Accidentally removed "symbol" from Insert menu...Help Please!

[love2sail]

I am using Word 2002 and was playing around with the insert symbol menu and
was trying to figure out a short cut to insert an em dash. It said that the
shortcut was ctrl+alt+Num I didn't know what "Num" represented so I hit
ctrl+alt+M that brought up insert comment, not what i wanted. Then I hit
ctrl+alt+1 and that changed the size of the text for the entire document so I
hit undo. Somehow in the process the mouse cursor got changed to a solid
horzontal short black line and when I went back to the insert menu to bring
up the symbols I clicked on "symbols" and it removed it from the drop down
all together and now I can't find it or get it back on the insert menu.

Anybody know what I did and how to get "symbols" back on the insert menu?

Please help! Thanks!

Steve

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/RestoreMenuCmd.htm. You have
diagnosed this pretty well; here's exactly what you did:

1. You wanted to insert an em dash. The keyboard shortcut for that is
Alt+Ctrl+Num- (that is, the minus key on the numeric keypad).

2. Instead, you pressed Alt+Ctrl+Hyphen, which is the shortcut for
ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut.

3. You didn't notice that the mouse pointer had changed to a big minus sign,
but you didn't get an em dash and thought nothing had happened (in your case
you did notice this but didn't know what it meant)

4. So you thought you'd insert the em dash from the Symbol dialog and
clicked on Symbol on the Insert menu.

5. What you didn't realize is that the function of
ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut is to remove any menu item you click on.
This is handy for removing unneeded files from the Work menu or deleted
files from the MRU list at the bottom of the file menu (or any other
unwanted menu item) but disastrous if you're trying to actually *use* a menu
command.

If this ever happens to you again, be aware that you can dismiss the command
with ESC.

 

[love2sail]

That is exactly what did. Thank you!!! You're genius!!

 

[Andrew B]

Suzanne:

I have the same problem Steve does. I've read your message, and while Steve
has obviously been able to fix the problem based on what you told him, I
don't think I understand. Can you please explain exactly how and when one
uses "Escape" to get the symbol command back into the "Insert" drop-down? The
symbol command is truly and permanently gone from my "Insert" drop-down and I
don't know how to use "Escape" to get it back.

Thanks.

Andrew B

 

[Andrew B]

Forget my previous post - I missed the hyperlink you provided, which gave the
instructions.

Thanks for the help!