Keyboard delete key problem, very strange

[Paul]

I have a customer using Office XP and they have a problem
when they create or open an existing presentation. When
they click into a text box and try and edit the text in
the box the delete key and arrow keys don't work properly.

When you press the backspace key a square box symbol
appears. If you highlight some text and press backspace
the highlighted text is replaced by a square box symbol.

This only occurs in powerpoint. Excel, Word etc. all work
as normal and the backspace key actually deletes
characters without the square box.

I have checked all keyboard/language settings (all UK
everything) with no luck so far.

Has anyone seen this problem before or has anyone any
suggestions as to a solution?

Thanks for any help.

Paul

 

[Sonia]

Has the customer rebooted the system to see if that fixes it?

 

[Guest]

Oh yes. Certainly tried that, only thing I haven't tried
yet is to un/re-install office XP.

 

[Sonia]

Don't do that yet. The problem sounds vaguely familiar. Maybe someone else
(Echo??) will remember.

Ah, here it is:

Searching Google groups, I did find this and it sounds like a similar problem:

First, go to http://tinyurl.com/mgc4 . Then go to
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=821432

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your help, most appreciated. I will apply
those patches and see how it goes. Once again, thank you.