Forum Discussion
Backspace key in Outlook
Hello,
out of the sudden the backspace key stopped working in Outlook.
Usually pressing the backspace key in editing mode each press does delete the last letter.
It works in every other program.
Now i have to press shift and backspace for that functionality.
What happened and how to restore?
Office 365 is already updated and the problem exists too in Outlooks safe mode.
13 Replies
Hi, you need to go Options>Mail> Compose message > click Editor Options > Advanced > Editing options and make sure "Typing replaced selected text" is ticked
Restart Outlook to ensure it is working. Hope it helped
In fact it seems that all answers look irrelevant. You asked about the behaviour of the backspace while editing, they answered about the behaviour of that key on the message list.
Anyway, I suffer from a maybe related issue. While I am typing text quite fast an use the backspace key to delete the last letter, it is deleting the following "end of line". As a result, the following paragraph is appended to the text I am just editing.
Did you notice something like this?
I noticed this on 2 different Windows 10 computers (only my hands are identical).
- In newer versions, it performs "Archive", not "delete". Hit the Delete key for the latter.
- Sorry, but no.
I wrote about editing mode, not archive emails and am using the newest Outlook 365.- In Outlook 2016 and Outlook for Microsoft 365, a "feature" called the backspace-to-archive keybind was introduced. It allows one to archive messages by selecting them and then pressing the Backspace key. Folks who don't like this feature can turn it off by editing the Registry on their computer. Unfortunately, that edit disables the backspace key altogether. See the Disable the Backspace keyboard shortcut section of https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlook-2016s-archive-button/. Perhaps someone in your organization made a group policy change that disabled your backspace key.
BTW, a much better way to disable that backspace button's archiving feature without disabling the button altogether can be found at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/archive-in-outlook-for-windows-25f75777-3cdc-4c77-9783-5929c7b47028?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us
