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.

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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

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-12-03T14:06:05+00:00

    Has anyone resolved the issue of the text / words, sentences, paragraphs being highlighted all in blue when I am typing a Word Document?

    Often, I am typing an important document - I am in a hurry and short on time. 

    I can't figure out how to stop the blue highlighting. 

    I am thinking we should have the microsoft word program deleted and uninstalled - but I don't have time for that now.

    The auto highlight in blue is not happening as I type this response nor does it happen when I type emails.

    Microsoft: PLEASE HELP ASAP!

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  2. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-10-13T08:10:19+00:00

    If you clear the option for smart paragraph selection, Word won't automatically include the paragraph mark when you select text.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-10-13T08:08:23+00:00

    Thanks, this is towards the correct solution (I have already disabled "select entire word").

    My problem is selecting all the text on a line without the end of line (paragraph mark). Word automatically includes the paragraph mark when I select all the text (to copy and paste a given segment of text to multiple locations) and maneuvering with cursor keys I can do it by starting from the beginning of line, moving (with shift down) to the end of line (when I select the last char Word automatically includes the paragraph mark) and then pressing left key (shift still down) once.

    But this is ridiculous.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-09-20T03:15:54+00:00

    I found this:

    file/options/advanced/

    uncheck "automatically select entire word"

    uncheck "smart paragraph selection"

    There are a couple other "smart" features left to uncheck, I left them in for now, but "smart paragraph" is definitely evil.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-09-04T04:26:22+00:00

    I think that the runaway highlighting can be fixed now with File | Options | Advanced -> and then unchecking "smart selection"

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