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Since Microsoft Office 2007, ribbon toolbar has been added. When I press Alt key, ribbon keytips will show.

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How can I disable keytips showing? So that when I press Alt key, I want nothing to happen, because I find it very annoying when I switch keyboard layouts with Alt+ Shiftand sometimes keytips will show.

Brad Patton
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Peter Sivák
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  • Have you tried changing the shortcut for keytips to the `ctrl` button on those systems with the other layout? – Ramhound Mar 29 '13 at 18:03
  • @Ramhound: How can I change the shortcut for keytips? And what is the purpose of it? I want to disable keytips shortcut, not change it to `ctrl`. – Peter Sivák Mar 29 '13 at 19:58
  • yes, this is extremely terrible UX from Microsoft, it makes typing SO hard. Whoever invented this, doesn't know his users. – Nishi Oct 29 '18 at 10:52

2 Answers2

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I have a partial fix for this. To disable the KeyTips when only pressing Alt apply the following registry change:

Word 2013

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\15.0\word\disabledshortcutkeyslist]
"KeyMod1"="18,16"

Word 2016

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\word\disabledshortcutkeyslist]
"KeyMod1"="18,16"

The KeyTips will still appear after using a built-in Alt shortcut but at least it is progress.

John Long
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  • source: "Disabling shortcut keys by using virtual key codes / control IDs / Group Policy" - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/office-2013-resource-kit/cc179143(v=office.15) – Nishi Oct 29 '18 at 12:57
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I believe this is a "baked in" feature. It's called a UI affordance as it's meant to highlight that the Alt key will trigger those actions.

Brad Patton
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  • Do you know it or do you just "believe" that I cannot disable it? – Peter Sivák Mar 29 '13 at 14:00
  • Well it's very hard to prove a negative. I can't find an option to disable. And 20 years of writing software makes me doubt that they would offer one. – Brad Patton Mar 29 '13 at 14:10
  • Ok, its very strange that such an option to disable it does not exist - but thank you for the answer. – Peter Sivák Mar 29 '13 at 14:37
  • Office moderator says "Just ignore the keytips and continue to enter your shortcut" - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/how-do-i-turn-off-keytipsalt-functions-the-ribbon/2bced1b9-5b73-4736-8a37-35fb9b34dfe8 – Nishi Oct 29 '18 at 12:56