Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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: Quickly Customizing the Keyboard.

Quickly Customizing the Keyboard

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 12, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021


If you absolutely love to customize Word, then you will love this tip. You already know that it can be a pain to customize some features of Word. For instance, if you want to customize the keyboard so you can pull up different features already available from menus or toolbars. Try this, instead:

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt and then press the plus key on the numeric keypad. Word changes the mouse pointer so it looks like a small cloverleaf.
  2. Click on any tool on the ribbon or on a toolbar.

At this point Word displays the Customize Keyboard dialog box. You are probably already familiar with this dialog box. The difference is that the dialog box already contains the information relating to the tool on which you clicked. Thus, you can very easily modify the keyboard shortcut keys for that particular item. When you are done, click on Close to dismiss the 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 (13043) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Quickly Customizing the Keyboard.

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. ...

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