Can't drag selected text

[Judy Chucker]

When I select text in my word document, occasionally Word won't let me drag
that text. Instead, it just continues to select the text that my cursor
crosses. A Microsoft tech once told me to go to my Finder and remove a
couple items. I think one of them was "Normal". It would work every time.
However, I've tried removing "Normal" this time and nothing changes. I've
also run the "repair disk permissions", restarted the computer, etc. (I have
a Mac OX 10.4.7, and Word 11.2.3) I can still drag text in my Entourage
program.

Thank you!

Judy

P.S. I also posted this on newsgroup:
microsoft.public.word.application.errors

I'm new to this and don't know quite yet where to turn.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Judy -

Take a look at the Status Bar (bottom of the doc window) & see if the
'light' is on for EXT - which represents the Extend Selection feature. If
so, turn it off. You might also take a look at Word>Preferences>Edit & make
sure the Drag & Drop feature isn't turned off.

Although recreating Normal is one way to resolve many issues it isn't the
first course of action every time Word acts up. I don't know what kind of
'tech' would arbitrarily suggest it as that action also causes you to loose
other settings & customizations that you typically *don't* want to sacrifice
unless necessary.

If the above suggestion doesn't work, post back for other ideas.

 

[Judy Chucker]

Hi, Bob--

Thanks for the ideas. Sorry to say, however, that both EXT and the
Drag-&-Drop were as they should be. Rats.

Judy

 

[Judy Chucker]

Bob,
I copied and pasted my document to a new one, and low and behold, I can now
drag and drop. Does this tell you anything about what went wrong?

Thanks.

Judy

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Judy -

The only thing it says is that you were evidently dealing with a corrupt
document - why it became corrupt is still wide open to speculation. Did you
copy all but the last paragraph mark or did you copy the entire content
(such as Cmd+A to select all)? If you *did* include the last mark the
problem may arise again. If necessary copy all but that last mark to a new
blank doc.

Another possibility, though, is a corrupt preferences file. In which case
there may still be a repeat of the behavior. Hopefully you won't need it,
but if you do you can get some excellent guidelines here:

http://word.mvps.org/mac/TroubleshootingIndex.html

 

[Judy Chucker]

Hi, Bob,

I copied the entire paragraph, selecting all first. What do you mean by
"the last paragraph mark"? The symbol "¶"?? Should I be copying all but
that last one? But then, there wouldn't be a paragraph mark past where the
document ends. Therefore, I must not understand what you mean.

Thanks for the web address; I'll check it out.

Judy

 

[CyberTaz]

Yes - I'm referring to the ¶ which follows the last literal character in the
document - IOW select all the text, beginning to end *without* including
that marker. The easiest way I know of is Shift+Cmd+A to Select All, then
scroll to the end of the document, hold down the Shift key while you click
between the last character (probably a . or some other punctuation mark) and
the ¶ that follows it.

The para marks in Word don't just denote the end of a paragraph. They are
also containers that carry information about the preceding para, and that
last one carries info about *every* preceding para, so any of the 'garbage'
is most likely stored in there. A new 'clean' one will be created when you
paste into the new doc - in fact, it's actually already there when the blank
doc is generated, it just gets moved to the end by the content inserted when
you paste.

This is a fundamental step in the attempt to cure corrupted Word docs.

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

to get to the very last ¶. Click on the the ¶ symbol on the menu bar.

and do command A to select all then place cursor to left of the last
paragraph symbol (there will be on beside the last period in last
sentence. Then there will be another one just below) hold down command
key while clicking cursor. This will on highlight that paragraph mark.
Then do copy and paste into a new document.

example:

the end.¶ <———— highlight this one, and entire line(s).

¶ <———— un-highlight this one.

do command C

in new document to command V

Save document.

Yes - I'm referring to the ¶ which follows the last literal character in the
document - IOW select all the text, beginning to end *without* including
that marker. The easiest way I know of is Shift+Cmd+A to Select All, then
scroll to the end of the document, hold down the Shift key while you click
between the last character (probably a . or some other punctuation mark) and
the ¶ that follows it.

The para marks in Word don't just denote the end of a paragraph. They are
also containers that carry information about the preceding para, and that
last one carries info about *every* preceding para, so any of the 'garbage'
is most likely stored in there. A new 'clean' one will be created when you
paste into the new doc - in fact, it's actually already there when the blank
doc is generated, it just gets moved to the end by the content inserted when
you paste.

This is a fundamental step in the attempt to cure corrupted Word docs.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[CyberTaz]

Sorry if I confused you here - <Shift+Cmd+A> - I was thinking of two
different techniques & absent-mindedly combined the two. What I meant to
suggest was *either*

Cmd+A
*or*
Shift+Cmd+End

Of course you can always go to the Edit Menu & choose Select All to avoid
the keystroke thing altogether

 

[Clive Huggan]

Irrespective of whether the paragraph marks are showing, I find the easiest
and most reliable way to select all text other than the last paragraph mark
is:

* Command-a to Select All.

* Hold down the Shift key and hit the Left Arrow key once, which reliably
de-selects the last paragraph mark.

I use this quite often, because I receive widely shared documents and I
never trust documents that come from other people's machines. More often, I
simply copy selected text on the other person's document and Paste Special
=> Unformatted Text (I have a macro that does that via a keyboard shortcut).
Then I apply my own styles, which again is very quick via keyboard
shortcuts.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

I knew you were smarter than the average Bear! I never though about
doing that. That will save some time.

Irrespective of whether the paragraph marks are showing, I find the easiest
and most reliable way to select all text other than the last paragraph mark
is:

* Command-a to Select All.

* Hold down the Shift key and hit the Left Arrow key once, which reliably
de-selects the last paragraph mark.

I use this quite often, because I receive widely shared documents and I
never trust documents that come from other people's machines. More often, I
simply copy selected text on the other person's document and Paste Special
=> Unformatted Text (I have a macro that does that via a keyboard shortcut).
Then I apply my own styles, which again is very quick via keyboard
shortcuts.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[Judy Chucker]

Hi, Bob -

For the record, I did copy all to make a new document. Thanks for the link
and the help!

Judy