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Word documents are stuck in Draft mode

Anonymous
2017-09-26T05:44:49+00:00

I'm following various threads on line (like this one: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/3edb44de-29b9-456f-ab68-017b3f48f587/word-stuck-in-draft-mode?forum=word) and not getting any joy.

Word is stuck on Draft view (ie, clicking on View> Print Layout has no effect).

I'm on the most up-to-date version of Word (15.38)

It's happening with different documents, different clients and different projects!

I cannot cut and paste to a new Word doc - the problem is still there.

It happens on either a client's Word doc they've emailed over, or my own.

File>Options is not showing up on my dropdown menu. I've only got File>Properties

I feel I've tried everything. Would anyone be able to suggest a fix? I want the default to be Print Layout - and to click over to other views on the rare occasions I need to.

Many thanks, Rebecca S

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-10-06T16:49:02+00:00

    Hi

    You get a new email from the system whenever a moderator marks a reply as Answer. I assume the message you're receiving points you toward the reply marked Answer and asks whether or not it takes care of the issue you raised.

    The emails come out of order primarily due to time zone differences and timing among the various servers around the world that Microsoft uses. It takes a while for replies to cascade through the whole system.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-26T08:19:59+00:00

    Hi Rebecca,

    Before we troubleshoot, we'd like to confirm some information:

    1. You mentioned that all the clients and documents are encountered the same problem. Have you tried creating a new document then directly edit the document in Draft mode?
    2. You can follow the steps below to try resetting Word.

        1) Quit all Office applications.

        2) Open Finder and go to ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Templates, move Normal.dotm to Desktop.

        3) Go to ~/Library/Preferences, locate the files com.microsoft.Word.plist and com.microsoft.Office.plist, move them to the Desktop (Word will rebuild them).

        4) Restart Word.

    1. Would you please record a reproduce video and share it with us via Private Message so we can confirm the symptom of the problem.

    Regards,

    Tisky

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435K Reputation points
    2017-10-04T13:13:47+00:00

    Again, there is absolutely no reason to reinstall... That will not "correct" anything because there is nothing to be corrected. You'll face the same issue the next time you open a document which has been set to not show White Space between pages.

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  4. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435K Reputation points
    2017-10-03T14:14:25+00:00

    Please ignore the irresponsible advice to reinstall your software. This is a very simple matter involving nothing more than a UI setting.

    Your screen shot indicates that Hide White Space has been invoked in the document. Please see: cursor starts at the very top of the page

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2017-09-27T22:48:36+00:00

    Hi Tisky,

    it sounds like you didn't get my private message - see your link? I responded via that rather than make a long trail of questions. This is not yet resolved as I don't have 'Group Containers'. There was also some other relevant detail in my reply.

    Could you please check that before marking this as 'resolved'?

    thank you

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