Word (Mac) Zoom issues

Hi George,

I am also having this problem; it came out of nowhere yesterday. I don't believe I updated Word (though perhaps it was updated automatically); and I did not update or change anything else prior to the problem's emergence.

As was said above, the problem is that, upon zooming in using the trackpad, often, I will be thrown upwards to a completely different and distant page in the doc. (So far, I have only been moved up in the doc, not down.) This makes editing and maneuvering extremely difficult. Note also that, as of yesterday, when I zoom in using the trackpad, even if it doesn't throw me to some different page, it will at least throw me to the far lefthand side of the paragraph I am zooming in on. That is, it doesn't zoom in on where my cursor is, or what's in the centre of the space that I am zooming in on; it throws me suddenly to the far lefthand side, if it doesn't throw me upwards to a completely new location.

I have ensured the issue is not my trackpad: in other editing software, on webpages, on pdfs, nothing close to this problem occurs; I go where I mean to; I'm thrown nowhere.

The problem seems not to occur when manually clicking on the little "+" zoom icon in Print Layout. Zooming in via click doesn't throw me to the lefthand side of the para either. It zooms in on where my cursor is, which I think is how it's supposed to be.

I have tried the other view settings. I don't ever use them, so I am unsure what is standard. But in a number of settings, what seems to me like a version of the problem recurs. For example, in draft, when I zoom in or out, I can't help but move upwards. This is true even when clicking on the little "+" or "-" buttons instead of using my trackpad. No matter where my cursor is, if I zoom, I go upward, and soon hit the very top left of the doc. But again, not sure what's standard here. I always use the print layout.

This issue isn't doc specific. It came out of nowhere, seemingly, and now it plagues all my word docs.

An interesting new problem that came about simultaneously is that, when using the "Read Aloud" feature, if I pause, it now sometimes keeps speaking. But it doesn't say what's next in the doc. It instead circles back to something it already said, or somewhere even earlier in the doc. It speaks even though it is not highlighting the words it's speaking, so I sometimes have no clue what it's reading. Turning off the feature, rather than simply pausing it, shuts it up. Again, this problem came about simultaneously.

To try to remedy all this, I have updated my mac from what I think was high sierra to catalina. (My mac is a macbook, 15inch, mid or late 2015 model.) I have uninstalled and trashed my Microsoft office and its caches etc, and reinstalled them fresh. I have also tried the 4 strategies recommended in the above post. Nothing has helped.

... Except for one thing. I was able to download a much older version of word for Mac OS 10.11-2 (or somewhere around there). I haven't kept it, since it was without some of the features I value. But as far I could tell, the problem didn't recur. It would zoom in where I wished, as had been the case on the more updated word until yesterday; it wouldn't jump left or anywhere else. But I would prefer to have a fix that didn't require downgrading my software!

Please let us know what can be done. As mentioned, this particular problem makes editing and maneuvering extremely difficult.

Owen

Hi Schaefer,

Thanks for posting back. When you have time, you are welcome to come back and share the updates with us.

Regards,

George

Thank you very much. As the issue unfortunately does exist in all documents (even newly created ones) I will be following your suggestions and updating you as soon as I have access to my Mac which will be next week. Kind regards, Schaefer

Hi All,

Thanks for posting in the community.

According to your description, it seems when you use the Zoom in feature on the trackpad, the view will jump to a random page. To troubleshoot the issue further, I would like to collect more information.

1. What if you connect a mouse to click the Zoom in/out button “+” and “-” OR what if you press the shortcut “Command + -” and “Command + =”, does the issue happen again?
2. What is the view setting in the View tab?
3. Does the issue exist in a specific document or also in a newly created document?
4. Your macOS version

Also, if the issue exists in all documents, please try the following suggestions and check if they help.

1. Please try to move the cache folder to Desktop, then reopen Word and check again

Close Word. Go to ~/Library/Containers, move the folder com.microsoft.word. If your macOS is Big Sur, the cache folder is Microsoft Word. After that, reopen Word and check again.

2. Disable the related Word add-ins, check whether the issue is caused by 3rd party add-ins you installed.

Apple menu > System Preferences > Extensions > All categories to disable the related Word third-party extensions.

3. Please validate Fonts, if the issue is caused by the fonts you installed.

Go to your Font Book application > click File > Validate Fonts

4. Please try to set Mac into Safe Mode and check whether the issue is caused by the startup items.

If you have any updates, please feel free and come back to share with us.

Regards,

George

Actually, the more that have the problem, the better! So it seems to be not specific to our Macs!