Copy Paste Formatting Keyboard Shortcut No Longer Working

Anonymous
2024-08-16T13:22:09+00:00

To my team's great chagrin and frustration, Microsoft has reassigned the format copying and pasting shortcuts we used very regularly. This happened a month ago, but we all recently discussed how angry we were about losing this feature so I wanted to make sure this was raised as an issue somewhere.

We work in MS Office across the typical suite: Outlook, Word, PPT, and Excel. While Excel seems unaffected, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint have lost this feature, which we used prolifically. We do an awful lot of hyper-time-sensitive document creation and editing, and it was a major time saver for us power users. We have had to adapt to using the mouse again, a slower tool to interact with.

RIP Ctrl-Shift-C / Ctrl-Shift-V.

I can't imagine why people would want to record a video clip of themselves with that hotkey. I am sure one could dream up another key combination for that. How about Ctrl-Shift-R, or Ctrl-Alt-R?

Please restore the original function. This change has lowered our productivity and increased our antipathy towards Microsoft's products.

Sincerely,

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | 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 No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2024-08-16T20:43:13+00:00

Please restore the original function. This change has lowered our productivity and increased our antipathy towards Microsoft's products.

You can restore the previous shortcuts yourself (each user will need to do this, only once).

  • In Word, click File > Options > Customize Ribbon. At the bottom of the page, click the Keyboard Shortcuts: Customize button.
  • In the Customize Keyboard dialog (shown in Stefan Blom's post), click the All Commands item near the bottom of the Categories list. Then scroll the Commands list and click on CopyFormat.
  • Click in the "Press new shortcut key" box and press the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C. (Do not type the characters, just press the keys.) Note the "Currently assigned to:" line below the Current keys box; it probably says "(unassigned)".
  • Click the Assign button at the bottom left. That puts the shortcut into the Current keys box.
  • Scroll the Commands list and click on PasteFormat.
  • Use the same steps to assign the Ctrl+Shift+V shortcut to the PasteFormat command. When you press the shortcut but before you click the Assign button, the "Currently assigned to:" line says "PasteTextOnly", and clicking Assign now removes that shortcut from the PasteTextOnly command and adds it to PasteFormat instead.
  • (optional) Select the PasteTextOnly command and assign a shortcut of your choice to it.
  • Click the Close button.
  • When you next exit from Word, you may be asked whether to save the Normal.dotm template. If so, click the Save button.

I don't know whether future updates will leave the shortcuts as you set them, or change them again.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

45 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
  1. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-06-21T07:22:16+00:00

    >>I have to create a custom keyboard command in every MS "productivity" app my employer requires me to use, for a keyboard function that was conventional across both operating systems for decades?<<

    It's a bit more complicated than that, unfortunately. Only Word lets you create custom shortcuts, meaning that shortcut changes in the other Office programs can't be reversed by the user (well, in some of the other programs, maybe VBA can be used, but I am not sure about that).

    Do send feedback to the Microsoft developers using the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2025-06-21T04:36:48+00:00

    ... and perhaps every time IT pushes a new update, which for me happens at least twice a month. I use identical computers at two different locations, and my keyboard shortcuts, autocorrect entries and autotext entries get wiped out every time on one and not always on the other.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2025-06-20T21:45:53+00:00

    Let me get this straight.
    I have to create a custom keyboard command in every MS "productivity" app my employer requires me to use, for a keyboard function that was conventional across both operating systems for decades?

    Technology ensh***cation in a nutshell.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2025-04-25T17:34:30+00:00

    Stefan - thanks for the feedback link and info on that!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments