ms-wordkeyboard-shortcutsword-2013numeric-keypad

How can I remove the Numpad Slash keyboard shortcut from MS Word 2013 Outline View


I work a lot in Microsoft Word's Outline view, because I like being able to expand/collapse subtrees of a tree of bulleted lists, and quickly move bullets around with Ctrl-Alt-arrow keys.

I'm generally impressed with the customisability of MS Office's keyboard shortcuts. However, there are some keyboard shortcuts that apply to Outlining mode that don't appear to be modifiable in the usual way. In particular, the Numeric Keypad Slash key ( / ) is bound to the rather useless function "toggle formatting", which hides colouration of my text. MS ref, specific ref

I'd like to be able to enter numeric sequences on the numeric keypad that include slashes. In other words, I'd like to be able to remove this keybinding which is no use to me, and instead bind Numeric Keypad Slash to just enter a literal slash character.

But I can't find a way to do this. The normal Customise Keyboard Shortcuts view doesn't help: I can assign new keyboard shortcuts to the OutlineShowFormat effect, but it doesn't list Numeric Keypad Slash as an already-existing keyboard shortcut so I can't remove it.

Is there any way to remove this keyboard shortcut, or override it so that pressing the slash key on my keypad will just enter a slash?


Solution

  • Well, in the absence of any other answers (this question earned me the Tumbleweed badge!), I found a workaround: Hold Shift while typing Numpad Slash to get a literal slash in Outline View rather than toggling formatting. Not great, but it will probably be easier than moving my hand over to the main keyboard slash key.