MS Word Disable Keyboard Shortcuts

Question

I recently began using MS Word 2016 (forced to for work) after happily using Open Office for years & am finding it very complicated.

One thing I need to do is disable the keyboard shortcuts because I am using a british keyboard & frequently typing in 2 other languages with accents, & the shift/ctrl/alt keys are reformatting the page as I type text, & in this case the 'undo' function, I have discovered, is not a 'true' undo & will not reverse the page formatting that occurs to return the document to its original state, instead deleting the text.

I cannot find how to do this within the options. (Also, is it possible to have the functions of the 'File' tab to appear as a dropdown menu instead of changing the page completely, I don't see the logic in this.

Thank you.

Answer 1

There is no option to turn keyboard shortcuts on or off. Each is individually set and there are hundreds of them! You can disable them one at a time.

The dialog for this is hidden under File > Options > Customize the Ribbon > Customize (Button). See screenshot.

You would want to save this work in a separate document that you can save as a .dotx template and put in your Word Startup folder. That way your work is easily transferred to a different computer.

http://addbalance.com/word/startup.htm

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I'm sure that you are not the first person to want this, although you are the first that I've seen. You can request the ability to quickly turn off use of keyboard shortcuts using the feedback mechanism under File or using UserVoice, or both.

https://word.uservoice.com/forums/304924-word-f...

Answer 2

There is no way to disable all keyboard shortcuts at once. You can remove individual shortcuts in the Customize Keyboard dialog, reached by clicking File > Options > Customize Ribbon and then clicking the Customize button in the bottom left corner.

Because there are literally hundreds of default shortcuts in Word, it would be most efficient to determine which particular ones are causing your format to change, and remove only those. If you can isolate the exact key combinations that cause problems, there's a way to find the commands those shortcuts execute:

• Press Ctrl+Alt+NumPad plus sign. The cursor changes to a four-lobed figure, ![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/b9592996-5f51-4682-b6b4-1499affe9ac3?platform=QnA"https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/f03e1484-0da7-4760-bab6-78f449979bd5?platform=QnA" rel="ugc nofollow">
  • To remove that shortcut, click on it in the Current Keys box and click the Remove button.

  For your other question, no, there is no provision for having a File menu instead of the separate page.

Answer 3

Thank you Charles for your reply & assistance, although I don't understand this sentence:

"You would want to save this work in a separate document that you can save as a .dotx template and put in your Word Startup folder. That way your work is easily transferred to a different computer."

Which 'work' are you referring to?

I have managed to (almost) resolve my situation by poring through the entire list of pre-set shortcuts & removing the ones which coincide with the combinations I use to type text. Except, there is a single anomaly. Alt+ctrl+e which usually provides me with 'é', provides me with '€' symbol & I cannot find this shortcut at all in the software's complete internal list of keyboard shortcuts. So for this letter I will have to use the alt + number pad combination.

However, I have discovered there is a system unique to Word which is ctrl+'+letter or ctrl+'+shift+letter. Which is awkward & requires that the finger not linger too long on the ' or that will be typed alone. It's a poor replacement system.

Anyway, thank you for your help.

Answer 4

Hi Jay, thank you for your reply & assistance.

I have managed to (almost) resolve my situation by poring through the entire list of pre-set shortcuts & removing the ones which coincide with the combinations I use to type text. Except, there is a single anomaly. Alt+ctrl+e which usually provides me with 'é', provides me with '€' symbol & I cannot find this shortcut at all in the software's complete internal list of keyboard shortcuts. So for this letter I will have to use the alt + number pad combination.

However, I have discovered there is a system unique to Word which is ctrl+'+letter or ctrl+'+shift+letter (for a capital). Which is awkward & requires that the finger not linger too long on the ' or the apostrophe alone will be typed. It's a poor replacement system, but I need it only for the one letter replacement.

Thnk you very much fr your assistance.

Answer 5

The shortcut is actually Ctrl+', e--note the comma. This indicates that Ctrl+' is the "setup key" combination. You press that and release, and Word waits for the next letter--e or E. Similarly, you can type letters with grave accents using the setup combination Ctrl+`, letters with an umlaut or diaeresis using Ctrl+:, letters with a tilde using Ctrl+~, etc. It sounds as if you're reinventing the wheel by designing your own shortcuts when Word already has built-in ones.

In addition, if you are frequently typing in, say, French and need a lot of accents, you can switch to an international keyboard layout in which ' alone is the setup key for the acute accent (you have to press it twice to get an apostrophe), and there are similar arrangements for the other accents.