Fix: Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-A not working in Word
For some time now, I was getting very annoyed while copy-pasting content from other software into Microsoft Word 2010. I would press CTRL+C at some other software and then would press ALT+TAB to go into an open Word document and press CTRL+V to paste, but it would not. So I had to move my fingers far away to SHIFT+INSERT to paste.
Today had enough so after some Google search on it, found the best fix by Moshe Eschel at:
To "restore" word to the way you remember, you need to go to, File->Options->Customize Ribbon On the bottom there is a label "Keyboard Shortcuts" and a button "Customize…" – click it
On the Categories box, scroll until you find "All Commands" and select it. Now, from the right box select the following Command: EditCopy Look at the "Current Keys" Box you will see "Ctrl+Insert" which is the NEW mapping now put your cursor in the "Press new shortcut key" and Press Ctrl+C, a button on the bottom named Assign will light up, and you click on it.
Do the same for all the shortcuts you like, such as EditPaste, EditUndo, EditRedo, EditCut, SelectAll etc.
Wonder why Microsoft didn’t add both the old and new shortcuts there, since it seems the dialog does support it. What a huge oversight, having Microsoft Word try to impose a shortcut from Macs (as it seems) to longtime Windows users (especially when other software the user works with use other set of shortcuts for copy-paste).
Moreover, the option to reassign the shortcut keys was very deeply hidden, hard for the average user to find it by themselves (couldn’t find it either and I don’t consider myself an average user).
Even more pathetic was the default shortcut key for Select All (usually Ctrl+A). It was Ctrl+5 and Ctrl+Clear (Numeric keyboard 5). What the heck Microsoft?
George Birbilis @zoomicon 
This is the first solution among so so many that actually helped me to fix this annoying problem!!! Thank You!!!
+1 thank you, good Sir.
File,menu options is not their in word.
In some Office versions, there is a round button at the top-left. Press that and at the bottom-right of the dropdown menu shown, there is the Options button
hellow,
not able do new mapping as ctrl C is not working , assign button is lighting
for me Crtl C, Ctrol z numeric numbers and plus sing is not working
is their any default setting to reset
A reader commented recently that they had issue because they had assigned a part of the keystroke combination to some other command. Also try using left CTRL instead of right one
When you click file, look down the very bottom left corner. There should be a button called options.
Thank you for your solution. It was the best and quickest solution for this issue, I suddenly started facing in the last couple of weeks.
Thank you so much! It was a great help !!!
Thank you very. Very very much
Thank you it was so helpful !!!
I am soooooooooo grateful for this! I have been fiddling around for months, thinking I had a virus or had gone crazy in the Twilight Zone—-nothing worked! I am not particularly computer literate—it’s just a tool. Like driving a car without comprehending how the gas gets to the motor to make it run—it just does!, Your help is greatly appreciated! Now I can get back to my writing.
Thanks very much.
How stupid is microsoft!!!
Thank you very much!!! It was a great help!!!
Startup layout was not English-US. As switched to English, Word’s sortcuts are back
thank you so much today i search this then i’ve got it
where can i find the select all command ?
usually the trick is to select “All commands” from the top of that settings dialog, then search for Select All in it (might be “Edit/Select All” or something in the list, you need to scroll it down and look carefully for it)
Awesome! Thank you very much!
can help me find for ‘undo’ control
undo used to be CTRL+Z, but Microsoft may have set it to something else at your Office version, so you have to follow the blog article instructions to find the Undo command in the respective settings pane and change its shortcut key to CTRL+Z
Thanks team this work fine now
you are the best ive been trying all day
Even though I click Assign, it is not change
Probably the key you try is assigned to some other command if it doesn’t accept it. In that case you need to find that command and remove it from there first I guess. Probably there’s some button to reset to default keys if that assigment was done by some user and wasn’t a Microsoft default for your locale
i was going crazy every time when i do cut and paste , Thanks for the directions to fix the issue once for all.
Yes, it helped me. Thank You!
Thank you. Your answer was very easy to follow
thanks – it worked for me .
11-02-2018 (laptop acer)
One can also check out the discussions at
https://superuser.com/questions/533229/shortcut-keys-dont-work-in-ms-word-on-win8/659310
and
https://superuser.com/questions/215595/keyboard-shortcuts-such-as-ctrl-c-ctrl-v-and-ctrl-z-not-working-in-word-2010-on/559259
One of the answers there mentions “IBM Common User Access (CUA)” as being the keyset that Microsoft tries to impose there and that the bug was related to the default language set for Word being non-English (the bug would occur even on Office set to use English UI)
thank you so much
Thank you. I tried many different solutions found in the internet but yours was the only one that worked!
Thank you it was so helpful !!!
OMG – You’re a bloody legend. Thank you so much for this. I recently upgraded to Office 10 and not understanding why these decades old shortcut keys were not working. You helped solved the problem and the major headache. Bless you…
Very helpful – it worked right away. This fix was much simpler than others I read and discarded, such as those that tell you go to the command prompt, etc. When I hit Ctrl-C, then “Assign”, I got a popup message that Ctrl-C was the first letter in a multi-letter shortcut (I had set it up awhile back, not realizing it would mess up my copy shortcut). This was my cue that it was, indeed, my fault, and the reason Ctrl-V & Ctrl-Z, etc., were not affected. You saved me!! Thanks.
Thank you for pointing the way – that MS have cut, copy, etc as Editcut, Editcopy, etc. So un-intuitive!
thank you very very much this article was totally helpful
Very angry at Microsoft 😠
Thanks for posting such content, i have been looking for it since a very long time.
George: This is absolutely brilliant, You saved me whatever amount of money the pro fixit companies were going to charge. Are you a professional? Can I hire you if I run into other problems?
Glad I helped. Yes, should you have some technical issue you can’t find a solution to (or if you need custom software development) we can arrange it
You are my hero! Thank you!
Thanks. That’s a useful info.
thank you sooooo much!
Finally I found a good solution after wasting so much time.
George, thank you very much!)
It was very helpful; thank you 🙂
Thanks a Lot!!
This is the first solution among so so many that actually helped me to fix this annoying problem!!! Thank You!!!
Thank you so much! Very helpful!
Thanks a lot!
thank you so much
I have sent Microsoft Word to the dustbin. There are far better alternatives.
actually Word is the best out there, although others are catching up (not in the UI though, e.g. LibreOffice is stuck to copycating a quite oldy Word look and feel)
Tahnk you very much
Helped me in 2020 🙂 U da man!
Thank you very much!
It really works!
Thank you so much 🙂
I have Word 2007, I started getting this problem. None of the solutions worked for me. Suddenly, it came to my mind opening a docx by pressing Ctrl with the mouse double click. Voila! Everything is back to normal working fine. Very weird, isn’t it?
Thank you
That was helpful.
thank you, it is so helpful!
I can’t find command “SelectAll” in the list((