Outlook Excel preview, can't use keyboard arrows, copy or select in the Excel preview.

Anonymous
2022-12-09T08:13:07+00:00

When I get an Excel file on mail in Outlook and preview it, I can't use keyboard arrows, copy (Ctrl +c/v) or select(Ctrl +a) in the Excel preview ( was able 2 days ago).

Till then, I try to restart my computer, change my keyboard, clean my Outlook cache, look for any options for that but I can't find any.

Compared all options with the colleague sitting next to me (because on him it works normally)

It works normally for example in Word file preview.

I can use mouse and right-click/copy and select it with it, but can't use my keyboard in excel previews...

Tried turning off antivirus, macros, add-ons, update outlook...

Are there any simple options that I didn't find for that, or do I need to reinstall Outlook?

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For education

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-10T13:22:14+00:00

    There is a new build going out today that should have the fix, Current Channel Version 2212 Build 15928.20216. It's not listed on Update History yet but should be later today, Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date) - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn.

    To install the build from Outlook, click File, Office Account, Update Options, Update Now. I have not had a chance to test it yet. Please try it and let me know if it works or not.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-12-31T10:05:31+00:00

    Yup, i already did this, but still not comfy at all. Just bring the features back, so we can use keyboard in the excel preview.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-12-21T16:23:30+00:00

    This is a bad look for Microsoft Support... Very unprofessional to not see this issue through to the end. Please respond with next steps ASAP as this is a very impacting change to workflow and time spent completing tasks.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-12-13T15:42:53+00:00

    Having the same issue, it was working yesterday but then in the afternoon it all of a sudden stopped. I like many others use ctrl + c in the excel preview many times a day

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-12-13T13:17:01+00:00

    Same problem - I also did a full uninstall/reinstall and it did not help. The arrow-select Excel preview from an Outlook email message does still work in the Office 365 Outlook web version, but it's broken in the desktop app version of Outlook.

    UPDATE1: this is broken when previewing .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, and .xlsb files. But it's not broken for selecting text in a preview of word docs, text docs, and .csv files. It's only the Excel files that seem to be affected.

    UPDATE2: clicking once with the mouse inside the previewed Excel file, then manually pushing the scroll bar all the way to the right/bottom of the previewed screen, holding down the SHIFT key and clicking a 2nd time will select everything. This is faster than manually scrolling row by row (or column by column) for giant files, although it's still a horrible alternative.

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