Ctrl+Backspace

Updated: 05/01/2023 by Computer Hope
Ctrl+Backspace keyboard shortcut

The Ctrl+Backspace keyboard shortcut is most commonly used to delete one word to the left of the cursor. Below are other programs that use this keyboard shortcut and related information.

How to use the Ctrl+Backspace keyboard shortcut

To use this keyboard shortcut, press and hold either Ctrl key, and while continuing to hold, press the Backspace key.

Ctrl+Backspace in most text programs

Pressing Ctrl+Backspace deletes the word to the left of the cursor in many programs, including OneNote, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, and the Notepad text editor.

Note

Text programs that don't support this shortcut often delete one character to the left of the cursor. If this shortcut does something you don't want, use the undo shortcut.

Ctrl+Backspace in Google Sheets

Pressing Ctrl+backspace in a Google Sheets scrolls to the active cell if it's not already visible on the screen. For example, if the active cell was A1 and you scrolled down until A1 was no longer visible, and pressed this keyboard shortcut Sheets scrolls back up to A1.

Below are links to related keyboard shortcuts and individual key pages.

Ctrl, Delete, Keyboard shortcut, Keyboard terms