Annoying highlighting

  • Thread starter Thread starter beatme101
  • Start date Start date
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beatme101

Hello, I would like to know if it is possible to disable (and if so how
to disable it) the very irritating (it has never once served a purpose,
only impeded my work) functionality in Windows that causes it to change
what I have highlighted when I start highlighting text. For example, if
I start highlighting ("this") from the left quote to the right quote,
it will change what I have highlighted to include the parenthesis. In
fact even if I want to highlight the paranthesis too, it will also
include the space that comes after it. That could not be more annoying.
 
Hello, I would like to know if it is possible to disable (and if so how
to disable it) the very irritating (it has never once served a purpose,
only impeded my work) functionality in Windows
Click to expand...

BZZZT!

Not a windows function. It is an application annoyance.
that causes it to change
what I have highlighted when I start highlighting text. For example, if
I start highlighting ("this") from the left quote to the right quote,
it will change what I have highlighted to include the parenthesis.
Click to expand...

Notepad does not do this; Thunderbird does not do this. OpenOffice.org 2.0
does not do this, Wordpad (and I assume Microsoft Office) DOES do it (and I
agree wholeheartedly with you that it is extremely annoying) BUT only when you
highlight with the mouse. If you highlight using the cursor keys while holding
down the shift key, it does not do it.

(Being from a unix background, I avoid using the mouse wherever possible, and
tend to highlight mainly using the shift + (cursor/home/end/pgdn/pgup) keys)

It's almost as annoying as 'smart quotes' (that put upside-down "'s on the front
of "quoted strings" thus rendering stuff unreadable in 7-bit ascii, or forcing
base64 encoding for what should be plain text, and thus increasing traffic by
33%). However it not nearly as annoying as virtually all default 'autocorrect'
rules (when I am trying to type something where case is important, such as kW,
or HCl, I am driven utterly insane by the default auto-screw-up rules, and turn
them all off in disgust. Anyway, that is a rant for another time, and another
group.
 
I think that is application specific, it isn't a Windows 2000 problem.
What application are you using when you experience this aggravation?
Try posting to a group that caters to the application in question.

John
 
Yes, I am aware that you can select with keys, I often have to resort
to that (not that I hate using the keyboard for misc tasks, but having
the mouse work fine for highlighting would be nice too).

Hmm, well, let's see, I experience highlighting problems like I
described in a LOT of Windows programs, so I naturally assumed it was
the fault of Windows and that an application has to be specially
designed to stop Windows from doing it. Oh well. Internet Explorer and
MSN Messenger are two of the ones I use the most that do it (and the
only ones I can think of at the moment :P).
 
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