Errors in the Word Application (Bugs!) – Troubleshooting
The following are "strange behaviours" we have noted. Some are unintentional (bugs), some are intentional (design bugs) and some are unintuitive (user interface bugs). Some have work-arounds: others we have to live with.
Errors affecting entire application
Why is my “Blank Document” not blank?
My drop-down menus crawl down very slowly
Files opened for editing are read-only
Delete (or Backspace) doesn't work
Equation Editor error messages
Word insists on asking “Open as read-only?”
Switching view hides the currently selected heading
Frequently encountered problems with fonts
Word shows only one or two fonts in its font list
AutoCorrect Options missing when right-clicking in Word 2013 and Word 2016
Toolbar missing on add-ins tab in the Ribbon
Individual document errors
“Page X of Y” displays or prints as “Page 1 of 1
Cross-references show incorrect content or wrong numbers
Formatting applied to one paragraph affects the entire document
Whenever I open a document all my formatting is gone
Text at the top of the page is unaccountably indented
GoBack (Shift+F5) doesn't work in some newly-opened documents
Mirror margins don't work in a multisection document
Recovering a corrupt document or template
Word is always making changes I don't expect
Graphics have turned into red X's
Captions don't update and don't appear in Table of Figures
Graphics don't appear or won't print
Table cells with shading show white areas
Floating objects in tables are wrongly aligned vertically
Linked floating graphics don't show up in Edit Links
Layout changes on a different computer
{ =SUM(ABOVE) } answer was obviously incorrect
Mail merge field names have an underscore appended to them [Lene Fredborg, 10-Jan-2020: Removed outdated link to http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/]
Problems with StyleRef fields and language-specific style names
Macros/VBA/VB errors
“Invalid Page Fault” when running a macro
“Microsoft Forms: Could not load an object”
“Undefined Variable” – Mid, Left, Right not working
Problem running a UserForm from an Autoexec macro
Word 2000 can't be made visible, and/or doesn't trigger a Close Event
When users starts Word they activate a previously created instance
Paragraph borders lost when printing from a VBA macro
Toolbars not showing when automating Word
All other UserForm controls disabled after displaying a message box