How can I turn off shortcut keys ?

[Maestro Mysterieux]

I have Word 2003

Due to a nerve problem I have difficulty typing.
As a result I very frequently accidently hit some shortcut combination
and, since I'm watching the kb and not the screen, when I turn to the
screen I find my formatting all screwed up. I've often found it
impossible to figure out how to undo the formatting. Even 'undo'
doesn't always help.
Example: I had various words underlined in my text. One time I looked
up from my typing to find all the underlined words changed their font
and size and became bold and some italic. And the underlining changed
to horizontal lines, which I have never figured out how to delete.
Things like that happen all the time no matter how careful I try to
be, altho that was the worst; I had to trash that doc and retype the
whole thing.

If I could turn off the shortcuts I think that the problem would go
away; I hardly use them anyway.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The changes you described are all governed by options on the "AutoFormat As
You Type" tab of Tools | AutoCorrect Options. The underline > italic might
come from "*Bold* and _italic_ with real formatting," and the horizontal
lines come from the automatic borders. In your situation, you probably want
to disable most of these options. The only ones I consider worth keeping are
"smart quotes," dashes, and perhaps fractions. For more, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/TameAutoFormat.htm

 

[Aalaan]

Just a bit of lateral thinking on this. If you can learn to touch type, even
slowly, you can take your eyes off the keyboard and look at the screen most
of the time (or even all of it). You will the pick up errors like that
sooner.

 

[Maestro Mysterieux]

Just a bit of lateral thinking on this. If you can learn to touch type, even
slowly, you can take your eyes off the keyboard and look at the screen most
of the time (or even all of it). You will the pick up errors like that
sooner.

Thanks for your suggestion, but I used to touch type quite well before
developing the nerve problem. Now the impulses from my fingertips
give me no indication of what they are touching. Also, my fingertips
are in pain when I simply touch the kb. When I try to slowly touch
type now, it's an absolute disaster.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Investigate the Windows accessibility options. There may be something in the
keyboard section that will help with this issue eg FilterKeys

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Aalaan]

Good lord! That's a bit bleak. And apologies; you can do without smart alecs
like me suggesting the blooming obvious. I have an very unusual affliction
myself and suffer appallingly from those who don't understand what it
involves. Having said that, perhaps the key for you is some sort of voice
recognition software? Has a really good one been developed yet. I used an
early Dragon but from memory if was very kludgy.