I can't delete a textbox either. Word took two textboxes and keeps laying them over eachother. And now I can't delete them.

Do I need to just create a new document and start all over?

Hi Stefan thanks for the reply, but the Selection Pane is not available. I have no headers in the document, and I do not understand the anchor that appears in the left hand margin which I suspect is the problem. I can't find how to 'unanchor' if that is what I need to do.

Hi Stefan thanks for the reply, but the Selection Pane is not available. I have no headers in the document, and I do not understand the anchor that appears in the left hand margin which I suspect is the problem. I can't find how to 'unanchor' if that is what I n

Hi Yolkerman

If you can't open the Selection pane from the Format tab that means you're working in a the old binary file format ".doc" and not ".docx".

Is this problematic text box anchored to the firt paragraph mark in the document? I've read that tables set into the first paragraph can cause difficulties and perhaps text boxes can have a similar issue in binary files.

Have you tried right clicking on the text box and choosing the Format option and from there converting the text box to an inline shape?

Finally, you could try coverting the file to an xml format (docx) and/or try saving it first as an html, closing it completely (quiting Word) and then open the html version and save it as a docx under a new name.  Maybe that will clear the problem.

If you can't open the Selection pane from the Format tab that means you're working in a the old binary file format ".doc" and not ".d

Thanks both!  Yes the file I received from my client was a .doc and the Selection pane option was dimmed but now ok as I have converted.

Now, under Selection and Visibility > Shapes on this Page shows dozens of text boxes that don't exist and have to be deleted one by one before the one I've asked it to delete. I think that out of sight elsewhere in the document it is deleting phantom text boxes.  If I persevere for long enough with the deletion process, eventually the real one deletes.

I ran into the same issue and the problem turned out to be the fact that I was in track changes mode. Once I exited track changes mode, the text box deleted with n

Exactly as Stefan Blom says, it is possible, though I had not noticed before, to accept the deletion of the text box.

However the only indication that the text box has been successfully deleted - the black line to the left of the left margin - is easy to overlook.

It would be nice if, like deleted text as opposed to deleted formatting, the text box were to turn red.

As it stands the text box is treated as formatting, which it is, but if the text box is also surrounded by a line then it is also content (as something that has form, colour, width) and that content (the surrounding line) does not turn red like other deleted content.  So it had us confused.

Exactly as Stefan Blom says, it is possible, though I had not noticed before, to accept the deletion of the text box.

However the only indication that the text box has been successfully deleted - the black line to the left of the left margin - is easy to overlook.

It would be nice if, like deleted text as opposed to deleted formatting, the text box were to turn red.

As it stands the text box is treated as formatting, which it is, but if the text box is also surrounded by a line then it is also content (as something that has form, colour, width) and that content (the surrounding line) does not turn red like other deleted content.  So it had us conf

In review mode, changes are applied and marked, you can accept or reject later.

MS design team decided to change that for text boxes? I will resist the obvious comment!

I converted file to Writer, deletion was then intuitive.