Key combinations, often called shortcut keys, are credited with increasing productivity in Word because they keep your hands on the keyboard and not the mouse. Most key combinations start with the Ctrl key, although some use the Alt key. For example, the keyboard combination Ctrl + C copies any selected text to the clipboard. Word ships with many shortcut keys already set up, but you can create your own shortcut keys.
Just as you can create new shortcut keys for commands or macros in Microsoft Word, you can disable shortcut keys. Although these keystrokes provide valuable functions for most users, they can create problems for people who accidentally activate them.
How to disable a shortcut in Microsoft Word
You can’t disable all hotkeys at once; you’ll have to do it one at a time for the key combinations that annoy you. If you decide that you need to disable a key combination in Word, follow these steps:
- Open a document in Microsoft Word .
- On the Tools menu , select Customize Keyboard to open the Customize Keyboard dialog box.
- In the scroll box below the Categories label , select All Commands .
- In the Commands scroll box , select the category that applies to the shortcut you want to remove. For example, in the Commands list, select CopyText if you want to remove the keyboard shortcut for copying text.
- When you click it, the keyboard shortcut for copying text (or whatever keyboard combination you’ve chosen) appears in the box under Current Keys .
- Highlight the shortcut in the box below the Current Keys label .
- Click the Remove button to remove the keyboard combination.
- In the dropdown box next to Save changes in, select Normal to apply the change to all documents created in Word. To disable the key for the current document only, select the document name from the list.
- Click OK to save the change and close the dialog.
The list of all commands is long and not always easy to understand. Use the search field at the top of the Commands box to find the shortcut you’re looking for. For example, type paste in the search field if you want to disable the paste shortcut, and the command that is highlighted is EditPaste . Returns two shortcuts in the Current Keys area : a keyboard combination and an F-key input. Highlight the one you want to remove before clicking the Remove button .