Accessibility features in Word

Microsoft Office Word includes features that make the software accessible to a wider range of users, including those who have limited dexterity, low vision, or other disabilities.What do you want to do?

Use keyboard shortcuts

Set size and zoom options

Set color and sound options

Add or remove items in the Quick Access Toolbar

Collect and paste items among Office programs

Keyboard shortcuts

You can assign keyboard shortcuts, or shortcut keys, to a command, macro, font, style, or commonly used symbol.

Show or hide some keyboard shortcuts in ScreenTips

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Advanced, and then under Display, select the Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips check box.

Important Changing this setting will affect all of your Microsoft Office programs.

Assign or remove a keyboard shortcut

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Customize, and then click Customize.
3. In the Save changes in box, click the current document name or template in which you want to save the keyboard shortcut changes.
4. In the Categories box, click the category that contains the command or other item that you want to assign a keyboard shortcut to.
5. In the Commands box, click the name of the command or other item that you want to assign a keyboard shortcut to.

   Any keyboard shortcuts that are currently assigned appear in the Current keys box.

6. Do one of the following:

   Assign a keyboard shortcutBegin keyboard shortcut combinations with CTRL or a function key.

   1. In the Press new shortcut key box press the keyboard shortcut combination that you want to assign. For example, press CTRL plus the key that you want to use.
   2. Look at Currently assigned to to see if the keyboard shortcut combination is already assigned to a command or other item. If so, select a different combination.

      Important Reassigning a key combination means that you can no longer use the combination for its original purpose. For example, pressing CTRL+B changes selected text to bold. If you reassign CTRL+B to a new command or other item, you will not be able to make text bold by pressing CTRL+B unless you restore the keyboard shortcut assignments to their original settings by clicking Reset All.

   3. Click Assign.

   Note If you use a programmable keyboard, the key combination CTRL+ALT+F8 may be reserved for initiating keyboard programming.

   Remove a keyboard shortcut

   1. In the Commands list, select the command for which you want to delete a keyboard shortcut.
   2. In the Current keys box, click the keyboard shortcut that you want to delete.
   3. Click Remove.

Print a list of keyboard shortcuts

1. Show the Developer tab.

   How?

   1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
   2. Click Popular.
   3. Under Top options for working with Word, select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box.
2. On the Developer tab, in the Code group, click Macros.
3. In the Macros in box, click Word commands.
4. In the Macro name box, click ListCommands.
5. Click Run.
6. In the List Commands dialog box, click Current keyboard settings.
7. Click OK.
8. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Print.

To view a list of all of the keyboard shortcuts in Office Word, see Keyboard shortcuts.

Set size and zoom options

Zoom in on or out of a document

You can zoom in to get a close-up view of your document or zoom out to see more of the page at a reduced size.

1. On the View tab, in the Zoom group, click Zoom.
2. Click the zoom setting that you want or type a percentage in the Percent box.

Scroll and zoom by using the Microsoft IntelliMouse or other pointing device

Some mouse devices and other pointing devices, such as the Microsoft IntelliMouse, have built-in scrolling and zooming capabilities. For more information, see the instructions for your pointing device.

Use Full Screen Reading

Full Screen Reading view improves the resolution and display of text for reading on the screen.

1. On the View tab, in the Document Views group, click Full Screen Reading.
2. If you want to increase the size of the text, click View Options, and then click Increase Text Size.

Set color and sound options

Change the color of text

1. Select the text that you want to change.
2. On the Home tab, in the Font group, do one of the following:

   • Click Font Color to apply the color most recently used for text.

   • To apply a different color, click the arrow next to the Font Color button, and then select the color that you want.

Turn on or off sound

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Under General, select or clear the Provide feedback with sound check box.

Important Changing this setting will affect all of your Microsoft Office programs.

Change sounds

Do one of the following.

Change sounds in Microsoft Windows Vista

1. Click the Start button , and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Hardware and Sound, and then click Audio Devices and Sound Themes.
3. On the Sound Events tab, in the Program Events list, click the event that you want.
4. In the Sounds box, select the sound that you want.

Change sounds in Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices, and then click Sounds and Audio Devices.
3. On the Sounds tab, in the Program Events list, click the event that you want.
4. In the Sounds box, enter the sound that you want.

Add or remove items in the Quick Access Toolbar

Add items to the Quick Access Toolbar

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Customize.
3. In the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list, select the document or documents that you want the changes to apply to.
4. In the Choose commands from list, select the area that contains the item that you want to add.
5. Select the item that you want to add.
6. Click Add to add the item to the Customize Quick Access Toolbar box.
7. When you have added all of the items that you want, click OK.

Remove items from the Quick Access Toolbar

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Customize.
3. In the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list, select the document or documents that you want the changes to apply to.
4. In the Customize Quick Access Toolbar box, select the item that you want to remove from the Quick Access Toolbar.
5. Click Remove.
6. When you have removed all of the items that you want, click OK.

Collect and paste items among Office programs

Collect items to paste

1. Make sure that the Microsoft Office Clipboard task pane is open.

   How?

   • On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the Clipboard Dialog Box Launcher.
2. Select the first item that you want to copy.
3. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.
4. Continue copying items from documents in any Office program until you have collected all of the items that you want (up to 24).

Paste collected items in another Office program

1. Open the Office program in which you want to paste the items.
2. Make sure that the Microsoft Office Clipboard task pane is open.

   How?

   To open the Microsoft Office Clipboard task pane, do one of the following for these Office programs.

   Access, Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint

   • On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the Clipboard Dialog Box Launcher.

     

3. Click where you want to paste the items.
4. Do one of the following:
   • To paste items one at a time, on the Office Clipboard, click the item that you want to paste.
   • To paste all the items that you copied, click Paste All.