I liked you better when you weren't cool

[sovay]

Does anyone know how to remove the floating Copilot button from a version of Microsoft Word on which I disabled all so-called connected experiences the day I bought the new license more than two years ago and which has nonetheless just sneakily updated itself so that I have an AI-inducing rainbow-colored heartworm constantly keeping pace in the down right corner of the document, blocking out text which I am trying to write? I have looked for suggestions online and most of them seem to require preference options not available in my Mac. But what I need in a Word document is words and nothing else and I cannot deal with a planet-killing visual fault in the middle of them, on top of which the fact that this obscenity can be intruded into my software makes me want to headline the news for the disappearance of the Roko's basilisk boys who put it there. If a program is on my computer, the only person who should be able to tinker with it is me. I am not even eloquent, I am so furious. Any actionable suggestions would be appreciated.

[ETA 2025-11-12 22:23] JESUS CHRIST AFTER AN EVENING ON THE PHONE WITH APPLE SUPPORT WHICH WAS FLABBERGASTED BY THE PROBLEM AND NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER FROM MICROSOFT I FIXED THE PROBLEM MYSELF WITH A CLEAN INSTALL OF PRE-COPILOT MICROSOFT WORD BECAUSE I NEVER THREW AWAY THE ORIGINAL INSTALL PACKAGE FROM 2023 IT WAS STILL IN MY TRASH I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO REINSTALL FROM MY LITERAL TRASH WELCOME TO 2025

Comments

[sovay]

I use standalone Word, but it's on Windows, where I've been able to disable Copilot, so far.

I'm glad to hear it. Until this afternoon I thought I had successfully kept it out of my word processor, whence much of the horror as well as the stress of the interference.

Think I found an Apple Support discussion that sounds like your post! In any case, if the Copilot widget was added on Mac ahead of the Prefs > Proofing Tools check box that's meant to go with it, that's a pretty bad UX bug (atop the bad UX of Copilot itself), and I am sorry.

Thank you! Yes, suddenly there was Copilot in my documents but no means of controlling it, which is what the second Apple tech saw when she shared my screen—I had by then repeated several times the list of available Authoring and Proofing Tools distinctly minus a Copilot icon—and said she had never seen before. I didn't think I could be the only person who had this problem, but I wish anyone else with it luck. I don't think there's a way out of it except reverting the versions.