Word auto-highlighting, how to make it STOP!

Anonymous
2014-01-17T18:00:43+00:00

How do you disable this STUPID feature?

I'm trying to highlight a single word or some part of a word for cut&paste operations and Word auto-highlights the whole line and sometimes the whole paragraph or page.

I can be using a mouse, I can be using the shift+arrow keys, it doesn't matter. The auto-highlight takes over.

it seems to be worse on any kind of bullets and numbering or any header/footer fields.

=======

auto-indent is another evil feature. cut and paste from a notepad  and the indent is changed on your bullets and numbering. pretty much control-v means indent text right ->

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

62 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2018-04-12T19:34:17+00:00

    I'm also having this problem, in notes in Word 2016. I click on the text in any note, and the whole note gets highlighted. Within the highlighted text, I can place the cursor and try to drag, but if I go beyond the next line from where I placed the cursor, the "secondary highlighting" goes all the way back to the beginning of the note. No way to make it not do that.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-24T19:48:10+00:00

    the INSERT KEY is pure genius solved all my problems.. THANKS .. is your name Bill Gates jr. you know .. the one that cares??

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-03-12T19:49:43+00:00

    Yes, of course it is a matter of personal preference. It's just that I'm lazy enough to appreciate not having to select a single word when applying formatting to it. :-)

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-03-12T19:43:01+00:00

    Stefan, I see your point, but it's a matter of personal preference. I find it easier to double-click when I want to select a whole word, which overall takes me less time than fighting with Word when I want to select just one character (often the first character) or to insert a missing character into the middle of a word. I'm a rapid but sloppy typist, so I make lots of small corrections!

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-03-12T13:08:23+00:00

    There is one advantage to the "automatically select entire word" option, though: You can apply character formatting to a word without having to select it first. Just clicking inside the word suffices.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments