Can't delete text box in PowerPoint

Anonymous

I've recently had a problem deleting text boxes in PowerPoint. I'm able to select the box by clicking on the box perimeter (which changers the little circles and squares at the perimeter from open to solid, as it should). But when I hit delete, it deletes the last text character within the box, rather than the box itself. I also can't copy the box. When I select the box and hit command-C, I hear a little whish, signifying (I suppose) an disallowed action. The boxes in question are not part of a slide background. This problem does not occur with pictures.

I've found a workaround which is to select the box differently, namely by dragging the cursor around the box with the mouse button held down. Then I can (sometimes) delete or copy it. Still looking for a real fix.

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Anonymous

I stumbled on a fix today.

Under system preferences, chose Keyboard, then chose Shortcuts, and then at the bottom under Full Keyboard Access, click the "All controls" radio button.

Previously, the "Text boxes and lists only" radio button was selected. I can recreate the problem by clicking this other radio button, i.e. the fix is fully reversible. I don't think I ever touched either of these buttons before yesterday.

I believe this fix completely resolves for me the issues with selecting text boxes in PowerPoint.

Note that it's very puzzling that a system tabbing option should have anything to do with selecting text boxes in PowerPoint. I expect there is still an underlying bug.

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43 additional answers

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K Reputation points

2014-02-13T20:03:05+00:00

Closing the lid does not turn a laptop off... Just like you, it may have gotten a good night's sleep but it was still powered on.

As a part of what was suggested in my first reply here, try an actual restart of your Mac. The easiest way is to go to the  menu & select the Restart command. Even Macs get confused if they're left running 24/7 over extended periods of time :-)
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Anonymous

2014-02-13T16:44:35+00:00

Rich,

thanks for your suggestions but, unfortunately, this is not my case.

I created the last slide at 10 p.m. on Friday and closed my mac lid. Started the system the next morning after a sound sleep and there it is: the effing PP bug. So, unless something happened when my mac was off, nothing changed in the environment. Moreover, before the Friday night shutdown I didn't update or install anything.

That's unbelievable. I just loaded someone else's PP presentation (built in a MS environment) and here we go: even the the old slides created by my colleagues are bug affected: PP enters "text mode", the topmost text box (either a title or simple text) is showing selected with the blinking cursor somewhere within the text, the indentation button in the Home menu shows clickable and no chance to copy the same text box with Command+C (unless, as explained, the right mouse button is clicked or ESC button is pressed...).

I think I'll be heading to Keynote since this bug is doubling my efforts and my costs (I'm a consultant significantly relying on PP in my job...).

I'm getting mad...
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Anonymous

2014-02-12T23:41:15+00:00

I guess the questions to both of you, Steve and Ralph, is what changed in your software environment from the time when it worked to when it didn't work?

Software code will work exactly the same way each and every time until something else unexpected is introduced into the environment. These changes can effect how the software works and they can be other software introduced into the environment, software setting changes, hardware changes and even hardware setting changes.

So being specific… did this behavior change occurs after updating the version of Office? Did it occur after updating a version in OS X. Where other add-ins to Office introduced or activated? What hardware changes or settings at the OS level regarding hardware such as screen resolution were made?

I grasping at straws but hopefully you get the point… something has changed and you need to identify what it is.
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Anonymous

2014-02-12T08:50:21+00:00
Dear All,

I'm experiencing the same problem since last Saturday. I worked with PP (mac version) on the 7th of February and all was right. I needed to finish a presentation within the next morning and to my surprise, text boxes stopped behaving. The symptoms are exactly the same as described by Ralph. Moreover:
1. Whenever I'm creating a new presentation, PP makes me face an already selected title box. No "Click to add title" heading is there and the cursor is already blinking inside the box waiting for me to write text. This happens also when I'm adding a new slide to an existing set of slides and it even affects the old presentations which had no problems till date.
2. Like Ralph, if I'm selecting a box, I cannot copy/delete it unless I click the mouse right button and select copy/delete or press ESC key.
This bug (malware?) made me pay attention to the PP interface environment. In fact I noticed that by selecting a text box, the paragraph indentation button is being highlighted (it goes clickable from the regular frozen status) and this prevents me from being able to copy the box. By pressing ESC, that same button goes back to its frozen status and the box becomes copy-able/delete-able.

So when selecting a text box, PP seems to enter spontaneously in "text mode" preventing the user to perform those operations not related to writing text.

I tried to delete my PP preferences and this doesn't work. I have not tried a different user: it bothers me to create a new one when it's always me using this mac. I'm heading now towards a OSX + Office clean install. Office was there since the last two years, updated to version 14.3.9 (131030).

This is really driving me crazy.
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