Documents Jumping Back to the Beginning....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daniel-San
  • Start date Start date
D

Daniel-San

Oh, Mighty MVPs....

In the process of editing papers, it is common for me to have more than one
version of the paper open (different filenames, obviously) to allow me to
flip back and forth between the versions, comparing as I go. Often, when
flipping to one from the other, Word jumps to the beginning of the document.
I have no idea why this happens, or if it is a Word-driven (as opposed to
Windows-driven) event. It's certainly not the worst thing that can happen,
but scrolling down and then finding where you left off is a bit of a PITA.
I've tried the Shift+F5 thingy, but I'm usually only editing one of the
documents, the other is merely there to see comments, etc., so it has no
effect.

Any ideas? I hope I'm not hallucinating.

Thanks,

Dan
 
The most common reason for jumping is with laptop users with a touchpad
device. The over-sensitive touchpad only needs to be accidentally brushed
and it simulated a mouse click. If the document hasn't been edited, the
active cursor is probably still at the beginning of the document, so a mouse
click takes the focus back to the cursor (the beginning of the document).

Ties is usually resolved by desensitizing the touchpad or disabling the
double-click simulation.
 
I get the same issue when I use a split screen on my desktop. The bottom
half will suddenly jump back to the beginning of the doc, as if I had just
opened a new doc. Could it be that Word views the new view as a new doc,
and opens it a the beginning? Then again, usually as long as I don't touch
anything until I click in the new screen, it's fine. But if I do anything
to cause a screen update - like change Zoom percentage, it will jump to the
beginning.

Ed
 
Terry,

Thanks for the info, but my laptop's mouse is disabled -- I use a wired
full-size mouse when doing this. The only "clicking" I do is on the taskbar,
switching between documents. Any other thoughts?

Thanks,

Dan
 
If you're using Compare Side by Side With, you can specify whether documents
scroll simultaneously or not. Also note that your position in a document is
determined by the position of the insertion point, not what page you're
looking at; that is, you could be viewing page 20, while the insertion point
(if you haven't been doing any editing) remains on page 1.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Suzanne,

Thanks for the info, but I'm not using any "compare" functions... I just
have both documents open in separate windows and toggle between them by
clicking on the appropriate place on the taskbar. It's when I toggle that
the mystery scrolling takes place.

???

Thanks,

Dan
 
And you're sure the insertion point is actually moving?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Suzanne,

Not necessarily...

Maybe I've not explained this accurately.

Filename.doc is open. This is my "master" document, the one to which I'll be
making changes.

Filename(1).doc is also open. It contains editing and content suggestions
from peer reviewers/anonymous readers, and the like. I scroll down through
this document, looking at changes, decide if I'll use them, and then flip
back to the "master," find the appropriate place, and make the changes.

I then click on Filename(1).doc in the taskbar, to continue the process, and
for some reason, the secondary document has scrolled back up to the
beginning, page one, top left.

Orginally, I thought I had simply gone momentarily bonkers...had I hit
"home" or some other key? I've tried a few things to stop this; including
highlighting (double-clicking) a word in the secondary document as a
place-holder, simply moving the cursor into place (single-click near the
edit point,) and the Shift+F5 shortcut, none of which have worked... the
secondary document snaps back to the top when I click it's name on the
taskbar.

The bane of all trouble-shooting of course rears it's ugly head... it's
slightly intermittent. 75-80 percent of the time, the document snaps to the
beginning, regardless of which "fix" I've attempted. The 20-25 percent of
the time makes me think I'm having some sort of a flashback :-).

????

(Maybe I just need to learn about this "compare" function?)

Thanks,
Dan
 
It does sound like something that shouldn't be happening.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
From what you describe, I wonder if you have actually ever clicked in
Filename(1).doc, or just scrolled through it. When you open a doc, the
insertion point is automatically at the first character position. I do not
have anywhere near the expertise Suzanne does, but I believe when you return
to your doc and activate it, if anything prompts a screen refresh the focus
returns to the selection - in this case, the unmoved insertion point at the
top of the doc. If, though, you have clicked in the doc, then the selection
is there, and that's what will show when the refresh occurs. Then again, I
could be totally off, but that's how it looks from my end when it happens to
me.

Ed
 
This is what I have been getting at from the beginning, and Daniel-San's
answer on this score has been far from definitive.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
I thought I had been fairly clear that I have clicked in the document:

"Orginally, I thought I had simply gone momentarily bonkers...had I hit
"home" or some other key? I've tried a few things to stop this; including
highlighting (double-clicking) a word in the secondary document as a
place-holder, simply moving the cursor into place (single-click near the
edit point,) and the Shift+F5 shortcut, none of which have worked... the
secondary document snaps back to the top when I click it's name on the
taskbar."

???

Dan
 
Indeed you did. There's just been so much water under the bridge (and the
problem is such a stumper) that I'm losing track and grasping at straws.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
This is a perplexing problem!

Just for a test - though I am not suggesting this as a permanent solution -
try having both documents open in the same screen. Test working between the
documents to see if the problem still recurs. Then we will at least be able
to eliminate the dual screen operation.

Terry
 
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