Moving the Insertion Pointer in Word 2007

Knowing how to move the insertion pointer to the exact spot you want in your Word 2007 document is important. New text appears only at the insertion pointer. And, the text you edit or delete? Yup, the insertion pointer's location is important there, as well.

Commanding the insertion pointer with the mouse

The easiest way to put the insertion pointer exactly where you want it is to point the mouse at that spot in your text and then click the mouse button. Point, click, move insertion pointer. Simple.

Moving in small increments (basic arrow keys)

Using the mouse is perhaps the easiest way to move the insertion pointer, but most experienced Word users take advantage of the keyboard's cursor keys to quickly move the insertion pointer to any position in their documents.

The four basic arrow keys move the insertion pointer up, down, right, and left. To move the insertion pointer . . .
Up, to the preceding line of text, press the Up arrow key (the one with the arrow that points up).
Down, to the next line of text, press the Down arrow key (the one with the arrow that points down).
Right, to the next character, press the Right arrow key (the one with the arrow that points, um, right).
Left, to the preceding character, press the Left arrow key (the one with the arrow that points left).

If you press and hold the Ctrl (Control) key and then press an arrow key, you enter hyper-jump mode. The supercharged insertion pointer leaps desperately in all four directions.

If you press
Ctrl+Up arrow key, the pointer zooms up to the start of the previous paragraph
Ctrl+Down arrow key, the pointer goes down to the start of the next paragraph
Ctrl+Right arrow key, the pointer jumps right, to the start (first letter) of the next word
Ctrl+Left arrow key, the pointer heads left, to the start (first letter) of the previous word

You can use either set of arrow keys on the computer keyboard, but when using the numeric keypad, ensure that the Num Lock light is off. Do this by pressing the Num Lock key. If you don't, you'll see numbers in your text rather than the insertion pointer dancing all over — like444this.

Moving from beginning to end

The insertion pointer also bows to pressure from those cursor keys without arrows on them. The first couple is End and Home, which move the insertion pointer to the start or end of things, depending on how End and Home are used:

The peculiar cases of PgUp and PgDn

One would think, logically, that the PgUp (or Page Up) key moves a document up one page and that the PgDn (or Page Down) key moves a document down. Not so, though. Rather than slide your document around a page at a time, these keys move things one screen at a time:

If the functions of PgUp and PgDn aren't confusing enough, you can absorb these two combinations: