MS Word comes with a lot of standard and very useful keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+C for copying selected text, CTRL+X for cutting it, and CTRL+V for pasting it.

But a lot of other useful functions do not have a keyboard shortcut. For example, wouldn't it be great if there was a simple keyboard shortcut for adjusting the width of a table column automatically to accommodate the cell text? Why should you use the Table menu if you can accomplish the same with just a few keystrokes and without ever touching your mouse?

Follow these steps:

1. Select Tools > Customize from the main menu to display the Customize dialog box.

2. In the Commands tab, click the Keyboard button to display the Customize Keyboard dialog box.

3. Select a Category and then Command of your choice. MS Word will display the exiting hotkey combination (if any) in the Current Keys field. If the field is blank it means there does not exist any preset hotkeys for that specific function. MS Word will display a description of the Command's function in the Description field below.

4. Place your cursor in the Press New Shortcut Key and then simply press the keys that you'd like to use as a shortcut for that specific function. For example, if you select the Command "BottomAlign" from the Category "Table" and then populate the Press New Shortcut Key field with CTRL+Q, then every time you press those keys the Word will bottom-align the contents of a table cell.

NOTE: You have to first press either the CTRL key, or the ALT key, or BOTH, then followed by ONE alphanumeric key.

Decide in which template you'd like to save your new shortcut Normal template or your current document.

Then click the Assign button, and you are done! Now each time you'd like to perform that complicated task, all you need to do is press two keys on your keyboard. Isn't that great?

CAUTION: While assigning keystrokes for different commands, make sure you are not assigning popular shortcuts to new functions. If for example you assign CTRL+A (a popular shortcut for Select All) to center the table cells, then that shortcut will not be available anymore. By using never used key combinations you can avoid that problem.