Undo only by single character in Word 2007?

[RonaldWK]

In Word 2007 under Windows 7, I am noticing for the first time a strange
behavior. I know in Word 2002 and OSs up through Vista, undo worked on whole
words. Now I find in certain files, that undo works only character by
character, not whole words. The drop down list for undo shows, for example
typing "e."

I notice that in opening a new file, undo works as expected. Ditto for
other existing files. The current file for which this behavior occurs was
sent to me by a prospective author. The main document at issue is a DOCX
file, presumably originated in Word 2007 (or 2010)?

I have found others online who experienced this behavior, but no solution.
One suggestion said to Open and Repair the file, but this had no effect.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Ron

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

If OverType is turned on, you will get character-by-character lists in the
Undo list. But, that's a function of your own settings, and is not
file-specific. Is it possible that that's what's happening, but you simply
didn't notice?

To my knowledge, insert/overtype mode is not remembered on a per document
basis, though. So, this doesn't seem likely to be the cause in this instance
(and you probably would have noticed).

 

[CD in FL]

This was happening to me in Outlook 2007 and it was making me crazy! In creating a new e-mail or replying to an e-mail, I couldn't go forward or backwards except one character at a time and I couldn't use my mouse to place the curser in another location, I couldn't cut and paste, or highlight and delete... (Ever want to scream at work? LOL! I was getting to that point because it was costing me so much time.)

Today I happened to right click in the body of an e-mail and at the bottom of the menu I saw "Styles" so I clicked it to see what it was. The top option was "Update Normal to Match Selection." I clicked it to see what it would do. Suddenly, my Outlook is working like it's supposed to again and I can do my work without the desire to scream... most of the time. (Now if I get that desire it's from something or someONE else. jk I hope this helps you as much as it did me. I don't know if it'll work in Word, but it's worth a try since many of the Office functions are universal.

CD in FL

 

[Stefan Blom]

As reported earlier, the culprit may be Overtype mode.

However, more recently, in Word 2007 (or possibly Word 2010), it has been noticed that removing page numbers in a document(!), may fix the issue. It is clearly a bug.

Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP



"CD in FL" wrote in message
This was happening to me in Outlook 2007 and it was making me crazy! In creating a new e-mail or replying to an e-mail, I couldn't go forward or backwards except one character at a time and I couldn't use my mouse to place the curser in another location, I couldn't cut and paste, or highlight and delete... (Ever want to scream at work? LOL! I was getting to that point because it was costing me so much time.)

Today I happened to right click in the body of an e-mail and at the bottom of the menu I saw "Styles" so I clicked it to see what it was. The top option was "Update Normal to Match Selection." I clicked it to see what it would do. Suddenly, my Outlook is working like it's supposed to again and I can do my work without the desire to scream... most of the time. (Now if I get that desire it's from something or someONE else. jk I hope this helps you as much as it did me. I don't know if it'll work in Word, but it's worth a try since many of the Office functions are universal.

CD in FL

 

[Luke Higgins]

I had the same problem with the undo function in Microsoft Word 2007 - only in certain documents, and not in others. I finally figured out what was causing it: Whenever I insert a header/footer into the document, all of a sudden, the undo function starts only deleting one character at a time. All you have to do to solve the problem is to delete the header/footer, or paste only the text (not the header/footer) into a new document. As soon as you do that, the undo function starts deleting whole words or sentences at a time, as it's supposed to. After you're finished editing the document, then you can insert any header/footer back into the document - you just have to save that for the final step.

Perhaps an imperfect solution, but, as far as I'm aware, the only way around this strange bug in Word 2007.

In Word 2007 under Windows 7, I am noticing for the first time a strange
behavior. I know in Word 2002 and OSs up through Vista, undo worked on whole
words. Now I find in certain files, that undo works only character by
character, not whole words. The drop down list for undo shows, for example
typing "e."

I notice that in opening a new file, undo works as expected. Ditto for
other existing files. The current file for which this behavior occurs was
sent to me by a prospective author. The main document at issue is a DOCX
file, presumably originated in Word 2007 (or 2010)?

I have found others online who experienced this behavior, but no solution.
One suggestion said to Open and Repair the file, but this had no effect.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Ron

On Tuesday, April 13, 2010 3:54 PM Herb Tyson [MVP] wrote:
If OverType is turned on, you will get character-by-character lists in the
Undo list. But, that is a function of your own settings, and is not
file-specific. Is it possible that that is what is happening, but you simply
did not notice?

To my knowledge, insert/overtype mode is not remembered on a per document
basis, though. So, this does not seem likely to be the cause in this instance
(and you probably would have noticed).

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