The Power of CTRL+Z

Morgan Little - Systems Administrator

by Morgan Little
March 2024

Using the CTRL+Z key combination will allow you to revert changes you made to a file and text. This could be very helpful to recover from accidents or unwanted changes. The only gotcha is that you need to use CTRL+Z in a timely fashion; the second you pivot and make additional changes, the option may no longer be available. Here are some examples on how you can successfully use CTRL+Z.

Microsoft Office Applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc):

Use CTRL+Z to revert the changes back to text or deleted items. Tapping on CTRL+Z will keep reverting back the history of the changes.



File Explorer:

Accidently delete a file, rename or move it to another folder? Selecting CTRL+Z will return the file back to the last adjustment.

Adobe Acrobat and PDF-X Editor:

Similar to Microsoft Office Applications, these PDF editors allow tapping CTRL+Z to “backspace” through change history.

What happens if you want to redo the changes? Simply select the keyboard shortcut CTRL+Y to get back.

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