undo function stops working properly

Question

I have a problem with the undo function in Word. When I create a new file, the undo function works properly, and when I click on undo words or sentences are undone. When I click on the little triangle next to the undo arrow, then I can see the sequence of changes that I made. After I click on the triangle, however, each individual letter is replaced when I click on undo. Undo no longer combines letters into words and sentences; each key stroke is undone one click at a time.

What is worse is that this sometimes lead Word to crash, losing all changes.

I had this problem before, and it did seem to have disappeared when I reset my computer and installed everything from scratch.

My computer is a Surface Pro 3, operating system is Windows 10, and I am using Office 365. All of it is up-to-date; a Symantec scan did not find any malware or viruses.

Can someone help me with this?

Answer 1

I started Word in safe mode as instructed, but this has no effect on the problem. I also looked at the installed add-ins, but there are only the ones that came with the program. I find no evidence of third party add-ins being installed.

Answer 2

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

This issue may be caused by some third party add-ins. Let us try starting Word in safe mode following steps mentioned below and then check if problem persist:

• Hold Windows key + R.
• Copy and paste, or type the following command in the Open box, and then press Enter:

Winword /safe

Note: There is space between Winword and /

If Word works in safe mode as expected, disable the add-ins, following link mentioned below to determine the problem causing add-in:

https://support.office.com/en-in/article/Why-do-I-get-a-stopped-working-message-when-I-start-my-Office-application-52bd7985-4e99-4a35-84c8-2d9b8301a2fa

Please verify the result and post back for further assistance.

Thank you.

Answer 3

Moving the files from Onedrive to the Surface drive makes no difference.

And no, it is not the "Use the insert key...". This is something else, and I am getting rather certain that this is a bug in the software. Reinstalling Office, even after resetting the Surface and starting it all up from scratch made no difference.

The surface is less than a year old, and I have a valid subscription for Office. Is this not a warranty issue? Is there somewhere I can go to get someone to repair this defect?

Answer 4

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for posting your query.

Few more details would help us to provide a better response.

Does this issue occurs if you save the same OneDrive document to local drive?

Please try saving the OneDrive document locally on computer and check if Undo work as expected. You may also verify if you have mistakenly enable the below mentioned option.

Click on Word File tab> Options> Advance> now check if Use the insert key to control overtype mode is enabled. If yes, please uncheck it to disable and check if undo work as expected.

Hope the information helps. Do reply with updated issue details for further assistance.

Thank you

Answer 5

One more thing: the undo function replaces one letter at a time from the outset when the file is created on OneDrive.

Other Office applications work fine.

I repaired the Office installation, but this did not help.