"Undo" causing problems in Word 365

Anonymous
2015-10-12T22:12:31+00:00

Using Word 365 on a Mac:

Haven't been able to find other people posting about the same issue. I'm having problems with the "undo" feature - while typing a document, Word seems to have picked specific spots to revert to every time I undo a change and then not allowing a redo. As a result, every time I hit command+Z (out of habit as I type), I lose all my work to the last "property update" (as far as I can tell, a formatting edit).

It's hard to explain but basically, undo removes work done up to a certain point, not the last edit or change, and then does not allow me to redo. Has anyone had this problem and how did you fix it?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Answer accepted by question author
Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP
2017-02-21T17:58:28+00:00

Your Mac is behind on updates. Please install updates then test again to see if the problem remains.

Make sure your Mac has a working internet connection before checking for updates. Install Mac OS X updates followed by Office updates.

Install Mac OS X updates first:

To get Mac OS updates, go to the App store on your dock, and then click the Updates button to reveal available updates.

Then Install Office Updates

To get the update:

  1. Open any Office application:
  2. Make sure your Mac has a working internet connection
  3. Go to the Help menu and choose Check for Updates
  4. Let AutoUpdate check for and install updates
  5. Restart your Mac

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John Korchok 236.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-11-13T15:28:10+00:00

It's probably simplest for you to move your documents from the old account to the new one, since you haven't been using this computer for long. Here's a page showing how to do that: Transfer Files Between Two OS X Accounts

It would be great if Microsoft could figure out how completely uninstall Office 2016 for Mac to fix problems. The fact that moving to a new account solves the issue proves that the existing instructions are not complete enough. You can vote for this User Voice idea to request them to do that.

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Anonymous
2017-12-15T03:00:15+00:00

Funny enough, after I posted earlier today, my Word updated—in fact, it insisted: it closed out of what I was working on. It does not do that normally. And now it's Version 16.8. Very odd... (I did try experiment with checking the "Join the Office Insider program to get early access to new releases"—which offered new updates).

Also, the Chrome issue is not a Chrome issue per se. Rather copying and pasting from other Word documents will do it. I think the issue has to do with the merging of differing formatting? (Which is the case when pasting from Chrome).

We'll see if the issue persists. It hasn't reoccurred since the update—but I've been lured into a sense of security before on this...

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John Korchok 236.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-12-09T02:38:31+00:00

If you're really running version 15.4, you are extremely behind in updates. Please use Help>Check for Updates, install the latest version, restart your Mac and try again.

If you simply left off a 0 and are running 15.40, be sure to click on the small smiley-face icon in the upper-right corner of the program window, choose Tell Us What Can Be Better and describe the problem in detail. Submitting sends a bug report directly to the programming team.

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Anonymous
2017-03-19T11:31:25+00:00

You were right, updating solved my problem ! Thanks a lot !

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-12T01:47:15+00:00

    Having the exact same problem, also using Word 365 on a Mac. I have all of the most recent updates, and it only happens on some documents, and even on those documents, everything will be fine until a random point, when a careless command-Z makes me lost half the work I just did. This is EXTREMELY frustrating, and even saving frequently does not help, as it seems the reversion automatically saves the new state, so you are just SOL essentially.

    Given that it's now 7 months after you mentioned this issue, Microsoft's slow response time is extremely troubling. I've sent in several complaints using the bug report feature, but no response.

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    4 people found this answer helpful.
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