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
    2017-04-19T05:34:29+00:00

    To be honest, I feel pretty stupid right now...

    It seems like you can't edit the text that was already in the style sheet, explaining what you should do...

    I am sorry for wasting your time, have a great day!

    BR

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  2. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-04-18T14:59:14+00:00

    I'm not familiar with the "APA style report" that you mention.

    That said, are you sure that you deleted the content control completely? Maybe you just deleted its content, and you are still entering text into the control, which might explain why it can't be selected the way one would usually expect.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-04-18T11:01:15+00:00

    Hey there!

    I have a totally different problem, but still related to selection. Suddenly I could only select whole paragraphs and I can no longer edit them without deleting them first. I think I have tried every mentioned setting in this thread but it won't work.

    BR

    Edit:

    Forgot to mention that I am using the "APA style report" style sheet and removed the content control, maybe that is somehow related in a weird way?

    Additionally, I can select small parts of headings or paragraphs I add, but it seems like I can't do it with paragraphs and headings created before one specific point of time.

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  4. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-02-22T13:31:57+00:00

    Disabling the auto-selection of whole words is the key, BUT, MS s/w also decides to select the end-of-line (paragraph) mark when using mouse or keyboard extended selection.        

    To prevent Word from selecting the paragraph mark, clear the "Use smart paragraph selection" option at File | Options | Advanced.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-02-22T10:55:18+00:00

    Disabling the auto-selection of whole words is the key, BUT, MS s/w also decides to select the end-of-line (paragraph) mark when using mouse or keyboard extended selection. Only a keyboard intervention unselects it again. This is idiotic behaviour, especially as formatting attributes are stored in that paragraph mark, which most of the time I DON'T want to be copied.

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