The paste special shortcut Ctrl+Alt+V stopped working in classic Outlook

Last Updated: April 28, 2025

ISSUE

Starting with Current Channel (Version 2503 Build 18623.20156), when you use the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+V to paste special, nothing happens.

This issue is happening because of recent changes to shortcuts implemented by the Word Team, see blog article Paste Text Only shortcut in Word. Outlook gets the shortcut shared from Word. The article explains that you can restore the shortcuts and that will work for Word, but it does not work in Outlook.

STATUS: FIXED

This issue has been fixed in the following upcoming builds:

Beta Channel (Version 2505 Build 18826.15030) – ETA Early May 2025, Update History for Office Beta Channel.
Current Channel Preview (Version 2506 Build 18925.20000) – ETA Early June 2025, Update History for Office Current Channel (Preview) for Windows.
Current Channel (Version 2506 Build 18925.20000) – ETA Late June 2025, Update history for Microsoft 365 Apps (listed by date).

To work around the issue, do one the following:

Use Alt+HVS to open the Paste Special dialog.
Use the Paste Special option on the Ribbon. For more information, go to Paste Special.

If you need the fix sooner, you can switch your Office to the Beta Channel:

Use a registry key to Beta Channel. For more information, go to Use a registry command to install Microsoft 365 Insider on Windows device.

Open a Command Prompt window with Run as administrator for Administrator context.
Paste the command below and press Enter:reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate /v updatebranch /t REG_SZ /d BetaChannel
After you add the registry key, select File > Office Account > Update Options, then Update Now to initiate the switch to Beta Channel.