Word auto-highlighting, how to make it STOP!

Anonymous

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 ->

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Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2016-03-25T22:58:15+00:00

If you are saying that you turned off OverType mode, that could certainly affect the way text gets selected.

Note that in recent versions of Word, OverType isn't controlled by the Insert key by default. The option is called "Use the Insert key to control overtype mode" and it is found under "Editing options" at File | Options | Advanced.
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Anonymous

2016-03-25T23:06:27+00:00

The insert key key does not solve the problem and the document is locked so one can't access the toolbars.

It is a bug in Word.
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Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2016-03-25T23:13:50+00:00

The insert key key does not solve the problem and the document is locked so one can't access the toolbars.

It is a bug in Word.

Note that my remark on OverType was intended only as a reply to xxscottjxx. As I wrote in that reply, in recent versions of Word the Insert key does not control OverType by default, and therefore it usually wouldn't affect selections.
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Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2016-03-25T23:19:07+00:00

The insert key key does not solve the problem and the document is locked so one can't access the toolbars.

It is a bug in Word.

OK, that is new information. You never mentioned anything about the document being "locked" in your previous posts in this thread. Most likely, that piece of information is crucial.

In what way is the document locked? Are you saying that commands are greyed out or that the document appears to be frozen?

Do you see this with a particular document only? It could be damaged or some form of corruption has occurred.

Please share a document with the forum, if at all possible.
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Anonymous

2016-09-30T08:56:34+00:00

I am having the same issue as JoeAmerica with 'highlighting' (selecting) words or part of words. I thought that the fix from Doug Robbins was going to work. And its very close to working but still difficult to select parts of words if you want to change them. for example i have a list of datapoints and then write a paragraph about them, GA5723-sse,

GA6852-sse etc. so two numbers in the middle change. I want to copy and paste the full paragraph then highlight the 2 numbers in the middle or so and then overtype with new numbers. This is what i used to do in office 2007. Now i have to do other things which takes 2-3 times longer. I have thousands of these to do so this is times that by 2-3 times is quite some time. Im at work so i dont think rolling back to 2007 would be an option here. Pita. I cant understand why anyone would find this jumping highlighter tool useful? It selects NOT the text you try to highlight..

has anyone found a fix?
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