MS Word Save Bug

Question

I've had an issue where adding a citation immediately after an equation renders the word doc unable to save.

Steps to recreate are as follows:

• Word version 2405 (Build 17628.20144 Click-to-Run)
• I found the issue with the IEEE citation style, but it looks like it also happens with other styles
• Insert equation on a new line
• Insert citation immediately after it, but with the cursor outside the actual equation "box"
• If the citation is inserted inside the equation box, saving is still possible
• Adding a space (or another character) after the equation box and then adding the citation still allows saving
• Going back and removing the space after adding the citation doesn't break it
• Putting the citation immediately before the equation box still allows saving
• Adding other characters before the equation box will not prevent the issue

Doing this somehow disables both the save and save-as options. The save button can still be clicked and you can still select a folder/name the document when you try to save-as, but neither option actually saves the document (tried with both File>Save-As and F12). Sometimes it flashes the "Saving" text beside the document name when using regular save, but it disappears immediately without showing the usual "Saved to this PC". However, it will say "Saved to this PC" when you save-as, despite not actually saving. I had my file explorer open while trying to save-as into a different folder and the file appeared and then immediately disappeared.

When trying to close a bugged file, it brings up the "Save your changes to this file?" pop-up. Clicking "Save" on this brings up the following error box:

and it opens your file explorer to prompt you to save the file (like it usually does when using F12 to save-as). Clicking "Save" in the file explorer will just close and re-open it repeatedly without saving the document and clicking "Cancel" will close the document without saving. Saving as older word file formats or saving as pdf work fine because they get rid of the issue with the weird equation/citation box overlap.

My (uneducated) guess is that something weird is happening with the boxes that generate from insert equation and insert citation. When I have a bugged line, trying to move the cursor with my arrow keys into the area between the equation and citation boxes is not possible (both boxes are selected) and there is also a ghost 3rd box (I can also select both the 3rd box and the citation box by hitting left one time while in the 3rd box:

However, even when I do insert equation>add space outside equation box>insert citation>delete the space, I can still move the cursor in between the equation and citation boxes without selecting either:

Answer 1

Hi John1470,

I am unable to reproduce the same behavior on the same Office version. Perhaps, there is something else in your PC preventing Word from saving properly. In this case, I would suggest you report the issue via Word in-app feedback channel to product team so they can be aware of this rare scenario.

Regards,

Ryan