Word topics

MS will not properly investigate breaches of security. What can I do?

BXG222 — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:41:50 GMT

I cannot accurately describe the innumerable ways in which these breaches of privacy and security have occurred. My account is being administered by an unauthorized third party and Ms will not properly investigate. At present, the font and text size changes erratically as I am typing in Word, without any effort or intention on my part. Countless contacts with customer support and innumerable complaints filed have been ineffective. Cases are closed without review. The problem persists without any accountability. Any changes that I make to settings are then altered. Does anyone have an authentic, legitimate suggestion as to how I might — not merely correct this latest issue— but effectively reach a legitimate agency that will investigate these incursions at the data level?

Problème de connexion

Leroilouis9 — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:24:18 GMT

J'ai utilisé Word Microsoft 365 durant des années, mais soudain j'ai un problème : après la création d'une nouvelle page, aucun texte ne peut être écrit. Mon clavier fonctionne bien. Quelqu'un sait comment faire?

Office.js: Is there any supported way to retrieve multiple non-contiguous text selections in Word?

nitika-optimus — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 10:56:00 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm developing a Word Office Add-in using Office.js.

In Microsoft Word (Windows Desktop), users can select multiple non-contiguous text ranges by holding Ctrl while selecting text.

However, when I use:

context.document.getSelection()

It only returns a single Word.Range, and I couldn't find any API to detect or retrieve all the selected ranges.

I came across this related discussion:

Microsoft Tech Community – Support for Retrieving Multiple Selected Ranges in Word via Office.js

My questions are:

1. As of 2026, is there any supported Office.js API to retrieve multiple non-contiguous text selections?

2. Is there any workaround to detect that the user has selected multiple ranges?

3. Or is this still a platform limitation?

Our use case is an AI-powered legal research add-in, where users may want to select multiple clauses from different parts of a document and send them together as context.

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks!

Text boxes and images

kpinks — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:56:47 GMT

Good morning, I use Word everyday to create Assembly and Test instructions. Is it possible to somehow add custom shapes to the "shapes" section?

Add-in Error of complements in Word Online with my Personal Account

tamaraab — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 08:31:26 GMT

Hi,

I am getting an error when trying to insert any add-in (such as Mendeley Cite) in Word Online using my personal account.

Error message:
"Add-in Error: We couldn't connect to the catalog server for this document" (Original Spanish error: "Error de complemento: no pudimos conectarnos con el servidor del catálogo {0} para este documento")

Here are the details and the troubleshooting I've already done:

- Account-specific: It works perfectly with my old University account, but fails with my new Personal account.
- Platform-specific: The add-in works fine on the Word Desktop App, but fails on Word Online (web browser).
- Browsers: I have tried different browsers (Chrome, Firefox) and the issue persists.

It seems to be a configuration or permission restriction specific to my personal account on the web version. How can I fix this?

Thank you!

Heading Style Misapplied to Body Text

IreneBC — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 01:28:41 GMT

Hi,

I'm editing a novel manuscript. Somehow. the author applied the same heading used for the chapter numbering to the last line of text of Chapter 28, so that that short line and the Chapter 29 heading are ... linked? If I try to set the heading for the line of text to normal in the Style pane, the chapter 29 heading goes to "normal," too. If I try to apply the heading style to the chapter heading, the line of text gets that style, too.

Chapter 29 has of course disappeared from the Navigation Pane in all this.

Any advice is very welcome.

Word Document Using Columns Not Modified, But Suddenly Displays Differently

Len_Jacobson — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:14:18 GMT

I am using MS Word on my Windows 11 desktop. I have been using a Word document that I created a couple of years ago. The document uses Columns.

The last time I modified it was a year ago. I tend to print it out every two days.

Suddenly, the document displays differently and prints those differences. It now displays vertical lines below four of the five squares.

I moved the document to my Windows 11 laptop. Same problem there.

