Word not displaying table data with merged cells after updates

Anonymous
2017-08-16T20:19:24+00:00

Windows 10, Office 2016 Pro Plus both fully patched.  Have a word document that includes multiple tables, in each table there are merged cells.  If the cell is merged you can't click on the cell or see the data in the cell.  If you copy the table out of word and paste it into excel the data shows.  If you un-merge the cells and paste it back into word it shows all of the data.  I tried this on a system that is not patched and the merged tables display properly in word.  Why would an Office update break pasting merged cells into a word document?  Any advise on this will be greatly appreciated, this is impacting over 4600 documents at this time and I am sure we will be finding many more.  Here is a screen shot of a sample table and what word is doing with it.  You can't click in the blank cells once it is in word.  Thanks all

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
{count} votes
Answer accepted by question author
  1. Anonymous
    2017-10-12T12:46:12+00:00

    I did the patches that were released and it fixed the problem.  Make sure that you have the patches that are identified above uninstalled, after you run your updates.  If you can't uninstall or run the updates just show your IT folks this page and it will help them fix it.

    0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
  1. Anonymous
    2017-08-23T13:59:23+00:00

    This is most probably the same issue as described in https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_win10-mso_2016/issue-merging-word-tables-after-applying-kb3213656/aeae7b7f-3db8-467d-80db-da8d02a8140e .

    This time the patch introducing the issue can be uninstalled without security concerns.

    But I'm seriously concerned that the next patch containing also security updates for Word 2016 WILL reintroduce the issue if Microsoft does not investigate and fix it in time.

    So please keep us updated!

    The problem should also be described as a known issue in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3213656/august-8-2017-update-for-word-2016-kb3213656.

    Probably the patch should even be revoked as text in the vertically merged cells becomes invisible and uneditable!

    0 comments No comments

27 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2017-08-17T14:38:55+00:00

    Hi Jason,

    Errors like this in your Office programs can be caused by several reasons. One could be that the patch you recently made caused other programs to behave like this. To help you better with this issue, we suggest that you repair your Office application. You may refer to this support article for the steps: Repair an Office application.

    Update us with the result so we can assist you further.

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2017-08-17T15:57:19+00:00

    I did the repair and it seems to have made the issue better but still not working properly.  Our existing document had no change.  I made a test excel sheet with multiple merged cells and pasted into word, still not displaying the text in all of the merged cells.  Thanks for the help.

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2017-08-20T10:00:08+00:00

    Thank you for getting back to us with the information Jason. Your Office programs may have been corrupted during the update process. What we can do here is to open your Office apps in safe mode. This will help us identify if an add-in is what's causing the error. You may refer to this support article for the steps: Open Office apps in safe mode on a Windows PC.

    Do get back to us should you need further assistance.

    0 comments No comments