Revisiting Formatting Shortcut Key Behavior Changes in Word 2000

Several issues ago I published a tip about how there was a subtle formatting shortcut key change in Word 2000. Immediately after that issue, several people wrote to indicate that they had not observed the same behavior on their systems. This was the test:

1. Type the sentence "This is a test."
2. Position the insertion point just before the first letter "t" in the word "test."
3. Press CTRL+B. This turns on bold formatting.
4. Type the word "single," with no space or anything after it. The word should be in bold type.
5. Press CTRL+B. This turns off bold formatting.
6. Press your final space to separate the word "single" from the word "test."

These steps detail exactly how you would expect Word to behave. I reported that this was not the case in Word 2000, however. On my system, after step 5, the entire compound word (single|test) turns back to normal text, unbolded. Some others who wrote me indicated they had not experienced the same problem. When confronted with two different behaviors using the same software, this means there is a good chance that some sort of configuration setting is affecting the behavior.

Well, thanks to veteran WordTips reader Phil Rabichow, the mystery is finally settled. If you display the Edit tab of the Options dialog box, you will see an option entitled When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Word. This setting is normally used to speed up some types of editing functions. It appears, however, that it also controls the mentioned behavior difference in Word 2000. If the check box is cleared, the formatting shortcut keys (CTRL+B for bold, CTRL+I for italics, and CTRL+U for underline) all work as described in the steps above. If the check box is selected, then the shortcut keys exhibit the odd behavior I noticed and reported. (Click here to see a related figure.)

Now, to add to the mystery, this is only a change in Word 2000. In earlier versions of Word it doesn't matter what the setting is on the Edit tab, the program functions as you would expect. What does this mean to you? Simply that if you are using Word 2000, you need to determine which feature you value more: the automatic selection of words, or the proper functioning of shortcut keys.