Why does the blinking I-beam cursor keep disappearing when editing text inside tables in Word 2011?

From my computer programming classes I know that when you change code base your first round goal is to try to keep everything the same and not lose or change features or functionality along the way. Word, Excel and PowerPoint had legacy code going back 30 years. This year is the 30th anniversary of Microsoft Office - it was Mac only back then.

If all the same old bugs are still the same in the new version, they actually did things right. Along the way, in Office 2016 preview a handful of bugs were fixed, but probably were fixed simply as a result of the new code being Cocoa based. I suspect nothing in particular was done to fix the Word window position bug. It just happened to get fixed by switching code base. That's just a guess, though. I don't have inside info about it.

Now that the code base has been updated and the core features have been ported, the next logical step is to go on a bug-crushing binge. I presume that's why Microsoft made a public beta (the Preview), something they never did with Office for Mac before now.

There is a new feedback feature in the Office 2016 Preview. Click the smile button near the top-right corner of any app and a window opens that lets you include a current screen shot and even your email address with your submission.

You are correct that the resume feature is part of Mac OS X, not Microsoft Office.

I think as part of the public Preview, Microsoft is gathering feedback on feature and bug requests, as well. I would expect that after the core suite is decided to be stable, then they will get to work on addressing some of the finer points.

There are still major elements missing from the Preview edition. File > Properties isn't there. Toolbar support is missing. ODBC for Excel is missing. These will have to be finished first. Then they can move on.

I see we can always count on Microsoft refusing to do like everybody else and use the word "Bug" and a bug icon in its interface to guide users who might want to submit bug reports. Thanks for pointing out the non-standard smiley icon for bug reports. "Bugs! Yey! I'm So Happy!" Good grief… What are we? Six-year-olds?

I realize that the current version is an incomplete preview and that the focus might not have been on fixing bugs so far. (In fact, there are still too many features missing to enable me to use Word 2016 on a regular basis.)

I am however, far less optimistic than you seem to be about Microsoft ever going on a "bug-crushing binge". They've never officially said that they'd do such a thing, and the bug reporting facility you mentioned, while better than the online form, still doesn't allow you to attach anything other than a screen shot. Given that so many bugs in Word seem to be so hard to reproduce for you guys, you'd think that the ability to attach sample documents and system profiles would be a requirement.

Until I see concrete evidence of a commitment to fixing long-standing bugs, I am not going to waste any time submitting bug reports on this preview, I am afraid, especially if the main focus is to bring it to parity with Word 2011 and to fix new bugs, incompatibilities or regressions that might have been introduced on top of all the existing bugs.

I'll leave that work to other volunteers who feel that donating their time to poor starving Microsoft is the right thing to do. I need to use my own time more productively.

Pierre Igot

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BETALOGUE - Weblog at http://www.betalogue.com | Twitter: @betalogue

I thank you for the chuckle about the smiley faces.

Think of Word 2016 as version 1 of Microsoft Word. It's a completely different set of code from any version before it, so if you want to get your bugs fixed for posterity, now is the time to do it. After a few weeks, this window of opportunity will be lessened.

There is now a forum dedicated to the Office 2016 beta. If you have example files you would like to submit, please make a new question for each specific issue. Provide download links just as you did with the watermark problem. That was incredibly helpful to me. I was able to see exactly what you were seeing. MVPs can forward your example files to Microsoft's product group.

Right now Microsoft is focused on hangs and crashes for Office 2016, but they want submissions of all sorts. Other problems, feature requests, suggestions, complaints - everything is on the table for Office 2016 and now is the best time to get these issues aired.

This problem is happening to me as well.  

I have put the document in dropbox.  Here is the link

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0w2w17uvbp5p29e/Meeting%20Roster%20-%20test%20non%20blinking%20cursor.docx?dl=0

However, I notice that when I download that file from dropbox and then open it - the blinking cursor starts working

Thanks

Bill

Hi Bill,

Are you using Word 2011 or Word 2016?

If you see this problem in Word 2016 then please re-post as a new question in the forum for Office for Mac 2016 Preview. 

If the problem is with Word 2011, then I would not expect the problem to be fixed, as Word 2011 is now considered done and almost over.