intermittent—delete/backspace key not working

C

cayce

My coworkers and I have recently been encountering problems with some W97
files where the delete key doesn’t work. Sometimes, the backspace won't get
rid of what you are trying to remove either. This morning, I was trying to
delete an extra space between 2 words. Delete wouldn't work, but backspace
did.

I will now pay more close attention to exactly when this is encountered. As
I try to recall other instances have been trying to delete words or
characters within tables. My coworker had this occur and had to use Ctrl X to
remove a single letter in a table.

Since this is a new and growing phenomenon, I need help knowing where to
look. I'd appreciate any ideas.

thanks
 
J

Jay Freedman

My coworkers and I have recently been encountering problems with some W97
files where the delete key doesn’t work. Sometimes, the backspace won't get
rid of what you are trying to remove either. This morning, I was trying to
delete an extra space between 2 words. Delete wouldn't work, but backspace
did.

I will now pay more close attention to exactly when this is encountered. As
I try to recall other instances have been trying to delete words or
characters within tables. My coworker had this occur and had to use Ctrl X to
remove a single letter in a table.

Since this is a new and growing phenomenon, I need help knowing where to
look. I'd appreciate any ideas.

thanks
Click to expand...


When that happens, look in Tools > Options > Edit -- the first box,
"Typing replaces selection", should always be checked but might have
been cleared somehow. Check it again.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

Sometimes, what you're trying to delete is something that contains a field
code. When you encounter something that's hard to delete, press Alt+F9 to
toggle field codes to see if you're dealing with something other than
straightforward text. In Word 2003, you often need to press the Delete or
Backspace key twice to delete a field.The first press selects the field, and
the second zaps it. This was done deliberately because people were
accidentally deleting fields without realizing they weren't normal text.

It also helps if field code shading is enabled. This can alert you to the
fact that you're editing field results rather than regular text. Tools -
Options - View, Field Shading.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

To add to what Jay and Herb have said, there are two distinct issues:

Backspace: This is governed by the "Typing replaces selection" check box Jay
mentioned, since Word considers backspacing "typing."

Delete: If pressing Delete does not delete the selected text, look in the
status bar; you'll probably see "Delete Block? No (Yes)." If so, go to the
General tab of Tools | Options and clear the check boxes for both items that
refer to WordPerfect.
 
C

cayce

I have field shading set to always and there is no field in this case.
In Tools> Options > Edit active checked boxes I have are :

typing replaces selection
drag and drop text editing
when selecting, automatically select entire word
use smart cut & paste

I never see the "Delete Block? No (Yes) on the status bar. I do not recall
ever seeeing this. Does it exist in W 97?

I also checked Compatibility tab under options. Initially it was set to
Custom. I changed it to W97 and all boxes within are now unchecked. My
problem remains.

I am stumped.
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

Follow-through via email confirmed that this is the problem.

For me, this sort of thing really vindicates Microsoft's decision to
automatically display tracked changes in documents, regardless of whether
they were set NOT to display when last saved/closed... in recent versions of
Word. A client of mine has run into this problem numerous times. Alas, since
they switched to Word 2003, it hasn't happened anymore, which has cost me a
lot of lost "Fix this!" consulting. :-(

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com
 

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