Outlook - Spellcheck moved from right click to left click

[Megan4123]

In the last week, the spell check option in my Office 365 Outlook has changed from the right click to the left click. I am assuming this was some kind of update to Office. The change hasn't occurred in any of my desktop office programs.

The change is driving me insane; I keep clicking the wrong button and my work hence is taking longer. The is compounded by the fact I have to remember that other office programs still use right click so its doesn't matter which program I'm in now I click the wrong button first!! This may seen insignificant but it greatly affects the usability of the product.

Right click has always been for spell-checking; not just in Office programs but generally through most software. Please advise how I can return Office 365 outlook to right click for spelling. I have attached a screen print showing my current menu options for right vs left click.

Thank you for your help.

[#2]

This seems like a very unnecessary and annoying change for your users. There is no positive feedback here regarding this matter.

MS- Could you please at least offer the option for people to change to back to the universal option of right-click for spelling corrections?

It's a major headache and a slowdown for productivity when a change like that is made. There is no reason to go against the grain for a things that's already universally agreed upon. It's annoying and makes me frustrated that my employer uses your software.

[#3]

I lose an inordinate amount of time per week to this broken idea.

As every other poster has said, there is no reason to deviate from such a well established convention.

(While posting this comment, I had a popup asking me for feedback... just read the comments!)

[#4]

This is infuriating and totally obtuse by MS. What next, swap the space bar and shift key functions just 'because'? Awful.

[#5]

@Megan4123 This is so annoying!  It was the main reason I quit the preview and I made sure to let MS know that was reason.  The New Outlook was just pushed down to some of us today and the spell check change is just so annoying!  What's worse, I did a test in word, and apparently left and right click both do spell check, so why remove it form the context menu in Outlook???

[#6]

I couldn't agree more. After years of right clicking for spell checker I cannot adapt to the new left click. Bring back the right click! @Megan4123 

[#7]

Posting this so that it gets at least one post each month. I'm doing my part.  Stupid change. Please revert. 

[#8]

I totally agree, the left click is driving me around the bend. Im so used to using the right mouse button. There has to be away of moving it back?

[#9]

To revert the spell-check option in Office 365 Outlook back to right-click:

Open Outlook.
Go to File > Options.
In the Outlook Options dialog box, select Mail.
Scroll down to the section labeled "Compose messages" and click on the Spelling and Autocorrect... button.
In the Editor Options dialog box, go to the Proofing section.
Uncheck the box that says "Enable proofing using left-click".
Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog boxes.
This should restore the spell-check option to right-click in Office 365 Outlook.

[#10]

@sumaraasmatgmailcom 

Any idea where this option is in the new Outlook? (1.2024.207.500)

[#11]

@Devon Harding - There isn't any such option in the new Outlook! (At least not any that I can find!) 

[#12]

@PatrickGaul I quit using Outlook. Changed jobs and don't need to anymore! 

[#13]

@PatrickGaul 

Mine is the same, no option.  Is bloomin frustrating.

[#14]

My condolences! Absolutely ridiculous that MS changed this.

[#15]

New Outlook spell check left click, every other application right click - makes sense 

[#16]

to add to this, bc it's so ingrained in me to quickly correct some of my common mistakes by clicking in the word and hitting backspace, when I do that , now it goes and archives messages in my inbox bc the spellcheck dialogue is open. This is the most frustrating change I've experienced in a long time. Whoever's good idea this was, it wasn't

[#17]

This is the worst design decision I've seen in a long time. This stupid feature has caused me to delete so many emails without even realizing. If the focus is on an email in the list (not sure how it stays there when I'm typing in to the email window) then I click in a word to correct it, press the backspace button to manually correct it and bam, email is deleted. I've reverted back to old outlook until this BUG is resolved. I call it a bug because no one would willingly make such a horrible design choice.

[#18]

@Megan4123, completely agree with how horrible this is. But it's even worse for us heavy typers: the Menu Key on the keyboard (or the somewhat obtuse Shift+F10 for laptop users without a Menu Key) does the same as the right-click at the current keyboard cursor position. This means, I never need to take my hands off the keyboard to fix spelling errors with everything EXCEPT NEW OUTLOOK. In New Outlook, have to go to the mouse, and then weirdly Left Click. 

UI Standard: Left-click is to select (or click if it's a button or hyperlink). Double-click performs the default action. Right-click brings up the list of options (action/verbs) for that current context. There is NO UI LOGIC for left-clicking on a misspelled word to fix it. Worse, this actually PREVENTS using left-click as intended: to select the text in the word. 

But to those criticizing Outlook, please be aware that as of mid-2024 this problem is limited to NEW Outlook and Web-based Outlook. Classic Desktop Outlook still supports the right-click standard just fine. I will not switch to New Outlook until MS fixes this failing.

Does anyone have a link to a User Voice feature request to get this fixed? I will gladly go and upvote it.

[#19]

@DrenCrossley, 

Found a link to a request for this feature. Let's upvote it. Right now, it actually doesn't have that many votes, so perhaps those of us who can't believe MS would break a standard UI feature that's been there for at least two decades and still remains in all the other Office and Windows apps are in the minority. But let's upvote it and hopefully we'll at least get this added as an option.

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/a64c0d46-4414-ee11-a81c-000d3a7a48db

[#20]

But this has no effect on New Outlook (not to be confused with Classic Outlook, which still supports right-click). New Outlook broke this and only supports left-click with no apparent way to fix. Worse, from my perspective, this also means that the menu key on the keyboard doesn't do anything. This means you MUST use the mouse to fix typos while you type, which seems insane to me. You should be able to correct a typo without taking your hands off the keyboard.

If you don't like this change or perhaps wish to prevent this spreading to the rest of Office, please upvote:

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/a64c0d46-4414-ee11-a81c-000d3a7a48db

Sadly, this only has a few dozen upvotes. Maybe most users disagree with us and this doesn't bother them. Or, maybe it's just that it wasn't a problem until New Outlook started to take over in the past few weeks, so the number of votes doesn't truly reflect the magnitude of the problem. If the latter, then it will take a lot of us upvoting this to "catch up" to other issues, some of which have been bothering users for years and had a long time to collect upvotes.