I cannot get autoshapes or text boxes to work in Word 2003.

[Gads2000]

I can select the tool and get the "click and drag" message, but as soon as I
left-click with my mouse (Logitech Trackman Marble) the crosshair disappears
and Word restores the standard cursor. The "Edit" menu doesn't even say I've
tried to insert a text box or autoshape so it's as though it thinks I've
cancelled the operation. I've searched through all the menus and options
that seemed to apply with no luck. Drag and click works fine in with the
text, but not with the autoshapes or text boxes. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?R2FkczIwMDA=?=,

I can select the tool and get the "click and drag" message, but as soon as I
left-click with my mouse (Logitech Trackman Marble) the crosshair disappears
and Word restores the standard cursor. The "Edit" menu doesn't even say I've
tried to insert a text box or autoshape so it's as though it thinks I've
cancelled the operation. I've searched through all the menus and options
that seemed to apply with no luck. Drag and click works fine in with the
text, but not with the autoshapes or text boxes. Any ideas or suggestions?

If you hold down CTRL to start Word in Safe Mode, does the problem persist while
in Safe Mode?

Note: I don't really know to which "tool" you're referring. I can't recall
having ever seen the "click and drag message". If you could be more specific
about that it might help.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Gads2000]

Hi Cindy.

Thanks for the reply. This is definitely a head-scratcher. Since my
original post I've completely uninstalled and reinstalled the application
with no luck.

Pressing CTRL when I start Word doesn't seem to help. More information:

If I click the Text Box tool in the Drawing toolbar (or select "Text Box"
from the Insert menu) the default cursor (an arrow, in my case) changes to a
crosshair and the message "Click and drag to insert a text box" appears in
the status window at the very bottom of the screen. As soon as I press the
left mouse button to click and drag, however, the crosshair reverts to the
default cursor. When I select "Edit' there is no "Undo insert textbox"
message or any other indication that I tried to insert a text box. It's as
though clicking the mouse button cancels the operation, like pressing ESC
would, but I have no issues with using the mouse buttons on the text. Is
there a special settings menu that I need to use to configure the mouse just
for drawing in Word?

Yet more information: When I insert predefined Autoshapes (such as an org
chart or WordArt) in Word, the object appears but I cannot seem to edit it.
It's as though Word refuses to let me do any editing at all in the drawing
mode.

Yet more more information: I don't seem to have this issue with my laptop,
but I've got the same OS, antivirus software, and Word settings going for
both. That leaves only the TSRs running on the system. Could those actually
impact the operation of Word?

Gary

 

[Gads2000]

Update to the problem:

I searched the archives and about 7 or 8 pages back I saw that a member
named "Geesey" was having the exact same problem back in September 2006. The
source was apparently a utility called Solid Converter PDF to Word, which I
have on my desktop system but not my laptop computer. Uninstalling the Solid
Converter application fixed the problem for me, just as it did for Geesey.
Oddly, there is nothing on the Solid Converter PDF to Word support page that
addresses this issue, so I will contact their technical support group and ask
them to put something there to alert Word users to possible problems. It is
possible that it is in the installation README file, but I don't recall
seeing anything so I'll double check on it.

Thanks to all who tried to reason this problem out, and many thanks to
Geesey who apparently solved this on their own.

Gary