g-n-o has told you how to get your menu item back. I'll tell you how you
lost it. You were trying to insert an em dash. The keyboard shortcut for
this is Alt+Ctrl+Num - (where "Num -" stands for the minus key on the
numeric keypad). Either because you don't have a numeric keypad or because
you misunderstood or misremembered the shortcut, you used the hyphen key
instead.
But Alt+Ctrl+Hyphen is the shortcut for the ToolsCustomizeRemoveMenuShortcut
command, which changes the mouse pointer to a giant minus sign (familiarly
called the "destructive cursor" or "terminator hyphen"). You didn't notice
this, just saw that the shortcut hadn't worked, and decided to insert the
dash using Insert | Symbol instead. But when you clicked on Symbol, it was
removed from the menu. Oops!
This shortcut has legitimate uses (for example, you can use it to remove
files from the Work menu or the MRU list at the bottom of the File menu),
but it must be used with caution since it will remove *any* menu item (as
you have learned). It is "used up" after one use (the mouse pointer returns
to its normal appearance and function), and if you ever again invoke it
unintentionally, you can dismiss it with ESC.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
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