Outlook web interface on a Mac: weird Option key behaviour

Anonymous

Hi all,

I've suffered a new setback in my ongoing battle with Outlook's web interface.

As of the last week or two only, when I have Outlook open in my browser (Chrome on my Mac) and I press the option key, it seems to initiate some sort of keyboard navigation thing where it shows letters under Home, View, etc. that I can press to navigate those menus via the keyboard.

So my question is: How do I get rid of this behaviour?

I use option + delete and fn + option + delete very often while typing to delete word-by-word, and a couple times an hour now I accidentally tap just the option key which suddenly jumps into this navigation thing and stops my keyboard inputs in the message I'm typing until I hit escape to go back to normal.

This amounts to a not insubstantial hit to my email productivity.

Thanks in advance!

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65 answers

Anonymous

2025-05-10T18:55:31+00:00

Any update? This is still happening and it has been 3 months since you've posted about it being a known issue.

I'm surprised that it can't just disabled when turning off keyboard shortcuts!
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Anonymous

Hey Y'all, I'm not a real dev but i did create this dev console script that blocks outlook from capturing the option key. I tried packaging it as a tampermonkey script but outlook blocked it's execution. I may still find a solution like that. but for now this is the method:

I will report back if i find a more permanent solution. cheers!

Copy the text (included at the bottom for formatting issues)
open the dev console by clicking option+command+i
navigate to the console tab
paste the copied text into the console and hit enter

here's the script:

// Create a more aggressive Alt key blocker

([removed_js] {

  // Store the original addEventListener method

  const originalAddEventListener = EventTarget.prototype.addEventListener;

  // We'll keep track of our own handlers

  const ourHandler = [removed_js] {

    if (event.key === 'Alt' || event.keyCode === 18) {

      console.log('Alt key intercepted');

      event.stopImmediatePropagation();

      event.preventDefault();

      return false;

    }

  };

  // Override the addEventListener method

  EventTarget.prototype.addEventListener = [removed_js] {

    // Call the original method

    originalAddEventListener.call(this, type, listener, options);

    // Add our own handler with capture for keyboard events

    if (type.toLowerCase().includes('key')) {

      originalAddEventListener.call(this, type, ourHandler, { capture: true, passive: false });

    }

  };

  // Add our handler to existing keyboard events

  document.addEventListener('keydown', ourHandler, { capture: true, passive: false });

  document.addEventListener('keyup', ourHandler, { capture: true, passive: false });

  window.addEventListener('keydown', ourHandler, { capture: true, passive: false });

  window.addEventListener('keyup', ourHandler, { capture: true, passive: false });

  // Directly handle key events on the document and window

  const keyHandler = [removed_js] {

    if (event.key === 'Alt' || event.keyCode === 18) {

      console.log('Alt key blocked');

      event.stopImmediatePropagation();

      event.preventDefault();

      return false;

    }

  };

  // Force capture on document and window

  document.onkeydown = keyHandler;

  document.onkeyup = keyHandler;

  window.onkeydown = keyHandler;

  window.onkeyup = keyHandler;

  console.log('Enhanced Alt key blocker activated');

})();

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Anonymous

2025-03-31T13:27:55+00:00

No, it's clear Microsoft doesn't pay attention to the online complaints, and there's no other way to reach them.
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Anonymous

2025-03-28T18:17:16+00:00

ugh

thank you for letting me know - at least i won't waste even more time on it.
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Anonymous

2025-03-28T18:08:52+00:00

Afraid not. Seems like this has been a longstanding issue with no signs of action from Microsoft yet.
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