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Issue merging Word tables after applying KB3213656

Anonymous
2017-08-17T07:14:59+00:00

Hi All,

We have applied KB3213656 to our Office 2016 environment in order to fix the Outlook spell check issue mentioned in the KB article. We have since noticed that this has broken tables in both Word and Outlook. Basically if you merge two or more cells, as long as at least two of the cells are in different rows, the resultant cell becomes completely unusable.  You cannot click into it, type into it or right click it. That is unless the merge includes the top row.

But that's not all!

If you open an existing document that has cells that have been merged previously. Any of those cells will appear completely blank. Doesn't matter which view you use in Word.

I have checked styles/indenting and all that but it's like the cells are completely empty...uninstalling the hotfix fixes the issue immediately, which is what we're doing for now (tables are more important than and extra few clicks in a spell check)

My question is: has any one else noticed this? I cant seem to find anyone else with the same issue online. Also is there some workaround or obvious fix that i'm missing?

We're using Office 2016 (not click to run) x86 on Windows 10 x64

Thanks in advance!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-10-06T01:41:33+00:00

    Pretty sure that that is the process for updating the Click to run Office 365. As far as I know, this issue doesn't affect that version.

    Do you know if there's a downloadable hotfix for the issue? Or can it be pulled by WSUS?

    Here you go: https://support.microsoft.com/en-sg/help/4011140/october-3-2017-update-for-word-2016-kb4011140

    This update fixes the following issues:

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2017-08-21T12:35:37+00:00

    This does not resolve the issue. It happens with several existing and new documents for different users on different machines regardless if the user profile was the one active during the update process or not. It also happens with new user profiles and can be reproduced with new documents and a deleted normal.dotm.

    This is a issue of KB3213656 itself!

    Only when uninstalling KB3213656 vertically merged cells work fine as before.

    10 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2017-08-23T14:26:10+00:00

    @Jase L:

    Probably the Technet Microsoft Forums are more suited for this topic.

    Could you please repost there as recommended in https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_win10/word-not-displaying-table-data-with-merged-cells/88d25b43-8441-4b64-9bcf-4d75b27a30f9 ?

    PS: Title should be better something like "Issues with merged table cellsafter applying KB3213656 to Word 2016". Besides from that your first post is absolutely perfect in describing the issue!

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2017-09-27T01:38:11+00:00

    This fixed it for me.  See:

    http://borncity.com/win/2017/09/09/update-kb4011039-causes-again-wordoutlook-2016-table-bug/

    Uninstalling Update KB4011039 fixes the bug.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2017-09-13T16:58:56+00:00

    I was having this problem and saw some forums where people were saying to delete the updates.  As a complete novice, this took me a little while.  I just wanted to share what worked for me in case it saves a fellow rookie some time:

    1. Right-click the Start button  (lower-left corner), and select Programs and Features on the pop-up menu.
    2. Click View installed updates on the upper left panel
    3. Search for "Word" in Search Installed Updates in the upper right hand search bar
    4. Right click each of the items listed that had been installed at the time the merging issue appeared and uninstall
    5. Open a Word document with the problematic table
    6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 until you have uninstalled the offending updates

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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