My Word inserts random words at random intervals (Word for Windows)

What appears in the Undo list when it happens?

Does your computer have a touch-pad mouse thing? Strange things can happen if you inadvertently brush over such a device.

Hello Nick L! Thank you for writing to the Microsoft Answer Community Forum, I am Shakiru, an advisor and a user like you, and I am glad to be helping you out today. I understand you are having errors like the addition of short words to the Word document. You may try this before considering Uninstall and reinstalling the Office: 1. Updates the Office: Click the File menu. It’s at the top-left corner of the screen. Click Account. It’s toward the bottom of the left column. Click Update Options. It’s right beside “Office Updates.” Click Update Now. Windows will now check online for Microsoft Word updates. If updates are found, they will download and install. 2. Repair Microsoft Word ( Office as the case may be): Click Start> in the search box type Run> In the Run box> type appwiz. cpl and click OK.>Select Microsoft Office 365, click Change>Online Repair>Repair. 3. try opening the Word in safe mode and then lunch: To open any Office application in Safe Mode, press the Ctrl key and hold it down while you launch the Word document Apps shortcut 4. Lastly, you may then consider uninstalling and reinstalling the Apps Kind Regards, Shakiru

Thank you, Shakiru

I'll be applying each of your suggestions in turn, test Word extensively till the problem rears its ugly head or I'm satisfied it won't do so, and then come back here and report which of the suggested solutions has done the trick. Thank you very much for your kind help.

Best regards,

Nick

You are very much welcome Nick!

Reporting back: The problem reappeared about 12 hours of work after I had updated my 365 and about half an hour after I had applied the repair.

I tend to believe it is some kind of rare virus, since the problem has appeared in Word files shared with two other people. We're probably the first three people in the world to have caught it. :)

Hello I am Abdal and I would be glad to help you with your question. Could you please uninstall and re-install office 365 on your device. It will fix your issue permanently. You can install office from www.office.com I hope this information helps. Regards Abdal

Thank you, Abdal. That seems to be everybody's ultimate solution.

Hello Re-installing will permanently resolve your issue. Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. Give back to the Community. Help the next person who has this issue by indicating if this reply solved your problem. Click Yes or No below Regards Abdal