Selected text not highlighting

Question

I am using Word 15.28 for Mac on a Macbook Pro and 10.12.1 version of Sierra.

When I select text it does not highlight. It works no problem on an older version of Word 2011 14.7.0

I have selected different colours under preferences - none work. I have also rebooted and also reinstalled the whole of 365.

Any ideas as it makes the programme practically unusable?

Answer 1

Testing in a new user account is a good test. Since you don't have the problem in a new user account, it is likely that your Normal template has become corrupt. Normal is the name of the template Word uses to make a new, blank document and store macros and other settings.

Do the following in your regular account (the one having the problem)

Quit Word. (Make sure Word is actually not running. Closing all Word's open windows does not quit Word).

Navigate to the Templates folder, which Apple has conveniently hidden in your User directory.

http://www.wikihow.com/Unhide-the-User-Library-Folder-on-a-Mac

Rename Normal.dotm

When you open Word, a new Normal template will generate that should have default settings.

If this doesn't fix the problem, then delete Word's preferences.

Answer 2

What's really funny is that if you highlight a word you cannot see the highlight but it appears as you drag the word but disappears again as you drop it.

Not sure what is going on.

Answer 3

Many thanks for your help.

I booted up in safe mode but I am afraid it made no difference.

As a work round I am uploading everything onto OneDrive and downloading it into the new profile - luckily all my videos etc on on an external drive already.

I'll keep a backup of everything and only delete the old profile in a few weeks time once I am sure everything has been transferred.

Not a satisfactory way of solving the problem but at least it works - better than getting to grips with Pages from scratch!

Answer 4

Many thanks for your advice - much appreciated.

I am afraid neither approached worked :-(

Answer 5

Thanks.

I did this and it did not help.

I solved the problem by creating a new Mac user and downloading Office to the new user - Word now works fine.

Of course, I now have the problem of migrating all my settings and documents etc to the new user and there seems to be no easy way of doing this on a Mac. I have no idea if all my links (e.g. between Evernote and my PDF folder) will work once the files have been migrated.