Strikethrough in Word: Quick and Easy Recipes

What are the ways to add strikethrough in Word? Here, you will learn 3 ways to add strikethrough in Word. While anyone can easily remove blocks of text while formatting, there are times when we need to point out text that needs to be modified, especially for collaboration purposes. This is where the strikethrough effect comes into play.

The effect is essentially a line that runs through a sentence while still maintaining its legibility. It can be used to indicate invalid text that still needs to be read, and is most commonly used to indicate a website that has been broken.

The strikethrough effect is particularly versatile, and below we have listed 3 ways to achieve the strikethrough effect.

Quick overview

• Method 1: Add a shortcut to strikethrough
• Method 2: Use Ribbon to add strikethrough
• Method 3: Create a custom shortcut

Method 1: Add a shortcut to strikethrough

How do I add strikethrough in Word? You can use the toolbar to add strikethroughs to specific text by following these steps:

1. Highlight the text you want to delete.
2. Press Ctrl+D to open the Font Style dialog box
3. Press Alt+K at the same time
4. Click the Enter button
5. Strikethrough will be applied.

This method also allows you to access a variety of other shortcuts through the font settings:

1. Alt + P is the superscript.
2. Alt + B subscript.
3. Alt + H hide.

Although users don’t particularly need to memorize the actual shortcuts. If you look closely, the dialog actually has an underlined letter that can be used in conjunction with Alt to add effects.

Bonus tip: Add strikethrough on Excel

1. Select the box/text you want to delete.
2. Click Ctrl+5 to activate the strikethrough shortcut.
3. Strikethrough will be applied.

Learn how to delete headers/footers in Word.

Method 2: Use Ribbon to add strikethrough

What are the ways to add strikethrough in Word? Here’s a very simple and easiest way to add strikes on text:

1. Select the specific text you want to delete.
2. On the ribbon, there is a home tab
3. Next to B, I, U there is abc, click on it
4. Select the strikethrough command on the ribbon.

Now the strikethrough will be added to the text.

Method 3: Create a custom shortcut

How do I add strikethrough in Word? If you should choose to create your own shortcuts, Word allows you to create your own formatting keys:

1. Press and hold Ctrl + D to open the font dialog.
2. Press Alt + Ctrl while holding down the plus sign in the numeric keypad portion of your keyboard.
3. When the cursor changes to such a clover symbol, tick the strikethrough checkbox.
4. When you do this, the Customize Keyboard dialog box is displayed and the housing socket flashes in the Press New Shortcut box.
5. Use any combination of Ctrl+Shift or Ctrl keys and alphanumeric keys like Ctrl+Shift+C to type any handy shortcut that works for you
6. Select the Assign button to assign the shortcut you created.

In this way, you can create your own shortcuts to add strikethroughs in Microsoft Word.