Forum Discussion
Confusing, extra "cursor", in Outlook Calendar Appointment body
For some time now, across machines, and over at least a small number of Microsoft Office version updates (all from Microsoft 365 subscriptions), [Windows 11 desktop, current Office version Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2606 Build 16.0.20131.20152) 64-bit] when I click to create a new Outlook Calendar entry, a thing that looks like a cursor appears at the top-left of the new Calendar appointment Body pane (non-blinking), while the real cursor (blinking, but somehow very slightly less eye-catching) is in some other field (usually Location, but sometimes Title).
This happens, too, sometimes, when just opening an existing Outlook Calendar entry. The result, often, is that I inadvertently start typing into the Location field what I mean to put into the Body, or, worse, with existing Calendar entries, I clobber the existing Location field contents.
Screenshot:
I do not use any cursor accessibility settings; I just have the cursor size set one up from the default (I think).
How to get rid of this confusing extra not-cursor in Outlook Calendar Appointment windows? (n.b. Outlook Classic; I don't use the "new" Outlook).
thank you,
-Jay
2 Replies
Wow. "A stale caret" drawn in a place where the caret/input place marker shouldn't have been drawn since the creation of that window in any case.
And, wow, further: Yes, temporarily reducing the text cursor thickness back to 1 did fix the problem, at least for the moment. I am not marking this yet as a solution, as I need to see whether the problem returns.
About COM add-ins, I have none which are not the Microsoft defaults. (This Outlook Classic is cloud-delivered; currently version Microsoft® Outlook® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2606 Build 16.0.20131.20152) 64-bit; clicking on File -> Manage Add-ins actually launches Outlook Web Access in my browser).
The screenshot confirms that the solid mark is a stale caret drawn in the appointment body while keyboard focus and the blinking caret remain in the Title field. Since you increased the Windows text-cursor size, first open Settings > Accessibility > Text cursor, set thickness back to 1, turn the cursor indicator off, sign out, and test again. If the mark remains, start classic Outlook with outlook /safe. A clean display in Safe Mode identifies an add-in or customization; disable COM add-ins individually. If Safe Mode shows the same mark, update Microsoft 365 and run an Online Repair, then test at 100% display scaling. Because it occurs on multiple machines, preserve the screenshot and submit feedback from Outlook with the exact Office build, Windows build, scaling, and cursor settings. Outlook has no documented option for hiding an inactive editor caret, so avoid registry modifications or unsupported rendering flags.
