MS Word 2016 Alt-Click on a word to open Research Bug

I edited step 12 and clarified it. You interpreted it correctly. It's odd that none of those worked. I can't think of anything else that gets updated when a language is added or removed.

As a last resort, you might try that. Exit all of the Office apps except Word. In Word, go to File/Options/Language and add another language, such as English UK. When prompted, exit Word for the change to take effect.

Renaming the Normal.dotm file did not work.

Renaming the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Data key to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\OLDData did not work.

I'm not sure about step 12. "then Word key in the Registry" ???

So rename the binary value "Settings" in the Data key to "OldSettings" after renaming the OLDData key back to Data? 

I tried those and it did not work.

You’re right. It does work in Outlook. I didn’t try that before. Since it works there, then that rules out other app interference. I tried several things and thought it may be due to having more than one language installed and removed all but one. That worked, but it it’s not the underlying problem, I added them back and it still works. That leads me to think the issue is in the Registry or the Normal template since those are updated when languages are added and removed. Unfortunately, I’m unable to pinpoint the specific issue since mine is working again so it will be a process of elimination.

Try the following:

1. Exit Word and press the Windows Key + E to open an exploring window.
2. In the Address bar, type: %AppData% and press Enter.
3. From there, open the Microsoft\Templates folder and locate Normal.dotm
4. Right-click Normal.dotm, click Rename, and then name it OldNormal.dotm
5. Start Word and see if the issue is resolved.
6. If it isn’t, then exit Word and do the following:
7. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run command
8. In the Run Command dialog, type Regedit and press Enter
9. In the Registry, navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Data
10. Rename the Data key to OldData
11. Start Word and see if the issue is resolved.
12. If it isn’t, then in the Word key in the Registry, locate the Settingsand rename it to OldSettings.
13. Start Word.

Note that if renaming the Data or Settings keys didn't work, you can exit Word and delete the newly created keys in the Registry and rename the old ones back to restore your previous settings. You can do the same for your Normal.dotm as well.

If any of these suggestions resolved the issue, please let us know which one worked for you so we’ll have it for future reference.

It could be another app but as I’ve said, the version of Outlook installed along with Word 2016 works as it should. Also, we have some PCs that still have the older Office 2010 installed and you can run both at the same time.

I can have Outlook 2016 and Word 2016 open along with Word 2010 and the Alt-Click works in Outlook 2016 and Word 2010 but not Word 2016.

Also, I use VMs for all project work, so the only thing running on my desktop is VMware and MS Office.

I do hope you can find something, I've been using that feature for years and adding the Research button is just not the same. Before I could just click on troublesome words. :(

More than likely, you have another application installed that uses the Alt-Click and it’s taking precedence over Word. I have the same issue and, so far, I haven’t found which application is causing it. Mine works properly when I start Windows in Safe Mode, which means it’s probably an app running in the background.

Unfortunately, it will likely be a process of elimination and that may take some time. I've tried various apps that identify shortcut key assignments, but since the Alt key is an accelerator, the apps I've tried don't detect an accelerator plus a mouse click. After wasting a lot of time, I stopped looking and just added the Research pane to my Quick Access Toolbar. It’s not the perfect solution, but it will work until the underlying problem is found. If you want to do the same, here are the steps.

1. Click File, and then click Options.
2. On the left, select Quick Access Toolbar
3. From the Choose Commands From drop down, select All Commands.
4. Locate Research… (the command with the three dots, not just Research or Researcher), select it and then click the Add button.
5. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

To use the button, click in a word or select a phrase, and then click the Research button.

I'll dig around a little more and if I find something, I'll add an update to this thread.