Some Office users have reported that their mouse right-click is not working correctly in Word and PowerPoint. Whenever they press right-click on a blank space or an element in their document, they don’t get any context menu with options like Paste Options, Font, Format Background, Format Picture, New Comment, etc. A few users have reported that when they press right-click, the context menu appears for 1-2 seconds and disappears quickly before they click any option.
Why is my right-click not working in Microsoft Office?
If the right-click not working in Office apps like Word, PowerPoint, etc. usually it is the third-party add-ins that cause this to happen. It can be caused if your mouse is not in proper working condition or is not connected correctly to your computer. If Hardware graphics acceleration is enable, this could occur. are some other potential reasons behind this issue. Also, if your Office app is corrupted, you are might experience this problem.
Right click not working in Word or PowerPoint
If mouse right-click is not working in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, use the below solutions to fix the issue:
- Check if the right-click is working in other applications.
- Start Word or PowerPoint in Safe Mode and check if it is an add-in problem
- Update your mouse driver.
- Run Word or PowerPoint in safe mode.
- Disable hardware graphics acceleration.
- Repair Microsoft Office.
1] Check if the right-click is working in other applications
First of all, confirm whether this issue is happening in certain Office apps or other apps. So, open other apps and see if the mouse right-click is working correctly or not. If not, check if your mouse is properly connected to your laptop or PC. You can disconnect your mouse peripheral and reconnect it to check if the problem is resolved.
It could also be that your mouse or right-click is broken. So, try using another mouse that is in proper working condition.
Read: Double-click does not open files & folders on Windows PC.
2] Start Word or PowerPoint in Safe Mode and check if it is an add-in problem
If the problem happens specifically in the Word or PowerPoint app, it might be caused due to an external add-in. Some third-party add-ins or plugins might interfere with the right-click functionality of the app. To check if this is the cause, you can launch the app in safe mode. Here’s how:
First, press Win+R to evoke the Run command box.
Now, enter the below command in the Open box to open Word and PowerPoint in safe mode, respectively:
winword /safe
powerpnt /safe
You can now try right-clicking in the app and see if the problem is resolved. If yes, you can be sure that a third-party add-in is triggering this issue. So, in that case, you can disable your add-ins in Word or PowerPoint to resolve the issue. Here’s how to do that:
- First, open the problematic app (Word or PowerPoint) and go to the File menu.
- Next, select Options and move to the Add-ins tab in the opened dialog window.
- Now, tap the Go button present beside the Manage COM Add-ins option.
- After that, disable the add-ins by unticking the respective checkboxes.
- To permanently uninstall an add-in, select it and press the Remove button.
- Once done, click on the OK button to save changes.
- Finally, restart the app and check if the right-click is working fine or not.
See: Two Finger Right Click not working in Windows.
3] Update your mouse driver
It could be your outdated mouse or touchpad driver causing the issue. Although the drivers are installed automatically when the device is connected, you can also manually check for updates and update your mouse drivers to fix this issue. Here’s how:
- First, open Device Manager using Windows Search.
- Now, expand the Mice and other pointing devices category.
- Next, right-click on your mouse and choose the Update driver option from the context menu.
- After that, click on the Search automatically for drivers option and follow the prompted instructions.
- Once updated, check if the issue is resolved.
4] Disable hardware graphics acceleration
A few affected users have reported that the issue could be caused due to the hardware graphics acceleration feature enabled in Word or PowerPoint. Hence, if the scenario is applicable, you can disable hardware graphics acceleration in Word or PowerPoint to check if the problem is resolved.
Here are the steps to do so:
- First, open Word/PowerPoint and go to File > Options.
- In the Options windows, navigate to the Advanced tab.
- Next, locate the Disable hardware graphics acceleration option and untick the respective checkbox.
- Finally, click on the OK button and restart the app to check if the problem is resolved.
Read: Right-click not working on the Start Menu or Taskbar in Windows.
5] Repair Microsoft Office
App corruption can be another cause of this issue. So, you can repair the Microsoft Office package to fix corruption in Word, PowerPoint, and other Office apps. Here’s how you can do that:
- First, close all Office apps and then open the Settings app using Win+I.
- Now, go to the Apps tab and click on the Installed apps option.
- Next, scroll down to the Office software and select the three-dot menu button next to it.
- After that, choose the Modify option and then choose Quick Repair or Online Repair option.
- Now, press the Repair button to start repairing Office apps.;
- Once done, restart the app and check if you can right-click in the app.
FIX: Cannot right-click on Desktop on Windows.
Hope these fixes will resolve the problem for you.
How do you restore a missing Microsoft Word document to the right-click context menu?
If the Microsoft Word Document option is missing from the right-click context menu on your Windows PC, you can restore the option. For that, open the Registry Editor app and go to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx location in the address bar. Now, check if there is a ShellNew subkey under this folder. If not, right-click on the .docx key, select New > Key, and name the new key as ShellNew. Also, check if there is a NullFile string value and delete if exists.
Now read: Fix Right-click is not working in Microsoft Outlook.