I sent the Word document to my son who opened it on his Mac computer. On his computer, it displays exactly as it should -- No erroneous vertical lines.

Again, I have not modified the document. I thought maybe a Windows update may have caused the problem, but I don't see any Windows update in about one month.

I am displaying two images below, a "before" and "after" image. The "before" (i.e., correct) image shows five squares and the alphabet displaying vertically. The "after" image shows vertical lines below the first four squares.

Can anyone suggest a fix for this? Repeating myself again -- I have not modified this file in a year.

Thank you.

Len Jacobson

First Image -- Correct display of the five squares and the alphabet displayed vertically

Second Image -- Incorrect display. Vertical lines appearing below the first four squares.

Ruler Feature Disappeared from Microsoft Word on Android Tablet

abuegila — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 02:47:41 GMT

Hello everyone,

My father recently bought a new Android tablet specifically to use Microsoft Word for his work because he relies heavily on the Ruler feature.

When I first installed Word, the Ruler was available and worked perfectly. However, after restarting the tablet, it disappeared. Since then, I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app several times, tried different versions of Word, checked all the settings, and confirmed that we had an active Microsoft 365 subscription, but the Ruler is still missing.

My father has also tried adjusting to different document layouts and workarounds, but unfortunately none of them are practical for his workflow. He simply cannot work efficiently without the Ruler feature.

Has anyone experienced this issue? Is the Ruler still supported in Microsoft Word for Android, or has it been removed? If it's still available, is there any way to restore it or install a version that includes it?

My father bought this tablet mainly for Microsoft Word, so this feature is essential for his work.

Thank you for any help or clarification.

How do I get balloon commenting on the right side of the page?

London — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:34:23 GMT

I'm using Word 2024 because I don't want AI in my interface. Now commenting all appears in the tab side bar. I can click on the "Comment" pulldown in the ribbon to show comments properly, but I can't write in them. This is aggressively hostile to people with vision difficulties. Even with my glasses, that's much smaller than I'm comfortable with.

How can I get the comments that were so good and useful back? If not, how can I change the type size in the sidebar so I can read and write comments?

Microsoft, please, don't ruin your products because you want to make us use AI for things that it's not helpful for. I don't use Word for anything I want AI in and deal with documents I cannot legally allow to be exposed to unverified servers like AI chatbots.

Using Mail Merge with MACROS

ChrisBlanchard — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 07:43:50 GMT

Hello,

I am currently trying to use Mail Merge from EXCEL with a WORD document to be emailed in OUTLOOK

The emailed document takes the form of a .pdf attachment

Our designer has created a Customer Order Update document that requires a WORD MACRO to realise his formatting once the Merge has taken place.

I have created a MACRO in the WORD document that is able to perform the correct formatting on the WORD document after the merge with EXCEL spreasheet data has taken place.

However, with a multiple page document I find that the MACRO is only applied to the 1st page of the document

Subsequent pages of the generated .pdf do NOT have the MACRO applied

( I have various detail lines that are hash preceded capital letters that trigger the MACRO to perform a subtitle substitution )

As the MACRO goes through 25 lines of detail (below the fixed document header) in a Loop to perform substitutions I wondered if expanding the Loop to 50 lines would allow the second page of the document to also receive the MACRO processing. This did NOT happen

Please advise how I can get the MACRO to apply to every page of the mail merged document

I do not believe that the MACRO can only be applied once to the 1st page of the mail mereged document only

regards

Section Page Count and Section Pages field Bugs

Doug_Robbins_Word_MVP — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:07:16 GMT

