In the recent version of Microsoft Word the Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut opens the navigation bar at the left of the document to let you search using a simple find dialogue. The advantage of this way is that you can see immediately (if they are not too many) the results of your search, your keyword in its context.

If you don’t like this default function in MS Word, preferring to use always the advanced Find dialogue, that will let you define special searches, such as formatting, etc, here is what you can do.

Go to the Options of Word, in the “Customize Ribbon” section, then in “Keyboard Shortcuts” > “Customize” > “All Commands” > “EditFind”. In the “Press new shortcut key” box write Ctrl+F or whatever combination you like. Assign it and press OK.

If you’d like to use also the Navigation Pane to search, you can assign a keyboard shortcut to that function too. Locate the “NavPaneSearch” command and give it whatever shortcut you like.

Enjoy!