# Problem with WORD **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354 "2007-01-17T18:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354/1 "2007-01-17T18:55:26Z")
My buddy writes (my Blue for clarity’s sake): “The document I have been working on in my"Word” for the past year regarding my Alaskan trip has gone kaflooie. I must have hit a wrong key because now every letter I type is RED. And I cannot delete the letter by backspacing. I want to get back to black lettering but am very fearful of losing the entire thing. I have printed it and saved it. I’ve tried everything and no luck. Have you got any ideas?" I have no clue whatever about the backspacing problem and the only suggestion I had was to Open the document, then In Edit Click on Select All and then open the text file pallette and click on Black. He’d already tried that and everything else he could think of, to no avail. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354/2 "2007-01-17T18:56:58Z")
Sounds like he’s turned “Track Changes” on. Turning it off again (or switching the view to “Final” without markup) should solve his problem. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354/3 "2007-01-17T19:04:27Z")
If that doesn’t work (but it sounds like that’s the problem), can he copy and paste the whole thing into a new document? ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354/4 "2007-01-17T19:20:33Z")
I already passed on TimeWinder’s suggestion and I’ll email Pygmy Rugger’s. Thanks very much. ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354/5 "2007-01-17T19:25:29Z")
Ditto on the track changes; that’s almost certainly what it is. If the reviewing toolbar isn’t already visible, you can click on View \> toolbars \> reviewing and make sure it’s selected. The icon he wants to click is the one that looks like a sheet of paper with red lines, a pencil in the lower right corner, and an asterisk/star in the upper left corner. That will turn the track changes feature on or off. When changes are tracked, any text added or changed after that point will be shown in red (formatting changes will be listed as a comment). Also, if he’s worried about losing such an important document that has taken him a year to put together, he might want to create a backup copy periodically, or save a read-only version. To make the document read-only, click on Tools \> protect document. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354/6 "2007-01-17T20:37:48Z")
I agree with Track Changes, but [QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] If that doesn’t work (but it sounds like that’s the problem), can he copy and paste the whole thing into a new document? [/QUOTE] In this case he’d want to copy everything except the last paragraph mark. That’s where corruption usually hides. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-with-word/388354/7 "2007-01-19T02:04:37Z")
Another refinement once the Track Changes problem is resolved: Change all color to “Automatic,” not black. THis sets the text color to the default setting for text color in the display color scheme settings (which is usually also black). That way, if he ever decides to change his default text color to, say, dark blue, the text in this doc will automatically (huh, go figure) be changed to dark blue, rather than staying black.