Mouse cursor in Word 14.3.5 turns light grey on MacBook Air

This has happened to me on my Macbook air - the italics cursor essentially disappears as it turns light grey in microsoft word over italics characters.

My temporary workaround: When I am editing italics, I hit "select all" (cmd-a) for my entire document. This turns the whole document blue (or whatever your selected highlight color is). The cursor turns into a solid arrow over the highlighted italics text (rather than light grey) and can be seen and easily inserted.

I repeat this process each time I need to edit over italics since it just takes a quick second to cmd-a select-all highlight most reasonbly sized documents.

I did have to return my new MacBook Air because of the cursor disappearing in italics. I do alot of writing and editing. Microsoft support was great - 3 days of testing, removing Office 2011 and reinstalling, taking control of my computer (and SEEING the cursor from their remote site while it was invisible to me on my new MacBook Air). So fascinating! Then into the Apple Store where they reinstalled the operating system and when that didn't work, wiped my computer clean! Still, the elusive cursor.

I discovered the bug when I checked every MacBook Air in the store and every one of them had the same problem. Of course by now you know this! But I bought mine the first week it was available.

The Apple reps were great, as usual, but their hands are tied until it becomes a priority for engineering. It will become a priority when more people return their new computers.

Hey all, the new MacBook Air has this problem on several applications. Mine has it on Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Word and a few other. When using a cross-hair or even a text edit the cross-hair cursor truns into very light (invisible) grey in stead of black. This is a OSX problem and should be solved by Apple. Installing the applications again, doesn't solve anything. The only thing that helps is going on system prefs > accessibility > display and make your cursor size bigger. Its doesn't make the contrast better, but then you can see your cursor. I hope Apple comes out with a update very soon!

I didn't bother to update my 2013 Air to 10.8.5, but I had the issue at both 10.8.4 and at 10.9.0.

It's looking like it's common to all the Haswell Macs that use the HD 5xxx integrated graphics chip. Now that the iMacs and MacBook Pros have been updated, I did a little playing around in Word 2011 in the Apple Store yesterday, and managed to reproduce the disappearing/very pale grey I-beam cursor over italics on the following machines:

MacBook Air 13-inch, Mid 2013 - Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000 1024 MB

MacBook Pro Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013 - Graphics: Intel Iris 1024 MB (HD 5100)

iMac 21.5-inch, Late 2013 - Graphics: Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB (HD 5200)

The 27-inch iMac on display was fine (black I-beam cursor over italics), but that uses an NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 MB. I didn't get a chance to test the 15 inch MacBook Pro as there were only two in the store and people using them constantly, but I'd expect it to behave similarly, with the low end model with integrated graphics having the issue and the high end one with the GT 750M being fine.

Misery loves company and all that, but hopefully with a bigger affected Haswell population out there this problem will get a greater focus. I've seen some suggestion that apps have their own custom I-beam cursor, which may mean that it's down to the likes of Microsoft or Adobe to fix that, but since the behaviour only happens with the new generation of integrated graphics, clearly there's a graphics driver issue for Apple to fix in there too.

Yes, finally – with 10.9.1– it works! MBA 13' is ok!

Problem solved

YES, 9.1 has fixed the problem in WORD and Adobe Illustrator. FINALLY!

Definitely integrated graphics problem. I confirmed this by turning on and off 'automatic graphics switching' on my new rMBP 15" (with dedicated graphics) and the issue ONLY occurs when running through integrated graphics.

Hope that helps with troubleshooting!

Some good news... Apple acknowledges the issue... they confirm it is not hardware issue (so replacing your MacBook Air will not solve the problem). More importantly, they are working on a fix.

Here is the response I received from Dennis Flannigan regarding my case #469028440:

At this time Apple Engineering has received multiple reports of this symptom and are investigating. Further updates, if any, may come by way of a software update, knowledge base article or software release. At this time though, however, it is not a hardware issue. We are working on a solution for it and will be releasing it as soon as we can.

Yey... I guess?

Someone at Apple just recommended that I make the cursor large through the accessibility option in settings. This helps me at least see the cursor a little better. Still a problem though. They say it is a Microsoft problem since the cursor works elsewhere.

jcr2173. You are entitled to take your MacBook Air 13ins to any Apple Store even if you didn't buy it there if as long as it's under warranty. They will ask for a receipt (although they can call up when and where you bought it from by the serial number without a receipt). Fire up the MBA and demonstrate your problem. Give them the case number that you were given from the Apple help line and on your MBA, bring up the Apple Support Communities discussion page that we're all on, and point out that it's a common complaint. Tell them that it is not fit for puropse and you would like a refund. If they refuse, then tell them that it's under warranty so please could they repair it. When you pick it up from repair, load up your software in front of them (and the customers) and see if the problem is still there. If they haven't fixed it, hand it right back to them on the spot and ask them to look at it again. Don't take it out of the store. You will probably have to come back in a few days whilst they have another look in the workshop. It's a pain, and you may have to go through this process a couple of times. But eventually they will either offer to replace it or refund your money. If they replace it you go back to square one and have a new warranty and you will have 14 days to return it if the new one is also faulty and claim your refund. Good luck and keep us posted.

If you didn't follow the Microsoft instruction to the letter to remove Office 2011 from your mac then you really didn't remove all of it. So there was preference files left behind and are being used again with the new install.

I will help if you (and others) contact Apple support directly. Since this is an issue with new MacBook Airs, most likely you are within the 90 days of complimentary free support.

http://www.apple.com/support/complimentary/

It is not a MS problem. I have Office 2011 on my MBP from 2011running Mt Lion 10.8.5 and do not have this problem. Neither does anyone that has a slightly old, model year, Mac than the one you have. It is a problem with the newest Intel and discrete GPU and the drivers for those GPUs. Which makes it an Apple problem.

Right Apple won't acknowledge it just like they haven't acknowledge, publicly, a problem with the Mid 2012 Mac Air SSD that are failing all over the place. Look at this thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5210319?start=0&tstart=0

Some people in that thread have had Apple replace their SSDs for free, Apple doing the work with a $0 cost, and others have had to pay to have it replaced. But yet no word from Apple about it, publicly.

Apple never highlights the problems they have with any device unless they are forced to by the technology media.

outis13 wrote:

Unforunately I've been able to install Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks on my system and I hate to say that the bug is still there. I think we should bother Microsoft to release a patch, as Apple won't fix it cause they don't think something is broken at all.

Did you install the altest update from Apple, which was supposed to fix some Photoshop related (screen flicker) issues?

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1672