My Cursor Keeps Turning White in Microsoft Word Without Typing

Anonymous
2022-08-15T21:33:58+00:00

My cursor keeps turning white in Microsoft Word 2016 (I bought lifetime access), even without typing. I already tried changing the cursor settings so that it wouldn't disappear when typing, but that didn't do anything. After a few seconds the text selection cursor will turn white, and, if I hover over dark text, I can see the cursor outline. This has been happening in multiple documents, so not an isolated incident.

This started after a Microsoft update which forced me to log back into my Microsoft account to use Word about a week or two ago. I've tried everything I can find on the internet, but no luck yet. It's very hard to get work done if I can't see my cursor in Word, so what do I need to do to fix this issue so I can get back to work?

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.

0 comments

143 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-13T22:44:14+00:00

    Haven't tried this yet. I'll have to see how this goes a little later, nothing else has helped...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-03-13T09:52:27+00:00

    This guy solved the problem for me Win 11 same 2016 lifetime Office: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hN8LrGogzY&ab_channel=LearnBasics

    win+R, MAIN.CPL, pointer options, unmark "Hide pointer while typing", Pointers, Text Select, Browse for beam.i Open and Apply. Done!

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-13T09:46:38+00:00

    Thank you, Genius helper! That solved my trouble with office 2016 - my cursor turned white while scrolling text in Win11

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-27T17:41:16+00:00

    I have the same problem, but have been able to replicate and at least have a workaround fix, albeit not a complete fix.

    In word, the insertion point cursor begins black, but if I move the cursor out of the window and then back to the Word window, the insertion point is now white.

    The "fix" is to click outside of the Word window, and then click on the Word page again.

    What appears to be happening is that moving the cursor out of the Word window without clicking is changing the cursor from an insertion point to a pointer. Because the focus window has not changed though, bringing the cursor back to the Word page triggers the change of cursor type, but no information about cursor colour, and so we get a white cursor. By changing the focus window and then coming back into Word and doing the change from pointer to insertion point in Word, we get that colour trigger, and our black cursor back

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2023-02-27T02:43:55+00:00

    May this proble be solved soon.

    In my mehod, restore to default setting to MPO are also provied.

    You may try at a risk.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments