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How do I prevent F1 from opening help in Excel 2013?

The only information I found elsewhere entailed using VBA or, for the whole system (I'm using Windows 8), editing the registry. I would prefer to avoid both of these options.

Andrew
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1 Answers1

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There's third-party software that can do this. They can disable it only when Excel is open or map it to something more useful like F2. I like AutoHotkey. My code to replace F1 with F2 when Excel is active is as follows:

#IfWinActive ahk_class XLMAIN
F1::F2
#IfWinActive

I don't know of any native option in Excel.

Engineer Toast
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  • This works even better than anticipated. No restart was required. Newbies to AutoHotkey (like I was) should note that (1) the help file will open when you first open the program and (2) you need to read the first few sentences of the help file to understand how to quickly get things up and running. In short, after you install the software, you'll have to (1) put @Engineer-Toast's code (or whatever code you need) into a .txt file, (2) save it with the .ahk extension, and (3) double-click on the file. – Andrew Apr 21 '15 at 00:12
  • Thank you!! F1 is a complete waste of time in Excel, especially if you're on a spacecraft or some other place with no internet connection, i.e. most computers on this planet – Reversed Engineer Nov 16 '16 at 12:28
  • @DaveBoltman If you like the F1 = Help feature but don't have reliable - or any - internet service, there is an option for offline help as asked [elsewhere on SuperUser](http://superuser.com/q/592130/348859). For me, I used F2 so frequently and F1 so rarely that most of the time I pressed F1 I really *meant* to press F2. As an aside, I'm pretty sure at least the ISS has internet. – Engineer Toast Nov 16 '16 at 13:21
  • @Engineer Toast, yea I was thinking more of the https:// **m**ww.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4‌​0326 etc. (mww is the Mars-Wide-Web). Pressing F1 in Excel would invoke an HTTP to request to Redmond which would take between 6 and 48 minutes to return (depending on the orbital positions of Mars and Earth). By the time the request came back, I would have figured out the methods of `New ADODB.Connection` and their parameter by sheer trial and error. (Obviously, international and inter-planetary treaties would prohibit Microsoft from mirroring their stuff on Mars) – Reversed Engineer Nov 17 '16 at 08:41