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

Anonymous

Alt-Click is not working in Word 2016 but it still works in Outlook 2016 and all the other Office applications with that use the Research pane. It works in my old office 2007-2010 Word. How do I get it back.?

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Still no way to fix this bug.

Microsoft broke the feature with their new modern Translator feature and did not give any notice of it or a way to fix it and it still works in all the rest of the Office apps. There are some suggested workarounds for the bug but they don't work on my PC. There is no way I can see to add the Alt+Click shortcut and the Group Policy change did not remove new the modern Translator feature.

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Suggested workarounds, maybe someone else can get them to work.

If you still need or rely on the Alt+Click shortcut for Research pane, there are a few possible workarounds:

You can use keyboard customization, to map the alt+click key combination to trigger the ResearchLookup command. File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Customize (keyboard shortcuts) > All commands (categories) > ResearchLookup, and you can add a binding. Here is a help article explaining keyboard customizations
Use Group Policy to switch off the modern Translator feature (back to the older translation feature powered by the Research pane): https://support.office.com/en-us/article/admin-considerations-for-the-modern-translator-feature-in-office-064e938e-0af4-4f35-bd1d-04feb45af9aa

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Anonymous

2018-02-14T01:12:26+00:00

I read through this thread again and one thing I didn't suggest was to rename the entire Word key in the Registry. Here it is again for reference:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\

Another thing I thought of is I manually turned on the display of the Research pane before I changed the language. Are you able to view the Research pane using Ctrl+Shift+O or from your Quick Access Toolbar?

Ctrl+Shift+O works and I had already added the Research option to the Review tab. Ctrl+Shift+O is better but not as good as what had worked for like 10? years.

I wish I could get it to work the way you did. :( Removing UK English did not work but maybe I had to have the Research pane open the first time or something else like the reboot order or not. When I remove/add Removing UK English it says I need to restart Office, how? Reboot?

I need you to help me out on the reg edit again. So like ''HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word'' becomes ''HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\NotWord''

Then reboot?
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Anonymous

2018-02-13T06:44:56+00:00

Hi Tanquen1,

Does MVP's suggestion work for you? Let us know if you have any update.

Regards,

Tisky
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Anonymous

2018-02-12T02:50:21+00:00

Hi Tanquen1,

Sorry for the confusion, I was saying that you can try MVP's suggestions and workarounds above, not my previous reply.

I tried the function works fine in my VM with the latest version of Word 2016 installed, so I still think it's a local issue.

Thanks,

Jim
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Anonymous

2018-02-08T14:17:13+00:00

I'm sorry Jim, I don't think you really understand the issue. Try what again? I already explained what you offered before has nothing to do with what's going on. Domain policies excetra wouldn't change anything.

Version is already the latest. The odds of that changing anything would be extremely low. This is something Microsoft has done in this version of office and this version of Word. My guess is they will never ever release an update that will change this Behavior. Maybe in the next version of office, Maybe.

The only chance of fixing it is something like Bethel suggested or registry fix if possible. Again she has already said she's changed the behavior so apparently it's possible.
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Anonymous

2018-02-08T10:01:47+00:00

Hi Tanquen1,

It's worth trying.

In addition, the latest version is not Version 1801 (Build 9001.2144) and it has improved many features. Would you mind upgrading and try again?

If the issue remains, I'd know if the feature never works in any Word 2016 versions on that machine, so that we can identify if it's not due to Office update.

Moreover, check if the issue only happens within your office, if so, maybe there's local domain settings, Group policy, etc.

Best Regards,

Jim
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