Pointer display issue Haswell MacBook Air 13 Word 2011?

Question

Pointer display issue Haswell MacBook Air 13 Word 2011?

Please help confirm an issue I am having on my new MacBook Air 13", with 4th generation Intel chip. I just got the machine yesterday and installed Office 365. in Word 2011 I notice that the pointer disappears (very transparent is almost invisible) when hovering over italicized text. When pointer changes from vertical insertion pointer to the slanted pointer, that is when it disappears. Hovering over regular text makes it appear again.

Can you see this issue on your 4th generation Intel MacBook?

Or is my laptop defective?

Thanks!!

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), Microsoft Word 2011

Posted on Jul 17, 2013 3:02 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

PlotinusVeritas

Level 6

14,872 points

Jul 17, 2013 3:12 PM in response to Strategerizer01

I just tried it myself, and confirm same thing you experience, however this issue resides within the MS Word program, not the Air or the Haswell processor. screenshot below in testing your claim, proved accurate. * My cursor does not "go hollow" in 4 other word processing programs under diff. text formatting in my 2013 AIR

Your laptop is not defective, ....I have been using WORD at great length for over a month now, and never even noticed this happening until you mentioned it and I checked same.

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Answer 2

Jul 17, 2013 3:42 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

Great to have a sample point - thanks!

Can anyone else verify having this issue or not?

DO ALL HASWELL MACs HAVE THIS ISSUE WITH WORD 2011?? (yikes!)

MORE BACKGROUND INFO:

I noticed this issue right away since the doc I needed to work on had a full paragraph italicized and wanted to edit it and could not see the insertion point so it was like herding cats...

I also notice that another state of the pointer has the same issue.The one where the insertion pointer has some "text" (3 horizontal lines) in the upper-right or upper-left. The pointer is supposed to change to this state when hovering in some places on hte sides of the page (not sure exactly where/why). Same things happens...

So, it seems there are some pointer states that are not rendered correctly. When the pointer is supposed to display that sprite, it looks like it inadvertantly also becomes very transparent so it is practically invisible. If you look carefully you can still see it and that is how I can verify the pointer sprite changes. Hovering back over regular text pointer displays normally again. Hovering over a link, the pointer switches to the hand sprite without an issue.

I was yesterday on the call with Microsoft for a while (support outsourced to India...) and after trying various things in remote session, they pointed to being an Apple issue. They did not have a Haswell chip configuration to test against and could not reproduce the issue.

Today I was on call with Apple support (US based - yey!) and still not able to resolve the issue or pinpoint its cause. No repro since the technician did not have access to a Haswell machine. We also did a font validation at the end of the call but forgot to review the results before hanging up. It shows 352 fonts passed and 21 minor problems found. Not sure how to interpret this and if helpful regarding my issue...

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Answer 3

Jul 17, 2013 4:01 PM in response to Strategerizer01

Found another thread with more info on this - seems widespread issue with Haswell and Word 2011...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5134749?answerId=22503366022#22503366022

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Answer 4

Jul 26, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Strategerizer01

Just an update to all having this issue...

I was able to escalate the issue to the engineering team (CASE #469028440). Dennis Flannigan assisted with this. We got them a system report file from my computer. I had to repro the issue on my computer just before that report got generated, since I had to provide a date & time for when issue last occurred so they can cross-reference with the report.

Will update once I hear back from engineering. Hopefully a solution will be on the way!

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Answer 5

Aug 6, 2013 2:49 PM in response to Strategerizer01

I'm having the exact same issue, the cusor dissapears within italic text in Word 2011. I too have a Macbook Air w/ Haswell.

Did you ever figure out a soluiton?

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Answer 6

Fujishu

Level 1

0 points

Aug 17, 2013 4:59 PM in response to Strategerizer01

Yes, same problem here on the new Macbook Air (2013) only, running Word on OSX 10.8.4.

I independently found this issue today with italicized text portions in a document requiring intensive editing.

I can move the ARROW up to the italicized line to find a letter, but I cannot use the trackpad to reach the line and see a cursor. The cursor disappears until I leave the line.

I tried turning OFF autohide rulers (based on a tip in another thread)--no help. Also tried copying the entire document, then pasting it into a new blank document without the formatting being saved. No help either.

