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. Brassy says:

    Like a charm…..cheers

  2. Devil Reeves says:

    Omg! Thanks so much ^_^ It’s been bugging me for months!

  3. Cerena says:

    I used to have to hold backspace down for a while to delete a paragraph. This was so helpful!

  4. Emily says:

    I have been fighting with this for weeks now. One day it worked and the next day it didn’t. Thanks so much!!!

  5. Hala says:

    thank you! I’ve been wanting to fix this forever and finally decided to search it…much appreciated :)

  6. MDB says:

    I don’t know how this setting got changed in my computer, but it was so annoying! Thanks for the easy fix!

  7. Shae says:

    THANK YOU. I know this message will be left way past the date it was posted, but you’ve just cured my two-year stint without a highlight and backspace option. Thanks very much!

  8. jf says:

    Thank you!!!

  9. Roberta says:

    Thanks!!! It helps me a lot!!!!

  10. Coolman123 says:

    I LOVE YOU TIS HAS BEEN BUGGING ME FOR AGES!!

  11. Joe says:

    Man, I love you for this, haha.

  12. Linnea says:

    This has been driving me nuts all week! I don’t know how the setting got changed in the first place.

    Thanks for the solution!! Saved my sanity.

  13. Diane says:

    I agree with Linnea. I was about ready to throw the pc out the window. How it the setting suddenly changed on its own is a mystery to me, but I’m so glad to find the fix.

    Thank you!

  14. Christina says:

    You are a lifesaver!!

  15. Thank you says:

    Thank you= 8 letters and I thank you 8 times in a row non stop.

  16. Stumped says:

    Thanks a lot for this tip. Mine spontaneously stopped working at work but was working at home and I was about to go batty!

  17. dave says:

    thanks it helped me!

  18. nuttycow says:

    Thank you thank you. Was driving me nuts :)

  19. James says:

    Awesome…I use Word all the time at work, and the last couple days had been pretty irritating until I found your article. Cheers!

  20. gezel says:

    Thank you so much for posting this. I was getting ready to uninstall word all together. WHAT A TIME SAVER!!!!!

  21. M says:

    Perfect!! thanks for the tip!

  22. D says:

    Thank god for that!!!
    Cheers

  23. P says:

    THANK YOU!

  24. Tyler says:

    THANKYOU SOO MUCH I WAS GETTING SO ANNOYED WITH THAT!!!!

  25. USF student says:

    THANK YOU THAT WORKED LIKE A CHAMP! it was so annoying before but now life is good.

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