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Weird blocks of grey across documents in Word and concealing text beneath

Anonymous
2020-12-11T15:28:35+00:00

I keep seeing this in documents when editing with these grey bands across the page covering text beneath, which is unhelpful when editing?! Any ideas what this is and how to get rid? TIA

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-12T20:00:18+00:00

    Dear Microsoft Support Team,

    unfortunately I have the same problem and I am (also) using Word on Mac. It seems to be a Word on Mac problem because my colleagues using Windows can work with the same file as I do perfectly fine. Can you please offer an update for my Word version (16.46 (21021202)) that fixes the bug?  

    Thanks for your help!

    Kind regards

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-12-11T21:57:57+00:00

    If you send me a copy of the document, referencing this thread in the covering email message, I will investigate the issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-12-16T02:47:38+00:00

    Hi SooshBoosh,

    Thank you for your reply and share your idea with us. We will try our best to help you if we can do anything.

    So, to save your time and find the root cause, could you please test and provide the result below so that we can provide more targeted help?

    1. Per your screenshot, it seems that you are using Mac, not Windows 10 (according to the thread category). May I know whether you are referring to Mac?
    2. According to “I feel it may be related to documents drafted by others in older versions of office/word”, it seems the problem only happens to those documents which you get from others. So, may I know the problem happens to several specific documents, or part of the files, or all documents? How about creating a new blank document by yourself and editing it and check whether the problem persists?
    3. How about opening the problematic documents on other devices?
    4. Sign in portal > Click Word icon > Open the problematic document (please save the problematic documents to OneDrive) > check whether the problem persists. If the problem doesn’t exist more when you open the problematic documents in Word Online, it indicates the problem may be not the files problem.
    5. Start Mac in safe mode to check whether the problem is related to add-ins or extensions.
    6. What’s your Word version? You can click Word > About Microsoft Word to check (if you are using Mac), you can click File > Account > Product information to check (if you are using PC), if convenient, please provide a screenshot of it.

    Best regards,

    Cindy

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-12-15T22:57:15+00:00

    hi thanks for your response. I thought it had gone away but see that it returned on another document I was editing. I feel it may be related to documents drafted by others in older versions of office/word?? I see another response was received asking for a copy of the document which I will send and see if that might assist in identifying the issue?

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-12-14T14:44:26+00:00

    Hi SooshBoosh,

    Have you solved the grey bands problem? If not, please feel free to post back, we will continue to help you.

    Best regards,

    Cindy

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