How to disable F1 help key in Excel?

When you edit an Excel file, you may always use F2 key to edit the contents of a cell. But, you usually press F1 key instead, it will pop out the Helper dialog box. This may be very boring when you need to use the F2 key time and time again. In this article, I will introduce some quick methods to solve this problem.

Disable F1 help key temporarily with VBA code

Disable F1 help key with VBA code

Disable F1 help key temporarily with VBA code

With the following short code, you can quickly disable F1 key for the opened workbooks, but this code will be invalid after reopening the Excel file.

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. In the opened window, please press Ctrl + G keys together to open the Immediate window, then copy and paste this code Application.OnKey "{F1}", "" into the Immediate box, and press Enter key on the keyboard. See screenshot:

Then close the code window, and now, when you press F1 key, the helper dialog box will not displayed any more.

Notes:

1. If you want to enable the F1 key, again, you can restart the Excel file, or you can also use this code: Application.OnKey "{F1}" as above procedure.

2. This code is applied successfully in Excel 2007/2010, but is not available in Excel 2013.

Disable F1 help key with VBA code

Except the above short code, you can apply the following code as well.

1. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys, and it opens the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.

VBA code: Disable F1 help key

Sub disableF1()
Application.OnKey "{F1}", ""
End Sub

3. Then press F5 key to run this code, and now, the F1 key has been disabled when you press F1 key.

Notes:

1. To enable the F1 key again, please use following code as the same steps as above.

VBAcode: Enable F1 help key

Sub enableF1()
Application.OnKey "{F1}"
End Sub 

2. This code is applied successfully in Excel 2007/2010, but is not available in Excel 2013.