Word stops taking mouse input

[markdmumy]

I have Office 2007. I create a brand new document b y just starting
Word. Nothing fancy, just type in a bunch of useless text, no
formatting. When I change my Windows focus to another Window, then
come back to Word, I have problems. Word no longer accepts mouse
input in the document section. I can't move the cursor, highlight
text, etc. What is interesting, though, is that the mouse works just
fine in the menu bars. Only a restart of Word fixes this. The
problem only occurs in Word, not in Outlook, Excel, or Powerpoint.

Any ideas out there?

 

[Dennis C. Jr., Virginia Beach, VA]

Have you checked the Help menu to see whether Word 2007 has a "Detect and
Repair" option? I am not sure of the scope of this function but, hopefully
it would at least examine the essential Registry keys and other basic
preferences. This may fix something.

Question:
Is there any "extra" pointer-involved software installed or active of the
computer such as a Windows' Theme, pointer enhancement, multi-clip clipboard
replacement, cursor animation or anything? If there were it may be that some
..DLL function specifically used by Word is in conflict with the add-on
software.

Beyond these two ideas, maybe there is an issue with the user Profile you
are logged onto the computer with; if "administrator" try creating a new user
account, reboot the computer into that Profile and try Word. If the issue
does not occur there, BINGO, you've isolated it. However, advice on
repairing the "administrator" profile is a bit more than I can offer here.
Maybe you could create a "administrator2" account, check it out to insure
functionality, then delete the original "administrator" account completely.
After all this is said and done, rename the "administrator2" account to
"administrator" (if desired) and you are back to ground zero. Rather sort of
a three-card-monty shuffle or bait-and-switch type of thing (swapping new for
old).

Good luck!

 

[Michael Karlin]

I think this is not an isolated problem but a bug. It just started happening
to me. Exact same symptoms - cursor will not select text or agree to be
placed by the mouse.

Mouse works fine to control the items on the menu bar with one infuriating
exception. If you open the Office Button and click on Word Options, you
can't select any of the options except the Popular Commands one, so there is
no way to get to Detect and Repair from within Office or, as it is now
called, Microsoft Office Diagnostics. However, you can get to MOD in Windows
- click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Office, point to
Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Microsoft Office Diagnostics. Before
doing this, I tried a repair from the Office installation disk - no
improvement. I'll let you know if the diagnostics did any good.

There is one other issue that started happening at the same time, which is
that every time I close down, I get a message that Word has stopped working
and it tries to restart. When I shut it down a second time, same message
that Word has stopped working and then it does shut down.

All in all, not a happy situation.

 

[Michael Karlin]

OK, checking other threads got the solution that worked, which was to disable
an add-in called Snagit, a screen capture program. Had to do this in Control
Panel modifying Snagit installation because one of the bugs that this causes
is the inability to get at add-in manager within Word.

 

[markdmumy]

My system is a plain vanilla installation. I have installed XP SP 2
and Office 2007 with its patches. Other than that, nothing out of the
ordinary: Textpad, Firefox, McAfee, Trillian, iTunes.

I am even starting to experience the same issue on my wifes home PC.

As a side note, I uninstalled and reinstalled Office and the problem
went away. Then a month later it crops up again.

 

[markdmumy]

I don't have anything like this on this system. It is a pretty bare
bones system as I just built it out 6 weeks ago.

I do know that if I start Word in Safe mode that everything works just
fine, no issues. And that an uninstall and reinstall clears it up.

 

[Panic]

I have a similar problem with my mouse's scroll wheel being inop in Word
2007. It scrolls OK in everything else including PPT 2007. Strangely
enough, if I open Word 2007 Help files my mouse scrolls OK in there.
But in Word 2007 general use I have to click and drag the bar on the right
hand side to scroll. All the other mouse function work OK, just the scroll
wheel is inop there.