Microsoft Word seems to have two pairs of shortcuts that do the same thing – increase or decrease the font size. This is how they are different.
The shortcuts are:
Ctrl + Shift + < or Ctrl + Shift + > – which are also buttons on the Home tab.
Ctrl + [ and Ctrl + ] – that have been in Word for as long as we can remember.
There’s a subtle difference between the two.
Change Font Size – Ctrl + Shift + < or >
The buttons on the Home tab and “< >” shortcuts step through the predefined font sizes on the Font Size pull-down list:
Change font size by 1pt Ctrl + [ or ]
Ctrl + [ and Ctrl + ] step one point , up or down the font sizes.
Use this shortcut to fine tune type sizes, e.g. adjust a heading to be as large as possible without going over a single line.
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