Outlook 2016 ctrl-arrow key navigation not working

In my case that was an issue caused be the new "Read Aloud" functionality, as suggested in this thread on Microsoft's site.

You can toggle this feature by:

  • clicking on "Read Aloud" in "Review" menu.
  • using the Ctrl+Alt+Space.

A control panel shows up or disappears at the top right corner of the edited message. When it disappears, the Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right keys work as expected.


It's much simpler than all that!

Ctrl+Alt+Space bar toggles the reading stuff.

It's all too easy to hit that combination by accident!


Apperently this can be fixed in the following way:

  • Close Outlook
  • Start Outlook in the Safe mode
  • Close Outlook
  • Start Outlook normally.

And its fixed.