Memo to Bill Gates

In MS Word, why does the select text feature select not only the word on which I double-click (or otherwise select), but also the space after the word? Nine times out of ten, I only want the word. Is there a fix?

Comments

[Vortigern]

Go to Tools/Options/Edit and uncheck "When selecting, automatically select entire word."

That will stop MS Word selecting the space following the word when you're selecting text by dragging, but if you double-click on a word that will still select the following space.

Below I shall explain precisely why MS Word behaves in this annoying way, but the short explanation is that Microsoft's programmers are maroons.

The reason MS Word annoyingly adds the trailing space to your selection is that when you type in any new text, that text automatically picks up the format of the exact character-- often a SPACE character-- to its left. If the SPACE after some word W has the same format (say, italic) as the characters in W, then the next word N you type will appear in that format as well. However, if the SPACE following W has a different format (say, the default non-italic font), then N will pick up the format of the SPACE rather than the preceding word. Microsoft thinks you want any new word you type in to take on the appearance of the word to its left, but MS accomplishes that by trying to make sure the SPACE between the words has the same format as the word to the left, which in turn means adding that SPACE to any word selection, which means everyone has to be annoyed by selecting an extra space even when they're planning to, say, move a word rather than change its format.

If MS' programmers were not maroons, they could accomplish their format-related goals without making the selection process so annoying.

[NJconservative]

I think that the Mandarins at MS decided that the only reason you would ever highlight a single word is to move it to another place in the text. The space goes along with it so the action is slightly easier. It is also profoundly irritating, but that is, I believe, the true goal of Microsoft.

[Kevin Sanchez]

I somehow do not think the decendants of the Maroons in Jamaica would appreciate this article...

[Edmund]

I somehow do not think the decendants of the Maroons in Jamaica would appreciate this article...

The use of "maroon" above has nothing to do with Jamaica, but evrything to do with Bugs Bunny.

[Pete]

You will see the same behavior in Firefox and also Google Chrome when double clicking a word. If memory serves MS programmers did not develop either Firefox or Google chrome. It's an annoying 'feature' of a lot of applications.