Restoring a Keyboard Shortcut

Summary: Word uses keyboard shortcuts for all sorts of tasks. Sometimes you may create a shortcut that messes up one of the other shortcuts you really need to keep. This tip explains how you can "undo" a shortcut key assignment so that everything gets back to normal. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Hannah assigned a keyboard shortcut for a macro to Ctrl+~ (the tilde symbol), forgetting that this was the built-in shortcut for typing a letter with a tilde on top. She wants to restore the keyboard shortcut so that it again inserts the foreign letters, rather than running the macro.

This is a relatively easy task to do. Basically you need to follow the same steps you followed in order to assign the macro to the shortcut, with one important change. Here's what to do:

Choose Customize from the Tools menu. Word displays the Customize dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
Click the Keyboard button. Word displays the Customize Keyboard dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
In the Categories list, choose Macros.
In the Macros list, choose the macro you previously assigned to the Ctrl+~ shortcut. The shortcut should now show up in the Current Keys list.
In the Current Keys list, click the Ctrl+~ shortcut.
Click the Remove button.
Click Close, then close the Customize dialog box as well.

The shortcut should now be removed from the macro, and it will again resume doing its previous duty.

Tip #413 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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Restoring a Keyboard Shortcut