I have the following problem and this is quite irritating -- I have tried multiple ways to get rid of this yellow banner at top of page

Split from this thread about a different issue

I have the following problem and this is quite irritating I have tried multiple ways to get rid of this yellow banner at top of page :

TEXT SETTINGS
This document includes text where the spacing between words, characters, or syllables can’t be changed.

but it looks like you have solved situations like this before, I would appreciate any help you can give me plus including an example screen print of the issue as follows:

Word 365 document spacing corrupted — yellow banner says spacing can't be changed.

Reinstalled Office. Reset registry. Only works in Word Online.

Suspected global Windows font/layout corruption.

Need Tier 2 technical fix or escalation.

Here is everything I have done to try to correct this problem, also see the attached.

Microsoft Word 365 (local install on Windows 11) renders all documents — new and old — with abnormal character spacing, syllabic gaps, and line fragmentation.

A yellow banner appears on every document, stating:

“This document includes text where the spacing between words, characters, or syllables can't be changed.”

This behavior began unexpectedly during a document edit, without intentional enabling of language or layout settings.

Suspected Root Cause

East Asian typography fallback or layout enforcement appears to have become globally cached or applied. Specifically:

• CJK (Chinese-Japanese-Korean) layout behavior (grid layout, syllabic spacing)
• Word is likely applying UseFarEastLayout or fallback to fonts like MS Mincho, Yu Gothic, etc.
• This behavior is incorrectly triggered for pure English-language content
• The corruption persists globally — not tied to one file or template

Cross-Checks That Confirm the Hypothesis | Test | Result | | --- | --- | | Opening files in Word Online (office.com) | ✅ No issue — spacing normal | | Copy/paste into new document | ❌ Still broken | | New blank .docx documents | ❌ Same issue | | Opening Word in Safe Mode | ❌ Issue persists | | Cutting content from affected file → clean doc on iPad | ✅ Works — proves issue is local to PC | | Creating file on iPad, opening on PC | ❌ Spacing broken again — proves PC environment is corrupt | | Registry resets for Office keys | ❌ No impact | | Full Office 365 uninstall via PowerShell script | ❌ Did not resolve issue | | Renaming/deleting Normal.dotm | ❌ No fix | | Removing all templates / starting blank | ❌ Still broken | | Word document type: .docx, not .dotm | ✅ Confirmed — still affected | | User created new Windows folder and local save paths (off OneDrive) | ❌ Problem persisted | | Switching Save options, disabling font embedding, AutoSave, etc. | ❌ No effect | | Used separate PC and Word rendered fine | ✅ Confirms machine-specific issue |

Troubleshooting Already AttemptedOffice + Word Specific

• Full uninstall + reinstall of Microsoft 365
• Safe Mode launch of Word
• Deleted all local templates (Normal.dotm, custom dotx files)
• Rebuilt personal templates directory
• Disabled AutoSave, Save to Cloud, and font embedding options
• Registry cleaning of:
  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office
  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word
• Reconfigured Save locations to offline/local-only (C:\Users\werte\UOL)

System-Level

• Explored AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
• Checked for presence of foreign fonts
• Opened Registry Editor to:
  • Confirm no foreign encoding on system profile
  • Navigate HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word
• Disabled OneDrive integration
• Verified default language settings in Windows (English - US)
• Created backup plans to isolate the environment
• Investigated whether layout/fallback may be stored in shell or font cache

What Has Worked

• Word Online (Office.com) renders all documents perfectly — confirms the documents themselves are clean.
• Opening/creating files on a different PC or device (iPad) does not cause layout corruption — proves corruption is environment-specific.
• Creating a new user profile would likely work, but not ideal due to profile complexity.

What I’m Requesting from Microsoft

1. Full override/reset of East Asian or CJK layout behaviors in Word
2. Identify where typography fallback or character grid enforcement is being stored:
   • Registry
   • Normal template
   • Language preference cache
   • System font fallback layers
3. Documentation of how to force Word to use Western text layout model only
4. If no fix is possible, a clean environment reset tool that won’t require migrating full user data

• The issue is not user error, and not document-specific. It is Word rendering incorrectly due to forced layout model.
• The fact that Word Online renders documents cleanly proves this is a desktop environment corruption, likely triggered by invisible CJK language fallback or formatting metadata stuck in the registry or cache. This is a high-value case worth engineering review.