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Disable user interface items and shortcut keys

Updated: November 8, 2007

Applies To: Office Resource Kit

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

  • Disabling commands by using control IDs

  • Disabling shortcut keys by using virtual key codes

  • Disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys

  • Modifying default tooltip text for disabled user interface items and shortcuts

Administrators can use Group Policy settings to disable commands and menu items for the 2007 Microsoft Office system applications by specifying the toolbar control ID (TCID) for the 2007 Office system controls. You can also disable shortcut keys by setting the Custom | Disable shortcut keys policy setting and adding the virtual key code and modifier for the shortcut. A virtual key code is a hardware-independent number that uniquely identifies a key on the keyboard. A modifier is the value for a modifier key, such as ALT, CONTROL, or SHIFT.

The Custom | Disable commands and Disable shortcut keys policy settings are available for the following 2007 Office system applications:

  • Microsoft Office Access 2007

  • Microsoft Office Excel 2007

  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

  • Microsoft Office Visio 2007

  • Microsoft Office Word 2007

The Custom | Disable commands policy settings are also available for Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007, Microsoft Office Publisher 2007, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

Policy settings for the 2007 Office system applications are accessed under the User Configuration\Administrative Templates node in Group Policy Object Editor. To disable user interface items and shortcut keys, administrators can enable one of the following policy settings under the Disable items in User Interface\Custom node for a 2007 Office system application:

  • Disable commands. Allows you to specify the control ID for the command you want to disable. If you disable a TCID, that TCID is disabled everywhere the toolbar control is used. To disable a tab, you can disable the controls on the tab. See Disabling commands by using control IDs.

  • Disable shortcut keys. Allows you to specify the virtual key code and modifier (as key,modifier) for the shortcut key you want to disable. Key is the value of a key (for example, K) in Windows, and modifier is the value of either a modifier key (such as ALT) or a combination of modifier keys in Windows. See Disabling shortcut keys by using virtual key codes.

Policy settings are also available for disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys for the 2007 Office system applications. See Disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys for more information.

Disabling commands by using control IDs

You must first obtain the control IDs for the 2007 Office system application controls you want to disable with the custom Disable commands policy setting. For information about downloading files that list the control IDs for built-in controls in all applications that use the 2007 Office system Ribbon, see Office System Document: Lists of Control IDs (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=80644) on the Microsoft Download Center.

For information about using Group Policy Object Editor from the Group Policy Management Console Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, see Using Group Policy Management Console and Group Policy Object Editor in Enforce settings by using Group Policy in the 2007 Office system and Group Policy Management (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=81209) on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.

Disable commands with control IDs

  1. In Group Policy Object Editor console with the 2007 Office system Administrative Template files (.adm files) loaded, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Office Excel 2007).

  2. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Custom, double-click Disable commands, and click Enabled.

  3. Click Show, click Add in the Show Contents dialog box, enter the control ID for the command you want to disable in the Add Item dialog box, and click OK.

    For example, to disable the Check for Updates button in Excel (assuming you had previously added this command to the Excel Quick Access Toolbar), you would enter 9340 (the control ID for the CheckForUpdates control).

  4. Click OK, and click OK in the Disable commands policy Properties page.

Disabling shortcut keys by using virtual key codes

The Disable shortcut keys policy setting under the Disable items in user interface\Predefined node includes several built-in shortcut keys that are listed by name in the 2007 Office system Administrative Template (ADM) files. For example, you can disable CTRL+K, the shortcut for the Hyperlink command (Insert tab, Links group). For more information, see Disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys.

To disable other shortcut keys, you set the Disable shortcut keys policy setting under the Disable items in User Interface\Custom node and add the virtual key code and modifier for the user interface item that you want to disable. Key is the numerical value for a key (such as V) in Windows. Modifier is the value of either a modifier key such as CONTROL, or a combination of modifier keys in Windows.

The following resources provide information about 2007 Office system combination shortcut keys, function keys, and other common shortcut keys, along with descriptions of their functionality. You need the shortcut key information to use the Custom | Disable shortcut keys policy settings.

