How to fix problem selecting text

Question

Hello! I'm having quite a few issues with Microsoft applications and looking for advice!

I use word on a daily basis for studying, however recently have had many issues, word freezes blurring all the text, I also have problems selecting text. Sometimes it will select lines or even pages above where it was intended, only stopping when I close word and start it again. This happens every day (sometimes every 30 mins). At first I thought it was a problem with my laptop, as it was quite old and made strange noises, however after buying a new one and logging into the same Microsoft account ( my student one) I have ran into the same issues. On both laptops I never had an issue selecting things, or using the mouse, except on word (sometimes PowerPoint or excel). Furthermore, on the document, the issue selecting only arises on the pages themselves, the mouse works perfectly fine in the rest of the application. Any help or advice would be much appreciated !!

Answer 1

Hello! Thankyou for such a speedy response. On my previous laptop it was all word files that were impacted, in addition to PowerPoint and excel and this started at Christmas. The only thing that I could think that started it was updating to windows 11. On my new laptop I have no idea, it is a completely different make and a much newer model so I am surprised to be running into the same issues, especially as I have been extremely careful and manually set it up, rather than just transferring over all the files from previous.

I have checked add ins, and there is none other then what I think are the default windows ones, and am unsure whether those are the ones you indicated to disable.

As this is an irregular issue, and happens infrequently, it is really hard to tell if something else is interfering because the issue just appears every so often. Because of this if I do a clean boot, there is no guarantee that the issue will start, meaning I won’t know if it is fixed, or if there is an interference that has been removed I will have no idea. Is it best if I wait for the problem to happen and then take action then?

Thanks again!!! I really appreciate your help!

Rosie

Answer 2

Dear Rosie,

From your description, it seems that you encounter many issues in Word.

May I know whether the issue only happens in the specific Word file? If you create a new file, what's the result?

As the issue happens recently based on the given information in your reply, may I know what you did before the issue occurred?

I suggest you check whether there are some add-ins installed in your Word application. If yes, temporarily disable them, close Word and relaunch Word to see if the issue disappears.

Meanwhile, close all other applications (include the anti-virus software) and only launch Word to see the result in your environment as well.

Moreover, to check whether a background program causes the issue, I suggest you perform a clean boot via the steps in How to perform a clean boot in Windows - Microsoft Support to see the outcome.

As some Office issues may be fixed by Online Repair, I suggest you go to Control Panel>Programs>right-click on the Office applications' icon>Change>check whether there is an Online Repair option. If yes, run it, restart the computer and then do a test to see the result.

If she is using the same version number of the Word application as you, I'd like you to upload a full screenshot of the Account page in the Word application you are using for our reference. You can access the page via clicking on File>Account.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Thanks for your effort and time!

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 3

Dear Rosie,

Thanks for your updates and kindness.

Regarding "As this is an irregular issue, and happens infrequently" and "Is it best if I wait for the problem to happen and then take action then?", may I know whether the issue doesn't occur in your environment now?

If yes, could you mind going to Control Panel>Programs>right-clicking on the Office applications' icon>Change>checking whether there is an Online Repair option? If yes, I suggest you run it, restart the computer and then see whether the issue occurs again.

If the issue occurs again in your environment, I'd like you to upload a full screenshot of the Account page in the Word application you are using for our reference. You can access the page via clicking on File>Account.

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Thanks for your effort and time!

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator