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Shir_Sagi's avatar
Shir_Sagi
Copper Contributor
Apr 09, 2024

Multiple shortcuts suddenly stopped working.

Normal keyboard shortcuts such as ctrl+C, ctrl+V, ctrl+Z, ctrl+Y, and ctrl+S suddenly stopped working for me. Some shortcuts still work, for example, ctrl+B or ctrl+U.

I have no idea what caused it, and when I click 'Reset All' in the Ribbon Customization menu it doesn't get them back. Furthermore, I then readded some of these shortcuts manually and reseted the list, and it did delete the new additions, but didn't return the old hotkeys. It oddly looks like the original list was somehow hardwired not to include some of these shortcuts anymore.

I tried reopening Word and restarting my computer, but it didn't work.

What options do I have to my avail?

Thanks a lot to whomever can help

4 Replies

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  • Romi's avatar
    Romi
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 09, 2025

    Hi there! 
    Do you happen to have a language that is not english (specifically US english) in windows (even if it's not your primary/prefered/main OS one)? 
    If so try to go to:

    1. settings
    2. time and language
    3. typing (if it's not in the first few options it should be under related settings)
    4. advace keyboard settings - it'll get you into "override for default input method"

    Once you get there you can pick whatever language you'd like as long as it has a dash after it with "united states - international" after it. 

    In my case it was british english that kept doing this weird thing where all of the text editing shourtcuts would reset in word to be the shift ones (for example: shift+insert) instead of allowing both those and the ctrl versions (for example: ctrl+c). 
    Hopefully it helps you as it did me. I just found this out today and I hope it won't go back to having issues after a while. 

    • Abo9al7's avatar
      Abo9al7
      Copper Contributor
      Apr 08, 2025

      You're a life saver thank you so much this fix worked for me for now will see if the problem comes back.

  • Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP's avatar
    Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP
    MVP
    Apr 10, 2024

    Shir_Sagi If you access the Customize Keyboard dialog and press CTRL+c when the focus is in the Press new shortcut key: control, is anything shown to the right of currently assigned to:?

    Another thing to try is to rename the Normal.dom template to Old Normal.dotm and then re-start Word and see if the issue is overcome.

     

     

    • Shir_Sagi's avatar
      Shir_Sagi
      Copper Contributor
      Apr 10, 2024

      Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP 

      First of all, thank you for the reply.

      When I clicked ctrl+C or other shortcuts it didn't show any assigned keys. Your picture does fortunately reveal the name of the copy command (I didn't know what was its phrasing), and now I could also add hotkeys for EditPaste or EditUndo and such important hotkeys.

      Some of these hotkeys had different unusual keys attached to them (EditCopy had, for example, Ctrl+Insert, EditCut had Shift+Del, etc.), but I suppose they were always there just unnoticed. Or maybe not, I don't know.

      I couldn't find a way to rename the .dotm file, unfortunately, the only option I saw was to save the changes to the current document.

      In the meanwhile having most of the shortcuts back mostly resolved the issue.

      Thanks!

       

       

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