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How do I make that little black circle under my cursor go away FOREVER?

Anonymous
2022-05-27T20:01:52+00:00

In Word, recently--and I mean recently, like within the last week or two--a little black circle has started to appear under my cursor when I'm trying to write in a document. I have looked up the other "solutions" in the community threads, but they do not work for me.

  1. First of all, the stupid circle only ever appears if I'm trying to use my touchpad to scroll through the document. It won't be there at all, then I'll use two fingers on the touchpad to scroll and it will appear after I've stopped scrolling. If I use an external mouse, it doesn't appear at all. I never try to scroll using the touchscreen feature of my laptop. In fact, I rarely use the touchscreen feature in the first place.
  2. I do not, have not, and never want to enable "touch" mode in Word. Ever. I've made sure it is turned off numerous times, and even removed the quick access button on bar at the top left of the screen (where the save/undo buttons are) in desperation just to see if it would make the circle go away. It did not.
  3. The circle appears in Microsoft Word ONLY, and nowhere else, like when I'm browsing or using any other software except Word. I do not use any other Microsoft software, so I don't know if it is appearing in PowerPoint, Excel, or whatever else. I only use Word.
  4. I've tried to repair it via Settings > Apps > Apps & features--this did nothing. I also only have the ability to try and repair Office 365 as a whole; there is no individual Word "app" to try and repair.
  5. The circle DOES go away when I start typing or if I click somewhere else in the document, whether I'm using the touchpad or a wireless mouse, but the problem is I don't want it to show up AT ALL. I don't want to see it on my screen ever and I can't figure out how to make it go away and never return. I don't need or want the option. It's annoying and sometimes prevents scrolling if I don't click away to make the circle disappear.
  6. I have a Surface Pro 3, I think. If that matters. But like I said before, I haven't had this issue until very recently.

Is there even a solution to this at all? I've made my own post in hopes that SOMEONE will have an answer to help me, because that damnable circle drives me insane and none of the other solution threads work nor completely apply to my situation. I don't want it there. Could I possibly disable the touchscreen feature of my laptop in general so the support for the "touch" mode in Word just...isn't there anymore? If I can't use the touchscreen, I really won't care. I got this laptop largely for the color, if I'm honest, so it's a feature I can live without if it makes that circle disappear forever. Thanks in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-05-27T22:24:59+00:00

    Hello seallen,

    Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this feature.

    A black circle under the cursor is a tap handle to make it easier to choose the cursor with your finger or pen. This feature enables if you use touchscreen with your device.

    Please check Windows Control Panel > System and under the System heading look if Pen and Touch has a support for your device.

    Unfortunately, there is no option to disable this feature for Office applications. We apologize for the inconvenience. To address your concern about the situation, we’d suggest you go to provide your feedback via clicking File > Feedback in Word. This is the best platform to let developers hear from you and make products and services better for you and others.

    As a workaround you may disable your touchscreen in Windows. For your reference: Enable and disable your touchscreen in Windows (microsoft.com)

    Best Regards,

    Igor

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-17T22:58:52+00:00

    I'm late to this thread, but having this issue and honestly, I'm incredibly frustrated reading these responses. I'm a part-time editor, working on my thesis full time, so essentially I'm on word all day, every day, working with documents that are between 20 and 80 pages. I scroll through them a lot, and almost every time I try to scroll I get stopped by this damn circle and I have to click out of it to start scrolling again. This happens MULTIPLE times an hour. And you're telling me the only solution is to disable touch screen on my computer, a feature that I need and use and bought this computer specifically for. And the absolute nerve of you, Igor, "microsoft agent," to just say there's no feature to disable it. That sounds like a problem with word that needs to be fixed, not "oh sorry, nothing we can do about it!!!"

    A feature is a bug if the people who don't want it can't disable it, that's all there is to it. And if you're going to respond to this at all, the only response I want is to tell me when the update's coming to fix this BUG. Y'all have been aware of this issue for years, I see posts from 2018 asking about it, and pretending it's just a feature that can't be disabled is beyond the realm of ridiculous. And no, I won't be turning off the touch screen on my laptop. That "solution" (if you actually think you can call it that) doesn't work for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-08-19T09:28:41+00:00

    Igor is referring to a touchscreen, not your touchpad. Are you using a computer with a touchscreen?

    I don't want to disable touchscreen. I just want the circle not to appear when I'm using my touchpad, as it's really annoying.

    It's not a great solution to have to disable the touchscreen capability of my laptop to fix this when it all used to work just fine...

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2022-05-29T01:27:55+00:00

    You're right! Disabling the touchscreen worked perfectly. Thank you for your suggestion and your assistance! Hopefully a setting will be added in the future to disable it for people like me, so we don't HAVE to go through the trouble of disabling the entire touchscreen. (Of course, others may not be as affected by its mere presence as I am, haha.)

    For anyone viewing this thread looking to use this solution: It didn't work at first, it still kept popping up. Closing and reopening Word reset it so the new "setting," so to speak, could apply.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2022-10-26T20:34:36+00:00

    I have this problem too. A dark circle appears *only* when I use the touchpad to do a two-finger scroll. If I use my Microsoft Arc mouse's touch surface, the circle doesn't appear. So, it's touchpad related, but it *only* appears in MS Word. There is no equivalent in MS Excel. I do not see a Pen and Touch menu item under Windows Control Panel > System, but even if I did, I would not wish to disable my touchscreen to resolve this. Disabling the touchscreen in Windows would then affect all other applications, so it's not a reasonable workaround.

    I have submitted feedback to Microsoft. Please fix this in Word!! The best solution (I believe) would be to give people control over whether they use the touchscreen **while in Word**. Since Word is a word processor, far more people will use only the keyboard and its built-in touchpad to scroll. This keeps both hands on the keyboard. If we could disable the touchscreen functionality *only* within Word, then we'd still have it for all other apps.

    Yes, I'm fully aware of touchpad vs. touchscreen, and I've checked the text above to make sure I haven't mixed them up. The dark circle is (as Igor describes) a feature to support the touchscreen, but it appears when scrolling on the touchpad.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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