespace ^w and replace it with six tab spaces ^t--which is a question I actually had.

image of finding white space ^w and replacing it with six tab spaces ^t^t^t^t^t^t

Using Ctrl + H with Browsers

If you want to see where your browser went today, yesterday, or six months ago, then use Ctrl + H. This will open up a sidebar giving you access to your previous browser locations. If you find it a bit disturbing that your browsing history is recorded, you can switch to private browsing. Private browsing is usually found under the Tools section of your browser. The trick is, you have to choose private browsing.