highlight and delete text word 2002

[lvee]

I have windows xp, a Dell bundled with Word 2002, and cannot figure out how
to delete text in a document by merely highlighting and pressing the delete
button.
I don't use, nor understand most of the tools & customizations in Word, but
it seems to me that highlighting and deleting should be a very basic
function. I searched Google, and everything that I found indicated that all
I need to do is highlight and delete, but it doesn't work that way.
So, any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

What happens when you try?

In Tools | Options, Edit, ensure "typing replaces selection" is checked.

 

[lvee]

Hi, Daiyana, thanks for responding.
'typing replaces selection' is selected, and when I try to delete text, the
text becomes underlined in a green, squiggly line, but nothing is deleted.

 

[lvee]

Okay, I just tried using the 'Del' key, rather than the 'delete' key, which
by the way is something that I tried several times without success, but this
time it worked. What is the difference between the two keys?

 

[lvee]

sorry to keep adding to the post, but I noticed when I do use the del key,
which also acts as a period when text is not highlighted, is does delete all
text, except it leaves a period (.) at what would be the start of the
sentence.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

The key you are referring to is a part of the numeric keypad and you have
NumLock turned on. So, it is a decimal point (period). Likewise, the Home
key on that keypad is a 7. So it is typing a period and replacing your
selected text with the period.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

On the General tab of Tools | Options, clear the check boxes for both items
that refer to WordPerfect.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That's because you're actually replacing the text with a period ("Typing
replaces selection"). To deal with this (different) problem, on the General
tab of Tools | Options, clear the check boxes for both items that refer to
WordPerfect. These are two separate issues, and both Daiya and Charles
jumped on the wrong solution (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/UnableToDeleteText.htm).

 

[lvee]

Thank you all for getting a solution, and sorry I didn't post back until
now, had to work 2 jobs today. I figured out the solution but didn't have
time to fill you in. I asked a customer about the num lock thing, and he
told me exactly what Suzanne suggested, and as far as the Word Perfect
thing, well, I found that by accident, but was not sure until reading your
post that I had indeed found the cause. I was checking all the options,
stumbled on the Word Perfect setting and since I don't have Word Perfect, I
deselected it. I made a few other changes, opened Word, and was able to
highlight and delete text, but I wasn't sure which change I made was the one
I was looking for.
SO, thanks again, I appreciate your help.

 

[lvee]

Thanks for your help, and particularly the links you posted, much
appreciated.