*sigh*

[netmouse]

I wish there was a way to tell my whole computer, once and forever, "do NOT ever select the whole word automatically when I am editing". When I am moving the mouse to select something, I would like to select the part I indicate, thank you, not random other things too.

Whoever invented that option and made it the default in many programs has a special circle of hell waiting, I think.

Comments

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

That drives me crazy too.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_earthshine_/]

I'm so with you. Back in the good old days (like MSWord 5.1), i was trained by the simpler software to select exactly what i wanted, down to partial words, punctuation, and/or the exact number of spaces, to make the edit i wanted. Ever since software decided to "help" me, i've been fighting it. If i want the whole word/line/paragraph, i will double-click and/or click in the sidebar -- i've got it, thanks -- no, really.

...but i ask: MicroSoft has been justifying its existence and driving the necessity for faster computers and OS upgrades by trying to write software that thinks for us ever since the birth of Windows... why should we dare to hope it might stop now? Sadly, the rest of the world is slowly starting to follow suit. *sigh*

[branchandroot]

Yes. Yes, they do. And also the person who programmed the auto-capitalize that does it /again/ even after you go back and edit the word down to lower case.

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

Where does that happen to you? When I re-edit it down, MS Word generally leaves it alone -- in that instance. (I guess I could turn off the feature.)

[branchandroot]

In my Word for Mac (c. 2004 if I recall). Drives me nuts.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

In Word for Windows, one can at least add special words (some abbreviations for military ranks, for example, really do have 2 caps at the start) to the dictionary, which will stop those words from being edited "for" you.

[http://users.livejournal.com/jer_/]

It depends on how you edit it. When I'm thinking, I finish the word then change the capital; that solves the problem. When I'm typing at speed, I tend to backspace through the capital and retype, which then gets recapitalized.

Irritating.

[(Anonymous)]

Absolutely. I turn it off when I find it, but would be nice if there was a master switch.

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

Um, I was the anonymous post.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

You want a computer-wide default that overrides each individual piece of software? Somehow that doesn't sound like a good plan.

It is an awfully strange choice for a default, though. The auto-capitalize is more infuriating, but at least it's obvious what's going on and you can search for the toggle to turn it off. The whole-word select is subtle. I always think it's just me - I must be clicking the mouse accidentally - and keep trying more and more carefully to select just the letters I want. It takes me a stupidly long time to realize that it's an option that I have to turn off. *duh* I don't think that it used to be the Microsoft default until relatively recently (and by recently I probably mean "10 years." I'm a slow learner.)

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that it was something Microsoft had deliberately set up until I read this post and your comment. I always thought the same thing you did - that it was just my poor fine motor control causing me to move the mouse further than I intended. Argh.

(And count me as another who hates the auto-capitalize. Sometimes a period is just meant to indicate an abbreviation or initials, not the end of a sentence...)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

It's an MS thing. Another reason I avoid their stuff whenever possible.

"STOP! BEING! HELPFUL!"