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Lee McKnight
 
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Default No "symbols" line under "Insert" in Microsoft Word 2002

Last May I bought a copy of Microsoft Word 2002 which I installed in my
(then) brand new Dell laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. Everything
worked fine until recently when I needed to insert a symbol into a document.
When I pulled down the "Insert" window I was astonished to find that there
was no "Symbol..." line. I re-installed the software from the original disk
but still no "Symbol..." line in the "Insert" window. What do I need to do
to be able to insert symbols (specifically an em-dash and an accented 'a') in
my document?
Lee McKnight
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garfield-n-odie
 
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See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...oreMenuCmd.htm .

Lee McKnight wrote:

Last May I bought a copy of Microsoft Word 2002 which I installed in my
(then) brand new Dell laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. Everything
worked fine until recently when I needed to insert a symbol into a document.
When I pulled down the "Insert" window I was astonished to find that there
was no "Symbol..." line. I re-installed the software from the original disk
but still no "Symbol..." line in the "Insert" window. What do I need to do
to be able to insert symbols (specifically an em-dash and an accented 'a') in
my document?
Lee McKnight


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Suzanne S. Barnhill
 
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Reinstalling rarely helps in such a situation because it does not overwrite
Normal.dot or the Registry, where such settings are stored. Garfield-n-odie
has told you how to restore the menu command. May I suggest how you came to
lose it? The keyboard shortcut for what has been called the "destructive
cursor" or "terminator hyphen" is Alt+Ctrl+Hyphen. When you press this
combination, the mouse pointer changes to a black bar, like a giant minus
sign. When you click on a menu item (*any* menu item), it is removed. This
is handy for removing obsolete files from the File menu MRU list or the Work
menu, and it is "used up" after one click, but it can still be dangerous.

You may wonder how you happened to press this shortcut and remove the Symbol
menu entry. The usual cause is an attempt to insert an em dash, the shortcut
for which is Alt+Ctrl+Num- (described in Help as Alt+Ctrl+Minus). This means
the minus key on the numeric keypad. If you interpret it as meaning the
hyphen instead, you get the wrong shortcut. So you try to insert an em dash,
get no apparent result, and decide you'll use Insert | Symbol instead. Zap!
Symbol is gone!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Lee McKnight" Lee wrote in message
...
Last May I bought a copy of Microsoft Word 2002 which I installed in my
(then) brand new Dell laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. Everything
worked fine until recently when I needed to insert a symbol into a

document.
When I pulled down the "Insert" window I was astonished to find that there
was no "Symbol..." line. I re-installed the software from the original

disk
but still no "Symbol..." line in the "Insert" window. What do I need to

do
to be able to insert symbols (specifically an em-dash and an accented 'a')

in
my document?
Lee McKnight


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Lee McKnight
 
Posts: n/a
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Yep. That FAQ reference allowed me to restore the "Symbols" entry in the
"Isert" menu.

Of course we now all wonder what in the world I did in order to lose the
"Symobls" entry in the menu in the first place.

Thank you,
Lee McKnight

"garfield-n-odie" wrote:

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...oreMenuCmd.htm .

Lee McKnight wrote:

Last May I bought a copy of Microsoft Word 2002 which I installed in my
(then) brand new Dell laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. Everything
worked fine until recently when I needed to insert a symbol into a document.
When I pulled down the "Insert" window I was astonished to find that there
was no "Symbol..." line. I re-installed the software from the original disk
but still no "Symbol..." line in the "Insert" window. What do I need to do
to be able to insert symbols (specifically an em-dash and an accented 'a') in
my document?
Lee McKnight



  #5   Report Post  
Lee McKnight
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Yep.

That's almost certainly what happened. I don't have a numerical keyboard on
my laptop and inserting an em-dash was precisely what I was trying to do.

Thanks for helping me put my "Symbols" line back in the "Insert" window.

And for figuring out how I lost it in the first place so I can try not to do
it
again.


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Reinstalling rarely helps in such a situation because it does not overwrite
Normal.dot or the Registry, where such settings are stored. Garfield-n-odie
has told you how to restore the menu command. May I suggest how you came to
lose it? The keyboard shortcut for what has been called the "destructive
cursor" or "terminator hyphen" is Alt+Ctrl+Hyphen. When you press this
combination, the mouse pointer changes to a black bar, like a giant minus
sign. When you click on a menu item (*any* menu item), it is removed. This
is handy for removing obsolete files from the File menu MRU list or the Work
menu, and it is "used up" after one click, but it can still be dangerous.

You may wonder how you happened to press this shortcut and remove the Symbol
menu entry. The usual cause is an attempt to insert an em dash, the shortcut
for which is Alt+Ctrl+Num- (described in Help as Alt+Ctrl+Minus). This means
the minus key on the numeric keypad. If you interpret it as meaning the
hyphen instead, you get the wrong shortcut. So you try to insert an em dash,
get no apparent result, and decide you'll use Insert | Symbol instead. Zap!
Symbol is gone!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Lee McKnight" Lee wrote in message
...
Last May I bought a copy of Microsoft Word 2002 which I installed in my
(then) brand new Dell laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. Everything
worked fine until recently when I needed to insert a symbol into a

document.
When I pulled down the "Insert" window I was astonished to find that there
was no "Symbol..." line. I re-installed the software from the original

disk
but still no "Symbol..." line in the "Insert" window. What do I need to

do
to be able to insert symbols (specifically an em-dash and an accented 'a')

in
my document?
Lee McKnight





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Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
nd nd is offline
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Posts: 1
Default No "symbols" line under "Insert" in Microsoft Word 2002

NorthDakota
I made the mistake of trying the shortcut for em dash and lost the symbol. I
went to the link and was able to get it back. Thank-you for posting it. I am
using Word 2003

"garfield-n-odie" wrote:

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...oreMenuCmd.htm .

Lee McKnight wrote:

Last May I bought a copy of Microsoft Word 2002 which I installed in my
(then) brand new Dell laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. Everything
worked fine until recently when I needed to insert a symbol into a document.
When I pulled down the "Insert" window I was astonished to find that there
was no "Symbol..." line. I re-installed the software from the original disk
but still no "Symbol..." line in the "Insert" window. What do I need to do
to be able to insert symbols (specifically an em-dash and an accented 'a') in
my document?
Lee McKnight



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Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
Suzanne S. Barnhill Suzanne S. Barnhill is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 33,624
Default No "symbols" line under "Insert" in Microsoft Word 2002

See http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/LostSymbol.htm for more on that.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"nd" wrote in message
...
NorthDakota
I made the mistake of trying the shortcut for em dash and lost the symbol.

I
went to the link and was able to get it back. Thank-you for posting it. I

am
using Word 2003

"garfield-n-odie" wrote:

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...oreMenuCmd.htm .

Lee McKnight wrote:

Last May I bought a copy of Microsoft Word 2002 which I installed in

my
(then) brand new Dell laptop running Windows XP Home Edition.

Everything
worked fine until recently when I needed to insert a symbol into a

document.
When I pulled down the "Insert" window I was astonished to find that

there
was no "Symbol..." line. I re-installed the software from the

original disk
but still no "Symbol..." line in the "Insert" window. What do I need

to do
to be able to insert symbols (specifically an em-dash and an accented

'a') in
my document?
Lee McKnight




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