Strange shape bug? Edit text when selected?

Question

All of a sudden, key things I use all the time in Powerpoint are broken.

I use shapes all the time (rectangles, circles, block arrows, etc.). Just recently, two key features have stopped working correctly with shapes and the failures may be related. First, I cannot delete a shape by hitting the Delete key on the keyboard. When I select a shape and hit Delete, instead of deleting the shape, it goes into text edit mode on the shape. The only way I can delete a shape now is with Cut, which thankfully still works.

The other failure is Duplicate. If I select a shape and hit cmd-d, I get the system beep. If I then go to the Edit menu, Duplicate is grayed out and the shape has entered text edit mode again! With the shape selected, just clicking Edit in the menubar (or any other menu) puts the shape in text edit mode!! What is going on here?

Also if I drag to select a shape, it goes directly into text edit mode as well!

These problems do not occur with lines and arrows, probably because they don't have text edit features.  This also does not happen in any other Office apps.

I've tried removing preference files and completely uninstalling and reinstalling Office. I've tried safe mode as well.  Nothing works.  Strangely, I do not have the problem when I log into the guest account instead of my usual account.  I have not installed any software recently that (I think) could have caused this. Any idea of what might be going on here?

Thanks,

Steve

Answer 1

I'm experiencing exactly the same thing.  So maddening.

Also PowerPoint for Mac 2011 - now running on Yosemite.

Does anyone know if this bug is corrected in the 2014 version of PowerPoint?

I did figure something out though. If I select a shape and then immediately perform a selection action on the shape (delete, copy, paste, duplicate, etc.), the action will work, but the object still goes into text edit mode. It's like after selecting an object, about a second later, it goes into the text edit mode. Something is telling Powerpoint: always go into text edit mode when selecting objects. If I select the object again, I get that second of leeway again.

I've gone through all the programs I've opened or installed since this problem started. Uninstalling recent new programs hasn't done anything.

This is the strangest bug/software interaction I have ever seen.

Answer 2

I did figure something out though. If I select a shape and then immediately perform a selection action on the shape (delete, copy, paste, duplicate, etc.), the action will work, but the object still goes into text edit mode. It's like after selecting an object, about a second later, it goes into the text edit mode. Something is telling Powerpoint: always go into text edit mode when selecting objects. If I select the object again, I get that second of leeway again.

I've gone through all the programs I've opened or installed since this problem started. Uninstalling recent new programs hasn't done anything.

This is the strangest bug/software interaction I have ever seen.

Answer 3

I wish it was something that simple.  This happens whether or not there is a keyboard connected.

It's so frustrating, but I really don't want to move my entire user account to another user account just to fix these very specific issues.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Steve

Answer 4

Hi Steve,

Since you completely removed before reinstalling, you would have removed all Office preference files, so you can rule that out.

I am experiencing something similar on my macbook in Mavericks right now. My hunch is that I connect different keyboards to the macbook and that the keys are not being properly mapped by Mac OS, but I can’t test my hunch at the moment.

Answer 5

Since its working fine with a guest account, It seems to be an issue with the System files of the user account. which could be causing the issue. 

You would need to contact Apple Support to troubleshoot your existing account. If you do not wish to keep your existing account, you can rename your test account to whatever you would like and use Office applications on it.