crazy scrolling & drag and formatting issues

[firemedic]

In Word X, scrolling activity will go haywire from time to time for no
reason. A page will move independently up and down at a rapid pace while
the mouse is just sitting there near my keyboard, lying perfectly still. I've
also had deleting activity go wild out of the blue, deleting words, sentences,
paragraphs as if the delete key were being held down, and forcing me to
quit the program as quickly as possible before the entire document
disappears.
I am a writer, currently working on a book, so you can understand how
upsetting this is. There are also problems with formating, everything
working sluggishly. The insertion bar will often not appear. A single click
within the document will highlight the word that the cursor is over instead
of placing the insertion point there. Drag and drop requires the use of the
command key, etc.
To write a book is difficult enough without all of these crazy hindrinces.
Any advice? I am using Word X on a G4 running Mac OS X 10.3.3 with a
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, a five button scrolling optical mouse.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Do you have "always make backup" checked in prefs under Save? Saves a copy
of the last save to the doc. Check your prefs under Edit while you are
there.

In Word X, scrolling activity will go haywire from time to time for no
reason. A page will move independently up and down at a rapid pace while
the mouse is just sitting there near my keyboard, lying perfectly still. I've
also had deleting activity go wild out of the blue, deleting words, sentences,
paragraphs as if the delete key were being held down, and forcing me to
quit the program as quickly as possible before the entire document
disappears.

Sounds like the result of Speech Recognition overreacting. Is that available
in X? If so, turn it off.

I am a writer, currently working on a book, so you can understand how
upsetting this is. There are also problems with formating, everything
working sluggishly. The insertion bar will often not appear. A single click
within the document will highlight the word that the cursor is over instead
of placing the insertion point there. Drag and drop requires the use of the
command key, etc.

Have you checked to see whether you get any of these problems in any other
programs, office or not?

To write a book is difficult enough without all of these crazy hindrinces.
Any advice? I am using Word X on a G4 running Mac OS X 10.3.3 with a
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, a five button scrolling optical mouse.

I don't think it's the mouse. Maybe problems with the display, but more
likely you aren't updated?

See here to make sure you are fully updated:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/macoffice/office/vxversions.html

Then check for general troubleshooting tips:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/macoffice/word/troubleshooting.html

Please post back and let the newsgroup know what worked, or if you are
posting back because nothing worked, be sure to explain what you already
tried.

This link has a bit more information if you get desperate, but is presented
in a less straightforward manner.
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm

DM

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Do you have "always make backup" checked in prefs under Save? Saves a copy
of the last save to the doc. Check your prefs under Edit while you are
there.

And even more importantly, be sure "Allow Fast Saves" is NOT checked.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Yeah, well I use the Intellimouse too, so that's not the problem.

But before looking any further, I would take the household vacuum cleaner
and vacuum both keyboard and mouse thoroughly. The first thing I would
expect would be a sticking key. A piece of a pencil stuck in there would do
this.

The other thing (and this happened to me) would be if you are on a portable.
The iBook keyboard base has to be removed to add memory to the system: when
you do, it's easy to bend it, and if you do, weird stuff happens.

You also know that the mouse and keyboard are simple mechanical devices that
send signals along pieces of wire. In the case of the mouse, it's on the
USB bus. If anything else on the USB bus is overloading its data capacity
or drawing too much power from it, weird stuff can happen.

Hope this helps

In Word X, scrolling activity will go haywire from time to time for no
reason. A page will move independently up and down at a rapid pace while
the mouse is just sitting there near my keyboard, lying perfectly still. I've
also had deleting activity go wild out of the blue, deleting words, sentences,
paragraphs as if the delete key were being held down, and forcing me to
quit the program as quickly as possible before the entire document
disappears.
I am a writer, currently working on a book, so you can understand how
upsetting this is. There are also problems with formating, everything
working sluggishly. The insertion bar will often not appear. A single click
within the document will highlight the word that the cursor is over instead
of placing the insertion point there. Drag and drop requires the use of the
command key, etc.
To write a book is difficult enough without all of these crazy hindrinces.
Any advice? I am using Word X on a G4 running Mac OS X 10.3.3 with a
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, a five button scrolling optical mouse.

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]