Something strange

SOME of my Word documents do not recognize the Control(Ctrl) functions

You know, when you press Ctrl button, you get this :

Ctrl + A = Select All
Ctrl + S = Save
Ctrl + P = Print
Ctrl + Z = Undo

..etc.

These do not work when I am working on some files. But they work with some other word documents. I have no idea what the problem could be .

Any ideas ???

I know that mouse has made life easier, but being an old man, I feel more at home using the keyboard function than mouse menu.

What version of MS Word? What operating system?

I haven't seen this before. Generally speaking, this kind of symptom may be indicative of either a serious problem with Word (if Word is the only application where control key combinations stop working) or possibly some kind of malware infection.

Applications can grab key sequences for themselves and not pass them on to the application you think should be getting them. Do you possibly have one of these applications running, intermittently/on demand, and your seemingly random issue is related to this application running/not running, and not to a specific Word document?

You should know if you installed such an app however. e.g., I use one such program for my mouse buttons (not for my keyboard keys, but those exist). My program is "imwheel" (this is on Linux, but Windows equivalents exist). I have imwheel configured, for example, "If the 'xviewer' program has focus and I click the 'thumb1' button on my mouse, send an 'F11' key to 'xviewer'".

These kind of programs could certainly mess with your mind if you didn't know they were installed. But either you would have installed it, or maybe you're using a computer shared with someone else who installed such a thing?

Also, your keys could just be dirty. The randomness you are seeing being based on if that little crumb from an Oreo cookie is actively interfering with a key, or sitting idly by, waiting to interact with that key in a future surprise attack when you are typing.

Turn your keyboard up on it's side and rap it against the desk a couple of times to dislodge the malicious Oreo.

LOL.

Keyboard is new, and there is no Oreo.

I'm 100% sure it is nothing physical.

Windows 10
Office 2010

To clarify :
I am working on a number of Word and Excel documents. This happens to specific Word documents, and doesn't happen to the others.

Excel files seem OK.
Haven't noticed this problem in Excel.

Another question
When this happens and I want to (Select All), how do I do it without the (Ctrl A) ??

Thanks

haertig, I am not a tech genius. I mostly ask someone else to configure the computer and I just use the applications in a simple manner.



In most cases, I work on Word or Excel one at a time.
Sometimes I open two or three Word files. But mostly one at a time.

Yes, I do multitasking sometimes, when I run Realplayer Downloader to download some You Tube videos while I am working on Word files. But it seems to me that has nothing to do with the problem because :

a) it is the same when I open the Word file and write next time
b) it is always the same Word files where Ctrl functions are paralyzed, and same Word files where Ctrl functions are still working.

I am thinking of making an experiment, copying one "OK file" into a blank page and saving it as a new file, and doing the same to an "not-OK" file. Then I will see if the new files inherit the same original problem.

OK. Experiment done.

I copied one "OK file" in a blank sheet and saved it with a new name
Ctrl functions worked in the new file

I copied one "not-OK file" in a blank sheet and saved it with a new name
Ctrl functions WORKED in the new file


That's a relief. I will copy all those (maybe half a dozen) files into new files and get rid of this annoying problem.

So, it seems that it has to do with some formatting or setting issue in those files.

-----------------------------
EDITED TO ADD:

I tried to do it again, but problem came back. I went back to the previous "NEW" file which "worked" . It didn't work again. So it seems the problem is here to stay. It is not a real serious problem, but it bothers me because it is something not consistent. Sometimes I can use those functions, and sometimes not.

Yes, it is haphazard
Sometimes, the Ctrl functions work, sometimes they don't

But I found out that some Ctrl functions still work like

Ctrl+END : goes to the end of the document.
Same for Ctrl+Home. Still work

Ctrl+Arrow : highlights text in that direction. Still works.

So, it seems like only a group of Ctrl functions have the problem. Others are fine.

So far, these functions are affected:

Ctrl + A = Select All
Ctrl + S = Save
Ctrl + P = Print
Ctrl + Z = Undo
Ctrl + [ = Reduce font size
Ctrl + ] = Increase font size

Others seem to be OK.

It sounds like you've done the testing to prove it is indeed file related - specific files cause the problem.

Now that you've isolated things down to specific files - wow, I have never heard of that. I don't use Word myself (I use LibreOffice), but I'm sure Word has some "document protect" function whereby you can prevent editing the document ("lock it", in other words). However, the problem you describe does not sound like that at all. The fact that you can re-save the file to a new name and the problem goes away is what made me think of the "file protect" thing. But some of the stuff that's failing for you is not file editing. e.g., "Ctrl + A = Select All". Sure, you generally do that before performing an edit, but making the selection itself is not editing per se.

Hmmm, ... you have a weird problem, that's for sure!

You might try a different keyboard if you have one handy, just to rule that out. Often times you cannot isolate what's causing a problem, but you can start eliminating the things that could cause it, and hopefully whittle the list of suspects down to where you can infer the cause, by process of elimination. Especially if things are intermittent - you can reproduce them most of the time but not 100% of the time - you can easily get tripped up trying to declare a cause.