Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Resetting All Shortcut Keys.

Resetting All Shortcut Keys

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 26, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016

Word allows you to customize its interface to meet your needs and expectations in using the program. One of the things you can customize is the assignment of shortcut keys. Word comes with a pre-defined set of shortcut key assignments that you can use to accomplish specific tasks or to apply different editing and formatting features. You can customize these shortcut keys, as desired.

At some point you may want to reset the formatting of your shortcut keys. To do this, follow these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
At the left of the dialog box click Customize (Word 2007) or Customize Ribbon (Word 2010, Word 2013, and Word 2016).
Click the Customize button next to Keyboard Shortcuts. Word displays the Customize Keyboard dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Customize Keyboard dialog box.

Click on the Reset All button. (This button is only available if you've previously made customizations to the keyboard shortcuts.) Word displays a dialog box asking if you want to remove all your shortcut key definitions.
Click on Yes. Word removes all the user-defined shortcut keys, returning them to their default condition.
Click on Close to dismiss the Customize Keyboard dialog box.
Click on Cancel to dismiss the Word Options dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6093) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Resetting All Shortcut Keys.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 8 - 5?

2021-11-06 12:26:02

Kario

it doesn't work!

2019-02-18 06:01:53

Arnoud van den Eerenbeemt

The Ctrl+function keys assigned to my favorite Outlook mail categories are behaving erratically since a few days. I want to reset them, however without removing my dozens of key assignments for writing mails and Word documents too. I have restarted Outlook with outlook.exe /cleancategories, but the key assignments are still not working. Could you possibly tell me how I remove these few and specific assignments only: through the registry? Thanks!

2017-02-18 10:34:21

Mitch

I was wondering if this "tip" also addresses any changes to the "Office Access Keys". I made the mistake of modifying the key combination of [Alt + O] not remembering or realizing at the time that I use it for essentially opening the ribbon controls. For example, I would use [Alt + O] then "p" to take me directly to the formatting of a paragraph or [Alt +O] then "f" to take me directly to the formatting of fonts.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. It's making me a little crazy to have to work around these keystrokes that I've automatically used for years.

Thanks.

2016-12-21 21:34:13

thanks man. this works!!

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