mouse not highlighting text in word 2000

[jatkinson]

I have a user who is using W2K pro and Office 2000, when she is typing letters in work she cannot use the mouse to highlight i.e. block text nothing happens.

I have restarted word and opened up blank docs but still nothing. does anyone have any idea what is causing this?

 

[onedtent]

under Tools, Options, Edit tab, make sure "Drag and Drop Editing" is checked.

 

[jatkinson]

it is already checked. Possible corruption??

 

[koresnordic]

Just a thought. Maybe the highlight colour is set to transparent or something. Try the following: minimise everything so you can see the desktop. Right click and select properties. Select the appearence tab and change the colour scheme to anything else. Then try highlighting. This is an unlikely problem, but any port in a storm.

Graham

 

[jatkinson]

nice idea but it's not causing the problem!

 

[Dreamboat]

Word troubleshooting:

http://www.theofficeexperts.com/word.htm

Anne Troy

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

 

[jatkinson]

Not sure if this would help. Options like changing the normal.dot won't apply as the normal.dot is shared between several users and they don't have this problem.

 

[Dreamboat]

Well, short of cleaning up the user's PC as per

http://www.theofficeexperts.com/cleanyourpc.htm

and doing the rest of the troubleshooting listed after the normal.dot rename, I don't know of anything else that will help. Um...help for WordPerfect isn't turned on under Tools-Options, General, is it? Anne Troy

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

 

[onedtent]

a silly question.... is it possible that the text is highlighted but not showing up as highlighted text?

have u tried highlighting the text and change something? like bold or italics, etc?

if that works, change settings under Display properties, Appearance tab

 

[jatkinson]

yes. the text is not highlighting at all, cannot do any of normal things with mouse. right-click does not bring the drop-down meny for example.

 

[onedtent]

in that case, how about re-installing the mouse driver?

 

[jatkinson]

the mouse works fine in other applications, including other office products and there are no problems with it's behaviour in the OS. This problem is specific to Word.

 

[xlhelp]

I read through the whole thread. Couple of questions. You say other users don't have a problem with Word and I am assuming they are using the same system.

Unfortunately, the normal.dot is not shared between users with the OS and version you are using. If the problem is user specific then Normal.dot is for the user is under
C:\Dcouments and Settings\<user id>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

You may want to try a few things.

1. Try starting word using Start, Run and typing
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\winword.exe /a
This bypasses all the startup options.

2. Rename Normal.dot for the user.

3. Rename the user profile, shut down, re-boot. (user profile is the <user id> in the path above.

4. As a last resort, if all this does not work, you will need to recreate the registry settings by deleting some keys. I can post more info when we get to that point. &quot;Age is a high price to pay for maturity.&quot;

 

[jatkinson]

Hi exlhelp

Sorry for not being more specific, the normal.dot is stored on a shared folder on a server that is used by several users on different workstations, not by different users when logging onto the same workstation.

That is why I am confused and believe the the problem to be not related to a corrupt normal.dot be more to a corruption/problem with the individual workstation. maybe a corrupt entry in the registry etc. as you mention

 

[xlhelp]

Will you please humour me and look for normal.dot under
C:\Documents and Settings\<user id>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
and rename it?

Thanks.
&quot;Age is a high price to pay for maturity.&quot;

 

[jatkinson]

No problem, had a look for you. there are no files in this folder. Could this be the problem? Do settings get picked up by a default normal.dot as well as one specified in user templates under file locations???

 

[xlhelp]

Settings get picked by the deafult one, first. What you need to do is go to Wondows Explorer. Seelct Tools, Folder Options, View tab and make sure &quot;Show Hidden Files and folders&quot; is selected. Next, uncheck &quot;Hide File extensions of known file types&quot; and then look for normal.dot again for the user. &quot;Age is a high price to pay for maturity.&quot;

 

[Dreamboat]

Don't look there, jatkinson. Look in the folder under Tools-Options, File locations, User templates. That is the folder in which your normal.dot for this PC resides. Newer OS's hide that file, so you must be viewing all files to be able to see it. The location of normal.dot is not dependent on the version of Word or the OS, it is dependent on where it is set by the user. The DEFAULT is as xlhelp suggests, but it can always be located under the user templates setting.

If you will only follow the steps I give at:

http://www.theofficeexperts.com/word.htm

as I mentioned above, I bet it fixes it. Anne Troy

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

 

[jatkinson]

that is where i'm looking, my normal.dot is stored on a shared folder that is pointed to via user templates.

As i say nobody else has a problem when using this normal.dot

dreamboat, I can see that following the tips (especiall re the registry) on your site might resolve the problem but I would like to try and be more specific with what is causing it. Although 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a reinstall of something there might be a more specific solution out there

 

[Dreamboat]

After supporting and troubleshooting Word for over 6 years, I'm fairly confident you'll be looking for a long time. I've never heard of it before.

Good luck anyway! Anne Troy

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com