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In Windows 7 and 8, the following keyboard shortcuts exist when both left-to-right and right-to-left languages are installed:

  • Ctrl+Right Shift sets the text direction to right-to-left.
  • Ctrl+Left Shift sets the text direction to left-to-right.

This is a problem because they conflict with the standard Ctrl+Shift+→ and Ctrl+Shift+← shortcuts. (These are used to select the next/previous word, respectively.)

Besides removing the right-to-left languages from the system, is there a way to disable these shortcuts?

Sam
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Mert Nuhoglu
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  • Which word processors? The keyboard shortcuts for left align and right align are usually `Ctrl + L` and `Ctrl + R`, respectively. – iglvzx Mar 15 '12 at 16:31
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    Notepad, for instance, although I would rather categorize it as self-inflicted pain rather than a word processor. – Jonas Byström Sep 19 '12 at 10:54
  • Is the RTL switch happening also when you have active `En` (English - United States) keyboard? – miroxlav Jul 29 '15 at 17:24

3 Answers3

4

I haven't found how to disable the shortcut withing Windows, but if you're open to using AutoHotKey, there's a workaround:

Use AutoHotKey to map Right Shift to be Left Shift

No more RTL by mistake, and my Ctrl+Shift+← works without problem. I don't yet know of any reason why I need RShift, so I'm happy with this so far.

AutoHotKey mapping syntax is simple on this one:

RShift::LShift

Credit: Inspired by @gogowitsch in a comment on https://superuser.com/a/490244/93731

Daryn
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It also happens with Windows 10, MS Office 365 (Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, Outlook. Whatever the keyboard is EN or other. Any key combinations with Ctrl+Shift can lead to mistakenly switch from Left-To-Right (LTR) to Right-To-Left (RTL) and vice versa (Ctrl+Shift+V, etc.)

It's a feature of Office when you have both RTL and LTR languages installed, and it seems it cannot be deactivated if you keep both types of languages installed.

You are lucky if you need only either RTL languages, or only LTR languages. Otherwise, no solution.

You can remove the languages from any Office application, below example is from MS Word, but it will impact other Office applications:

  • File:

    MS Word Office 365 File menu

  • Click "Options":

    MS Word Office 365 File menu

  • Click "Language". Here I have decided to remove the RTL languages (Arabic), to keep only LTR languages (English, French):

    MS Word Office 365 Options

  • Then restart all your Office applications and Ctrl+Shift is no more an issue:

    Restart your Office applications

NB: credits to Benjamin and TKWatcher.

Sandra Rossi
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Go to Control Panel -> Clock, Language, and Region -> Language -> Advanced settings -> Advanced Key Settings -> Change Key Sequence... and change the settings to Not Assigned

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Chin
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    I tried, this doesn't actually stop the RTL change from happening when I hit Ctrl+RightShift (and end up not hitting the left or right arrow) – Daryn Mar 23 '17 at 19:23
  • I think this answer is valid for [this question](https://superuser.com/questions/109066/how-to-disable-ctrlshift-keyboard-layout-switch-for-the-same-input-language-i), but not for the question above. – Sandra Rossi Feb 10 '23 at 16:07