Word – Can I Use Word 2013’s Non-English Character Shortcuts System-Wide

You could just use the Character Map program, built into Windows. It lists all characters for each font installed on the system, and lets you select one and copy it to the clipboard. In fact, I use it to reference all the keycodes to type them, otherwise, but when I'm on my laptop, it's handy just to be able to copy the characters from that program.

It's available in the Accessories start group, or by running charmap.exe.

You can copy U+200B like so:

I'm almost certain that there's not built-in way to change shortcuts in MS Office applications.

However, you can use AutoHotkey for this purpose.

The script

^a::
^f::
^s::
    WinGet, Process, ProcessName, A
    if(RegExMatch(Process, "^(WINWORD|EXCEL)\.EXE$"))
    {
       if(A_ThisHotKey = "^a")
           SendPlay, ^e
       if(A_ThisHotKey = "^f")
           SendPlay, ^b
       if(A_ThisHotKey = "^s")
           SendPlay, ^g
    }
    else
        SendPlay, %A_ThisHotKey%
return

How it works

• ^a::, specifies one of the hotkeys that run the script before the return statement, where ^ indicates the Ctrl key.

• WinGet, Process, ProcessName, A stores the active (A) window's process name in the variable Process.

• if(RegExMatch(Process, "^(WINWORD|EXCEL)\.EXE$")) {...} else ... checks if Process matches the regular expression, i.e., if it matches one of the strings WINWORD.EXE or EXCEL.EXE.

  • If so, the first block gets executed.

    • if(A_ThisHotKey = "^a") checks if the pressed hotkey is Ctrl + A.

      If it is, it simulates the key bombination Ctrl + E, which is the Portuguese hotkey to select all¹.

  • Otherwise, SendPlay, %A_ThisHotKey% simulates the key combination that was initially pressed.

    This way, other applications still behave as they should.

How to use

1. Download and install the latest version of AutoHotkey.

2. Save the above script as ms-office.ahk, using your favorite text editor.

3. Double-click the file to run the script.

4. If you wish, copy the script (or a link to it) in the Startup folder.

5. To add further MS Office applications, just modify the regular expression.

   To add PowerPoint, e.g., replace (WINWORD|EXCEL) by (WINWORD|EXCEL|POWERPNT).

6. To add further hotkeys, you have to modify two parts of the script.

   To add Ctrl + O (Open...), e.g., add the line ^o:: to the list at the very top add these lines inside the if block:

   if(A_ThisHotKey = "^o")
       SendPlay, ^a
   

¹ At least, I think it is. I took the hotkeys from my Spanish MS Office. Adjust if needed.