The Three Formatting Shortcuts You Need To Know As A Writer
Save your time and your wrist

As an avid keyboard user, it really astonishes me how often people rely on the arduous process of
- removing their hands from the keyboard,
- shifting their entire hand over to the mouse or the touchpad
- selecting the right information
- waiting for the formatting pop-up to appear
- clicking the right icon
- moving your hand back to the keyboard for the next typing task
In reality, it probably takes two seconds to do these 6 steps. I am definitely poking fun just a tad bit, but I’ve personally found that limiting small distractions like this helps me center myself into the flow of writing.
And getting into the flow is the most important, right?
These shortcuts apply to Medium, yes, but also to Google Docs and Microsoft Word.
Formatting headers
The types of headers
There are two types of headers available through Medium, which is a good start to understanding how header formatting works on any platform:
- Header 1, which is the big header we see in this section: “Formatting headers”
- Header 2, which is a slightly smaller header, which can be used as a subtitle.
Keyboard Shortcut
- Header 1: CTRL+ALT+1
- Header 2: CTRL+ALT+2
Note that on the Medium editor, if this is the first time you hit “CTRL+ALT+1” in the document, it will become the title of the document. Similarly, “CTRL+ALT+2” becomes the subtitle of the entire article.
Apply this on other platforms too!
This same principle can be applied to Microsoft Word and Google Docs with even more flexibility. On Google Docs I was able to create up to a 5th header title with the 6th iteration being italicized font.

Starting lists
Starting a numbered list
- You’ve probably happened across this one just by typing “1.” and hitting spacebar. It automatically creates the first item of the list so that when you hit “enter’, it’ll beautifully enter your next step as
Starting a bullet list
- To start a bullet list, hit “*” and then space, and it will automatically create that first item for you.
- On Google Docs and Microsoft Words, other symbols like “>” or “-” might also trigger the bulleted list function. Medium is slightly picky about what does/ doesn’t trigger this functionality.
Emphasizing your text.
Bold
To bold or not to bold? Well the decision is quick. You can toggle the bold settings by hitting “CTRL+B” and everything thereafter will be bold, until you press “CTRL+B” again to cancel it.
Italics
The same principle can be applied to italicizing, which is “CTRL+I”.
Underline
This isn’t available on Medium, but is definitely my go-to way to organize notes and meetings. The shortcut is “CTRL+U”.
Lucy (The Egg Girl) typed this entire article without using her mouse. Actually, that’s a lie, she did have to use her mouse to insert the photos, but that’s it. She thinks you should absolutely check out “Distaste” by Erica Donaldson-Ellison.
What’s your next adventure? 🐰🌌