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

Anonymous
2015-01-26T19:47:56+00:00

Currently in Word 2011 14.4.7 on OS X 10.10.1 (but the problem has existed forever).

Whenever I edit a Word document containing tables with text in the table cells, once the blinking I-beam cursor is inside table cells, it tends to stop blinking and disappear altogether for entire seconds on end. This makes it very difficult to keep track of where one's cursor actually is. 

Why does this keep happening?

Same thing in text boxes and other "text within a frame" contexts.

Pierre Igot

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

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-17T02:11:35+00:00

    Things are indeed better in Word 2016 in this particular respect, but the problem is not entirely gone. There are still situations where the blinking cursor tends to disappear too easily.

    And then of course Microsoft managed to mess things up in Excel 2016 and the blinking cursor is now all over the place in that application (not blinking in its actual position)…

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkwz2l1opb4p559/excel2016-cursor.mp4?dl=0

    Ditto with selection highlighting:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/10gfrmosoi5v8jv/excel2014-highlighting2.mp4?dl=0

    One step forward, two steps back…

    Pierre Igot

    --

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

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-16T21:43:32+00:00

    About 6 months ago I just switched from pc to mac. I run Word 2010 in parallels on my desktop mac and Word 2011 on my macbook. I have the same problem with 2011 the cursor disappears. The good new is that the new Word 2016 for mac does not have this issue. I have been running the trial version which just expired and am waiting for the stand alone version that will come out in September 2015. From all the research I've done regarding this issue its been going on for years with no resolve.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-06-18T20:33:11+00:00

    I have the disappearing cursor problem.  The cursor disappears while scrolling with the left and right arrow buttons.  This happens for me only with Mac Word 2011.

    I usually see the problem when my document starts to get complicated, ie with several figure objects and equations.  Often times the problem occurs only when the gap between pages of a document is visible on the screen. ~Seems somehow that cursor display gets under-prioritized by Word as drawing the document onscreen becomes more complex.

    The problem has been there for years and has persisted through Office updates, new computers, much tinkering with settings, etc.  It is NOT a video driver issue!  The same Word document on the (evil) Parallels side of my mac does not have the issue.  Mac Word has flawed cursor movement.

    I understand there will be a new version of mac office someday.  Would be nice to see this basic flaw in Word fixed asap.  I add my frustration to that above.

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  4. Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
    2015-03-28T14:43:16+00:00

    What I'm trying to say is that the Microsoft team is working to fix bugs in Office 2016, not 2011 right now. Going forward, if you want things to work well, use 2016 Preview and test there. Report problems in 2016. I would not expect bug fixes in 2011 any more.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-03-26T18:43:55+00:00

    I'm using Word  for Mac 2011 version 14.4.8

    So it doesn't look like it is done

    Bill

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