how to deactivate F1 shortcut (Help)

[Gabriel]

I get frustrated around two or three times a day, when involuntarily hit the
F1 key when I intended to hit the ESC key (very near one another). This
causes my PC to freeze for about a minute while all the HELP files are
loaded, the screen splits in two, etc....
Is there any way to deactivate the F1 shortcut in Office so it won't work.
If there is one day I really need to call for help, I am more than willing to
do so with my mouse in the Help menu.

If you know a way to do this in either outlook or excel, please let me know.
I am desperate.

Thanks!

 

[George Nicholson]

If I remember correctly, you can right-click the Office Assistant and choose
how it responds. I think the F1 key can be deselected. However, I hate
Office Assistant and I don't install it anymore so I can't confirm my
memory. I don't know of anyway to "deactivate" F1 besides that. Even so,
that option setting may only have told Office Assistant not to respond to
F1, not the "real" Help.

Maybe you could install/turn Office Assistant on but set it to *only*
respond to the F1 key. My guess is that Paperclip wouldn't take as long to
show up as it does the full fledged Help interface to open. Still an
annoyance, but maybe less of one. That's the price you pay for missing the
ESC key

HTH,

 

[garfield-n-odie]

In Word, click on Tools | Customize | Keyboard | Categories: Window and
Help | Commands: Help | Current keys: F1 | Remove | Close.