using Windows 10, Office 365 ... I have been writing/recording macros in Word for a long time. Suddenly, when trying to record a macro, I get the "sad-face + arrow" cursor mentioned in the post title. I tried naming the normal.dotm out, but it didn't help. I made no changes to hardware or software ... the 'record macro' feature just crumped for no apparent reason. Dunno why. I am reluctant to try a complete Office repair since it involves so much data loss. Anybody have any ideas?

OK ... a full week and not a single reply. Guess I need to change deodorant.

I have no idea on why you might not be able to record macros. So I'll ask some questions that might help arrive at a possible solution.

1. If you open Word in Safe Mode, can you record a macro?
2. Can you open the VBA editor and run macros that are there?
3. Does macro recording work in Excel?
4. Are you on a corporate network where your IT group may have implemented a security change?

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Thank you for your response. In answer to your Q's:

1. If you open Word in Safe Mode, can you record a macro? No - symptom remains the same

2. Can you open the VBA editor and run macros that are there? Yes - works fine

3. Does macro recording work in Excel? Yes - no problems at all

4. Are you on a corporate network where your IT group may have implemented a security change? No - I am on a private home computer

Thanks again - will wait for your response.

Added info:

As I investigate this further, I note that my normal.dotm file is empty, i.e., blank, as in "nothing in it". Did a cold boot, opened Word - nada, still empty. So it appears my normal.dotm has a problem. Closed Word, named old normal.dotm out, created a new one, opened Word - no change ... still empty. WTH??

OK, based on those responses I'm thinking you should try rebuilding the Registry key for Word.

You could try Charles' suggestions here My docs open in the wrong program! Re-registering Word using the commandline. which includes Repair Office suggestion at the bottom.

Or Microsoft's instructions which might be a broader approach.
How to reset user options and registry settings in Word - Office | Microsoft Learn

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

If Word detects that Normal.dotm has become corrupt it will rename it and create a new one. The new one will be completely empty.

Therefore, it is unwise to keep anything in Normal that is important to you. The only thing that you can't control the location of is auto-correct entries that rely on formatting. Building blocks and code can be stored in other global templates.

I really appreciate the responses - sadly, none of the suggestions solved the problem. I couldn't get anywhere with either Charles' procedure or the Microsoft procedure. I am wondering if my problem(s) are in any way related to Microsoft's attempts to migrate us all to the online-based "Microsoft 365".

I think I'm just going to dump the whole Office suite and try to re-install; kind of at the end of my rope

Would one of you folks running Word 2019 do me a favor? Open a Word document and pretend that you're going to record a macro, i.e., click on "Record Macro", type a name for the pretend macro into the dialog box that pops up (or just leave the default name, "macroxx", whatever) and tell me what your cursor looks like at that point? Sounds stupid I know, but humor me ...

Reason is, when I hit "Record Macro", my cursor becomes a little square sad-face with an upward pointing arrow; I interpreted this to mean that the macro recording function had failed, and so launched a VERY frustrating search for the cause of the malfunction (some of which is documented above) ... but, mirabile dictu!, that wasn't the case - further testing (and swearing, and weeping) showed that the macro recorded just fine. I know, I know ... I'm an idiot. Either I've never noticed this before (a circumstance I deem highly unlikely), or some four-eyed coding geek at Microsoft got bored one afternoon and decided to have a little fun with the hoi polloi.

Anyway, I would be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this.

LOL - I can see what you are saying now.

To us old timers that 'sad face' is actually a picture of a cassette tape used to record music from the radio so we could listen to our favourite songs whenever we wanted to.

They look like this image search cassette tape - Search Images

Ask your grandparents about it...

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

ah ... "Record macro" ... tape cassette recorder ... now it all makes sense. And yes, the little icon is obviously a tape cassette ... boy, is my face red! Thanks for lightening my load ... and I take back every nasty thought I've ever had about the Aussies.