Posting for Greg Maxey

I have Microsoft® Word 2019 MSO (Version 2508 Build 16.0.19127.20302) 32-bit.
There are bugs in program related to accurately returning section page count. To produce, open a new Word document and perform the following:
Type single short line of text e.g., Hello World.
Apply an end note to that text.
Hit the enter key until empty paragraphs push the end note to the very top of the next page.
In the header enter a {Page} field and a {Section Pages} field. E.g., Page {Page} of {Section Pages} pages
Update the fields. Look at pages 1 and 2 in the document.
The Header {Section Pages) field incorrectly returns Page 1 of 1 pages and Page 2 of 1 Pages. The human eye and the {Page} field obviously are correct. The Section Pages field is wrong.
Run the following macro:
Sub ScratchMacro()
'A basic Word Macro coded by Gregory K. Maxey
Dim oRng As Range
Set oRng = ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Range
MsgBox ActiveDocument.Sections.Count 'Correct. Word knows the document has 1 section
MsgBox oRng.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber) 'Correct. Word knows the range is in that 1 section
MsgBox oRng.Information(wdNumberOfPagesInDocument) 'Correct. Word knows that the document has 2 pages
MsgBox oRng.Information(wdActiveEndPageNumber) 'Bug. Incorrect, should return 2.
lbl_Exit:
Exit Sub
End Sub

Word Similarity Checker fails in desktop and web: “Something went wrong”

VectorSentry — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:35:44 GMT

Hello,

I am having an issue with Microsoft Word Similarity Checker. The Similarity Checker consistently fails with the message:

“Something went wrong. Try again.”

This happens in both:

- Microsoft Word desktop

- Word for the web / Microsoft 365 web version

Product/account details:

- Microsoft 365 subscription is active

- Word shows activated under File > Account

- Connected experiences are enabled

- Word desktop version: Microsoft 365 Apps, Version 2606, Build 20131.20112 Click-to-Run Current Channel

Troubleshooting already completed:

1. Confirmed Word is activated under File > Account.

2. Confirmed connected experiences are enabled:

- Experiences that analyze your content: ON

- Experiences that download online content: ON

- All connected experiences: ON

3. Ran Office Update Now.

4. Restarted Windows.

5. Ran Quick Repair.

6. Ran Online Repair.

7. Tested in a brand-new blank Word document.

8. Tested on mobile hotspot instead of normal network.

9. Confirmed ProtonVPN was turned off.

10. Cleared Office Wef cache contents at:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef\

11. Checked Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime. The installer says it is already installed for the system.

12. Signed out of Word/Microsoft 365, restarted Windows, and signed back in.

13. Tested again in Word desktop.

14. Tested again in Word for the web.

15. The same “Something went wrong. Try again” Similarity Checker error still occurs.

I also previously saw a script error when clicking Update License in Word:

URL shown included:

https://oc.officeapps.live.com/odc/v2.1/hrd

Error:

'Hrd' is undefined

Because the issue occurs in both desktop Word and Word for the web after these troubleshooting steps, this seems like a Microsoft 365/Word Similarity Checker service-side or account-side issue rather than a local installation problem.

Can someone from Microsoft confirm whether there is a known issue with Similarity Checker right now, or whether this needs to be escalated as an account/service-side problem?

Word Help

roseymarkel — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:35:59 GMT

My word application kept defaulting to an old version that is no longer active. With the help of one of your technician's, I was able to erase that and sign in to my microsoft word account. However, I cannot restore my dissertation document with all the formatting, charts, maps, etc. Thankfully I saved it on my OneDrive through my university, but when I try to download it back onto my computer, it scrubs all the formatting, charts, maps. I've tried to pull it off my icloud but it only has the scrubbed version. The technician suggested I post here to see if anyone can help me.

Cant start microsoft word

wordproblem — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:33:53 GMT

Hello,

Sorry if this is not the right place for this but I dont know how to start a discussion anywhere else. This was the only place where I could find start discussion button.

I am having problems with microsoft word. When I open the software then it says word couldnt start last time. Safe mode could help you troubleshoot the problem, but some features might not be available in this mode. Do you want to start in safe mode?

