When the Mac keyboard shortcut doesn’t work – here’s how to fix it!
In Word on the PC you can click in a paragraph or select a paragraph or two (or even a row in a table) and move it up and down the document using Shift + Alt + Up Arrow of Shift + Alt + Down Arrow.
Sadly on the Mac this doesn’t work the same. The Mac keystroke is a little different – press Shift + Control + Up Arrow or Shift + Control + Down Arrow. So far so good – problem is that these are the exact same keystrokes that display Mission Control and Application Windows on the Mac so they don’t work. That is until you fix them to work.
Now I don’t use Mission Control at all so I have no need to go backwards and forwards between Mission Control and Application Windows and, worse still, I often hit those keys by mistake so I can easily live without this shortcut. Turns out, if you disable that Mac default shortcut then the Word one works.
To do this, launch System Preferences and select Keyboard > Shortcuts. You need to disable two options here – Mission Control and Application Windows so deselect the two checkboxes and close the window. That’s all there is to it. Now the keyboard shortcuts Shift + Control + Up Arrow and Shift + Control + Down Arrow work just fine in Word for the Mac.
It’s the small things that put the biggest smile on my face. This is a small change but I use it every day and I love it – hope it works for you too!
Yes thank you!!
This has made my day 🙂
Have a great day, Helen!
Thank You Thank You Thank You!
Thanks so much for this, it’s been driving me mad!!!!!
Thank you!!! I swear I was tempted to go back to a PC for this feature!
Have to say the same as all three above: Thank You, Thank You! It’s been driving me mad! This has made my day 🙂
Really appreciate that you published this one!
Thank you very much!
I have been looking for ages for a proper keyboard shortcut. I didn’t think of such a ‘simple’ solution!
Unfortunately it doesn’t work for PowerPoint.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve wondered how to move paragraphs, and now I have the answer!
Thank you for this! As a long-term user of Windows, I’m struggling to adapt to a newly handed-down Macbook Pro. With so many changes, I was really struggling to use the latest version of office on this PC. This particular shortcut, and your solution, came in very handy. Much appreciated!
And there I was just about to throw my Mac out the window. Thank you!
Awesome. Thank you so much
Thank you very much for this! i have been struggling with how to do this for ages!
in the old Windows, i could just put a set of up, down, left, right arrows from the customize menu and it worked well.