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. Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-03-11T02:06:03+00:00

    The "fix" is to clear the option "When selecting, automatically select entire word" as mentioned earlier in this thread by NateMenz. I do that routinely, and I don't miss the so-called "convenience". If I want to select a whole word, I just double-click it.

    If you uncheck the option and Word still selects a whole word when you single-click inside it, it's being interpreted as a double-click. That can happen when your mouse malfunctions and the switch under the mouse button "bounces". The part about selecting a whole paragraph when you click twice is additional evidence -- Word should need a triple click to select a paragraph. In that case, try using a different mouse.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-11T02:26:19+00:00

    Well I just happend to have bought new mouse today wondering if that was the problem & ive just installed it afer your advice and its worked!! Thank you so much!! Im blown away how much time I spent on trying to solve this and persevering with the problem to get documents out - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! Very happy here, you've made my day :) :)

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  3. 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.

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  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!

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  5. 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. :-)

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