How to Strikethrough text in Word or Excel

If you want to put a line through your text in Microsoft Office programs such as Word or Excel, you have to use the Strikethrough feature. Individuals would use the strikethrough feature to show that they have completed a task in their Word document or Excel spreadsheet.

How to Strikethrough text in Word

There are two methods you can use to strikethrough text in Microsoft Word. Let us see the first one:

Launch Microsoft Word.
Type a text into your document and highlight the text.
Click the Strikethrough button in the Font group.
The text has a line through it.
To remove the strikethrough, click the Strikethrough button again, and the line through the text will be removed.

The other method to put a line through your text in Word is as follows:

Highlight text.

Click the Font arrow in the font group.

A Font dialog box will open.

Under the Effect section, check the check box for Strikethrough and click OK.

A line will be put through your text ~~like this~~!

Add double-line strikethrough formatting in MS Word

Microsoft Word also comes with the feature to add double-line strikethrough formatting for text. For this, you can follow these steps:

Open a Word document
Select the text for which you want to apply the double-strikethrough formatting
Switch to the Home tab if you are not already
Click on the Font Dialog Box Launcher icon (a down arrow icon present in the Font group). Alternatively, you can also press the Ctrl+D hotkey. This will open a Font box
Switch to the Font tab in that box
Tick mark the Double strikethrough option
Press the OK button.

To undo the changes, you can repeat the steps added above, and uncheck the Double strikethrough option mentioned in the 6^th step. Hit the OK button. It will remove double strikethrough formatting for the selected text.

Strikethrough text in Word using a Hotkey

You can also strikethrough text in Microsoft Word using a hotkey. But, first, you need to set or assign a hotkey for strikethrough formatting as MS Word doesn’t with a preset hotkey for it. The steps are as follows:

Open Microsoft Word
Click on the File menu
Select Options available in the bottom left corner
In the Word Options box, select the Customize Ribbon category from the left section
Press the Customize button for the keyboard shortcuts option. This will open a Customize Keyboard box
In the Customize Keyboard box, select Home Tab in the Categories section
In the Commands section on the right section, select the Strikethrough option
Now assign a hotkey (in the Press new shortcut key text field) for the selected command. Do not provide an existing hotkey (already in use) as it will interfere with the action
Press the Assign button
Now the hotkey for strikethrough is set, press the Close button, and you will come back to the Word Options
Press the OK button to close the Word Options.

Now use the hotkey set by you in a Word document and strikethrough formatting will be enabled or activated. Whatever text you will write, it will be in strikethrough. Or else, simply select a text of your choice and press the hotkey and the text will be formatted to strikethrough. You can also use the same hotkey to turn off strikethrough formatting.

How to Strikethrough text in Excel

Here too, there are two methods you can use to strikethrough text in Excel. Let us see the first one:

Launch Excel.
Type a text into your spreadsheet and click the Font arrow button.
A Format Cell dialog box will open.
On the Font tab, under the Effect section, check the check box for Strikethrough.
Then click Ok.
The text is strikethrough in the cell.

The other method to put a line through your text in Excel is as follows:

Click the Strikethrough button in the Font group.

If the Strikethrough button is missing, click the ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon from the menu.

The Excel Options dialog box will open.

On the left, select All Commands from the Choose command from the list box.

Still, on the left, scroll down to the Strikethrough button in the list.

On the right of the dialog box, click where you want to place the command, for example, we select Font under the Home tab in the main tab list.

Click the New Group button on the bottom left of the dialog box.

A Custom group will appear under Font.

To rename the custom group, click the Rename button on the bottom left of the dialog box.

A Rename dialog box will appear; click OK.

Ensure Strikethrough is selected in the All Command list box on the left and click the Add button.

The command will appear under the custom group.

Then click OK.

You will see the Strikethrough command on your Ribbon.

Now read: Strikethrough Shortcut for Google Docs, PowerPoint, Sticky Notes, Teams

What is the shortcut for strikethrough text in Word?

Shortcut keys are a combination of keys that allows users to do a command quickly. In Microsoft Word, there is a shortcut key to make a strikethrough in text. The combination keys to make a strikethrough in Word is pressing the combination keys Ctrl+D to open the Font dialog box will open; we will explain more details in this tutorial.

What is the Excel shortcut for strikethrough?

In Microsoft Excel, there is a shortcut key to strikethrough text in Excel. The combination keys to strikethrough a text in Microsoft Excel is Ctrl + 5. Click the cell containing the text and press Ctrl + 5. The text in the cell will have a strikethrough.

How do I strikethrough text in Word?

If you want to strikethrough text (put a horizontal line through the center of words) in a Word document, then it can be done using the Font group section present in the Home tab and/or using the Font box. The feature to add double strikethrough formatting to text is also there. Moreover, you can assign a hotkey for strikethrough formatting in Microsoft Word. All these possible ways to strikethrough text in a Word document are covered in this post with a detailed explanation. Check them.

Read: Delete button does not show strikethrough when Track Changes is enabled in Word

We hope this tutorial helps you understand how to strikethrough text in Word or Excel.