Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
I cleaned my keyboard and that seems to have addressed the issue.
shift key in Word not working - I have to press the key several times to be able to capitalize a letter.
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Edie Schaffer
15
Reputation points
The shift key in Word has stopped working. I have to press the key several times to be able to capitalize a letter.
I have tried unclicking all the keyboard settings, including sticky key. I have also checked for a keyboard update (there wasn't one), then uninstalled and reinstalled the keyboard driver. I am still having the issue.
I also checked to see if this was occurring in other Microsoft 365 programs -- it is not. But it does seem to be happening in email.
I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to fix this. I am a writer and having to click multiple times on shift to capitalize is disruptive.
Thanks.
Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows
Answer recommended by moderator
Answer recommended by moderator
3 additional answers
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Stefan Blom 337.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator2025-12-06T18:59:25.2066667+00:00 I have a similar problem. The shift key rarely works and I have to press it several times to capitalize or use the secondary of all the keys. I've tried turning off filter keys and sticky keys but that didn't help, I also tried updating the driver but the latest version was installed.
@Zach Maple,
Your keyboard may require cleaning, the Shift key in particular in this case. Or maybe it is time to get a new keyboard.
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Zach Maple 0 Reputation points2025-12-07T23:59:56.6966667+00:00 Ok, I'll try to clean it sooner or later. I forgot to mention that it's my laptop keyboard.
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Stefan Blom 337.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2025-11-28T20:40:59.4866667+00:00 Since you are seeing this not only in Word but in at least one other app as well, I would recommend that you try with a different keyboard and see if that fixes the problem.
In other words, although the problem is not observed all the time, I am suggesting that the underlying cause could be with the physical keyboard.
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Edie Schaffer 15 Reputation points
2025-11-28T21:05:51.3433333+00:00 I will try that and report back.
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Stefan Blom 337.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2025-11-28T21:21:14.8766667+00:00 I will try that and report back.
Please do let us know. :-)
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Stefan Blom 337.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2025-12-06T19:10:01.8533333+00:00 I'm glad you got it sorted. Thanks for the follow-up. :-)
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Zach Maple 0 Reputation points
2025-12-06T02:39:58.78+00:00 I have a similar problem. The shift key rarely works and I have to press it several times to capitalize or use the secondary of all the keys. I've tried turning off filter keys and sticky keys but that didn't help, I also tried updating the driver but the latest version was installed.