How to Make Microsoft Word Stop Ignoring Mouse

This quirky problem has happened often enough that it warrants a post of its own. The problem doesn’t happen on my desktop running Microsoft Windows XP with Office 2003. It occurs only on the laptop running Microsoft Vista with Office 2007.

I can’t tell you if it’s a Vista problem, an Office problem, or both. If your mouse works everywhere except Microsoft Word and possibly other Microsoft products, here’s an easy fix worth saving. After it happened twice, I figured I needed to save the fix information so I don’t chase it down every time.

It just happened again. I can’t use the mouse to highlight anything or move the cursor. Yet, I can still close Word and click menu items. When the problem happens, I closed Word and receive a pop up asking if I want to search for a solution or restart. Neither, but I restart it.

Tim Anderson’s ITWriting has the solution:

1. Close Word and Outlook (ignore the pop up message by clicking X)
2. Start / Run and type regedit
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
4. Rename this key (I call it “baddata”).
5. Restart Word.

http://www.meryl.net/2008/11/how-to-make-microsoft-word-stop-ignoring-mouse