Disabling the Typing Animation Feature in Office 2013

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 Microsoft attempted to make typing appear smoother in Office 2013 by adding a typing animation feature. If you’re a slow typist, you probably won’t notice it. However, if you type upwards of 80+ words per minute, this feature can be distracting and annoying.

The typing animation feature can also be disruptive if you have a slower computer. This feature is on by default, but it can be disabled. To do so, you must edit the registry.

NOTE: Before making changes to the registry, be sure you back it up. We also recommend creating a restore point you can use to restore your system if something goes wrong.

To open the Registry Editor, press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type “regedit” (without the quotes) in the Open edit box and click OK.

If the User Account Control dialog box displays, click Yes to continue.

NOTE: You may not see this dialog box, depending on your User Account Control settings.

Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common

If there is no Graphics key under the Common key, right-click on the Common key and select New | Key from the popup menu.

A new key is added to the bottom of the list under the Common key and the name is highlighted. Type Graphics for the name of the key.

Right-click in an empty area on the right side of the editor and select New DWORD (32-bit) Value from the popup menu.

Name that new value DisableAnimation, as shown below, and double-click on the new value.

Change the number in the Value data edit box to “1” and click OK.

To close the Registry Editor, select Exit from the File menu. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

To turn the typing animation back on, go back into the Registry Editor, and either delete the DisableAnimation value and the Graphics key or change the Value data for the DisableAnimation value to “0.”

NOTE: Disabling the typing animation feature in Office 2013 turns it off for all Office programs. You cannot leave the feature on for certain programs.

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Adding a Keyboard Shortcut to a commands in Word 2013

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Many commands in Word have keyboard shortcuts assigned to them, making it quicker to apply formatting, save the file, and perform other tasks on your documents. These keyboard shortcuts can be customized, and you can assign shortcuts to commands that do not currently have them.

We will show you how to access the keyboard shortcuts for commands in Word and add new shortcuts or change current ones.

There are a couple of ways to access the options screen for customizing the Ribbon, which is where the dialog box for customizing keyboard shortcuts is located. One method is to click the FILE tab.

Click Options on the menu list on the left.

On the Word Options dialog box, click Customize Ribbon in the menu list on the left.

A quicker way to access the Customize Ribbon screen on the Word Options dialog box is to right-click on one of the section titles on any of the tabs on the Ribbon. Select Customize the Ribbon from the popup menu.

On the left side of the Customize Ribbon screen is a list of commands. Click the Customize button below this list next to Keyboard shortcuts.

The Customize Keyboard dialog box displays. To list all commands in the Commands list on the right, select All Commands in the Categories list. If you know what category contains the command to which you want to assign a shortcut key, you can select that category to narrow the list of commands on the right.

Select the desired command from the Commands list. If there is no shortcut key listed in the Current keys box, there is currently no shortcut key assigned to the selected command.

To assign a shortcut key to the command, put the cursor in the Press new shortcut key edit box and press the desired shortcut key. If the shortcut key is not in use by any other command in Word, the Currently assigned to field below the Current keys box displays “[unassigned]”. Click Assign to assign the selected shortcut key to the currently selected command.

NOTE: If you enter a keyboard shortcut that is already assigned to another command, Word informs you that it’s currently assigned and displays the command to which it’s assigned. Simply type in other shortcut keys until you find one that says “[unassigned]” as shown above.

Once you click Assign, the shortcut key is added to the Current keys list.

NOTE: You can assign more than one shortcut key to one command.

Click Close to close the Customize Keyboard dialog.

NOTE: To remove a shortcut key from a command, select it in the Current keys list and click Remove.

Click OK on the Word Options dialog box to close it.

You can also change an existing shortcut key for a command by removing the current key and assigning a new one.

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