Q: Magic mouse not highlighting

I've noticed this for a while. I thought I may have been sliding the mouse at an angle or something wrong with Word... but with each update (OSX or Office) the trouble remains. Its pretty annoying.

Same here- just got new iMac. Going nuts. Anyone found a fix besides another mouse or pull out the old one with a wire? No idea if that would fix it either.

This issue still persists. Just bought a new 21.5 inch iMac and using the most current version of MS Word (2011 for Mac) and I'm having frustrating attempts at highlighting text, and even double-clicking words. I have a Magic Mouse, and it was never an issue with my older iMac which had the older mouse connected via USB. This is happening about 45% of the time I attempt to highlight text and it's driving me insane. I seem to only encounter the issue in MS Word. Other apps don't seem to be affected.

I exchanged my mouse for a new one and still, hit or miss highlighting. Oddly, works better highlighting backwards rather than forwards. Soon to go in search of a more funcitonal mouse. Not sure whether to disparage Apple or MS. Probably both.

Are you having the same problem with ALL text.   You may have word, but you probably also have Pages.   And what happens when you highlight browser text?

@seventy one and @WFred:

This issue was never present until I purchased a new iMac with OS X Mavericks. I was on a 2007 (purchased in 2008) iMac previously running the latest OS X Mountain Lion--without any such issue.

I'm not having this issue anywhere except for MS Word, and now too with Excel--so it seems the MS Office (I'm running MS Office 2011 for Mac) is the only culprit.

Seems I do not have this issue with any of my other apps: Adobe Creative Suite 5 (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc.). I also just experimented with Pages which does not have this issue either. My browser text does not have issues either (Safari and/or Firefox).

So it's only with MS Office apps it seems.

Exactly.   That is why I asked the questions I did.   It would seem the problem is, as you thought, related to MS Office.

This is what you wanted to eastablish, so now you must take up the matter with MS and seek their advice.   It is not Apple's fault (hopefully).

The problem is Microsoft Office for the Mac. The program is extremely poorly programmed. I have the same issue with my Magic Mouse and Microsoft Office including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The programs are also very unstable and drain the battery of my 2014 15" Retina MacBook Pro. Office for Mac is very slow and sluggish, and tends to crash often. My recommendation is to avoid it as much as possible, Microsoft did a very poor job with the Mac version of Office.

It looks like a problem with your mouse. If the central button contact is stuck, the selection in Microsoft Word and Excel doesn't work properly (although it works in other apps, including Powerpoint).

Check that all mouse buttons are working properly. Il you use a wireless mouse with a USB dongle, make sure to disconnect it or to  switch off your mouse before trying another mouse.

This is driving me nuts too and I am using the trackpad on my Macbook Pro. It only occurs in MS word. Selecting text in any other program works perfectly. It seems to be a Microsoft Word problem.

SOLUTION: I just fixed this myself.

Go to System Preferences / General and set the select text color to something other than white/clear, which will be shown as 'other.'

Somehow the selection color got changed on the machine.