Word · Turn on extend selection
Selection
Windows · Linux
F8Mac
F8Both systems use the same combination.
Turns on extend-selection mode; while it is on every arrow key grows the selection, repeated presses jump from word to sentence to paragraph, and until Esc switches it off ordinary typing behaves strangely.
- Group
- Selection
- Keys held
- 1
Press Alt in Word for Windows and every ribbon button shows a letter, so even a command with no combination is reachable as a sequence — Office for Mac has no such key tips.
Reading the key names
- Keys joined by + are pressed together: Ctrl+Shift+P means hold Ctrl and Shift, then P.
- On a Mac, Cmd is ⌘, Option is ⌥ (labelled Alt on some keyboards), Control is ⌃ and Shift is ⇧.
- Windows Ctrl usually becomes Cmd on a Mac, but not always — this reference lists both combinations separately.
- With a Korean, Japanese or Chinese input method active, shortcuts built on letter keys may not fire. Switch to Latin input and try again.
- When a combination does nothing, another program has often claimed it as a global shortcut first.
Common questions
Q. What is the shortcut for Turn on extend selection in Word?
Turns on extend-selection mode; while it is on every arrow key grows the selection, repeated presses jump from word to sentence to paragraph, and until Esc switches it off ordinary typing behaves strangely. It is F8 on Windows and F8 on a Mac.
Q. Is it the same on Windows and Mac?
Yes, F8 on both.
Q. How many keys is that?
1 pressed together. The combination sits under Selection in Word.