Keyboard shortcuts reassign themselves

Anonymous
2014-02-13T22:00:31+00:00

Word's built-in keyboard shortcuts sometimes reassign themselves.

For example, if I edit a table, such as copying and pasting cells, and return to working on the rest of the document, command-c no longer becomes available, command-v turns into "cut" and command-] becomes paste. Those functions listed in the pulldown menus no longer include those keyboard shortcuts. However, if I use the contextual menu, the cut/copy/paste functions work (and also the contextual menu lists the no longer functioning command-c/x/v shortcuts). Similar things seem to happen after I import a photo into the file.

It doesn't matter if I am working in a .doc or .docx document.

If I quit and restart the program, everything goes back to normal until I edit a table again.

This has been happening since I installed Word 2011, on my MacBook Pro and Air, and on various versions of OSX (now running 10.9.1).

Does this happen to anyone else out there?

Madeline

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

79 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-18T21:59:23+00:00
    1. I haven't done any menu rearranging. I'm convinced it's doing complicated table that does it. It's like the menu is pushed down & permuted after some table manipulation. "Start Dictation..." is moved to the top on the 2nd block in the menu from its place on the bottom.
    2. Does anyone know if MS is aware of this problem?

    Jim

    I've reported it a couple of times using the "Send Feedback" thingie in the help menu.

    Madeline

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-19T18:36:39+00:00
    1. I haven't done any menu rearranging. I'm convinced it's doing complicated table that does it. It's like the menu is pushed down & permuted after some table manipulation. "Start Dictation..." is moved to the top on the 2nd block in the menu from its place on the bottom.
    2. Does anyone know if MS is aware of this problem?

    Jim

    Jim, no kidding!  That's even more disappointing then!

    I'll try testing it on my setup and customization!

    Wait!  How complicated a table?  

    IIRC, it happened intermittently, randomly, and even in regular documents.  I'll keep my eyes peeled, though, and try to remember what I was working on the next time it happens.  Could be that both things create problems, instability, code crashing...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-19T19:40:59+00:00

    Oops!

    I think that if you have an EDIT menu you have done a menu insertion. So I guess I have done that.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-22T15:30:59+00:00

    Nope, Word comes with an Edit menu out of the box.

    It's just that there are commands that some of us have added to it or re-arranged.

    I was thinking that it was any customization that made Word fragile, but perhaps it's even specifically the Edit menu.  However, as you reported, it could well be related to complex tables.

    I'm convinced that modern full-scale software (not just Word, but also OS's) have become too complex to be managed well and that with the complexity comes uncertainty, crashes, etc.  The fragility has increased--with far more ways of hanging the software.  Perhaps it was always there but with millions more lines of code, quality control is impossible or, rather, much, much more difficult.

    Of course, it doesn't help when new organizational schemes and approaches are introduced--e.g., how Find/Replace works.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP
    2014-06-25T15:59:56+00:00

    I would be very surprised if tables had any effect on menus whatsoever. I would be more inclined to think a preference setting or Normal template corruption would be the likely cause.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments