I use a Mac Air computer, and have MSN.com as my home page. Why? Because I always have way before I switched to Apple, and I am use to MSN.com. However, for the past few months I have been having a cursor problem on MSN.com. After a good deal of experimenting by myself and with Apple, we have determined it is an MSN thing. However, I have found no way yet in communicating this to Microsoft. Their support group site is beyond me, and MSN apparently only talks on the phone to people who pay to join them. Was hoping someone here might be able to help. Specifically (and with MSN only), when i type something into the search bar, then move the cursor back to make a correction, the first letter I type goes in place, then the cursor and all the rest of the letters go to the right of what I just typed. For instance it I type in "The Cow", then move the cursor back in front of the "C" to type The Brown Cow, the result is The BCowrown. I can find no solution through preferences nor anything else so far. Any ideas?
MSN.com Help Needed
- Thread starter john parker
- Start date
Not a convenient solution, but put cursor before c, type b. Put cursor before c, type r. Etc.
Or wipe the whole thing and retype it as you want.
It's irritating to have software suppliers who don't care that their product has problems.
Or wipe the whole thing and retype it as you want.
It's irritating to have software suppliers who don't care that their product has problems.
As a troubleshooting suggestion/process of elimination, have you tried a different browser, such as Chrome or Firefox, to see if the problem still happens? If it only happens in Safari that might be helpful to narrow things down a little. Are you moving the cursor back using the mouse or arrow keys?
- Thread starter
- #4
Tried Yahoo, and the problem does not exist there. And obvious solution is to ditch MSN, but don't really want to do that after so many years. Oh, I move the cursor around with the trackpad. Maybe I should try my mouse to see what it does! Thanks for the suggestion!
- Thread starter
- #5
Doesn't make any difference! Does it with the mouse as well as the track pad. And it does it in reverse! If I type in "ohio state", put the cursor between the last o to delete and continue it becomes "ohi stat" with two clicks. Dumb thing!!
is
Oh, and I believe that I have MSN.com in as my home page, not as a browser. (What is a home page and what is a browser confuses me,) I have not tried Chrome or Firefox.
is
Oh, and I believe that I have MSN.com in as my home page, not as a browser. (What is a home page and what is a browser confuses me,) I have not tried Chrome or Firefox.
Your homepage is where you land when you first open up the internet.
Your browser is the program you use to access the internet.
Your homepage would be MSN.com, Yahoo.com, Any .com
Your browser would be Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.
So instead of trying a different website, open up a different browser, like Chrome. Then go to MSN.com and try
Your browser is the program you use to access the internet.
Your homepage would be MSN.com, Yahoo.com, Any .com
Your browser would be Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.
So instead of trying a different website, open up a different browser, like Chrome. Then go to MSN.com and try
I’m guessing it’s a problem with MSN.com. It does the same thing for me on safari and chrome. Does not do it on any other website.
Best option is to delete the text and start over. Or use a different search engine - like google
Best option is to delete the text and start over. Or use a different search engine - like google
- Thread starter
- #8
The Apple troubleshooter also thought the problem was with MSN.com. (I know there was/is at least one Microsoft engineer on this forum! Where are you??) I may well have to "shop" for a new home page. Is that what Google is? I have used Yahoo a time or two because I tend to go to Yahoo for stock look-ups.
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
You could make B&B your home page 
Or give google a shot. Probably a disturbance in the force mixing Mac and msn.
I use google but now that you mention it I never look at a hone page for anything like news feeds etc. I open up and then just go where I want.
Or give google a shot. Probably a disturbance in the force mixing Mac and msn.
I use google but now that you mention it I never look at a hone page for anything like news feeds etc. I open up and then just go where I want.
- Thread starter
- #10
The darn thing is that MSN.com worked just fine for me until about a month or so ago. That is when all this funny business started to happen. I have used MSN.com as a home page since the 1980s. Hate to have to switch now, but beginning to think I am running out of options, at least if I want to have the cursor work correctly.You could make B&B your home page
Or give google a shot. Probably a disturbance in the force mixing Mac and msn.
I use google but now that you mention it I never look at a hone page for anything like news feeds etc. I open up and then just go where I want.
