Cursor problem

[shamsk]

When working on a document the cursor takes the "wristwatch" form, a
much harder shape to work with that the typical pointer. Why does this
happen, and how can I correct it? Thanks!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Normally the "wristwatch" form means that your computer has slowed down
for some reason, and the wristwatch is to tell you to have patience
while the computer is thinking (like a ticking clock metaphor for
"wait"). If you are seeing this constantly, it suggests something is wrong.

Can't say anything more without more information--what version of Word,
what version of OS, general description of the document (length,
complexity)?

 

[shamsk]

Thanks Daiya--that's a valuable clue. I may just need to clean up my
cluttered desktop! I'm running Word v.X on OS X v.10.4.10. The
document is not unusuallly complex, but I do use the Change Tracker
tool a lot. Thanks again.

 

[John McGhie]

Change-tracking it is

1) Make sure you have a copy of the unchanged original of the document.

2) Resolve (accept or reject) all of the changes in the current document.

3) Carefully select all of the text except the last paragraph mark and copy
it into a clean new freshly-created document.

4) When you have finished editing, use the Compare Documents tool to mark
all the changes in a single click.

Not only will you get a more accurate indication of what has actually
changed, you will spend a lot less time looking at your wrist-watch.

It's the document that's in trouble, not your desktop. And that's because
internally the code has thousands of "The text meant to say..., no, wait, I
changed my... Delete that, no wait, I want that back, oops ... Hang on,
maybe if I move that bit... No it doesn't fit there, how about here?"

At this point, Word is very unsure of its ability to read its own
handwriting, and it's thinking very very hard

Cheers

Thanks Daiya--that's a valuable clue. I may just need to clean up my
cluttered desktop! I'm running Word v.X on OS X v.10.4.10. The
document is not unusuallly complex, but I do use the Change Tracker
tool a lot. Thanks again.

--
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]