How to open Headings in Navigation pane from the keyboard?

You can create a keyboard shortcut to open the Navigation pane with the Headings showing.

1. Right-click on the Ribbon or QAT and choose Customize the Ribbon...
2. In the Customize the Ribbon and keyboard shortcuts dialog, beside Keyboard shortcuts (lower left corner), click Customize...
3. In the Customize Keyboard dialog, under Categories, select View Tab.
4. In the Commands list, select NavPane.
5. In the "Press new shortcut key" box, enter (do not type*) the keyboard shortcut you want to use.
6. After making sure that "Currently assigned to" doesn't indicate that this shortcut is assigned to a function you would not want to lose, click Assign, then Close.
7. Click OK or Cancel (it doesn't matter) to close the Word Options dialog.

*By this I mean just press the keys you want to use; some users get confused and, instead of pressing, say, the Ctrl key, will type out "Ctrl." This is not necessary (and doesn't work).

I tried creating a macro to do this, but the Navigation Pane does not appear to be scriptable.

If you have the screen space to leave the Navigation Pane open, you can choose Headings and Word will remember that even after closing and restarting.

You can also get it to Headings after pressing Ctrl + F by pressing the Tab key twice, then the left arrow key twice, avoiding a trip to the mouse.

If you want to try creating a macro to solve this, here are the steps:

1. In Word, press Alt + F11 to open the VBA editor.
2. Choose Insert>Module.
3. In the main window, paste this code:

Sub OpenNavPaneHeadings()

  SendKeys "^f", True

  SendKeys "{TAB 2}{LEFT 2}"

End Sub

   4. Choose File>Save Normal, then close the editor window.

    5. In Word, choose FILE, then Options.

    6. Choose Customize Ribbon, then beside Keyboard shortcuts, click the Customize button.

    7. In the left-hand Categories list, scroll down to Macros and select it.

    8. Select OpenNavPaneHeadings in the right-hand list.

    9. Click inside the Press new shortcut key field.

    10. Enter a keyboard shortcut. Alt + Shift + H is available and has an H for Headings.

    11. Click on the Assign button, then OK out.

Test it in Word, press the key combination and the Nav Pane should open with Headings already selected.