How to scroll down a docx without moving the place of the cursor

Question

Is there a way to have a shortcut key in Word (2013) that will scroll down a page while keeping the cursor at the same place in the window?

That would avoid going to the last line and scroll down.

Answer 1

You can create a macro to scroll up or down without moving the cursor, then assign a keyboard shortcut to these macros.

Sub ScrollUp()
ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Up:=1
End Sub

Sub ScrollDown()
ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Down:=1
End Sub

Then assign a keyboard shortcut of your choice to these macros. (In Word 2016 go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Keyboard shortcuts: Customize > Categories: Macros)

In the macro, you can change the number of scroll lines to a different number if you like.

Source: http://www.thefreewindows.com/2287/scroll-a-microsoft-word-document-without-moving-the-cursor/

Answer 2

Just adding to stevenkkim's solution, for Word 2016 you need:

Sub ScrollUp()
  ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Up:=1
End Sub
    
Sub ScrollDown()
  ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.SmallScroll Down:=1
End Sub
    
Sub ScrollLeft()
  ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.SmallScroll ToLeft:=1
End Sub  

Sub ScrollRight()
  ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.SmallScroll ToRight:=1
End Sub

Then assign the macros to your preferred keyboard shortcuts (I use Alt + UpArrow, etc).

Answer 3

I propose a workaround if the use case is simply reading a document someone else has created and not making any edits: export/print to PDF. Navigating in a reading context is smoother in pdf reader applications.

Answer 4

Normally the keyboard will work based on cursor movement like page up and page down. If you wanted to move the page with out changing the cursor place, you can use the scroll bar in the right hand side to move around the page or move center scrolling roller in mouse to move around the page.

Answer 5

Here is slightly unaesthetic script. It scrolls text by some number of lines (39 in my case), then press "Space" and "Backspace". You'll see your current line as a topmost line in visible space of document. Just don't do this when you select text, because Space/Backspace will destroy it.

Sub ScrollTextAndEmulateSpaceBackspace()
    Dim originalLine As Long
    Dim i As Long
    
    ' Remember current line position
    originalLine = Selection.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber)
    
    ' Store the current selection
    Dim selStart As Long
    Dim selEnd As Long
    selStart = Selection.Start
    selEnd = Selection.End
    
    ' Scroll down by 39 lines without changing cursor position
    For i = 1 To 39
        Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdLine, Count:=1, Extend:=wdMove
    Next i
    
    ' Emulate pressing "Space" button
    SendKeys " ", True
    
    ' Emulate pressing "Backspace" button
    SendKeys "{BACKSPACE}", True
    
    ' Restore original selection
    Selection.SetRange Start:=selStart, End:=selEnd
    
    ' Restore original line position
    Selection.MoveUp Unit:=wdLine, Count:=originalLine - Selection.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber), Extend:=wdMove
End Sub