Word's new Editor

Yesterday, my Word program no longer functioned the way it has in the past, there is now an "Editor" that replaces the old Review method. I hate it, it doesn't allow me to work on a paragraph at a time. I can highlight a paragraph but as soon as I hit Spelling and Grammar it goes into the Editor and the highlighted paragraph disappears and the program checks the entire document. I often used the old review to check on the reading level of a word I wanted to use, that's now impossible because it does the entire document, asking me to fix spellings that it already asked me to check and I chose Ignore because I wanted the word a certain way. It's very time-consuming and frustrating. I have been all over looking for ways to turn the feature off and go back to the old way. Several ways have been suggested but none have worked so far. Anyone else having problems?

Ugh, that sounds bad. It's doubtless AI-enabled and probably just a matter of time before similar utilities are implemented in Google Docs and other word processors.

Is that the subscription version? I forked out for a standalone version of Office (2022, maybe?), but Word seems to be running on an Office 365 account. I notice a similar issue, though I've never used those functions, so no idea if it's new.

I can select, R-click with mouse and "Review selection in editor". Would that work for you?

Makes me glad I haven't upgraded from Word 2016.

Hmm ... I'm on Windows 11 on a month-old laptop. I do a lot of editing, but most of my writing is in the form of journaling in blank books using a fountain pen.
When I got the laptop running, I got online and bought a standalone version of the MS Office suite 2021 for ... I think it was $40. Out of the entire package, I've installed Access, Outlook, Word and Excel. I have never had a want nor need of Publisher or PowerPoint. My version doesn't have Editor; it still has the Review tab.

The last manuscript I edited was an actual paper copy, so I haven't played around with Word except for formatting song sheets.

But I'm in it now, and it is not all any different than it was under MSO 2016. I selected a paragraph from a piece I wrote maybe ten years ago, and it behaved exactly as I remember. Well, I did have to go into File>Options>Proofing and under the heading "When correcting spelling and grammar in Word," the last of five check boxes (Show readability statistics) needs to be ON. It's off by default.

Hope that helps.

Hi all. It turns out the Editor program was part of the new Microsoft 365 they've rolled out and are slowly sending out as an upgrade to people with Microsoft Office. I thought I had long ago opted for not getting automatic upgrades, but probably at some point I got so far behind I changed it. This morning when I got up I had the thought that it was part of a bigger package than Word, which is where I had been trying to find a fix. I wound up finding the 365 program, and realizing that my Office package was still there, I simply uninstalled the 365 program. Back to what works. What a weight off my shoulders.

>2 paradoxosalpha: Yes it is an AI program, It wants to tell you want to write, but the thing that was so bothersome to me was that I couldn't highlight one word, or one paragraph and run a check on it. As soon as I tried, it would go through the entire document, each time wanting changes to things I had previously marked ignore. It was time consuming and frustrating.

So for anyone that runs afoul of this program and wants to get rid of it - the answer is uninstall Microsoft 365.

Not only does the Editor part want to tell you how to write, the whole program is trying to tell you how to use your computer. I'm sure that for some people it is the answer to white bread, but for those of us who only use a computer for certain things it is far too controlling.

Thanks to you all for your comments. Write on!

I have never used Word, but if I have no intention to claim that Apple is a less-evil empire.

I have been using a text editor to write with rather than a word processor for a good many years. :)