Highlight and backspace doesn’t work – Microsoft Word

My roommate just had this problem with Microsoft Word 2003, and I found the fix using the Google search engine. Here’s what you do:

Tools -> Options -> Edit
Check “Typing Replaces Selection”

That’s all my roommate had to do. For the sake of completeness, the fix also says:

Tools -> Options -> General
Uncheck both options that have WordPerfect in them

Hope this helps someone.

197 Responses to “Highlight and backspace doesn’t work – Microsoft Word”

  1. Anon says:

    “Hope this helps someone” – you have no idea. Thank you.

  2. M says:

    Danke!

  3. Gareth says:

    Thanks, this has been hurting my brain for a few days, my fingers are just too used to the backspace key!

  4. David says:

    thanks for the easy fix!

  5. Sheryl says:

    Thank you so much for this tip. It was quite aggravating to deal with this problem. You Rock!

  6. Amanda says:

    Thank you so much, worked a treat.

  7. Brian says:

    Had this problem (started suddenly) and searched google and your answer came right up. Thought I’d let you know your post didn’t go to waste. Thanks.

  8. Ines says:

    That’s a lot! that was puzzling me all the time :P

  9. Debraj says:

    Thanks. I am another beneficiary of your thoughtful gesture to post this information.

  10. stephanie says:

    Thank you thank you thank you! I thought I might have to uninstall and reinstall word b/c it was driving me CRAZY and it just started all of a sudden. I also googled for ‘backspace’ and ‘highlight’ and ‘microsoft’ and ‘word’ and yours was the first hit. Thank you!

  11. […] Word Funny By Eddie yeah, I like how Word suddenly just changes its settings for you. But, if you are having problem with text on your PC, where typing does not replace highlighted text, and high;lighting then backspacing does’nt get rid of it earlier, then I have found the answer. […]

  12. garrett says:

    thanks a lot. This problem was super annoying and this fixed it.

  13. Kade says:

    Thanks a lot!

  14. Ed says:

    Good advice, helped a friend of mine unspeakably. :)

  15. Lyncea says:

    Wow, this problem was bugging me for the past two weeks, but thank you so much for showing the fix! i’m sure you’re helping so many Word users out there!

  16. Blair Rogers says:

    sweet jesus…thank you

  17. Kali says:

    THANK YOU SO MUCH

  18. Monica says:

    OMG! Thanks!!!! :)

  19. Mili says:

    Excellent, thanks for that! :)

  20. Kris says:

    Thank you! You made me look like a hero in my office because I used your advice and fixed this for my coworker. She’s so happy now. Grateful in Japan…Kris

  21. James says:

    Thanks a lot!

  22. cc says:

    THANX YOU! CHAMPION! :D

  23. Luis says:

    THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!

  24. Moe says:

    THANKS A MILLION!

  25. will says:

    cheers! This has happened to me a bunch of times, dunno how it gets turned on!

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