Orange outline when I hit spacebar popping up prevents me from editing powerpoint

Anonymous
2023-04-13T07:18:43+00:00

Suddenly when trying to edit my powerpoint slides, when I hit the space bar an orange box pops up over the side panel or sometimes the actial slide (depends where I place the curser) and I am prevented from editing my powerpoint? Whe I try to type in a letter, it jumps to another random place in the slide and doesn't allow me to edit. This is happening only in my Mac desktop, I am able to edit normally on my laptop.

Would really appreciate help as it's driving me crazy.

I have attached a photo to illustrate.

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | Other | MacOS

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Anonymous
2023-04-13T10:08:42+00:00

Dear Mel EQ ,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

Your image doesn't seem to upload successfully, anyway, I tested according to your description and I don't seem to encounter the situation you described in my tests.

Please check whether your Office applications have been up to date with the latest version. You can reference this article：Update Office for Mac automatically - Office Support (microsoft.com).

If the problem persists, please try running Office by starting up your Mac in safe mode to see the result. This can help us check whether issues you are experiencing are caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up.

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

Another suggestion is to remove the Office folders to desktop:

  • Completely quit all Office apps
  • In Finder, press COMMAND +Shift+g.
  • Enter ~/Library and click Go.
  • Go to Containers folder, find the folder called Microsoft.PowerPoint
  • Move this folder to your desktop by cut & paste.
  • Relaunch Word for Mac application and see the results.

Trying the above steps can greatly help us reduce this phenomenon, thank you for understanding that sometimes the initial suggestion may not help you immediately, if you still experience this situation, please inform us of the following information:

  • The version information of PowerPoint you are using.
  • Does this behavior occur in all slides? If you create a new presentation, will I still experience this behavior?

Sincerely,

Tin | Microsoft Community Moderator

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4 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-19T00:38:49+00:00

    Check that you don't have Full Keyboard Access enabled in Accessibility > Keyboard

    I fixed a similar issue by turning this off.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-20T00:19:54+00:00

    Tin

    Thanks you so much this has solved my problem.

    Mel

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-23T23:45:16+00:00

    This advice also helped me. OMG I was so frustrated.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-20T00:20:55+00:00

    Thanks Andrew,

    most helpful and now saving me so much time and frustration

    Mel

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