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Mac Option + Delete keyboard shortcut to delete word before cursor

Anonymous
2022-06-14T01:00:55+00:00

On Mac, in almost every single software, pressing Option + Delete within standard text fields will delete the word prior to the cursor. In Microsoft software for Mac (version 16.61, Microsoft 365 Subscription), I've noticed that this isn't always the case. In Word and Powerpoint, Option + Delete acts normally. In Excel however, using Option + Delete within a cell seems to act as an Undo/Redo cycle button. Then, on Outlook online (outlook.office.com), the Option + Delete combo acts as an undo button, undoing the last edit (which may be deleting the last word, but if you're editing e-mails like I do, jumping from place to place and editing as you re-read, it's frustrating). I've tried turning keyboard shortcuts off or changing the settings on Outlook online (Settings → View all Outlook settings → General → Accessibility → Keyboard Shortcuts) to no avail.

How do I make Outlook and Excel respect the system-wide keyboard shortcut, mapping "Option + Delete" to "delete word before cursor"?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For business | MacOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-06-14T20:42:34+00:00

    +1 to the complaint of the Option + Delete behavior on Outlook web/online now appearing to be mapped to some kind of "Undo"behavior. This wasn't the case until the last couple of days and it's incredibly frustrating – like OP, I rely constantly on the standard behavior of Option + Delete to delete the word before the cursor. It's not clear why this change should even have been implemented – "Undo" is already properly realized via Command + Z...

    9 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2022-07-11T12:54:35+00:00

    +1 it is really a big pain. Please revert it back to the previous action.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2022-06-24T21:48:00+00:00

    If you are here reading this, please help submit Feedback as Waqas Muhammad MSFT suggested. For Outlook online, Click the ? in the upper right, then Feedback, then "I don't like something". Feel free to use this as a starting point:

    Hello, very recently, on Mac, the behavior of option+delete has changed and is now doing an "undo" (like cmd-z) operation, instead of deleting the word to the left of the insertion point (search for "option-delete" on https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 for more info on normal behavior of option-delete). Thank you.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2022-06-24T16:39:39+00:00

    +1 to the complaint of the Option + Delete behavior on Outlook web/online now appearing to be mapped to some kind of "Undo"behavior. This wasn't the case until the last couple of days and it's incredibly frustrating – like OP, I rely constantly on the standard behavior of Option + Delete to delete the word before the cursor. It's not clear why this change should even have been implemented – "Undo" is already properly realized via Command + Z...

    +100 to the complaint of Option + Delete behavior. Such a small thing has caused so much frustration and so many errors.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2022-07-29T19:52:53+00:00

    Remember to submit feedback. This is driving me nuts so I wrote this Hammerspoon snippet to remap option-delete to option-shift-left followed by delete when using the Outlook for the web. However you could use this kind of script to remap any key in any app.

    Google for, download, and install Hammerspoon.

    Read "Getting Started with Hammerspoon" to get familiar with how it works.

    Create a $HOME/.hammerspoon/init.lua file with the following and Reload Config:

    myO365OptionDeleteEventTap = hs.eventtap.new({

    hs.eventtap.event.types.keyDown

}, function(event)

    if event:getKeyCode() == hs.keycodes.map['delete'] and event:getFlags().alt then

        local win = hs.window.focusedWindow()

        if win:title():find('- Outlook -') then

            print('O365 option-delete workaround firing!')

            hs.eventtap.keyStroke({'alt', 'shift'}, 'left', 0)

            hs.eventtap.keyStroke({}, 'delete', 0)

            return true -- discard

        end

    end

end)

myO365OptionDeleteEventTap:start()

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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