Control keys are messed up!!!

J

Jon Davis

I am still waiting for Microsoft to fix the screwy keyboard control handling
in Outlook. Ctrl+backspace is supposed to delete the word preceding the
caret, not insert unknown char Unicode square blocks. Arrow keys are
supposed to move the caret around, not just make it blink faster. Half the
time these keys work, half the time they don't, I just keep pressing them
until they work.

Using default editor settings in Outlook, with v2007 installed on two
machines--a laptop w/ Vista Ultimate and a workstation w/ Windows Server
2003 R2. Only the Win2003R2 box has the arrow problem, both of them have the
Ctrl+Backspace problem.

I am so annoyed with Outlook 2007 I am disgusted with Microsoft for letting
this happen. It seems clear that a whole new generation of young'ns have
infiltrated the Redmond camps, where they completely forgot about or never
learned the importance and relevance of QA'ing the keystroke driven user
interfacing!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jon
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

what keyboard language? any addins installed? Any apps like tweakUi
installed?

Ctrl+Bkspace and arrows works as expected here on both windows xp and vista
so the problem is something on your machines.
 
J

Jon Davis

Standard English, no, and no, and given that the problem was on three
machines (XP, Win2k, and Vista) I hardly believe it's "something on my
machines". No other text editors have this problem, only Outlook when
sending e-mails. Granted, a standard option might be set on my env. that
isn't on yours that would cause this, but I have no idea what it is. Outlook
is set up with "HTML" as the message format setting.

Jon
 
J

Jon Davis

Ctrl+Z and Delete keys often don't work, either. Instead, Outlook freezes up
for about 5 seconds.

Jon
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

how frequently are you checking for email? Are you sure there aren't addins
installed? Is indexing running?
 
J

Jon Davis

What would indexing have to do with this??

Diane Poremsky said:
how frequently are you checking for email? Are you sure there aren't
addins installed? Is indexing running?
Click to expand...
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

indexing is reported to cause outlook to freeze for a few seconds, checking
mail too frequently will also cause momentary freezes. Some addins will also
cause freezing while the addin is processing mail.
 
J

Jon Davis

Completely different area. The freezes, no-actions where actions are
expected (i.e. move cursor on arrow key, delete character on delete key),
and insertion of unicode "unknown" block characters, are directly tied to my
keystrokes. Indexing doesn't mess with that.

Jon
 
J

Jon Davis

I've noticed that this faulty behavior especially with the arrow keys
sometimes seems to be related to delays between keystrokes -- I type fast.

For example, when I:

- start a new e-mail message
- type "abc"
- hit HOME + DEL + 'a' + DOWNARROW very fast,

... the cursor still blinks between a and b rather than below "abc". If I
wait for a second, then the cursor will start following the cursor.

Jon
 
J

Jon Davis

... when I type "abc abc"+{Ctrl}+{Backspace} fast it gives me "Abc abc"
rather than "Abc". If I keep pressing it, it will add more squares, but
eventually the squares will disappear.

But then the font changes from Calibri to Times New Roman.

IE7 is installed, if it matters, though I don't think it does in Outlook
2007.

Jon
 
G

Guest

I am having the same problems with Outlook 2003. When it is opened and I try
and use the down arrow key it either gives me a "b" character or "n/"
characters/. The delete key also brings up help in most applications I am
in. I close down outlook and every thing is fine.

It is a pain in the butt. It only started happening recently so I assume it
was a recent update from MS?
 
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