Nested Table and bullet issues and problems with Microsoft Support

Question

I am having issues with tables in MS Word. The issue is when I try to insert a bullet point in a table that is within another table then MS Word freezes, other times text gets randomly printed above the innermost table. I contacted Microsoft Support (MSS) about this however the experience I had with MSS was bad. In total I had to contact 4 agents on the 09th of Feb 2026 (IST) and, the issue with the tables continues to persist. Here are the reasons I had a bad experience with MSS:

 

Agent 1: Agent 1 remotely connected to my PC. He solved the issue with the table but the issue happened again after communicating with agent 2 below. Also Agent 1 was doing things so quickly that I could not see a lot of things being done on my PC such as he would select options on the dialog boxes so quickly to the point I can see the dialog box but I could not see what was displayed in this dialog box. When I asked the following to agent 1 then agent 1 immediately closed the chat I was having with him and disconnected from the Quick Assist app from my PC while he was in control of my PC: “I noticed that when I insert a table at the very top of MS Word then select the cell of the table then press enter then the table moves down instead of expanding”

 

Agent 2: I informed agent 2 about agent 1 abruptly ending the chat. Then agent 2 mentioned to talk about agent 1 later. I asked agent 2 whether pressing enter in the cell of the table that is at the very top of MS Word causes the table to move down instead of expanding is not a problem. Then agent 2 was talking about nothing that was related to my question. Finally, at some point during the chat agent 2 mentions the behaviour of the table moving down is not a bug and that it is a normal response of the table in MS Word. Then agent 2 refused to end the chat. After asking agent 2 whether the chat is over and I can close the chat then agent 2 finally messaged that I can close the chat. So I closed the chat

 

Agent 3: After I finished the chat with agent 2. I went back to using MS Word then the problem with the table happened again - when I try to insert a bullet point in a table that is within another table then MS Word freezes, other times text gets randomly printed above the innermost table. So I had contacted MSS. The experience with agent 3 was strange. Agent 3 restarted my PC which disconnected my chat with agent 3. Agent 3 did not even inform me that we were going to disconnect. Once my PC restarted I checked my request history of MSS then the title of my request with agent 3 was not there anymore. This was strange. It was as though the title was changed or the request I had with agent 3 was deleted. Then I checked if the problem with the table has been resolved but the problem still persists

 

Agent 4: I contacted agent 4 and explained about the problem I was facing with the table but each time I responded back to agent 4, the agent would take 4-5 mins to respond back. Agent 4 also messaged strange things such as “What are your goals and what is stopping you from achieving it?”. Then agent 4 remotely connected to my PC. Then agent 4 messaged a question in the chat while he was in control of my PC, so I tried to respond to this question. At the same time I was trying to respond to this question I also noticed that after agent 3 worked on my PC one of my apps was not working properly. So I was trying to send a message to agent 4 informing him about this. But agent 4 kept deleting the messages that I was typing in the message field of the chat. This was shocking. Agent 4 then began denying that he was preventing me from typing. After this, I did not want agent 4 to continue remotely control my PC and agent 4 ended the chat.

 

Overall the experience I had with the 4 agents was bad and the issue I am having with the table remains unresolved. Is there a way to resolve the problems with the table? And another question is, is there a way to prevent the bad experience I had with MSS from happening again?

UPDATE:

The following is a screenshot of one of the problems that happen when I try insert a bullet point in a table that is within another table:

In the screenshot above a second bullet point randomly gets printed on the top of the innermost table

Also I checked my request history with MS Support and I can only see 3 requests opened on the 09th/Feb/2026 (IST) whereas I had communicated with 4 agents on 09th/Feb/2026. So there should be 4 requests, not 3. Also I noticed something strange about the 3 requests for the date that is 9th of Feb 2026 (IST). The requests are meant to be in reverse chronologically order. But for the first request I can see the request times for this request as 14:47 to 16:04 on the 09th/Feb/2026. Then above this request is the second request with the timings 16:06 on the 09th/Feb/2026 to 12:42:56 on the 11th/Feb/2026. Then above this request is a third request that has the timings 18:59 to 20:15 on the 9th/Feb/2026. How come the third request starts during the second request? I certainly cannot be communicating with 2 agents at the same time. Also the second request spans 2 days from 09th/Feb/2026 to 11/Feb/2026. I only communicated with the agents on the 09th/Feb/2026. It is as though the times or something else has been manipulated.

Answer 1

I can replicate the issue with the application of bullets to text that is located in a table that is within a table and have reported it directly to the Microsoft Word Product Team.

I cannot help you with the issues with the Microsoft Support, but posting problems here in the first instance will result in them being seen by myself or one of a number of fellow MVPs who have the ability to communicate directly with the Microsoft Product Teams.

Answer 2

I am currently facing the same issue. Please expedite the fix.

Current workaround that works for me:

Turn off Automatic bulleted lists and Automatic numbered lists.

1. Go to File > Options > Proofing.
2. Click AutoCorrect Options and select the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
3. Uncheck Automatic bulleted lists and Automatic numbered lists. After that I am able to use the bullet/numbered command buttons on the ribbon like usual.