Selecting text causes a grey box (Word for Mac)

Hi Jessica Keenan,

As per your description, I really appreciate your effort and your precious time doing those. First, please accept my apologize you meet such an issue and I understand it effort on your daily work.

We appreciate your understanding that sometimes the initial suggestions may not resolve the problem very soon. However, we can work together to narrow down and resolve the situation.

Based on my test, I just tested with same version of Word 16.56, and it seem I cannot meet same behavior a like you described above in Word desktop client app on Mac OS.

Based on my experience, this issue cause by because the text is within a field,  to confirm that it is a field, press F9 or command+ F9 (or fn-F9) to toggle on the display of field codes and see if your text is enclosed within a pair of field delimiters { }. Use F9 again to toggle off the display of the field codes. If you do not want the text to be in a field, you can unlink the field and check if this is your scenario.

Or if the document contains lots of fields, and your Word preferences are set to highlight fields as "Always", those fields in the document will show with a grey highlight.

The option can be changed from the below location:

Word>Preferences>View>Field shading: "Always"

If the above does not help, follow the steps below:

Select the text, Go to Format > Borders & Shading. On the Shading Page, select None.

Meanwhile, I will appreciate you can try the normal troubleshooting steps 1 by 1 below and tell us the result.

1.Try to reboot Mac in safe mode and determine whether background programs are causing the issue. For detailed information, please check this article.

2.Then, please make sure your file system is OK.  starting by checking file system using Disk Utility. If there are file system problems, Disk Utility may be able to fix them.

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

If issue with all Word files even new created word document on your Mac OS, then I suspect components were corrupted somehow. You can go to the Applications folder In Finder and drag Microsoft Word.app to the trash. Then Restart your Mac Download this installer Install package and use it to reinstall Microsoft Word (the latest version 16.56). Then, restart your Mac and test.

If above suggestion does not work for you, please feel free to confirm your Word and MacOS version.

Also please upload a screenshot regarding to, "When I’m trying to select text, there’s a grey box" for our reference, , so we can understand your exact scenario and provide our suggestion in a productive manner, perhaps some related screenshots will be helpful.

I appreciate your understanding and stay safe!!

Best Regards

Waqas Muhammad

Hi Jessica Keenan,

May I know have any updates regarding to this issue? Feel free to post back if you need further assistance.

Best Regards,

Waqas Muhammad

Hi Jessica

I'm always dismayed when I see advice being given when the version of Word being used has not yet been established.

Could you go to the Word menu and choose About Word and then note the version number, please? Then reply here with the version you have.

Thanks.

Hi,

I have the same issue and I'm on version 16.16.27. Everything was working fine, then that box appeared out of nowhere. When I highlight the text, the grey box appears over my selected text, and when I press F9 it works correctly again. However, the grey box comes back when I select another piece of text.

Thanks,

Claude

I am having the exact same problem. Has anyone managed to figure out a solution?

I am also having this problem, the answers above have not helped. Has anyone found a solution?

I am also having the same problem, please help us out!!

This response has been automatically translated. As a result, there may be grammatical errors or strange wording.

Hi, All.

I would share that there was case where it would be improved when reverting to version 16.49 in May 2021 from version 16.59.

The following method is to revert to Word only version 16.49.

1. To prevent the rolled back updates from being automatically updated, choose Help at the top of the screen > Check for Updates > Turn off "Automatically keep Microsoft apps up to date"

2. Close all Office apps.

3. Open  [ Finder ], [ Applications ] and Put the " Microsoft Word" app to the Trash.

4. Open [Library] by selecting [Go] from the menu, and move the following files in [ Containers ] to the Trash.

Microsoft Word(for macOS 10.15 or later)

com.microsoft.Word( before macOS 10.15 )

5.  Move the following files in [Library]-[ Group Containers ] to the Trash.

UBF8T346G9.ms

UBF8T346G9. Office

UBF8T346G9. OfficeOsfWebHost

6. From the Dock, put the Word app to the Trash.

7.  Download and install < Word 16.49> from the update history of Office for mac .

8. Start Word and see if the problem goes away.

* If you check the following pages, it will be easier to grasp the image.

· Office For uninstall the Mac (microsoft.com)

Hope this helps.