MS Word will not drag-to-highlight

Question

MS Word will not drag-to-highlight

Recently, MSWord's drag-cursor-to-highlight stopped functioning.

I am on a Mac Studio on OS Ventura 13.5, and Magic Mouse (bluetooth)

MS Word is latest version (16.81) as part of Microsoft Office 365 subscription

I know I could update my OS to Sonoma, but unless this MS Word problem is specific to Ventura - it's been working fine for months on Ventura - I'm not ready to update to Sonoma.

It's a sudden change that seemed to occur without making any changes to Word or my OS.

All other Word functions, creating docs, fonts saving, printing, etc. still work fine.

Even double-clicking on a line of text highlights the whole line as before.

Just can't drag my cursor across a line to highlight as before

Thank god I have Open Office Writer to mimc Word in the meantime...but I'd like word to be working properly again.

Mac Studio (2023)

Posted on Feb 1, 2024 4:21 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobWHP

Level 1

8 points

Mar 13, 2024 5:18 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

I had this same problem and spent ages on pages like this trying to get an answer. In the end I found a solution: I switched off my Mac mini, left it for a few minutes, then switched it back on again. Now everything works as normal... text highlighting/marking with the trackpad is back to where it was in Word and in Outlook. Whatever the source of the problem was, it's gone away.

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Answer 2

Feb 2, 2024 11:56 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

I should edit the question to say 'MS Word will not swipe-to-select.

I'm not actually trying to highlight anything.

I'm trying to do the simple task of swiping an entire line of text or paragraph with my cursor (mouse) for the purpose of cutting/pasting or deleting that body of text.

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Answer 3

Nadi513

Level 1

8 points

Apr 3, 2024 8:21 AM in response to BobWHP

I have been searching the web on how to fix this issue for the last few weeks and nothing was working. I can't believe all I had to do was restart my computer LOL. Thank you!!!

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Answer 4

Feb 2, 2024 7:23 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Reboot your Mac. Then try the highlighting process in the same Word document again.

My experience with Word v16.81 (on Sonoma 14.3) is that one first drags right to left to select document content, and then clicks the color (e.g. yellow) highlight button on the ribbon bar to complete the highlight.

I say "right to left" because if you drag from the left to select, there will be automatic, unintentional white space selected after the last selected text item.

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Answer 5

LBank11

Level 1

14 points

Jun 17, 2024 10:28 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Wow, same thing for me! My cursor started acting funny (blinking erratically) and then I noticed that I couldn't click and drag or use the 3-finger swiping motion on the track pad. I have so many documents open, I tried to deal with it. Then tried restarting Word and it didn't work. After reading this I restarted my computer and it is back to normal. Hoping it stays!

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Answer 6

May 2, 2024 10:38 PM in response to seaveez

But it’s resolved for one use only—to drag again you have to switch off again

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Answer 7

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,030 points

Feb 2, 2024 4:54 AM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

There's a special forum for Word problems at

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-msoffice_unknown-mso_OPMac?sort=LastReplyDate&dir=Desc&tab=All&status=all&mod=&modAge=&advFil=&postedAfter=&postedBefore=&threadType=all&isFilterExpanded=true&page=1

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Answer 8

Apr 16, 2024 9:30 AM in response to Nadi513

I switched off and then back on and it seemed to solve the problem too, but no, the problem restored itself. Does one have to switch off and on every time?

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