Strange problem with Word keyboard shortcuts

I’m using Word 2010 with Windows 7 on a PC. I have a strange problem with keyboard shortcuts. I’ve defined keyboard shortcuts sequences like (CTL-g a) to insert a Greek alpha. This works most of the time, but it does not work if I use it after the sequence ". " (period space). Instead it seems to ignore the ctl-g and just inserts an a. Other keyboard shortcuts like ctl-v (paste) work fine there so it does not seem to be not registering the ctl key.

This is also true after the sequences comma space, semicolon space, colon space, hyphen space, asterisk space, slash space, and probably others others though I’ve not tried everything.

Also this is not only just after I type those characters but even if I go back into the document and try to insert an alpha after a ". " This “error” continues so that after I get the “a” if type more ctl-g a’s I continue to get a’s rather than alphas. Though if I move to another spot in the document the alpha again works just fine.

Additionally once I get the a instead of the alpha, if I delete the a and preceding space and period I cannot then insert an alpha right after the preceding character though I cold do so before hand.

I have this problem with both my office and home computers so I don’t think it’s a hardware problem.

My only guess is that Word is assigning some kind of formatting after the “punctuation space” sequence which disables my ability to insert a character and which sticks around even after I’ve deleted the “punctuation space” sequence.

I’ve searched on line and many people are complaining about losing short key functionality but it seems to be a complete loss for most people. No one seems to have this particular partial loss problem.

Any thoughts?

It sounds like AutoCorrect is interfering. Try disabling it. In 2007, it’s Office Button > Word Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options. I’m not sure what the first step is in 2010.

If that is it and AutoCorrect is something you rely on, you should be able to define it as an exception.

I can now say without guessing that it’s File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options.

Hmmm. I can’t reproduce this. Same character, same keyboard shortcut, and I have no trouble.

Did you actually define a keyboard shortcut from the Insert>Symbol menu, or did you record a macro?

I defined a keyboard shortcut using Insert>symbol.

However, I do have some more information. The problem doesn’t seem to arise with new documents – at least new documents I’ve created on my home computer. But it is continuing to happen on old documents and it happens if I create a new document type a blank (I think this establishes the new document as using normal as its default and then copy and paste the entire old document into it. I can only guess it’s something with formatting.

Turning off autocorrect to correct while typing has no effect.

Try pasting the contents of the old document into a new document, but use the “Paste Special” command to paste only the text of the document (no formatting) into the new document. That should leave behind whatever weirdness is causing the problem.

It’s also worth trying re-applying the normal template to the original document.

Edit: Make sure your normal template is good. If a new document created with that template doesn’t have the problem, you’re OK.