Automatically select entire word

[thewolfgang]

Is there any word processing program besides Microsoft Word that gives you the option of "When selecting, automatically select entire word." I'd prefer not to use Word, but this is one indispensable feature.

[martin]

We do not have a preference that automatically does this whenever you make a selection. However, it is a convention on OSX that double-click and drag (don't let the mouse up after the second mouse down) will allow you to make a selection that only includes whole words at a time. I hope this helps.

Also, thanks for informing me this was a preference in Word- I always found it incredibly annoying and am happy to turn it off!

[thewolfgang]

Martin,

After using Macs since 1984, I never knew about the double click and drag for selecting a word at a time. I wonder what else I have to learn...

I probably would still like the option that Word offers.

In any case, thanks very much for a very beautiful product.

[greenmorpher]

Hi TheWolfGang

Good grief! Reminds me of an experience I had recently when proof reading a book on PageMaker, a program I began using in 1985 and in which I have produced hundreds of publications. I remarked to the author: "Hey, some great tips in there about the latest version of PM". I went on to say I would fine one particular capability useful. He looked at me in a peculiar manner. "That's been there saince v.1 ..."

The double-click to select a word, and double-click drag to select only whole words are important in NWE/Pro. If you select like that, then drag and drop or cut/copy and paste the seldcted text, NW will place it in its new location with correct spacing at each end and leave correct spacing in the place just vacated. If you just drag over text to select it, though, you must make sure you take account of the spacing yourself.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[Ryan]

We do not have a preference that automatically does this whenever you make a selection. However, it is a convention on OSX that double-click and drag (don't let the mouse up after the second mouse down) will allow you to make a selection that only includes whole words at a time. I hope this helps.

Also, thanks for informing me this was a preference in Word- I always found it incredibly annoying and am happy to turn it off!

Oof. I'm with Martin, here, thanking you for telling me I can turn that off if I ever have to use Word again. That feature was more maddening than almost any other aspect of Word. Almost as bad as having Clippy ask me, "Are you trying to write a love letter?"

[martin]

Ryan's up to his love letters again...

[xiamenese]

Incidentally, you don't have to double click and drag. If you double click the first word you want to select, hold down the shift key and click the last word you want to select, everything up to that point, including the entire last word will be selected. I prefer that to dragging.

Mark

[exegete77]

Or double click first word, then hold down SHIFT + OPT and hit the right arrow to go word by word.

[Ryan]

Ryan's up to his love letters again...

After I kept talking smack about the now-unemployed Clippy, he got all disgruntled and started publishing my love letters all over the internet. That jerk. And the grammar was all fubarred by Word's awful grammar check, too.

Needless to say, my prolific professions of love have been much more successful since switching to Nisus Writer Express and now Pro.

[Talisman39]

And don't forget the triple click selects a whole paragraph, after which dragging will select whole subsequent paras...

I've always been annoyed by the whole-word feature in Word as it tends to delete words that I don't want deleted because it automatically selects them. I always turn it off, so I'm glad Nisus doesn't do this by default.

Adam