Click and Drag not working

Question

Click and Drag not working

Isabella Monk 0

My cursor wont let me click and drag anything on word. this isnt a problem in any other app on my mac, only microsoft word. I can't highlight a single letter without double tapping which causes the whole word to highlight. I also can't make tables or pictures smaller or larger. please help :)

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Answer recommended by moderator

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.7K

Restarting the Mac is the correct first step but most everything else suggested is premature or irrelevant. In addition to the need for a restart the most common reason for this is the need to update macOS, Office, or both,

Please see this existing Answer Select Text as well as this link for additional Select Techniques. The additional techniques which you may find to be considerably more accurate & efficient rhan dragging... selecting a complete sentence with a single click, for example.

Alistair Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-08-13T19:50:19.73+00:00

After trying all the crazy things CoPilot and Gemini suggested, which is based on all the stuff from Hendrix-C below, a Mac restart did the trick. Something deep down was broken. That's a bug in my book. Well over an hour wasted.

2 additional answers

Alistair Adams 0 Reputation points

2026-08-13T19:50:19.73+00:00

After trying all the crazy things CoPilot and Gemini suggested, which is based on all the stuff from Hendrix-C below, a Mac restart did the trick. Something deep down was broken. That's a bug in my book. Well over an hour wasted.

Answer 1

Hi @Isabella Monk,

Based on your sharing, since the issue only happens in Word and dragging works properly in other apps, this is likely that Word for Mac is not registering normal drag gestures, not a trackpad/mouse hardware issue.

In this case, I suggest you try these workarounds to narrow down the issue step by step:

1/ Do a full restart of your Mac first

Save your Word documents and quit Word completely (Word > Quit Word or press Command + Q)
Restart your Mac from Apple menu > Restart

2/ Reset Word preferences

Quit Word completely
In Finder, select Go from the menu bar > hold Option, and select Library.
Inside Library folder, look for the "Preferences" folder > locate the file com.microsoft.Word.plist and move it to the trash
Open Word again to test if the issue persists

3/ Check Word settings

In Word, go to Word > Preferences > Edit
Ensure the option "Drag-and-drop text editing" is enabled

4/ Reset the Normal templates

Repeat the same steps in option 2 to go to Library folder
In Library, go to Group Containers > UBF8T346G9.Office > User Content > Templates
Find Normal.dotm file and rename it to something like Normal_old.dotm
Then reopen Word again to see if it works now.

Please understand that my initial response may not always resolve the issue immediately. However, you can try these steps and let me know if it works. If not, please notify me and we can work together to find a solution.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it.

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Hendrix-C 19,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-05-27T23:07:19.9933333+00:00

Good day @Isabella Monk,

Hope things are running smoothly on your end.

Following up on the support thread we've been working on. If you need assistance with anything else, kindly respond to this post, and I will be happy to help.

I want to make sure everything is working as expected and that your experience remains uninterrupted.

Thank you for your patience and understanding throughout the troubleshooting process.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Answer 2

The behavior is a known Word for Mac issue where mouse/trackpad drag-selection and object resizing stop working, while other apps remain fine. The most effective resolutions in similar cases are:

Update macOS

In a reported case on a MacBook Pro with Word for Mac, updating macOS (to the next available version) immediately restored the ability to select text with mouse click or three‑finger drag and everything “ran smoothly” afterward.
On the Mac, go to Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update and install all available macOS updates.
Restart the Mac and test Word again.

Make sure Office/Word is fully updated

Open Word.
Create a new blank document.
Go to File > Account.
Under Product Information, choose Update Options > Update Now (enable updates first if needed).
Let updates complete, restart Word, and test click‑and‑drag selection and resizing of tables/pictures.

Use alternative selection techniques while troubleshooting If drag selection still fails, use keyboard-based selection as a workaround:

Click to place the insertion point, then hold Shift and use the Arrow keys to extend the selection.
For more efficient and precise methods than dragging, see the guidance in the “Select Text” threads referenced in the moderator answers; they describe multiple professional selection techniques that work even when dragging fails.

If the issue persists after macOS and Office updates plus a restart, it matches the pattern described in the existing “Select Text”/“Block Text” threads, where the root cause is outside Word and resolved by OS-level updates or fixes.

References: