Why Ctrl+F Keyboard Shortcut Initiates Mail Forward Action Instead Of Find In Outlook?

If you are using Windows, you must be aware of the fact that Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut initiated Find operation. This works in Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Excel and thousands of other programs. But there is one notable exception, Microsoft Outlook. When you use Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut inside Outlook, it forwards the current email instead of initiating the Find operation. Have you ever wondered why it was designed like that? Short answer is, Bill Gates. Read the below story to know why Ctrl+F differs in Outlook from rest of the Windows apps.

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?

Rewind to 1995.

The mail team was hard at work on their mail client, known as Exchange (code name Capone, in keeping with all the Chicago-related code names from that era). Back in those days, the Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut did indeed call up the Find dialog, in accordance with convention.

And then a bug report came in from a beta tester who wanted Ctrl+F to forward rather than find, because he had become accustomed to that keyboard shortcut from the email program he used before Exchange.

That beta tester was Bill Gates.

Source: The Old New Thing