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
    2015-09-28T22:07:08+00:00

    I have the same problem I HAVE unchecked the box but Microsoft could give **** less what I want my computer to do. It still thinks it knows better what I want than I do. It ALWAYS highlights to the end of the word PLUS THE NEXT SPACE. I don't want you to "HELP" me any more. Just highlight WHAT I ASK YOU TO

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  2. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-28T22:31:53+00:00

    Joe is correct, the feature is annoying.

    The problem occurs in some Emails and a form to fill in in Word.

    The behavior in e-mails isn't controlled by Word. Check the settings of your e-mail program.

    If by "form" you mean a protected form with text form fields, then you are quite right: selecting part of the text in a field is tricky.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-29T10:33:02+00:00

    The word document I have (not the Email) has controlled entry. The spell check does not work (even though in every other application is does!!) and Stefan says highlighting a word is tricky.

    Does this mean there is no solution?

    If so, then it is a software bug in Word. How do I get this fixed?

    Regards

    Paul

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  4. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-29T11:25:19+00:00

    You are quoting Stefan out of context.  He said that in one particular case, trying to select part of a legacy formfield was tricky.

    What do you mean by "controlled entry"?  Are you talking about a document that is protected for filling in forms?  What version of Word are you using?  This thread was about Word 2013 in which (and with 2007 and 2010 before it) you can use Content Controls instead of FormFields and then you do not need to apply protection to the document so that the restrictions that such protection imposes (such as no spell checking) are not then relevant.

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  5. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-29T18:30:27+00:00

    As Doug has pointed out, what you claim that I said is not what I actually said.

    Please clarify what you are trying to accomplish and which form you are currently using.

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