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I have OS X 10.6.8 and I run MS Word:Mac 2011. I programmed the keyboard to allow me to jump from word to word in a document by hitting Control + Arrow key. This makes word processing much faster. However, I lost this ability after an update some time ago. Now, when I hit Control + Arrow key OS X cycles through what I believe are Spaces on my desktop.

This is hugely annoying and I have no interest in using Spaces. I am perfectly happy to switch between apps using Alt + Tab. How do I go back to being able to use Control + Arrow key to navigate in a document in MS Word?

Thanks!

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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It seems like OS X automatically re-assigns ⌥→ and ⌥← to jump one word forward/backward, as soon as you disable the 'switching space' shortcuts in the Mission Control.

System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts and uncheck the Mission Control shortcuts

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    Only the left arrow is working, the right one do nothing after that
    – Leonardo Rick
    Feb 11, 2023 at 16:23
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To disable the shortcut for switching to spaces go to the keyboard shortcuts tab of the keyboard preferences pane. Select Mission Control on the left and then un-check the 'Move left/right a space' options.

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To move from word to word, you must use Option + arrow keys

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    That definitely didn't used to be the case.
    – dslack
    Dec 3, 2022 at 1:36
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    Is there a way to change it to ctrl?
    – Leonardo Rick
    Feb 2, 2023 at 19:11

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