Please disable Insert Controls in Word table
MS Word tables allow you to automatically insert a row or column when your pointer is over the end of row or top of column. This very often causes accidental insertion of a row or column, which you then have to undo. Since it is VERY easy to use other means to insert rows or columns, it is a waste of time and very annoying. Please allow users to turn off the Insert Controls feature if they do not wish to use it.

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164 comments
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Nicky Peng commented
Yes, absolutely infuriating. I have spent inordinate amounts of time undoing unintentional insertions and have not yet found any occasion to use the tool intentionally.
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Anonymous commented
Yes - extremely annoying for users of any level - a ridiculous non-feature that halts productivity through having to spend twice as long removing the damned rows and columns after they are inserted without any control. This is a horrendous thing that as usual is 1 step forwards and 10 back.
This is just another example of MS trying to force what they think people want instead of giving us the controls t and tools to let us decide what we want!
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Steve commented
This is by far the most annoying thing microsoft has EVER done to word. Please give us an option to make this go away. I've wasted hours trying to figure out how to turn this off. Major time waster. I spend more time un-doing this than actually using it.
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RosieMc commented
How could anyone imagine automatic insert was an improvement in this instance? Do your people sit around trying to come up with the most annoying change for users?To make another row is as simple as pressing the 'tab' key from the previous row, how could that be improved?!
2.5 years to review such an obvious fix? Bah! -
Anonymous commented
Me too, create a way to turn this off- allow for a toggle for functions like this.
It really affects efficiency when you fight a tool that is supposed to be help but is more often a hindrance. All the changes like this that have occurred with "software improvements", especially in the Office 2016 products, has me believing the purpose is to lower the efficiency of people who got more done in less time with older versions of the software.
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Anonymous commented
This is driving me mad please turn it off
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Anonymous commented
The solution (for now) is to place your pointer farther away from the table and then right-click. The insert plus-sign will not appear, and you can select the whole row just like old times.
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Kris commented
Make some way to disable the plus-sign-add-rows--I have lost so much time undoing the inserted rows that annoying pop-up puts in. This is NOT productive nor helpful
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TeacherPat commented
I don't agree with the posts that complain about the plus sign to add rows. I like the feature. My problem is that oftentimes I can't get the plus sign to pop up when I want to add a row. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's nowhere.
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jean commented
This gets in the way of me trying to delete a row!! Every time I get close to the table, the + pops up and is in the way! If I try to highlight the row I want to delete, I can't get around the + and half the time hit the + and end up with two rows I don't want!
Do you all even use your products?
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Anonymous commented
OMG How annoying!!!!! For the love of Pete....
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Anonymous commented
Word 2016. Still there, still unable to turn it off. Annoying is not the good word for it, I would say frustrating-time waster-unusefull-weird control that serve NOTHING (as theee are the easy rigth clic insert row to used instead, or the top menu) and no other way to select an entire row BUT to go on the left side of a table AND CLIC AGAIN on that not-usefull-at-all-control.
Take it off or give us the possibility to disable it.
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Anonymous commented
I hate this "feature". Causes me multiple errors per day and endless aggravation. I should not need the dexterity of a world class surgeon to adjust the height of a table row. Please get rid of this feature and the genius who added this to Word.
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Anonymous commented
I agree!
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Anonymous commented
Yes please! I can't seem to select a row anymore to delete, apply formatting etc. The dang "insert" tool overtakes everything!!
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MK commented
ok..it is 2018..any way to turn this off yet?????
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Anonymous commented
Completely agree! This feature is tantamount to torture for regular users. Whoever thought up this 'helpful' feature should be helped to the door.
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Vanessa commented
I am working on a document that contains a lot of tables. This "feature" is driving me nuts! Please make it go away.
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Anonymous commented
I totally agree with Jon. The automatic pop-up symbol really does hamper efficiently the selecting of a specific row or column. Too often it's happened that the wrong row is selected and now you have to waste time undo what's happened. Please allow users to turn off the Insert Control feature. Thank you
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Betty commented
TURN IT OFF!! TURN IT OFF!!! TURN IT OFF!!! TURN IT OFF!!!!