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When I am typing in WORD, a spinning top has interfered with each few letters. HELP ME!!!!!

Gail Steinbeck 20 Reputation points
2025-11-10T21:57:04.58+00:00

As I type, the cororful sinning top intereses with every third or fourth letter. I am on a deadline. HELP

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | MacOS
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  1. Gabriel-N 9,545 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-11-11T00:12:45.2633333+00:00

    Hello Gail Steinbeck

    Thank you for posting your question on the Q&A forum.

    Several helpful suggestions have already been provided by Q&A Assist, many of which align with my own initial observations. However, I’d like to offer a slightly tailored version to better suit your specific situation.

    You might first try saving your work and then force quitting Microsoft Word by pressing Command + Option + Escape, selecting Word from the list, and clicking Force Quit. Once that’s done, reopen the document and check if the issue still occurs.

    If the problem continues, restarting your Mac could help clear memory and background processes. After the restart, try opening only the affected document to see if the issue persists.

    It’s also worth checking for any available updates for both macOS and Microsoft Word and consider performing a clean startup. In some cases, this can help identify whether background applications are interfering with Office for Mac. You can find instructions for that here: How to use a "clean startup" to determine whether background programs are interfering with Office for Mac

    As a temporary workaround, you might consider using Word Online. If the issue doesn’t occur there, it could be a practical way to continue working while meeting your deadline.

    If the issue persists, please share your macOS version and the version of Microsoft Word you’re using. It would also be helpful to know whether the same issue occurs in other Word documents, or if it’s limited to just one file. That information will help us assist you more effectively.

    Looking forward to your reply.

     Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2025-11-10T21:57:19.63+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    It sounds like you are experiencing an issue with Microsoft Word where the application is freezing or lagging, causing the spinning wheel (often referred to as the "spinning beach ball" on Mac) to appear while you are typing. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot this problem:

    1. Check for Updates: Ensure that both your version of Word and your operating system are up to date. Sometimes, performance issues are resolved in newer updates.
    2. Disable Add-ins: If you have any add-ins enabled, they might be causing the lag. Try disabling them to see if that resolves the issue.
    3. Change the Default Printer: Sometimes, issues with the printer driver can cause Word to lag. Set the "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" as your default printer and see if that helps.
    4. Repair the Document: If the document you are working on is damaged, it may cause performance issues. You can try to repair the document by selecting "Open and Repair" from the Open dialog in Word.
    5. Check Other Documents: Try opening other Word documents to see if the issue persists. If it only happens with one document, that document may be corrupted.

    If these steps do not resolve the issue, you may need to consider reinstalling Word or seeking further assistance from Microsoft support.

    References:

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