I am using word 2007. This is the first time I've had this problem.
It used to be that, when I double-click on a line of text, the entire line would highlight or, if I dragged the cursor over some words they would highlight and I could then perform my edits on them.Now,even though they don't highlight, I can still edit them if I select them in the normal way.I've checked the properties of the files and they are not hidden or read-only.


Can someone tell me why this is happening?

TIA Jim B.

Are you saying the selection is happening but it isn't appearing as shaded on your screen?

You may be trying to click on text which is protected in some way such being inside a Content Control. You probably need to post a sample document which demonstrates this issue.

The normal behaviour of double-click is to select the current word, and you should need to triple-click to select the current paragraph.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

I ran repair from the office discs but that didn't help.
There used to be a way to check the properties of a file but I can't find that.
I sure hope you can find something.

TIA. Jim B.

Attached Files

Sunday Nov 15, 20.docx (15.5 KB, 6 views)

The file appears to work as normal for me so there isn't anything special about it in terms of selecting text. There isn't any content controls and I can't see any reason why selection would work differently on your machine.

I assume you have the same issue with all documents, not just this one. It sounds like it is just a colour shading on selection that you are not seeing rather than any broken functionality. If that is the case, perhaps it is a Windows setting rather than something in Word. I would go and change the Windows Theme settings to see there is a setting there which resolves the issue. You get into this by right clicking on the empty desktop and choosing to Personalise.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

I am unhappy to hear you say that it worked fine for you. It happens in all files. The problem showed up just a couple of days ago, prior to that, it worked fine. I have a curious problem with my taskbar. When I try to change the background settings for it I get a message "your background is currently turned off by ease of excess settings". I've tried to find what's causing that in them and have been unable to. I wonder if the problems are related.


Jim Birke

I think that is a good place to explore. I did a google search for "your background is turned off by ease of access settings" and got plenty of hits so you can find out how to turn it off the same way.

This page talks about what "ease of access' means and you can see that it does play with how selections appear on screen. In theory it should improve the contrast but it could be tweaked if that is not the case. See Ease of Access Settings in Windows 10

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Actually, dealing with the background color was quite simple. First you go to ease of access > display, then turn "Show Desktop background image" on. (You will See an image on your desktop.) Next, go to personalization > background. In the background selection box, choose solid color and then pick a color. (Assuming you don't want an image on your background.) Close settings. Easy Pezy.


Still trying to get word straightened out. I have instructions on how to edit the registry and remove word\data registry node. I'm going to try that tomorrow morning after my 2nd cup of coffee and fully awake. I'll report on the results afterward.

Jim Birke

Backup your registry before editing, or at least that node. It only takes a couple of seconds.

I spent hours missing with ease of access settings and uninstalling and reinstalling office.A guy on another forum suggested that I use Windows troubleshooter. I opened that and went to programs > word and it fixed the problem in about 5 minutes.

Jim B.


How do I mark this thread as "problem solved"?