Word 2003--select vertical bar of text without opening Research Pa

[BigBen]

Whenever I try to select a vertical bar of text in Word 2003 by holding down
the Alt key and dragging the mouse over the range to be selected--which is
how to do it, according to the online Help--the Research Task Pane opens as
soon as I let go of the mouse key.

How do I get the Alt-drag to register instead of an Alt-click?

 

[CyberTaz]

Ridiculous, isn't it? Another "improvement" that disables previous
functionality - the price we pay for "progress" You may still have luck
with the technique if you hold ALT for a second before mousing & make sure
to drag for at least one line vertically & *at least* 2 characters
horizontally before releasing the mouse button.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[BigBen]

Thanks. I tried your suggestions and unfortunately, all that waiting before
mousing does is to make the Research pane load instantaneously. (Whereas if
I click on Alt and move the mouse immediately, the Research pane still
manages to load long before I finish moving the mouse.)

What I find irksome about this whole issue is twofold: (a) Microsoft never
bothered to fix the help file (did the programmers even bother to re-read
it?), and (b) the Research feature could have been programmed to be activated
with Alt right-click or double click, but there is no way to make a vertical
selection without dragging the mouse.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I make vertical selections all the time using Alt+Drag. The research pane
never opens. The trick is to be sure that once you press the mouse button
you don't let up on it (which will register as a click), since Alt+click is
what opens the Research pane.