[BUG] Word 2016 for Mac: Selected text will not highlight selection

Anonymous
2015-09-02T10:52:32+00:00

Posted due to request ofAleksandar Petrov MSFT in original post https://community.office365.com/de-de/f/111/t/406777

Translated to english for a better support:

DESCRIPTION:

While selecting a text or a part of a text in Word for Mac 2016 (v15.13.1) - it is irrelevant if the selection was made by keyboard or mouse - it does not highlight the selected text. The selection itself was done, which could be proven by cut'n paste the selected text.

TRYOUTS:

  • A change of the assistance settings in Mac OS raising the contrast or changing the colors did not change the described  the errorness behaviour.
  • Changing the text color did not change the described  the errorness behaviour.
  • Deinstallation and reinstallation as well as usage of a "clean" user profile did not change the described  the errorness behaviour.

Control Checks:

  • Selection in Word for Mac 2008 is visible and works as designed
  • Selection in Word for Mac 2011 is visible and works as designed
  • Selection in Excel for Mac 2016 is visible and works as designed
  • Selection in Powerpoint for Mac 2016 is visible and works as designed
  • Word 2016 is the only program that has problems with this issue. I cross tested this issue on several other programs incl. Adobe Suite without any problems.

IMPACT:

  • Product is unusable at the moment.
Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author
Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K Reputation points
2016-09-28T12:42:44+00:00

Hey Jimmy - The originator of the thread did indicate Office v15.13.1, which may have been current at the time but it dates back to more than a year ago. Those who have since hijacked the thread are the ones who have not indicated any version information... the exception being Michael-Gilbert. Even so, it isn't beneficial for anyone to continue the conversation when the original issue pertained to a version more than 10 releases prior to what is current.

For those having what seems to be a similar issue, please post a new message stating all details specific to your situation. In that way the responses can be focused on your particular concerns rather than being tangled up with who is replying to whom.

Three general suggestions/requests for anyone experiencing a similar problem:

  • Restart your Mac to see if the issue persists after a fresh launch,
  • Go to > System Preferences> General to see what is specified for your Highlight Color. Try selecting several different colors to see if it has any effect. You'll have to restart Word after each change,
  • Create a new Standard User Account to see if the same issue occurs when logged in as that user.

Please include the results of the testing in your message.

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Anonymous
2018-07-12T15:42:55+00:00

Hi,

I had the same problem with Word 16.14 on a MacPro 2010 running Mac OS 10.13.5 with 2 graphic cards, the original (an quite old) NVidia GT120 and a More modern Radeon 7950. I tried everything to solve the issue from a software perspective (twick MacOS color parameters - update to the most recent releases of Office 365 including the Insider Fast release (16.16 - 180709) - downgrade of the OS to an earlier release 10.13.4 - complete wipeout of Office and clean reinstall) and finally figured out it could be a HW issue.

I did a safe start and bingo, highlighting was functionnal again. 

When I rebooted in normal mode, the "bug" was there again

So i Finally decided to play with HW components. 

I started by removing the old GT120, rebooted, and jackpot, Word was fully functionnal again.

My bet is that there is probably a bug hiding somewhere in Apple's graphic drivers.

BTW removing that card also solved a display problem with PixelMator that appeared simultaneously with the Word "bug".

Hope that helps.

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46 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-12-26T10:25:55+00:00

    Bug is now under investigation as ticket 115090313128223

    Hi goei,

    Did you get any news about that ticket? 

    I'm suffering the same problem with Word 2016 not viewing text selected, and would like to know if there is any progress / fix.

    Thanks!

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-08T00:10:02+00:00

    Just tried an **** reset, and shazam, select now highlights correctly in Word 2016.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-07T00:01:01+00:00

    Same problem, have you solved yours?

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