You can make any website your homepage. Don’t get hung up on the word. It’s simply another word for a website that serves as the first place you visit when you open the internet up. If all you are using MSN for is a way to search the internet you can use Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc for that. Just navigate to those websites and search. Or instead of trying to use the cursor to start typing wherever you want, delete the entire text and start over.
Unfortunately I don’t see this problem being fixed by anyone at Microsoft. Like you said - Good luck talking to a live person, and good luck with them understanding what the issue is, and good luck with them making it a priority to fix. That’s just not going to happen.
One thing you can try is clearing your cookies, cache, history. Basically resetting your internet browser. Obviously something changed if it just started screwing up within the last couple months. But narrowing down what that was and then having Microsoft fix it….fat chance. Best you can do is find a workaround or alternative
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
Ya sounds like a good run there. It’s tough when change is forced on you but maybe it’s time. You might find something better.
- Thread starter
- #13
Toothpick, I see that you are as big a cynic as I am!!!
I prefer to see myself as a realist. This issue is probably a script error, or HTML error, or some other funky computer lingo error that is built in to the websites code. Since every other website works just fine, and every other browser works just fine. It only happens on MSN.com and it’s not just you it’s happening too. If it’s an issue with their website one of their engineers will have to fix it.
Do you have anything not running a Mac system you can try it on? I just tried it on a PC and had no issues. So now I’m wondering if it’s just a glitch somewhere on the Mac system. Which leads me back to my point - good luck narrowing that down.
It’s some bug somewhere in computer land. Easiest thing to do is to try and clear it out. So clear your cache and cookies on the browser you are using.
Interesting, for a couple of months I have been using Bing as my default search engine on the Brave browser on my Android phone. So a totally different environment, but I have also seen this cursor jump issue. So it must be a Microsoft wide behavior. It boggles the mind why they are doing this.
The typical use case where this affects me is I am reading something in the browser and want to search a term or phrase. So I highlight the item and search which opens a new browser tab to see the search results. So this initial step works fine. But if I want to modify the search phrase to change it in some way, which means moving the cursor somewhere in the middle of the phrase to start typing, the cursor it will automatically/quickly jump to the end of the existing text. Move the cursor back a second time and it will stay and let me modify. At first I thought this was an issue with the Android keyboard, but slowly realized it must be microsoft. I might assume it is related to their predictive search (auto complete) that is somehow interacting in a negative way. I agree it is very annoying.
The typical use case where this affects me is I am reading something in the browser and want to search a term or phrase. So I highlight the item and search which opens a new browser tab to see the search results. So this initial step works fine. But if I want to modify the search phrase to change it in some way, which means moving the cursor somewhere in the middle of the phrase to start typing, the cursor it will automatically/quickly jump to the end of the existing text. Move the cursor back a second time and it will stay and let me modify. At first I thought this was an issue with the Android keyboard, but slowly realized it must be microsoft. I might assume it is related to their predictive search (auto complete) that is somehow interacting in a negative way. I agree it is very annoying.
- Thread starter
- #16
Just checked my Mac app store. There is a Browser Picker app that apparently allows one to shuffle quickly between FireFox, Chrome, Safari, Top Browser (?) and several others. I may check that out; it is free (but with online purchases).
- Thread starter
- #17
I apologize! Realist is a much better characterization!
No! You’re asking for problems with an app like that. Just install chrome if you want another browser.
Here’s the thing … what are you using msn.com for? If it’s just a place to start your searches, just type the search into the address bar (ie where the www. Whatever. Com goes) Al modern browsers use that for search as well.
- Thread starter
- #19
Yes, Go West, I just use MSN.com as a place to start when I go online. I scan the news items, then go on to other sites and searches from there. As to Chrome, it seems to me that I have heard on the Apple forums that it uses a lot of memory and is not particularly efficient.
Chrome is okay, but it does allow more tracking that most other browsers that you could use.
I understand your desire to have some kind of portal as a home page. You could spend some time over the coming days and weeks with other news sites to find one that appeals to you. Something like: Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines - https://news.yahoo.com or https://news.google.com, both of which have search bars at the top of the page. Of course there are many left leaning and right leaning sources you could select as well.
I understand your desire to have some kind of portal as a home page. You could spend some time over the coming days and weeks with other news sites to find one that appeals to you. Something like: Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines - https://news.yahoo.com or https://news.google.com, both of which have search bars at the top of the page. Of course there are many left leaning and right leaning sources you could select as well.
