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Word not letting me edit a document

I need to edit a document in word.  Something that looks like an anchor pops up and I cant edit.  Dont know what to do???????  It is in doc .
Dear PacoFlacco ,

I am a independent advisor and I am trying to help other users in Community with my experience in Microsoft products.

First ofl all please try suggestions from this article https://support.office.com/en-ie/article/why-ca... it has several scenarios for editing files.

If not, please try the following:
1. Try to open Word in safe mode https://support.office.com/en-us/article/open-o...
2. Check for updates https://support.office.com/en-us/article/instal...
3. Disable addins https://support.office.com/en-us/article/view-m...
4. You can also try to repair Office https://support.office.com/en-us/article/repair...

Also please get familiar with Fixes and workarounds for recent issues with Word https://support.office.com/en-us/article/fixes-...

Hope this will help bring your Word to working order!
Regards,
LA
***I'm an independent advisor and I don't work for Microsoft***

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Hi Paco

Is that happening with just one file?

If so, open that file, choose file - Save As and make sure you save that file as an Word 365 document (.docx)

Then close that file and open the docx file to see if it is editable

If that is still not editable, go to File - Account, is your Office licence showing as active?


If you still cannot edit that file, or this is happening with all Word documents, follow these steps to perform a full repair of your Office installation . . .

Open Control Panel - Programs and Features
Click Microsoft Office in the list of installed applications
At the top, click 'Change'
On the resulting dialog, click 'Repair' - choose the Online Repair, it is a comprehensive fix

That should fix any issues with your Office Installation . . .
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If the document was originally scanned, you often need optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert it into editable text. Otherwise, Word sees the content as (a sequence of) pictures.
Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~
Note that I do not work for Microsoft
https://mvp.microsoft.com/
~~~
Please specify Word version & OS in your question

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The anchor suggests that the text you are viewing is actually a picture, inserted with text wrapping. The anchor shows that it is anchored to a text paragraph. As Stefan says, this may be the result of scanning a document. In any case, you will need an OCR application to convert the picture to editable text.

OneNote contains very rudimentary OCR capabilities. You can paste the picture into OneNote, then right-click and choose Copy Text from Picture. The result will likely be pretty rough and need a lot of clean-up.

Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
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Hi:  Thank you for response.  I got to One Note followed your directions but didn't see copy text, etc.  Did I miss something????  The doc says it is in doc but the OCR converter wouldnt take it .  again, thx for your time.

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If you send me a copy of the document, referencing this thread in the covering email message, 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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In OneNote, you will have to make use of Copy Text from Picture for each picture (because each picture mimics a page in the scanned document).

Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~
Note that I do not work for Microsoft
https://mvp.microsoft.com/
~~~
Please specify Word version & OS in your question

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Thanx again for coming to my rescue.  Really appreciate your offer and I just copied the text.  It was a short page.

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Hi:  I just copied the text.  Thanks so much for your time.

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Last updated December 20, 2024 Views 17,398 Applies to: