Highlight and backspace doesn’t work – Microsoft Word

2/25/2007 by Elliot Lee | Filed in Geek Stuff, USC | 197 comments

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”

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  1. Ayal says:
    5/30/2008 at 1:17 am

    thank you very much..

    Reply
  2. Hannah says:
    6/2/2008 at 10:18 am

    Thank you so much! have been struggling with this problem fr a long time !!

    Reply
  3. Jason says:
    6/3/2008 at 8:35 am

    Thank you! I’m not sure how this got changed on my computer, but you just fixed a lot of frustration!

    Reply
  4. cave drane says:
    6/6/2008 at 6:18 am

    THANKS!!!!!!

    Reply
  5. Brij says:
    6/10/2008 at 6:43 am

    Thanks A Ton!!!!!

    Reply
  6. Hism Hism says:
    6/11/2008 at 12:26 pm

    Thanks….this info helped alot.

    Reply
  7. Drew says:
    6/15/2008 at 8:05 pm

    Thanks a lot, i was getting really annoyed about this, then i typed this into google and found your page, It worked

    Reply
  8. matt g says:
    6/23/2008 at 12:35 pm

    thanks i thought it would forever be like that, now it works fine. this setting affects all programs i guess, including outlook.

    Reply
  9. Dwag says:
    7/5/2008 at 3:44 pm

    This is why I love the internet, thank you.

    Reply
  10. princess says:
    7/8/2008 at 6:28 pm

    i love you. seriously.
    :)

    Reply
  11. RW says:
    7/9/2008 at 8:57 pm

    THANKS!!!

    Reply
  12. Matthew says:
    7/15/2008 at 5:34 am

    Thanks man, id been going mental for months.

    Reply
  13. CM says:
    7/31/2008 at 12:13 pm

    thanks so much for posting this. it was absolutely driving me up the wall.

    Reply
  14. asfgb2ehgbe says:
    7/31/2008 at 12:47 pm

    Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. This was so so frustrating for months. i’m delighted i’ve finally found a solution

    Reply
  15. Veronica says:
    8/1/2008 at 11:39 am

    Thanks so much! I’d been really irritated by this, I mean, when _would_ you want that set up that way?!

    Thought you might be happy to know this is the first hit for the google search “highlight backspace doesn’t work”!

    Reply
  16. mary says:
    8/3/2008 at 6:42 pm

    Oh god thankyou this was driving me freaking crazy !

    Reply
  17. Ben says:
    8/3/2008 at 10:02 pm

    THAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOUUUU!

    Reply
  18. fiona says:
    8/4/2008 at 12:30 am

    THANK YOU SO MUCH
    ahhh champion

    Reply
  19. Abs says:
    8/10/2008 at 4:20 am

    FINALLY! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  20. XarkAngl917X says:
    8/18/2008 at 3:49 pm

    Thank you so much! If only I could’ve understood why it was like that in the first place….. =/

    Reply
  21. Elizabeth says:
    9/2/2008 at 1:53 pm

    You helped me – thanks so much

    Reply
  22. odoc says:
    9/9/2008 at 9:18 pm

    thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. Holy crap that was annoying. Thanks again man. ^^

    Reply
  23. odoc says:
    9/9/2008 at 9:32 pm

    omg, this was driving me nuts. I can’t say how grateful i am (one post wasn’t enough for me) You sir are my hero. If u ever run for president, expect my vote. Thanks again:)

    Reply
  24. katie says:
    9/12/2008 at 12:30 pm

    ahhhh…THANK YOU!!!

    Reply
  25. ariane says:
    9/13/2008 at 11:49 am

    thank you so much this really helps :D

    Reply
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