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Strange keyboard shortcuts

Anonymous
2020-09-15T18:02:37+00:00

Hello,

I am having a bit of trouble with my keyboard lately, but before I try to repair it I want to rule out some possibilities.

I was trying to type some characters in a Word 2016 file using ALT codes (e.g. ALT+0223, which is the German eszett). Now, while holding ALT and pressing 2, a dialog frame appeared to save the file as .odt, allowing me to change location. I checked that this happens as well with Excel.

Trying with more numbers, I found out that ALT+1 is a shortcut to activate auto saving of the file. No other combinations did anything.

I found it quite strange since I checked all the possible keyboard shortcuts in Word and there is no reference to this one. So I am guessing that something wrong is going with my keyboard. But I want to ask you first to see if this shortcut is, at least, familiar to you.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-10-06T21:16:56+00:00

    You will not be able to use the Alt+0xxx shortcuts if you have no way to simulate a numeric keypad (some laptop keyboards use a Fn key in combination with letter keys on the right side as a numeric keypad). But in Word you have other options. For the eszett, which Word calls "Latin Small Letter Sharp S," you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+&, S. And for any Unicode character, you can type the Unicode number (in this case 00DF) and press Alt+X to insert it.

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  1. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-09-15T18:28:32+00:00

    Check if sticky keys or some other accessibility options (that may affect the keyboard) have been enabled in Windows 10 Settings/Control Panel.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-10-06T22:09:55+00:00

    Ok, that solved my problem. Thank you so much again for your help!

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-10-06T19:20:47+00:00

    Hello again, 

    Sorry for replying this late.

    I checked and disabled every single option that I found about keyboard and accesibility: toggle keys, sticky keys and filter keys (I don't know if this is the proper translation, as I have Windows in Spanish and it says "Teclas de filtro"). After I did this, the problem is still active.

    But also, I found out that ALT key codes work only for NUMLOCK keys, but my laptop keyboard doesn't have that key. If that is the reason why I am having that problem, is there any chance that I can still use these codes without having to use a different keyboard?

    Thank you again for your help.

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