I tried to press both buttons but after that I only get the starting icon of word and then nothing happens. I tried to reinstall microsoft 365 and I tried to repair it but it did not help. I also tried the changing temple the normal.dotm file but it did not help. Now i deleted the file and I dont have it anymore. I also tried a few things on the registry side where you made changes to the word registy but like removing addins and options and adding the shellchanching thing to registery but it did not help. I tried to do some system scan on cmd and it did some repairs but in the end it did not help. Is there anything else that I can try. I feel like I have tried everything possible way that I have found on internet. Is my only option to just reinstall my windows and then start from beginning. Will reinstalling windows even work? I need word for my work and I cant realy wait for too long. I am using windows 11 and I am pretty sure my word version is 16. I also tried to use some other microsoft softwares and excel has the same problem. It first did open but after few seconds it closed and then I got the same message. Microsoft acces seems to work fine.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/how-to-troubleshoot-problems-that-occur-when-you-start-or-use-word

I did try these methods and it did not work.

Any help?

Word count dropped but the number of words hasn't changed

ThomWdUser — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 06:30:31 GMT

Dear All

Please help with this problem.

I’ve been working on a document for months. It's about 95,700 words. Two days ago, the count dropped by about 700 words. The same thing had happened in two other versions of the same document that I hadn't opened for a few days. I follow the counts closely. There's no rational explanation. It was the same when I opened the documents, via my external hard drive on a different PC. I did a virus scan, that was OK. I hadn’t deleted any words. If I opened the documents on Microsoft Online, it showed the correct word count. Other, unrelated Word documents were not affected.

Microsoft support tried to resolve this but couldn’t. Then I fixed it myself by uninstalling and reinstalling Microsoft 365/ Office. But now two days later it’s come back. I work on this project every day. It’s vital that I see the correct word count. Having to use Microsoft Online would be a pain.

Please, does anyone know how to correct this, permanently?

Regards

Thom

Word 2010 page number problems

PastorRay — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:14:06 GMT

Help! I'm trying to renumber my 2010 .docx file, starting at physical page 11 as page 1. In certain sections of the document, the page number shows up, but in earlier sections, it completely disappears. I've been online, done everything that all the "help" posts say to do, all to no effect. Is there a free app out there somewhere that allows you to renumber your entire document, starting at a specific physical page number, and also allows you to determine where and how the page number is displayed? Or, if anyone knows a trick I don't know, I'd be all for that, too! Thanks for any help you can provide! God bless!!!

Pastor Ray Young

Dynamic Pages in Mail Merge

Brad_Docimo — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 16:30:25 GMT

Is there any way to dynamically turn pages in a document on or off during a mail merge?

Building a welcome packet for an event, and some people need to see Page A. Others need to see Page B instead. If it were just simple text differences between the two, I could merge in the content itself, but the pages are wildly different, with images and other elements.

Thanks

How can I remove the shortcuts with AltGr?

RottessoAnidel — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 14:18:11 GMT

Guys, I have to use a new keyboard (Greek one) for some academic research and some accents conflicts with the AltGr + shortcuts.

There's a way that I can just remove them all?

I've tried to find and remove the shortcuts for Add a New Commentary (AltGr + A) and the topic structure (AltGr + o) but I can't find them in the list of shortcuts (Options > keyboard shortcuts > Personalize)

I really need that ;(

Restrict Editing of styles, allow new breaks, TOCs, etc.

MaryMumbles — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 12:50:20 GMT

I've restricted editing to a selection of styles in my Word template. This, however, also restricts some key essential functions, for example, you can't add in a new Table of Contents or add in page or section breaks. Is there any way to just limit the Font and Table styles, while allowing everything else?

Change gradient above Word menu?

runbei99 — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 19:24:02 GMT

I would love to remove this gradient from the Blue theme and replace it with a solid color, as in the Black theme. I doubt it's possible, but I guess it never hurts to ask. This is just annoying - having to squint every time I need the menu. I've set a 200% display on the 4K monitor but it doesn't help much.