It’s a widespread convention that the Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut initiates a Find operation. Word does it, Excel does it, Wordpad does it, Notepad does it, Internet Explorer does it. But Outlook doesn’t. Why doesn’t Outlook get with the program?
Before clicking the link to go to the full story, try to guess the answer. I’m pretty sure you’re going to be wrong.
I did NOT see that one coming.
My guess was that it was a text editing/positioning command used within the body of a letter, not the command to jump to the next e-mail.
It’s not the command to jump to the next mail. It’s used to forward the mail to someone.
Well, thank you. I wouldn’t have guessed that “next” meant add a forwardee, either. (0:
As you can prob’ly tell I don’t use Outlook.
That’s what she said.
Seriously though, what I want to know is who is the a-hole at Microsoft who spoke up in a meeting one day and said: ‘Hey, I have a great idea. Let’s invent a new key called F-lock that changes what the function keys do, and let’s have keyboards revert to this behavior every time the user reboots, even if they’ve explicitly turned that off.’
I’m serious when I say I’ve considered researching whoever is responsible for this, for a little public humiliation. Whoever this person is, they’re probably torturing animals in a basement somewhere as I type this. I mean, WHO thought this was a good idea, and how the HELL did they not get laughed at for even bringing up the possibility.
I’ve only seen this on Microsoft’s own keyboards thus far, at least if we’re talking about the same thing. I stopped buying Ms keyboards years ago as I find them particularly uncomfortable, so haven’t had to see this ridiculous key in a while. Completely agree with you though and I thought it was the dumbest thing they’d done… then along came the desktop version of the “Modern UI” and I had to revise that assessment.
I guessed right that MS copied it from somewhere else, although I had no idea that Gates requested it personally. Kind of asinine for MS to break with the widespread CTRL-F convention (even among microsoft’s own products) to create an awkward exception for outlook, IMHO.
f–k Bill Gates (read the article before you downvote fanboys)
Edited 2014-07-15 17:16 UTC
Shouldn’t that be CTRL-F–K Bill Gates?
Not sure. Haven’t read yet. Did they for some reason use F3?
EDIT:
Never mind. Wrong Forward!
Edited 2014-07-15 17:23 UTC
I’m guessing it’s F3 is commonly used?
*checks article*
What? Hahahahah. That’s funny.
It is consistent with the total usability disaster that is called Outlook.
My job currently requires me to use Outlook 2010 and after a year I still cannot get used to this mail client. How the main screen is hidden behind a ‘file’ menu item is totally unlogical. Mail threading is not always clear, and don’t get me started on the broken search system.
Don’t forget the atrocious white theme that it came with. They tried to fix it by creating a “light gray” theme that is more like off-white, then had to create a “dark gray” theme that is more accurately described as dark white.
Lacking experience with Lotus Notes?
I am yet to find anyone that doesn’t think Outlook is heaven on earth, after some Lotus Notes exposure.
My guess: Compatibility with some older software by someone else which was more popular at the time. Similar to the *deliberate* date bug in Excel.
Ok, I was partially right!
So they decided to use the same shortcut that another mail program was using already for this function. That makes some sense, but the article neglects to mention which mail client originally used CTRL+F.
A friend of mine worked in Microsoft in 90-ies and used to say it was full of bootlickers. I guess no one else is left there by now.
Raymond Chen ( the author of the blog) is.
That’s true. Perhaps there are several more good developers left, but I doubt they can change a screwed up working culture.
I wish I’m wrong (still using Windows).
Ctrl+F in the vi text editor does move forward a page so maybe that is the influence – weird or more so given Bill Gates involvement.
Honestly what is the point of HCI standards if they are ignored part of the time. If management don’t get it then they should be sent away to learn their irregular French verbs.
That was my first guess as well, I didn’t even think about email’s other form of “forward”.
This has to be the most frustrating “feature” I deal with on a daily basis. That and the broken copy paste in Excel.
That post neglected to mention that windows conventions had long established F3 as the find command, so it wasn’t just some wild hair. In fact I am a bit surprised that ctrl-f did trigger find originally (according to that post)
Neither F3 works in outlook.
Which makes it all even odder, but F3 for search (or find next) was in the Windows UI guidelines since Windows 1.03 (the first version I developed for).
Edited 2014-07-16 00:27 UTC
Fortunately CEOs of car production companies are not so stupid and arrogant as Bill G. and Steve B. Otherwise they would change car pedal locations and functions at will.
Yeah, that has bugged me for a while… Interesting the way influence is sometimes used to override common sense though! I had put it down to some old convention which has been held onto, so that’s not far from the truth. Much like most of the Windows shortcuts, many of which were held onto from DOS editors and the likes. Surely with one of the big updates they could have switched all the shortcuts to a more modern approach, like Windows-Q to quit instead of Alt-F4 for example. That would’ve been a good opportunity to unify the shortcuts across the big applications too.
Mac OS and AmigaOS both have far more sensible shortcuts that are generally observed for almost all software too, and it makes it really obvious that they should be overhauled in Windows and the various Linux interfaces after switching back to them.
in at least one localised version of Word, ctrl-f is not a shortcut for Find. In the Norwegian version, it’s a shortcut for Fet skrift, meaning bold. It is, of course, a usability nightmare for anyone who at any time crosses a border.
Those who believe Microsoft’s products are easy to use have never used them.
Oh people will use and still insist Windows is “friendly”, despite frequently needing help from someone else, simply as they prize familiarity above all. Objectivity has no place, when there’s self reinforcing received wisdom available as a substitute.
It’s the same in the german version of “Word for Windows” (often called “WinWord”, the name for the older pre-“Office” versions) where Ctrl+F = fett (bold), Ctrl+K = Kapit~A¤lchen (small caps), Ctrl+U = unterstreichen (underline), Ctrl+W = Wort unterstreichen (word underline), Ctrl+D = doppelt unterstreichen (double underline), Ctrl+H = hochstellen (superscript) or Ctrl+T = tiefstellen (subscript). In version 1.1a of course, saving a file is Shift+PF12, and printing is Ctrl+Alt+PF12, obviously.
And imagine all the fun with localized formula names in “Excel”!
This also matches my observations. Those who advocate that kind of software are usually those who are not going to use it. Those who have to use it frequently rely on support (no matter if by a business contractor, a family member or a friend who is “into that com-poo-tar stuff”) and that’s why they can’t experience all the nightmares included in those usually expensive products. They continue emphasizing the easyness, the consistency, the security and the productivity – among other things that are in no relation with the product. So they work as free advertizing platforms.
Ctrl-K for Kapit~A¤lchen, nice. In Norwegian, it is of course for kursiv, italics.
When Apple made Apple II it had extra modification key for CUT, COPY and PASTE (to dodge interference with old CTRL key) while IBM/Microsoft/PC world was still in whirlpool of CP/M (called it DOS) where every program has it’s own shortcuts…
or: “The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all his customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who by peddling second-hand, second-rate technology, led them all into it in the first place.” Douglas Adams