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Word 2013 - Document disappears when deleting text

I'm not really sure what's wrong, here's what's happening -

I will have a document open in word, when I go to delete a large amount of text (either by highlighting and deleting, or by holding down the delete button) the entire document will suddenly disappear and leave me with only the grey background.  This also occurs when I use the slider to navigate through the document

In some cases the document itself stays, but all of the text disappears.  

I tried saving after this had occurred, when I went to reopen the document that I had just saved I was greeted with an entirely blank word document.  

This is happening quite frequently and is seriously interfering with my ability to work.  Does anyone recognize what's wrong and know how to fix it?

Thanks,

Kat

First of all, make sure that you haven't just inadvertently decreased the zoom so that the document can't be read. Use the Zoom slider on the far right of the status bar.

Stefan Blom
Microsoft 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator (Office)
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~~
Please note that I do not work for Microsoft
MVP program info: https://mvp.microsoft.com/
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Zoom is at 76%, it hasn't changed.

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Hello Katharine,

Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for posting your query.

Let me assist you with Word issue.

You may try the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the following article and check if it resolves the issue in Word.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541

I hope the above information helps. Let us know if you need further assistance.

Thank you.

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Most likely, the document is damaged. See if saving to *.doc (Word 97–2003) format makes a difference.

For more, take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918429/en-us.

Stefan Blom
Microsoft 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator (Office)
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~~
Please note that I do not work for Microsoft
MVP program info: https://mvp.microsoft.com/
~~~~

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Question Info

Last updated October 5, 2021 Views 133 Applies to: