My Microsoft Word text boxes are broken. Nothing seems to fix it.

Mehmet 25

Hello, my Microsoft Word text boxes randomly broke. When I try to edit one text box, all the other ones are affected too. Deleting text from one box randomly changes all text in every text box. These changes seem to be only a visual bug, because they are reverted when I right click the box, click layout options, and then click "Fix position on page".

When I delete too much text and text from another box starts to come in, I can click that text and it deletes it from the other box where it actually is. I also checked if any of these boxes were linked and no, none of them are linked to each other.

Things that I tried:
-Deleting and redownloading Microsoft 365
-Repairing Microsoft 365
-Copying a file I had problems with, opening it by clicking "Open and repair"

David T 0 Reputation points

2025-07-23T14:51:39.25+00:00

I have the same problem. Editing text boxes using Word 2019 causes things to glitch.
Leo 0 Reputation points

2025-08-01T07:38:44.68+00:00

Actually, We have same problem.
I try to improve it and find the temporary measures.

Probably the anchor of textboxes in trouble is on a cell of any table.
the bug is caused of the position.

If you want to solve it you should change the position of the anchor and fix it out of any tables.

But the anchor of grouped objects can not be fixed.

SO PLEASE SOLVE THIS PROBLEM , ASAP!
Diana K. Perkins 0 Reputation points

2025-08-16T14:29:32.15+00:00

Come On Microsoft!

Many of us LOVE WORD and use it for layout and have found it to be very useful and versatile; but this new bug with text boxes is untenable. What happened MS? Fix this. Now. Thank You.
Stefan Blom 310.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-08-16T15:24:44.87+00:00

Diana,

Note that Microsoft has been made aware of the bug, so there is nothing anyone here can do at the moment. Microsoft developers do not read these forums.

No information on when we can expect a bug fix has been released yet, I'm afraid.
Samuel R 0 Reputation points

2025-08-23T12:10:57.4733333+00:00

Bonjour,

J'ai le même problème et c'est vraiment très pénible. Je pensais à tort que j'avais fait une mauvaise manipulation, un changement de configuration, ou que c’était dû aux enfants... « Heureusement », ce n’est pas ma faute, d’après ce que je peux lire.

Après de multiples essais, je peux vous dire que ce problème disparaît si l’on convertit un fichier .docx en .doc. Toutefois, pour ma part, cela crée un autre problème non négligeable de mise en page, ce qui m’occasionne beaucoup de travail sur bien trop de fichiers en .docx.

En conséquence, je vais attendre que Microsoft corrige ce bug, en espérant que ce soit fait très rapidement.

13 answers

Stefan Blom 310.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-07-29T20:43:16.6766667+00:00

Looking closely at text boxes (and tables), as suggested by Hayes McCoy, I notice that there seems to be an issue with the display of text in any text box which is positioned on top of a table.

I haven't tested in a document with multiple text boxes.

However, I do see that typing a sentence inside a text box which is on top of a table cell only shows the first character. I can force the display of all the text if I resize the text box. See the screen shot below.

In other words, there is obviously something going on here.
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4 people found this answer helpful.
Oscar Cruz 0 Reputation points

2025-07-29T22:46:31.2566667+00:00

True. I confirm this.
But it´s related to word, not the files. The same happened to me with files from long time ago, and new ones.

Surely, it´s a bug in word.

I´ll keep checking. Keep me posted, please.

Stefan Blom 310.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-07-30T19:21:37.63+00:00

I have sent an e-mail to the Office product group and I will post back with any replies I receive.
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Charles Kenyon 155.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2025-07-22T16:03:25.8966667+00:00

I agree that a sample file with the problem would help. You can use the paperclip icon here to attach a file.

To clarify, you are talking about text boxes like those created using insert Text Box, correct?
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Mehmet 25 Reputation points

2025-07-23T07:19:42.74+00:00

Hello, it wouldn't let me upload a Word file trough the paperclip icon. I have uploaded the sample file. And yes, I'm talking about inserted text boxes. Here's the link: https://we.tl/t-gNADOCUESl I'm also uploading a picture that shows what happens when I delete the text "Ertürk Madran" from the text box at the top of this picture. The text from the last text box flows into the upper one and the text looks squished. This issue is not present on other computers of mine. Just this one.

I would also like to clarify that this is only a visual bug. The issue goes away once I save the file or turn it into a PDF.

Lee Schiebel 11 Reputation points

2025-07-24T14:01:33.1333333+00:00

This doesn't seem to be a problem with the file, but something wrong with word itself. One of our staff is running into this on his machine with the current version of Word 365. A file he's been using for years where he enters addresses on a mailing label now is broken. When he types in one text box, the other text box on the same page also starts updating with the same words.

He sent the file to me, it's fine (also Word 365), he sent it to another computer with office 2016, it was fine. Tried multiple other files, same symptoms (broken on his machine).

I'm going to see if I can roll back some updates to Office365 that were applied on July 18 and see if the problem goes away.

Mehmet 25 Reputation points

2025-07-24T14:38:29.0366667+00:00

Thank you for commenting Lee. Yeah I think it also has something to do with Word itself. I wrote that I didn't have this issue with other computers of mine but the same issue began on those too. Please let us know if rolling back the updates does something.
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Stefan Blom 310.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-07-27T17:53:26.13+00:00

[---] Hope this site works better for everyone: https://limewire.com/d/j8xDi#mfGZqpQLVI

Thanks for the document.

I don't have a complete explanation, but I suspect the problem is caused by the fact that the text box is inside a table cell (in the screen shot below, look at the table which is indicated by an arrow). The problem isn't just the position; the text box is also damaged in some way.

I would delete and recreate the text box and see if that overcomes the problem permanently.
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Suzanne S Barnhill 273.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-08-08T00:58:18.44+00:00

The Word product team have been able to repro the issue internally and have a bug open for investigation.
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Alexandr S 95,830 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-07-22T15:45:35.1766667+00:00

Hello, Mehmet.

Please upload the sample file to some file sharing site, and write the link here.
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Mehmet 25 Reputation points

2025-07-23T07:18:16.1066667+00:00

Hello, I have uploaded the sample file. Here's the link: https://limewire.com/d/j8xDi#mfGZqpQLVI

I'm also uploading a picture that shows what happens when I delete the text "Ertürk Madran" from the text box at the top of this picture. The text from last text box flows into the upper one and the text looks squished.

This issue is not present on other computers of mine. Just this one.

I would also like to clarify that this is only a visual bug. The issue goes away once I save the file or turn it into a PDF.

Stefan Blom 310.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-07-23T18:14:27.0933333+00:00

Mehmet, it seems that the link you posted requires a sign-in. Could you upload the sample document (in *.docx format) to a file sharing site from which it can be downloaded directly?

Mehmet 25 Reputation points

2025-07-25T07:33:51.87+00:00

Hello, sorry I was not aware of that. Hope this site works better for everyone: https://limewire.com/d/j8xDi#mfGZqpQLVI
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