Office 2010 Here



By default, when you click and drag over a word (or something that behaves as a word in that it is a bunch of characters together with spaces seperating it) to select it, it highlights an extra space at the end of what you are trying to select.

When you are double clicking on a word, the first time you double-click it, you get the word highlighted but with the extra space at the end is highlighted as well.

When you double click it a second time, it then highlights that word exactly, with no single space added to the end.

But I want to be able to highlight a word by clicking and dragging over it to highlight(select) it and not have Microsoft Word highlight that extra space at the end.

I want to know if I can change a default setting that is making the program assume I want a space at the end of my word selected for copying to the clipboard. It takes very trick mouse movements that waste alot of time to keep it from highlighting that extra space at the end of each word right now.

Also, I would like to know, if such a setting exists, will it make it so that I can double-click on a word and have it highlight (select) that word alone, with no extra space at the end, or is that a seperate setting?

I constantly highlight (select) things for copy to clipboard, and I do not want the extra space to be copied at the end of what I am copying, and I know some kind expert here must have a solution.

Thank you so much in advance to anyone who replies!! =D

Edit: I don't know why I described in the title words as blocks of text, that may not make sense to anyone. I am talking about words, or any discreet selectable group of characters seperated by spaces on both ends (or that starts on the first character of a line and has a space or return at the end, etc... These are most often not actual words for my purposes =D )

Hi seortm,

You can't change the default behaviour. However, deleselecting the last character is as simple as pressing Shift-Left Arrow. Conversely, Shift-Right Arrow extends the selection.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

macropod,

Your comment is not a solution. I am sure seortm knows that and the point is they shouldn't have to do all that. You should be able to select just the text you want without Microsoft hijacking your selection. I don't know how to turn off the idiotic forced selection of the space after the word, but you can turn off "select whole word". Go here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/287911

Under "Edit" further down the page:

Edit

The Edit options are as follows:
Typing replaces selection
When selecting, automatically select entire word
Use smart cut and paste
Tabs and backspace set left indent


To control these options in Word 2001 for Macintosh, click Preferences on the Edit menu, click the Edit tab, and then click to clear the check box for each option that you want to turn off. To control these options in Word X for Mac and in Word 2004 for Mac, click Preferences on the Word menu, click the Edit tab, and then click to clear the check box for each option that you want to turn off.
General

Macropod did not pretend that he had a solution. This question was not marked as "Solved." His response remains true.

The solution you offer doesn't change this behavior, either. It does solve the selection of the paragraph mark at the end of a sentence but when you double-click on a word to select it, Word will still select the space following as a part of the word. As indicated, you can use the Shift+LeftArrow to unselect.

The behavior of Click-Drag-Select remains the same.

It may behave differently in Word for the Macintosh; I have not used that recently.