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Why does word delete all text when pressing enter? Overtype is disabled

So I'm a student studying mechanics and we're given electronic documents for our job cards that we have to fill in with bullet points. I have a document that I've been working on but I've encountered a problem that is preventing me from finishing my work which is extremely frustrating.

Here's my problem. There are a few tables at the top that there was already text in such as student name, date, vehicle registration and so on, I can type in these without any issues. However when I get to the table where the bullet points go, I can only type until I reach the bottom of the table. When I reach the bottom of the page and press enter to start a new bullet point, everything I've previously typed disappears, deleting the table itself and I have to undo to bring my work back.

I've been searching for hours now on a solution and the only advice I can find is that "Overtype" is switched on. I've been in to Options > Advanced and the "use the insert key to control overtype mode" and "use overtype mode" boxes are both unchecked. There is a header and footer tab at the bottom of this table, when I go in to the Insert tab and click on Header, click on remove header I get the exact same issue so I'm guessing this problem I'm getting has something to do with the Header. I aslo know that there is meant to be more to this document than is being shown (should be on a seperate page) but I'm only getting page 1 of 1.

And what I mean by there should be more to this document that isn't being shown is when I start the document with no text added, the top of the second page appears at the bottom of page 1. And Word is still telling me there is only page 1 of 1.

I'm not sure if everything I type is being deleted or if it is just being moved on to page 2 and I can't see it. But it disappears and it's a problem as I'm reaching my deadline and need to get this work done. I'm clearly not a wizard with Word but I have been using it for a few years and have never encountered this so I aplogize if this is a simple solution. And sorry for the lengthly post

Thanks

Kyle

Hi Kyle,

 

Before we proceed with the troubleshooting steps, I would like to know if the issue occurs with a particular document or all documents?

Does this issue occur with other Office applications?

Are you using Laptop or desktop?

 

You may use the on-screen keyboard and check if the issue occurs:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/type-without-keyboard#type-without-keyboard=windows-7

 

This issue may occur due to several reasons. Let us start with opening Word in safe mode. To do that, follow the steps below:

Hold the Windows key and press R, type winword /safe (note there is a space between winword and /).

 

If the application works fine safe mode, try disabling the add ins for the application and check the result,

Click the File tab.

Go to Options.

Click Add-ins.

Clear all the options.

If the issue persists, follow the steps from the article below and check if it helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541/en-us

 

Let us know the details and results for further assistance.

Thank you.


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Hi Kyle,

Before we proceed with the troubleshooting steps, I would like to know if the issue occurs with a particular document or all documents?

Does this issue occur with other Office applications?

Are you using Laptop or desktop?

Do you really think these questions are relevant? The OP has made it clear that this is a problem only in Word, in a specific document.

Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://ssbarnhill.com
http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com
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If you send me a copy of the document, I will investigate the issue.
Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
It's time to replace ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ with ‘Excellence, Opportunity & Civility’ - V Ramaswamy

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Hi Kyle,


Before we proceed with the troubleshooting steps, I would like to know if the issue occurs with a particular document or all documents?

Does this issue occur with other Office applications?

Are you using Laptop or desktop?


Thank you for the reply.  There are a few people in class that have been experiencing the same problem with different Word documents, but this is only happening in documents that have a header and footer. Documents without the header and footer work as they should, all of the pages appear and when you type down to the bottom of the page then word moves any new text to the 2nd page as it should.

As I said in my original post, if I click on Insert > Header > Remove Header then I get the same problem, everything I've typed in to the table disappears.

The only other Office applications I've used are Excel and Powerpoint, these work perfectly though. And I've tried opening it on the college computers which are desktops, a laptop and my desktop with the same result.

I have however found a fix for this by copying everything from the original document, making a new blank document and pasting everything in to it. This seems to remove the Header & Footer and when I type to the bottom of the page then Word moves any new text to page 2 as you'd expect it to.

My guess is that there's either a bug within the Header & Footer or whoever made these documents for the college messed up somewhere.

Thanks again

Kyle

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Last updated March 4, 2025 Views 21,867 Applies to: