Option+Shift no longer works in Microsoft 365 Outlook's web interface

Question

Option+Shift no longer works in Microsoft 365 Outlook's web interface

Huuuze 75

The web interface for Outlook on Microsoft 365 no longer supports selecting individual words using Option+Shift.

Is this a known issue? If so, is there a workaround? It's very annoying.

Shannon Donohue 70 Reputation points

2024-04-04T17:09:45.5333333+00:00

I am having this problem too, and it is hindering my productivity. Can Microsoft please address this?

3 answers

Your answer

Shannon Donohue 70 Reputation points

2024-04-04T17:09:45.5333333+00:00

I am having this problem too, and it is hindering my productivity. Can Microsoft please address this?

Answer 1

sullieed 15

I created an account on this website just to comment on this post! I thought I was going mad! This shortcut is universal and works literally anywhere else and even worked on Outlook for Web until a week or so ago. I have used every single browser available on this Mac and none of them work, indicating this is a Microsoft Outlook 365 bug. If anyone has a workaround I am following this thread but, like someone else mentioned, this is greatly affecting my productivity! Justice for OPTION+SHIFT+ARROW!

Answer 2

ChristyZhang-MSFT 26,126 Microsoft External Staff

Hi @Huuuze ,

Welcome to our forum!

Looks like your issue is more related to shortcut in Mac, please kindly understand that the Outlook tag here we mainly focus on general issues about Outlook desktop client. In order to further confirm if the issue is related to Outlook for web, it's suggested that you could open browser and use Option+Shift to select individual words to check if the shortcut could work.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Huuuze 75 Reputation points

2024-04-02T11:28:24.1766667+00:00

I'm not sure I understand Microsoft's response. It's as though they didn't read my question.

Option+Shift was working on Outlook web, but no longer works. I've used it for years and something changed in the past week. It's a bug that needs to be fixed.
Yakoubyan, Yves 30 Reputation points

2024-04-02T15:53:43.9133333+00:00

I can confirm I'm having the same issue. Only happens in outlook web, all other sites like any of the G-suites tools do not have that issue.
Jake Chung 30 Reputation points

2024-04-03T08:55:21.5066667+00:00

Another Mac user here working with outlook web has the same issue. I am using the latest Chrome browser.

option-shift-arrow to select words is a pretty universal keyboard shortcut in MacOS. I can confirm this works across all other applications, including gmail web, but not outlook web

Jake
b-RENT Nasty 15 Reputation points

2024-04-03T16:24:48.1866667+00:00

Same problem here -- Mac user on Outlook using Chrome. SHIFT-OPTION-ARROW stopped working a few days ago to highlight individual words.

It continues to work everywhere else.
Edward Bilodeau 25 Reputation points

2024-04-03T18:29:55.6333333+00:00

Same here... Mac using Firefox, and I've replicated the same issue on Safari. Very disruptive!

Shift+Option+Arrow to select words is a standard Mac action and has worked in Outlook/Web for as long as I can remember. It should not be too hard for MS to look at recent changes to Outlook/Web and find out the cause of this.
Luc Castermans | Newway 5 Reputation points

2024-04-08T12:02:17.8733333+00:00

Same here... this is horrible
Shannon Donohue 70 Reputation points

2024-04-08T17:14:37.9266667+00:00

@ChristyZhang-MSFT , can you please address this as a bug with MSFT engineering? The answer you provided is not adequate, and this post is getting a lot of momentum given the previous behavior has changed without explanation.
Carl 0 Reputation points

2024-04-15T11:29:47.4333333+00:00

Probably the same group of issues, but using Linux. Shift cursor behaves strange and deletes text instead of marking it. Also started a few weeks ago. Doesn't work for Firefox or Chrome.
ChristyZhang-MSFT 26,126 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-04-16T06:35:08.1066667+00:00

Hi all,

As i mentioned above, the Outlook tag here we mainly focus on general issues about Outlook desktop client. In terms of Outlook for web in Mac, I found a similar thread mentioned that a user has contacted Microsoft. It's suggested that you could focus on that thread for updates.
Gerar 0 Reputation points

2024-04-18T23:03:29.7533333+00:00

I too am having this same issue, and it's driving me insane. Please fix!

Answer 3

RyGuy 0

I'm having the same issue where Option + Shift + Arrow key no longer selects a single word on Outlook Online. All other applications (including even this web interface comment box!) it works fine.

Additionally, it's worth noting that Command + Shift + Arrow DOES work to select the entire line of text in Outlook Online. So I'm not sure why Option + Shift + Arrow key no longer works to select a single word.

This is a productivity issue where you don't even realize how important it is until it's gone! PLEASE FIX! :)

Ben Tabb 0 Reputation points

2024-05-10T17:11:57.54+00:00

I second this concern. I often use this shortcut and find it incredibly useful. With it gone, It's much harder to compose content. I hope they fix this!

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Option+Shift no longer works in Microsoft 365 Outlook's web interface

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