Automatically Selecting Words

When you are editing your document, there are many times that Word tries to guess what you are doing and then complete your task for you. This helpfulness can be aggravating at times. Once such instance is when you are trying to use the mouse to select text from the middle of one word to the middle of another. Whenever you click inside a word and then start dragging the mouse, Word assumes you want to make a selection. As soon as you move the mouse pointer outside the word, the program assumes you wanted to select the entire first word in which you originally clicked.

If you want to ensure that Word doesn't make that assumption, you need to follow these steps to turn off the offending feature in Word 97 through Word 2003:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. This displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Edit tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Word check box is cleared.
4. Click on OK.

You can follow these steps if you are using Word 2007:

1. Click the Office button, then choose Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. Click Advanced at the left side of the screen. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Editing Options area, make sure the When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Word check box is cleared.
4. Click on OK.