I am trying to edit a document which contains some portions of older documents pasted in, formatted in earlier versions of Word.

Very challenging. Thank you for your hard work on this. Please keep posting.

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Answer 7

Fujishu

Level 1

0 points

Aug 22, 2013 4:06 PM in response to Fujishu

A postscript. Regarding the cursor problem (involving disappearing cursor in Italicized portions of text), I have discovered by accident that I can make the pointer temporarily visible/functional over italicized text if I first click once (using one-finger tap on the trackpad) on the desktop to the side of the open Word window.

This is no solution, but it at least it unables one to see the insertion point in the problem text area.

I am working on a new Macbook Air (June) using Word for Mac 2011.

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Answer 8

Aug 24, 2013 5:47 AM in response to Fujishu

Yep, another person experiencing this. Fujishu's tip works like a charm for those sits in which you want to edit the italicized text. In most cases, though, you're moving the pointer to some specific place elsewhere on the page (not part of the italics), and end up losing it en route. Very irritating!

Microsoft needs to fix this post haste. (Along with bringing back Print Preview and the Edit Replace command to directly bring up the old Word 2008 Find dialog box with Replace selected.)

Ooops! I see from that other thread that this happens in other programs, too, indicating its an Apple-Intel graphics driver, screen problem!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5134749?answerId=22503366022#22503366022%2322503366

Perhaps related to this (maybe I should start another thread...), I've noticed that the trackpad on the 13" Haswell MBA 2013 seems unresponsive from time to time (maybe often). You put your finger on it and start sliding and the pointer does NOT move!

Unrelated to this, while I like the new MBA, it does feel ike typing on a brick after having used a MacBook Pro (which itself paled compared to an iBook G4!).

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Answer 9

koz212

Level 1

0 points

Aug 30, 2013 9:00 AM in response to Fujishu

Thanks for the click out of frame tip.

I've been using a workaround:

Highlight the italic text

Make it regular text (Command i)

Edit

make it italic again

Shouldn't have to do this but it does make editing easier.

-koz

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Answer 10

Fujishu

Level 1

0 points

Aug 30, 2013 7:05 PM in response to koz212

Thank you! Yes, that is one work-around, for sure. Also, if you simply select (highlight) the italicized passage, it becomes possible to see the cursor again and move it around with the trackpad. Is this easier?

I have found no other means of fixing this issue, having tried everything else. Thank you again.

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Answer 11

smingo

Level 1

15 points

Sep 5, 2013 1:17 PM in response to Strategerizer01

Hi, this issue also happens with Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 (version 9.5.5). When you hover the mouse above text in a pdf file it disappears.

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Answer 12

Sep 5, 2013 3:07 PM in response to smingo

smingo

Hi, this issue also happens with Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 (version 9.5.5). When you hover the mouse above text in a pdf file it disappears.

Get a newer version of Acrobat Pro.

Ive already confirmed this DOES NOT HAPPEN on Acrobat Pro ver. 10, or version 11, so this is a non-issue with out of date software.

Update your Acrobat Pro 😊

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Answer 13

Fujishu

Level 1

0 points

Sep 5, 2013 4:32 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

Hello, PlotinusVeritas,

Appreciate your post. I am not experienced with MAC but I use mainly WORD 2011 for MAC, and have never opened Acrobat on the new Haswell MBA. The problem I have only is only present on the latest WORD in MAC on this new MBA from my own limited experience. I am glad that the problem has vanished on new Acrobat software.

Thanks for anything further.

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Answer 14

Sep 5, 2013 4:38 PM in response to Strategerizer01

I run into the same issue on a MBP 15" retina display also; I think it is a MS Office problem.

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Answer 15

Sep 7, 2013 10:32 PM in response to Strategerizer01

Thanks Fujishu - excellent work around -

ie: click outside document, & return with visible pointer.

I had hoped my Thunderbolt display would solve the problem - but no.

Hopefully Apple or Microsoft find a way of modifying the pointer colour & size.

Currently the very light colour & minimal thickness against white is essentially invisible.

Not a problem in Apple Mail, very much a problem in Word.

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