# Seeking "dumbed down" WinXP highlighting

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-dumbed-down-winxp-highlighting/415515>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 14, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-dumbed-down-winxp-highlighting/415515 "2007-08-14T03:28:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-dumbed-down-winxp-highlighting/415515/1 "2007-08-14T03:28:17Z")

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I’m running Windows XP Pro. I’d love to be able to turn off all “smart” highlighting - for example, when the highlight “helpfully” jumps to the end of the word when you’ve placed the cursor on its second letter. On balance, this “feature” is a huge nuisance and the ability to kill it would be wonderful.

I note that this does not work the same way in every application. Am I at the mercy of each app’s designer, or is there some way to exterminate this pest once and for all?

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**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-dumbed-down-winxp-highlighting/415515/2 "2007-08-14T03:54:53Z")

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As you note, it depends on the application. XP provides the tool, but it’s up to the program to make use of it.

I can help you with Word, at least: go to Tools-\>Options…-\>Edit. Deselect “When selecting, automatically select entire word” and possibly “Smart paragraph selection” as well. Most programs that utilize this should have a similar toggle.

(Note: this is on Word 2003. I can’t help you on 2007 if that’s what you have, although if you futz around you should be able to find the options.)

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**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-dumbed-down-winxp-highlighting/415515/3 "2007-08-14T14:14:12Z")

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Thanks - I managed to get Word sorted out some time back.

One of the worst offenders is the SDMB, when creating or editing a post. Any way to tame that nastiness?

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**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-dumbed-down-winxp-highlighting/415515/4 "2007-08-14T14:35:06Z")

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Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge there is no way to turn this utterly infuriating behaviour off. I’ve spent a long time in the past trying to fix this, to no avail. There doesn’t even seem to be a registry hack to achieve it.

The best I can offer is that neither Firefox nor Opera do it, but I appreciate that you probably don’t want to switch browsers over something like this. Used to drive me nuts, though; why on earth isn’t there an option to say “I’m not a hamfisted yutz, and I selected precisely what I meant to thankyouverymuch”?

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**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeking-dumbed-down-winxp-highlighting/415515/5 "2007-08-14T15:03:24Z")

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You can use Shift + left/right arrows, if that’s any help. Plus Ctrl to jump a word at a time.