Keyboard shortcuts

[John]

Hello. In assigning a keyboard shortcut for an international character
(Alt+E for á), I accidentally overrode the keyboard shortcut (Alt+E) for
opening the Edit menu. Is there any way I can either undo this change or
reassign Alt+E to open the Edit menu? Thank you for your assistance.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hello. In assigning a keyboard shortcut for an international character
(Alt+E for á), I accidentally overrode the keyboard shortcut (Alt+E)
for opening the Edit menu. Is there any way I can either undo this
change or reassign Alt+E to open the Edit menu? Thank you for your
assistance.

Just assign a different shortcut to the á character and remove the Alt+E
assignment (select it in the Current shortcuts box and click the Remove
button). It will automatically go back to the default.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[John]

Hi Jay. Yes, I had already tried that, but to no avail. I'm at my wit's end.

John

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition to what Jay has said, note that in general it's a good idea to
avoid using Alt alone for shortcut keys because it is used as a keyboard
accelerator for menus. Note also that the built-in keyboard shortcut for á
is Ctrl+', a. For more, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm

 

[Jay Freedman]

Try this: Press Ctrl+Alt and the + key on the number pad, which changes the
cursor to a cloverleaf symbol. Now press Alt+E. If the keystroke is assigned
to anything other than the menu, this should open the Customize Keyboard
dialog and show the exact assignment. Remove that assignment. Rinse and
repeat until Alt+E opens the Edit menu.

One other thought: Keyboard assignments are stored in templates. By default
it's in the Normal.dot template, but it could be a document or in another
template -- either one that's attached to the current document or a "global"
template in Word's Startup folder. Try changing the "Save changes in" box in
the Customize Keyboard dialog to any other items that are in its list, to
see if it's in one of those.

 

[John]

Hi Jay. I tried what you suggested and neither suggestion worked. In fact,
as to the first suggestion, the cursor turned into a cross as opposed to a
cloverleaf.

John

 

[Jay Freedman]

All of the symptoms you've described so far are seriously not normal --
something in there is badly hosed. I think you may need the scorched-earth
treatment.

Visit http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm (which,
despite its title, has tools for diagnosing and curing all sorts of
problems, not just startup and crash problems) and read the section from "If
Word crashes as soon as it opens" down to "If in doubt, move the files".

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The cross is what you get if you press Ctrl+Alt+Plus on the regular keyboard
(as opposed to the Plus sign on the numeric keypad).

 

[djprius]

Suzanne,

I don't get any change in the cursor or any symbol being entered if
the "plus" is used on the regular keyboard. I tried both Ctrl+AlT+"plus
sign" AND Ctrl+Alt+Shift+"plus sign".

What am I missing?

What function does the cross have -- or is it merely entering a
typographic symbol?

David


**********************************************

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, first of all, Alt+Ctrl+Plus = Alt+Ctrl+Shift+=, so the Shift would be
required, but in fact the shortcut I was thinking of was Alt+Ctrl+=, which
is ToolsCustomizeAddMenuShortcut. I have no idea what it does, but perhaps
you use it to click on a button and then click somewhere else to duplicate
it? It's difficult for me to test because I have that shortcut assigned to
?.