This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
First of all, I tried responding to another posters similar problem, but I cannot get my response to post, so I'm trying a fresh thread.
Out of nowhere a few days ago, the Navigation Pane in Word will stop showing search ("Find") results and will show only the number of hits, but not show what they are. Word is set for "incremental find," I have the latest versions of both Word 365 and Windows11, and until this started I have never ever had this problem before and I've been using Word for decades.
Here's what happens: I open the doc, the search function works as it should in the Navigation Pane, then suddenly it doesn't. The Navigation Pane is still open and maybe it'll show how many instances of whatever I'm searching for there are, but it doesn't show the actual text. Then it does other odd things, like showing "No" (instead of "None") if there are no hits to the search term. If I exit the doc and every other doc I have open, then go back into the doc, it'll work again, but then stop again, sometimes after only one search. This has happened on several docs. It's not about a corrupted file.
I need to see search results in the Navigation Pane since I don't have all day to search for each item individually. I have no idea how to fix this, and there's no useful guidance on this forum so far. I cannot use another word processing software since I'm freelancing for a company that uses Word.
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
That was happening to me. I stumbled across the fix for my situation: drag and collapse size of the Navigation column, then you might see it. Worked for me!
Feedback that you submit will be read, but obviously Microsoft will decide what they want to change. If many people vote for a specific suggestion, the chances that something will change is higher.
Generally, Microsoft does not reveal how reports and suggestions are prioritized. However, bugs that may lead to data loss will be given high priority.
Some changes, such as modern comments, are not really bugs, just poor design.
I agree with you when it comes to modern comments: I don't like the modern comments interface and fortunately it can still be turned off if you have a subscription version of Office.
It is fine for you to vent here, but the only people seeing what you write are your fellow users.
I've told Microsoft time and time again about problems with Word they've had for years, yet they are never fixed. They do not care.
And now they've just raised the price of Microsoft 365 by 50%! I'm forced to purchase it even though I use none of the other Microsoft apps because I need the latest updates on Word all the time since my previously downloaded version of Word was unable to handle the modern comments problems (btw, NO version of Word is able to handle them as they should be handled, but the previous version of standalone Word I had was hopeless). Now I have to pay $99.99/year for it. Outrageous.
I'm just holding my breath until the next weird-as-heck problem with Word shows up. And is never fixed.
Make sure that you report this problem using Help > Feedback in Word.
Also/alternatively, post feedback on the issue in the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472.
The feedback channels are also the correct place to suggest product improvement.