Outlook 2016 ctrl-arrow key navigation not working

I have a problem in the email-editor in Outlook 2016. Normally I can use ctrl-left arrow and ctrl-right arrow to move the cursor in the editor by a word. This works in every text field on my PC except in Outlook.

I am at a loss to what setting can influence this. In every other Office program the ctrl-left arrow and ctrl-right arrow function like they should. Its a Windows 10 PC, Outlook 2016 is of the Office 365 click-to-run variety and up to date.

RS Finance

Posted 2018-04-20T13:47:21.647

Reputation: 325

You may just test in Outlook safe mode (outlook /safe) to see whether it was caused due to a problematic add-in. – Steve Fan – 2018-04-23T02:00:13.037

@SteveFan it did, see my answer. – RS Finance – 2018-04-23T06:21:24.670

Oops! Missed that. Glad to hear that the problem was resolved :) – Steve Fan – 2018-04-23T07:12:30.117

Answers

Apperently this can be fixed in the following way:

Close Outlook
Start Outlook in the Safe mode
Close Outlook
Start Outlook normally.

And its fixed.

RS Finance

Posted 2018-04-20T13:47:21.647

Reputation: 325

Wow, that solved my problem too! I wonder which add-in causes this, but it was really annoying. Thanks for the follow-up!! – ercan – 2019-04-01T12:56:22.177

In my case that was an issue caused be the new "Read Aloud" functionality, as suggested in this thread on Microsoft's site.

You can toggle this feature by:

clicking on "Read Aloud" in "Review" menu.
using the Ctrl+Alt+Space.

A control panel shows up or disappears at the top right corner of the edited message. When it disappears, the Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right keys work as expected.

BtF

Posted 2018-04-20T13:47:21.647

Reputation: 401

WTF, that actually worked! Thanks, but what a surprising "feature" :) – Eyvind – 2018-11-07T11:30:03.577

2How utterly weird - but this just works. Thankyou! – Morgan Skinner – 2019-03-27T14:23:13.790

That the crap, Microsoft??! I've been experiencing this perplexing issue for a couple of days and sure enough, clicking "Read Aloud" in the "Review" ribbon sorted it. – Matty Brown – 2019-07-03T14:28:17.837

1If you use read aloud the Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right key are used for rewind and fast forward so they capture the keys ahead of Outlook. I have to explicitly close the Read Aloud panel to get back to normal – David Levy – 2020-01-08T17:20:01.530

It's much simpler than all that!

Ctrl+Alt+Space bar toggles the reading stuff.

It's all too easy to hit that combination by accident!

NewsScaper

Posted 2018-04-20T13:47:21.647

Reputation: 71

That was it for me! That reading aloud toolbar was not showing, but it must have been interfering with keyboard shortcuts. I made it visible again by Ctrl+Alt+Space, then closed it and shortcuts started to work again. – Jakub Januszkiewicz – 2019-09-16T07:08:55.753

If you use read aloud the Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right key are used for rewind and fast forward so they capture the keys ahead of Outlook. I have to explicitly close the Read Aloud panel to get back to normal – David Levy – 2020-01-08T17:20:19.067

Just disable Read Aloud option in Outlook settings:

vai

Posted 2018-04-20T13:47:21.647

Reputation: 31

Polski skreen! Nareszcie! – zenekpiwko – 2019-12-20T18:03:41.920

I had the exact same issue.

Couldn't figure out how to resolve it, so finally went back to the e-mail that created the issue in the first place. (I was trying to insert the cent symbol, i.e., "¢" in an e-mail when it first started to happen.)

At any rate, I went into that open message, clicked to the Insert tab and then clicked "Symbol-->More Symbols"(at the bottom once you click on Symbol).

When the dialogue box opened, the font it had defaulted to was"Symbol," so I clicked on that drop down, scrolled to the top to select "Normal," inserted a symbol, and voila! It was fixed.

Don't know if this will work for others, but hopefully it might.

user950853

Posted 2018-04-20T13:47:21.647

Reputation: 1