Forum Discussion
Why does selecting the end of a cell select the entire cell?
Problem: Selecting the text at the end of a cell causes the entire cell to be selected.
I can go into details to recreate it or explain it, but I suspect it's already familiar to most of you. You're working in a table, trying to select text in a cell and you end up with the entire cell contents selected. Which is usually what nobody wants.
This has been the behavior in Word.... For decades.
Anybody know why this is and if there is a way to turn it off?
I can paste pictures/examples if the use case isn't clear.
This behavior has been around forever, and has been annoying users for years?
2 Replies
Strictly speaking, the entire cell becomes selected when you select (inadvertently or intentionally) the end-of-cell marker, which is represented by a ¤ symbol when you display nonprinting marks in Word.
Turning off the option "When selecting, automatically select entire word" at File > Options > Advanced may improve the situation. At least doing so makes it easier to select individual text characters.
- I will have to look into that. Wow.
