Selected text in MS Word is grayed out

If the selected text in Microsoft Word appears grayed out, it is likely due to a feature called "Track Changes" being enabled. When Track Changes is active, any modifications made to the document are marked and displayed in different colors to indicate the changes. Selected text is often displayed in a gray color to differentiate it from the rest of the text.

To resolve this issue and remove the grayed-out appearance of the selected text, you can either disable Track Changes or accept/reject the changes. Here's how you can do it:

1. Disabling Track Changes:

a. Open your Word document.

b. Navigate to the "Review" tab in the Word ribbon.

c. Look for the "Track Changes" button or option. It may be displayed as a toggle switch or in the "Tracking" group.

d. Click on the "Track Changes" button to disable it. The button's appearance may change to indicate that Track Changes is now turned off.

e. Verify if the selected text is still grayed out. If it's not, then Track Changes was the cause, and you can continue working on your document.

2. Accepting/Rejecting Changes:

a. Open your Word document.

b. Navigate to the "Review" tab in the Word ribbon.

c. Look for the "Accept" or "Reject" button in the "Changes" group. These buttons might have small arrows next to them.

d. Click on the arrow next to the "Accept" or "Reject" button to reveal additional options.

e. Select "Accept All Changes" or "Reject All Changes" from the dropdown menu, depending on your preference.

f. Verify if the selected text is still grayed out. If it's not, then accepting or rejecting the changes should have resolved the issue.

By following these steps, you should be able to remove the grayed-out appearance from the selected text in your Microsoft Word document.

UPDATED!! It's been a month since I experienced the same problem, which started when I updated my MacOS to Ventura. After reading various articles, I came across a reply from Makapu on this Microsoft Office community forum: link.

I was using Office Suite versions 16.78 and 16.79, and not only MS Word but also my PowerPoint (PPT) was VERY laggy. After going through all the articles, I found that this problem appeared after updating to version 16.59.

The solution: Try downgrading your Office suite, or only MS Word, to version 16.49. But before that, you need to delete all remaining files in the Containers folders. This worked well for me.

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 ~/Library/Containers , 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. ~/Library/Group Containers

UBF8T346G9.ms

UBF8T346G9. Office

UBF8T346G9. OfficeOsfWebHost

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

7.  Download and install < Word 16.49> and other office app like excel, ppt, 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 everyoneee <3

---以下署名---

マイクロソフトコミュニティはユーザー同士の情報交換の場所です。

アカウントは二段階認証でセキュリティを強化し、乗っ取り被害から身を守りましょう。

https://support.microsoft.com/ja-jp/account-billing/c7910146-672f-01e9-50a0-93b4585e7eb4

My initial workaround was to use PowerPoint or Stickie Notes for my short docs. Then I installed LibreOffice and used Writer. I have redeployed the system to a relative who wanted that model. My current Macs, none newer than 2017, are fine and do not display this issue.

This is no consolation for you but try LibreOffice or OnlyOffice (my preference) and see if this helps you.

I have this issue as well (Monterey, Word 16.84).

This issue is not:

• Tracked changes
• Text fields
• Highlighted text

This issue is not fixed by:

• Force quitting Word
• Reinstalling the same version of Word
• Upgrading to a later version of Word
• Upgrading your OS
• Accepting all tracked changes
• Setting Tracked Changes to "None" or "Original"

This appears to be a very real bug with the Mac version of Microsoft Word past 16.49. You'll likely be unable to take a screenshot of the issue because any keystroke or moving your cursor outside of the viewable document causes it to disappear (hence the phone pictures).

Microsoft is dodging by providing basic, generic, and useless troubleshooting steps rather than acknowledging this issue.

It's insulting and extremely frustrating. I really don't want to downgrade since I'm paying for this product and doing so likely causes it to be even more of a non-issue for Microsoft.

I have found a fix for this as i am using a Macbook Pro 2009 running Ventura With OCLP.

• First remove all microsoft office apps

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/uninstall-office-for-mac-eefa1199-5b58-43af-8a3d-b73dc1a8cae3

• Download Microsoft Office 2019 and install it

• Now go to microsoft website and download the 16.43 update for word, excel, powerpoint

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

Make sure to disable automatic updates for microsoft office, any newer version will break office

If you upgraded and Office thinks you have a new computer, you may have lost your activation.

When activation is lost, Office apps goes into reduced capability mode. This shouldn't happen, but I've seen it on one iMac I know of.

Hello LTCChris - I just found this issue with my early 2011 MBP 15" running Ventura via OCL 1.2. As all have stated, it happens all the time in Word but not in the other M365 apps. It does not do it in the Apple productivity apps (Keynote, Pages, Numbers), and no appearance in LibreOffice 7.5. I have compared app settings and played with options to no avail.

Have you or anyone else ever resolved this problem? By the way, are you running your MacOS native or via OCL? I wonder if there is something in OCL settings that is causing this issue.

FCG

I also noticed this issue recently on my 2009 15inch MacBook Pro running OCLP with Sonoma and 2011 13inch MacBook Pro running OCLP with Ventura. I am not sure if this is OCLP issue or Microsoft issue.

Hi there!

Since this is a Microsoft app, and the issue is only occurring inside a Microsoft app, it might be best to contact them.

Welcome to Microsoft Support - Microsoft

- Jack

Hi, did you solve the problem in the end? I am quite desperate.. Thanks!

Thanks, this is the only solution that has worked for me to fix this issue. Microsoft Support is completely useless.