How to stop word from adding text to a box automatically on a mac

Thank you, John. But I also want to know why this is happening. If I am working in a large document, having to do this every time is time-consuming. The app is up to date and so is my iOS.

Once you change the style once in a document, it should stay changed. Are you saying that the frame returns after editing the style while the document is still open? Or do you mean that each document exhibits the same problem until you edit the style?

Yes, the frame does return, but randomly. The style stays as is, it really is just the box that appears. I could save the document, close it and when I reopen, I'll find another box where text has popped in in another place in the document. It's very strange. I do not enjoy working in word, and this makes it even less enjoyable. But I still would love to solve this issue.

My best explanation for what you are seeing is that your Normal.dotm template has the heading style formatted with a frame, and that your Word installation is set to automatically update styles from Normal.dotm.

The automatic update option only needs to be turned on in special circumstances. Choose Tools>Templates and Add-ins from the macOS menu bar. Uncheck Automatically update document styles and click on OK. This will prevent the frame from reappearing after you remove it.

Then, remove the frame formatting from your Normal.dotm template. On the Home tab, right-click on a heading style that has the frame problem and choose Modify. In the Modify Style dialog, check the Add to template option. This will make the style revision save to the template, not just the current document. Repeat the steps to remove the frame. Then test by creating a new blank document and see if the frame is gone from the heading style.