Mouse cursor in Word 14.3.5 turns light grey on MacBook Air

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.

Hi all, if you have the problem in Adobe Illustrator CS5, the problem is FIXED with CS6 upgrade. I presume the Adobe Acrobat issue will be fixed also with the upgrade. 😉 It seems it's a software problem after all. So I presume the same thing happens with an upgrade from Word. Cheers.

I have Apple Care, so I started a chat with a technical rep and asked him to follow and follow up on this discussion. I included the discussion link in my chat. Maybe if more of us do this they may pay attention?!

Having just today migrated from the 2012 11" Macbook Air to the 2013 model (both having the same software - Mavericks, latest Office 2011 updates, etc), I also saw this issue on the 2013 mba, googled it and found this thread. From the length of this thread it sounds like it's been an issue since the 2013 machine was released, presumably something with the 2013' model's video driver (no issues with the 2012s).

As long as Apple remains clueless and do not inform people who work at their genius bars of the problem, they are making a lot more people mad at them. I was also told to reinstall the OS which I did. But which was a waste of time. I use Adobe Acrobat Professional and the updated version of that fixed the cursor problem. Microsoft needs to come up with a fix. But Apple needs to know what to tell people when they have the problem.

To all.

This is probably a problem with the newer intel graphic and the driver Apple has supplied for it. Probably nothing you can do until Apple updates Mountain Lion or Maverick comes out.

Guys and Gals it is not the programs. It is the new hardware and the drivers for it that is causing these problems. Until Apple, or Intel, fixes it there is nothing you can do.

I upgraded from acrobat 9 to 11 and the cursor works as epxected now. So i think it has to be a fix from MS.

I have same issue. Spent a bunch of time yesterday with Microsoft in a remote session. Today more time with Apple in a remote session. No solution. I posted more details in a separate posted thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5176631?answerId=22503382022#22503382022

Based on user feedback at least I can surmize my new MacBook Air is not unusual. Either a video hardware or driver issue with the whole Haswell product line -OR- an incompatibility Microsofts needs to address...

I have had the same problem in Word, and notice it happened in certain instances in Adobe Photoshop Elements as well. The occurence in a non-Microsoft environment suggest a driver issue. Any help or fix would be appreciated.

When I open Photoshop Elements 9 (sorry, I'm not current to the newest version) I get strange cursor activity with different tools. I used Photoshop Elements on my 2011 MacBook Air with no problems at all. While the italics light grey cursor is a consistent issue on my new MacBook Air, the Photoshop issues seem to differ with the file I am working on. If I have a file open with layers and a transparent background, and I select the text tool, anytime my text tool cursor hits the invisible background, it goes light grey but it turns back to black when it passes over any visible layer. Like in Word, this makes it extremely difficult to see where PSE is going to make a text layer because you can't see where the cursor is.

Another issue on one of the image files, that I wasn't able to recreate because I could remember the file, but when I select eraser, the eraser tool, rather than showing the circle it normally shows so I can see what I'm erasing, it shows up as a strange cross hairs. I know PSE usually shows cross hairs when you move the eraser down to a small point, but it was doing a crosshair when the eraser point size was extremely large. Therefore, I could tell the center point of the eraser, but I didn't know how far out the boundaries of the eraser would go. I kept having to try and if it was too large, I'd undo and try a smaller size.

Anyways, I hope that helps. If I can find the file I was editing and can give more information I will. Thanks again for any help.

I have same problem with a just purchased MacBook Air running Adobe or Word. This was not resolved with the MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update 1.0 listed on the side bar. This is clearly an Apple problem. Is the only solution to wait for new drivers?

Marian33, indeed - we need to keep contacting support with this. I escalated it to engineering (supposedly, case #469028440) but communication has slowed where I have to make repeated requests to get a reply back. So far looks like the steps they want to pursue is re-install the OS in a partition to verify. The burden and inconvenience is pushed on the customers.

Why aren't the engineers verifying the issue - the repro case is clear. We are getting the run-around and it is frustrating.

Squeeky wheel gets the grease so squeking may be, unfortunately, the last option we have...

I am having the same problems with a 2013 MacBook Air on both Word 2011 and the full version of Adobe Acrobat (version 9). I am considering returning the system (I have an older MacBook Air with a mirror install of the software and I am not getting the problem on the exact files- probably an issue with the new graphics card/drivers).

I created a new partition on my otherwise new MacBook Air and installed a fresh copy of the OS and Office 365. As expected, the issue remains. I provided a report capture in email to Apple Support. In the report I also included a link to this forum thread!

Hopefully, maybe, possibly... there will be some good news in the future for us.

At the very least:

- Acknowledgement of the issue

- Apple taking responsibility for it

- Confirmation they are working on a fix.

Fingers crossed...