Tip #4461 - No More Misplaced Text
Printer Friendly Version | E-Mail This Tip
No
More Misplaced Text
Have you ever
found yourself proofing an MS Word document, only to find that the
text seems out of order?
You're looking
at the words and you're thinking, "Now, what happened here?"
You know you didn't
type the text that way and yet, there it is. Your thoughts are all
in a jumble.
Hmmm, was it a
program glitch? A virus?
Fortunately, I
can say, "No, probably not!"
You're actually a victim
of an accidental drag and drop.
Drag and drop?
Yep, that's what
I said! Word's default setting is to let you highlight text and then,
while holding down the left mouse button, drag it through the document.
When you release the mouse button, Word drops the text into the new
position.
Or, if you need
to duplicate text, you can use the same process while holding down
the Ctrl key. That way, when you "drop" the text, Word will
make a copy of what was highlighted and place it in the new location.
Okay, so enough
of what the drag and drop can do. What if you don't want any part
of it?
What do you do
if you're constantly finding text out of place? Let's face it, when
you like to click, click, click (and I know many people who do), accidents
like these can happen quite frequently.
So, the question
becomes: "Is there a way to turn off Word's drag and drop feature?"
I'm happy to report
that yes, there is a way to turn the drag and drop feature off, completely
removing the risk of accidentally misplacing text within your document.
If this sounds
like a change you need to make and you're using an older version of
Word, you'll need to begin with the Tools menu, Options
choice.
When the Options
dialogue window opens, you're looking for the Edit tab.
At this point,
you need to locate and uncheck the "Drag-and-drop
text editing" option.
With that change
made, click OK.
For those of you
using Word 2007, don't feel left out. You too can control this option!
You're looking to start in the Office button list
and then click the Word Options button.
You need the Advanced
options, Editing Options section at the top of the
list.
Uncheck
"Allow text to be dragged and dropped"
and then click OK.
When you're returned
to your document, highlight some text and try to drag it. You should
find that the highlight works the same as it always did, but you no
longer get an arrow mouse pointer that allows you to drag it around
your document.
If you can't drag,
you certainly can't accidentally move the text all over the place!
Now, when something
is moved, you've got to actually mean to move it. It will require
the highlight, a cut (Ctrl + X) and then a paste (Ctrl + V). There's
no mistaking your intentions with that procedure, so from now on,
the "how did that text get there?" problem should be minimized.
Yes!
~ April
Want To Comment On This Tip? Click Here! We'd love to hear from you :-)
Like These Tips? Get 'Em Free In Your E-mail