The following table provides information about keys and modifiers.

Key or modifier Value

ALT

16

CONTROL

8

SHIFT

4

A

65

B

66

C

67

D

68

E

69

F

70

G

71

H

72

I

73

J

74

K

75

L

76

M

77

N

78

O

79

P

80

Q

81

R

82

S

83

T

84

U

85

V

86

W

87

X

88

Y

89

Z

90

Note

If there are multiple modifier keys for the shortcut key, add the values of the modifier keys together to determine the modifier value to enter in Group Policy Object Editor console. For example, for the ALT+SHIFT combination, you would use the sum of their assigned values, 16+4 = 20.

The following table lists the values for the function keys used by the system.

Function key Value (decimal)

F1

112

F2

113

F3

114

F4

115

F5

116

F6

117

F7

118

F8

119

F9

120

F10

121

F11

122

F12

123

Disable shortcut keys (Custom)

  1. In Group Policy Object Editor console, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Office Excel 2007).

  2. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Custom, click Disable shortcut keys, and click Enabled.

  3. Click Show, click Add in the Show Contents dialog box, enter the values for the shortcut key you want to disable as key,modifier in the Add Item dialog box, and click OK.

    For example, to disable the shortcut keys ALT+F11 in Excel (which opens the Microsoft Visual Basic Editor, where you can create a macro), enter 122,16 in the Add Item dialog box (where F11 key = 122 and modifier = 16).

  4. Click OK, and click OK in the Disable shortcut keys policy Properties page.

Disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys

Policy settings are also available to disable predefined user interface items and shortcut keys for the 2007 Office system applications. These predefined policy settings for the 2007 Office system applications are available in User Configuration\Administrative Templates\<application name>, under the Disable items in user interface\Predefined node of Group Policy Object Editor. Policy settings for disabling user interface items are available for the following applications:

  • Microsoft Office Access 2007

  • Microsoft Office Excel 2007

  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

  • Microsoft Office Word 2007

  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007

  • Microsoft Office Publisher 2007

  • Microsoft Office Visio 2007

Administrators can also use policy settings for disabling user interface items for Microsoft Clip Organizer. These policy settings are accessed in the User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2007 system\Microsoft Clip Organizer node of Group Policy Object Editor.

For example, the Predefined\Disable commands policy setting for Microsoft Office Word 2007 provides options to disable the following commands:

  • Office Button | Word Options | Customize | All Commands | Save As Web Page

  • Office Button | Word Options | Customize | All Commands | Web Page Preview

  • Office Button | Send | Mail

  • Insert | Links | Hyperlink

  • Review | Protect | Protect Document

  • View | Macros | Macros

  • Developer | Code | Macros

  • Developer | Code | Record Macro

  • Developer | Code | Macro Security

  • Developer | Code | Visual Basic

  • Developer Templates | Document Template

  • Web | Address

Disable predefined commands

  1. In Group Policy Object Editor console, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Office Excel 2007).

  2. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Predefined, double-click Disable commands, click Enabled, select the commands you want to disable, and then click OK.

The Predefined\Disable shortcuts policy setting for Microsoft Office 2007 Word provides options to disable the following shortcut keys:

  • CTRL+F (Home | Editing | Find)

  • CTRL+K (Insert | Links | Hyperlink)

  • ALT+F8 (Developer | Code | Macros)

  • ALT+F11 (Developer | Code | Visual Basic)

Disable predefined shortcut keys

  1. In Group Policy Object Editor console, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Office Excel 2007).

  2. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Predefined, double-click Disable shortcut keys, click Enabled, select the shortcut keys you want to disable, and then click OK.

Modifying default tooltip text for disabled user interface items and shortcuts

The default tooltip text for disabled 2007 Office system user interface items reads as follows: This command is currently disabled. Your administrator has disabled this command through Group Policy. Press F1 for more help. Administrators can use a Group Policy setting to specify the tooltip text to display for disabled user interface items.

The Tooltip for disabled toolbar buttons and menu items policy setting is available in the User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2007 system\Disable items in user interface node in Group Policy Object Editor.

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