Editing a document myself prior to asking MS W and Copilot

Question

Editing a document myself prior to asking MS W and Copilot

Tom Kelly 0

I want to be able to cut and paste and highlight places in my documents be fore asking for help. The system doesn't allow me to do that. Can you help me/teach me to do that? otherwise I guess I need to use apple pages. Pls Help!

Stefan Blom 353.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-05T20:51:09.16+00:00

Could you elaborate a bit on what you are trying to accomplish? Are you perhaps trying to create a form?
Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.8K Reputation points

2026-10-05T21:19:14.05+00:00

Please provide the specific Version Number & type of License of your Office software. Accurate replies typically depend on those specs. Both are readily available if you click Word in the main menu bar & select About Microsoft Word.

2 answers

Your answer

Stefan Blom 353.8K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-10-05T20:51:09.16+00:00

Could you elaborate a bit on what you are trying to accomplish? Are you perhaps trying to create a form?
Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.8K Reputation points

2026-10-05T21:19:14.05+00:00

Please provide the specific Version Number & type of License of your Office software. Accurate replies typically depend on those specs. Both are readily available if you click Word in the main menu bar & select About Microsoft Word.

Answer 1

Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 437.8K

Unfortunately, the question isn't very clear – Is the problem with selecting text or is it with the intervention by Copilot? If selecting text by dragging is the problem please see Select Text for cause & cure.

You also might benefit from other professional selection techniques rather than relying on dragging. Have a look at Selection Techniques for some other methods.

0 comments

Answer 2

I’m sorry you’re having trouble editing your document. To better understand what is happening, could you please clarify a few details? When you try to cut, paste, or highlight text, what exactly happens?

Are the Cut/Copy/Paste or highlighting options greyed out? Can you select text normally with your mouse or trackpad?

Does this happen with every Word document, or only with one particular document? Is the document stored locally on your Mac, in OneDrive, or somewhere else?

Do you see any message such as Read Only, View Only, Protected, or a notification asking you to activate Office? Please also open Word > About Microsoft Word and provide the exact Word version and license type shown there.

If possible, please share a screenshot showing what happens when you try to edit the document, while hiding any personal or confidential information.