Forum Discussion
Lagging cursor in Word while using arrow keys
Hello, As of a few days ago, my cursor in Word cannot keep up with my arrow keys. For example, if I press the right-arrow key five times, it takes Word a few seconds for the cursor to get there. This is particularly annoying if I want to say, highlight a sentence using arrow keys alone, as it takes Word much longer than usual to accurately move the cursor.
The problem persists after a re-installation of Office.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Edit 1: The problem only occurs on my personal PC, which has Windows 10 Home. It does not occur with my work PC, which has Windows 10 Enterprise. The computers otherwise have similar specs (former is Lenovo; latter is Dell).
Edit 2: Reiterating some points made below, the problem occurs in Word only. Powerpoint, Excel, etc. are fine.
Edit 3: The problem only occurs when multiple docs are open. Others have noted that disabling the Mendeley add-in fixes the issue. I confirmed this worked for me as well. Disabling Mendeley is not a satisfactory solution for me, however, as I rely on Mendeley for reference management.
53 Replies
I have found a "solution" to the problem which consists of activating and deactivating the Mendeley plugin at convenience from a macro associated with a button. To do this, in the developer options:
Record Macro>Assign Macro to Button... Then
Options>Add-ins>Manage>Templates>Go>Disable Mendeley>Ok>Stop macro
We repeat the process to record a macro activating Mendeley.
Thus, we will have two buttons to activate and deactivate the Mendeley add-in quickly. I only activate it when I am going to insert a reference. It works perfectly.
Thanks for the tip! I used the record macro to find the path of the Mendeley add-in. Then I modified the macro code to make it an on-off switch. In this way, you can make do with only a single button that I attached to the quick access toolbar.
So the procedure:
Record Macro>Assign Macro to Button
Options>Add-ins>Manage>Templates>Go>Disable Mendeley>Ok>Stop macro (thanks edsantor)View>Macros>view macros>find your just recorded macro>edit
It will open VBA,
Copy the AddIns(Add-in Path).Installed that you find after recording the macro.
Replace the underlined parts below with your path/version
If AddIns(Add-in Path).Installed = False Then
AddIns(Add-in Path).Installed = True
With ActiveDocument
.UpdateStylesOnOpen = False
.AttachedTemplate = "Normal"
End With
Else
AddIns(Add-in Path).Installed = False
With ActiveDocument
.UpdateStylesOnOpen = False
.AttachedTemplate = "Normal"
End With
End If
> Place the code under the title of the macro you defined
> Save the adapted macro
You are good to go now!
I also added Mendeley's "insert citation" button to the same toolbar, which disappears and reappears once you press the button (or alt+ 9 in my case). It serves as an excellent indicator to see if you need to press the button for a fast cursor. It is an easy workaround, but the underlying problem needs permanent fixing.
- Fantastic! Thanks for improving my 'solution'.
michaeldgarber I had this same problem. I am a transcriptionist so rely heavily on extremely simple features in Word, like being able to press the arrow keys. After my arrow keys lagging and wasting hours trying to find a solution and then wasting hours trying to work with a lagging cursor, I found what worked for me. (I also noticed the problem seemed worse when two Word documents were open.)
What finally worked for me was that I noticed my problem had started after downloading a file. So I took that file, copied all of that text, pasted it into a new document, and saved it. I then deleted the file I was suspicious of. After that, I haven't seemed to have the problem.
These items did not work for me:
There were no new service packs relevant to me. I have ZERO add-ins and had never even heard of Mendeley before this issue. I re-installed Word multiple times. I deleted as many .doc files as possible (I still have .doc files that I need). I don't have Thinkvantage. I tried updating my keyboard properties (speed, repeat delay, and repeat rate). My filter keys are off. Keyboard drivers are up to date. Trouble shooter found no problems. Turned off "smart cursoring" in Word. Updated Windows. Updated Word. Tried Quick Repair and Online Repair for Office programs. I have a lot of things connected to my computer using a USB hub. I unplugged everything to make sure no hardware was causing the problem. This did not fix the problem either.
I thought I would post a possible work around for those who need multiple Word documents open. If you can put the info from all Word docs that you need into a notepad file or a PDF, then you can work off of them as if they were a second Word document, although obviously you wouldn't have the features of Word.
This problem is really ridiculous and I am disturbed Microsoft hasn't attempted to help. I am a transcriptionist so my whole job is extremely reliant on Microsoft Word (unfortunately). After this, among other extremely simple tasks that have failed in Word before, I am going to look for a simplified word processor that doesn't fail me.
michaeldgarber I got an unwanted update and I'm getting the lagging curser all over Outlook, too. I use a wired mouse and I've changed the click speed several times but it is not doing any good. It also comes and goes, and I also have a keyboard lag which really drives me crazy I'm a lawyer all I need are two fonts, a couple of font sizes, and some margin controls. I DON'T NEED ALL THIS STUFF.
michaeldgarber Smae issue!!! 😞
Any solution out there?mail4umardisabling the Mendeley Desktop add-in and using Mendeley Reference Manager's add-in works to solve the issue. Frankly I am not very satisfied with this solution, as the newer Mendeley Reference Manager is a wrapper around their web platform, is slow to load, frequently requests my Mendeley username and password, and doesn't seem to have any local database.
This issue was enough to push me from Mendeley to Zotero. So far the migration has been very smooth, with all collections successfully imported.
Oleksandr TominMicrosoft
I was happy I found this post, but unfortunately the solution isn't applicable - I don't have Mendeley plugin. I check other addons - I don't have anything, except very few native ones.I'm broken too. I'm a lawyer it is real important to have more than one Word document open at a time. Not that these guys give a **bleep** about people who actually need to process words for a living. michaeldgarber
- Also been persevering with this for months now, I even moved computer but the issue followed. For a long time I thought it was to do with OneDrive and Autosave. But as others have said Mendeley add-on seems to have been the culprit as disabling has fixed things. Deep JOY!!!!
Had the same issues and I tried everything suggested here.
personally, I solved it by debilitating Mendeley Add-ons
File>Options>Addins>Manage templates>Uncheck Mendely
Well, surprisingly I disabled my Mendeley add-in and it worked!
Maybe the issue is one of the faulty add-ins installed in your Word.- same problem
I have the same issue in word.
Smart Cursoring only solved problem when I have one document open. Once I open a second document, the problem persists.
Regards,
Seeing this post, I also tested. Only occurs if two or more Word documents are open.
For me, I want to clarify that when I press the arrow keys there is no delay in when the cursor starts moving across the line the of text. It's just that if I hold the arrow key down for more than a second, when I lift my finger off the key, the input cursor continues to move, sometimes up to a second afterwards and cannot be stopped. Doesn't sound bad, but it actually makes it very hard to edit documents.
I am using Microsoft Apps 365 enterprise 64 bit.
I continue to have this issue. Only occurs in Word (possibly also other Office products). Disabling the Smart cursor and other suggestions here haven't helped.
- Same here. I continue to have the issue once I have 2 or more Word documents open. Disabling smart cursor doesn't help me either.
