How to Use Strikethrough Shortcuts in Microsoft Word

A Strikethrough, also known as strikeout, is a font effect where text is crossed out with a horizontal line (~~like this~~) to indicate that text is no longer required/valid or error in the text. It is often used to delete the text without actually removing it from the document. You can strikethrough a word, group of characters, sentences, lines, and paragraphs in MS Word.

Strikethrough can be useful when you are collaborating on a document with someone, and you want to show that a particular section should be removed from the text or is not important. You will often see strikethrough to show price changes on labels.

There are several ways to use strikethrough on Microsoft Word, including via Ribbon, Ribbon guide shortcuts, font window and shortcuts, Quick Access Toolbar shortcut, custom keyboard shortcut, and using shapes.

Strike Out Text Using Strikethrough Button from the Ribbon

The easiest method to strikethrough a text in Microsoft Word is using the dedicated Strikethrough button from the Ribbon. Here’s how you can do that:

First, open the Word document and select the text you want to strikethrough. Then, under the Home tab, click the ab button with a line across (Strikethrough) like this: ab or ~~abc~~ from the Font section.

Use your Ribbon Guide shortcuts

You can also use Word’s Ribbon guide shortcuts to access the same strikethrough button from the Ribbon.

Select the text you want to strike out, then press these shortcut keys one after the other: Alt,H,4.

As soon as you type Alt, Word will enable guide shortcuts for ribbon. When you press H, it will switch to the Home tab, then click 4 to enable strikethrough.

Either way, the selected text will be quickly crossed out as shown below.

To remove the strikethrough, simply select the struck-out text and click the ‘Strikethrough’

Use the Font Dialog box to Cross Out Text

The Font Dialog box is another way to add strikethrough to text in MS Word. In some cases the Strikethrough option is not available in the Ribbon, you can access it from the Font window.

First, select the text you want to strikethrough, then click the small Diagonal Arrow in the bottom right corner of the Font group under ‘Home’ tab. Or press the Ctrl+D.

When the Font window opens, check the ‘Strikethrough’ option under the Effects section and click ‘OK’ or simply press Alt+K.

Add Double Strikethrough using Font dialog box

Select the text you want to double strike out, then open the Font dialog windows using the above steps (Ctrl+D). From the Font window, click the ‘Double strikethrough’ to check it, and click ‘OK’ to add double strikethrough.

As shown below, the selected text will be double strikethrough.

Create a Custom Keyboard Shortcut to Strikethrough

The default Strikethrough shortcut key requires you to press Alt, then H, then 4 sequentially, which may be a bit difficult and needs more time to access the option. If you are not comfortable using the provided shortcuts for accessing strikethrough, you can create your own shortcut in Microsoft Word by customizing the keyboard. Follow these steps to create a custom keyboard shortcut for Strikethrough.

On the top left corner MS Word window, click on the ‘File’ tab.

Then, click on ‘Options’ in the bottom left corner of the backstage view.

In the Word Options window, click on ‘Customize Ribbon’ from the panel on the left.

Now, on the right, click the ‘Customize’ button next to Keyboard Shortcuts at the bottom window.

Another dialog window called Customize Keyboard will appear. Here, scroll down and select ‘Home tab’ under Categories and choose ‘Strikethrough’ under Commands.

Next, click in the box below ‘Press new shortcut key:’. And hit the keys (simultaneously) you want to assign as the shortcut. It is recommended to assign three key shortcuts to avoid conflict with other common shortcuts. Here, we have entered Ctrl+Shift+C, but you can enter any other shortcuts. After entering the shortcut keys, click the ‘Assign’ button at the bottom left corner to confirm it.

Then, click the ‘Close’ button to close the window.

Now, you can select the text and press your custom keyboard shortcut to quickly strikethrough the selected text.

To remove the shortcut keys, go back to the Customize Keyboard window using the same above steps. Then, select ‘Home tab’ under Categories and choose ‘Strikethrough’ under Commands. After that, select the shortcut keys under ‘Current Keys:’ and click the ‘Remove’ button to delete the shortcut.

If the Strikethrough button is unavailable in the Ribbon, you can add Strikethrough to the Quick Access Toolbar and then quickly access it.

Quick Access Toolbar is the small tool above right above the ribbon. If you want to move the Quick Access Toolbar below the ribbon, click the small down arrow button to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar and select ‘Show Below the Ribbon’ from the drop-down.

To add Strikethrough to the Quick Access Toolbar, follow these instructions:

If the Strikethrough button is available in the Ribbon, right-click ‘Strikethrough’ in the Font group on the ‘Home’ tab in the Ribbon. From the drop-down, select ‘Add to Quick Access Toolbar’.

If the Strikethrough option is not available in the Ribbon, click the down arrow to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar and select ‘More Commands…’ from the drop-down menu. Or, go to the ‘File’ tab, select ‘Options’, and then click ‘Quick Access Toolbar’ in the Word Options window.

On the right side, choose ‘All Commands…’ from the ‘Choose commands from:’ drop-down.

From the list of commands on the left side box, select the ‘Strikethrough’ command and click the ‘Add >>’ button in the middle to add it to the right-side box.

Then, click ‘OK’ to save the changes.

Now, you can quickly access the Strikethrough shortcut from the Quick Access Toolbar at the top.

Put a Line Through a Text Using Shapes

You can also put a line through text using created line shape. You can insert a line from the Shapes feature and use it to strikethrough any number of text. With the created line, you can even strike across an entire paragraph or page. Here’s how you can do that:

First, open the document where you want to strikethrough text. Go to the ‘Insert’ tab in the Ribbon. Then, click the ‘Shape’s drop-down button from the Illustrations group and select the ‘Line’ shape in the Line section.

Then, draw a line over the text you want to strike out by holding and moving the across the text.

You can also create a diagonal cross-out line across a passage or an entire page using the same method.

This method creates a customizable strikethrough on text. After drawing a cross-out line across text, you change the color, width, and design of the line.

You can select the inserted line, and change the line color, outline, and effects from the Shape Styles group under the ‘Shape Format’ tab.

To change the width of the line, select the line, and click the ‘Shape Outline’ drop-down button from the Shape Format tab.