auto format (XP, SR 3)

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I often want to type a word in italics, followed by a comma in roman text. I type the word in italics, then press ctrl-I to go into Roman for the comma, to find only that the whole word then goes roman. This is something in Autoformat trying to be helpful and ending up being a pain–but I can’t find it. Can anyone help?

best

Philip

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I cannot reproduce the behavior you describe in uncustomized (out-of-the-box) versions of Word 2002 or Word 2003. If I press Ctrl+I, type a word, then press Ctrl+I again, the word remains Italic, and text I type subsequently will be in Roman. Unless someone else has a bright suggestion, try Phil Rabichow’s Systematic Approach to Behavioral Problems in Word (97/2000) to see if you can pinpoint the cause.

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thanks very much. Looking at the problem again–it does it only when I am editing. I insert a new word by placing the cursor at the beginning of the subsquent word. While I am typing the word, then, I have the new word in italics and the following word in Roman. When I shift to roman for the comma, the whole goes into roman. One solution would be to learn to start with the cursor at the end of the previous word instead–but that will mean unlearning the typing habits of a lifetime!

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Hmm, it doesn’t work that way for me, even when I do exactly what you describe. Perhaps someone else can comment.

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It does behave as described for me (Word 2003 SP2). If the cursor is at the beginning of a word and I type Control-i followed by a word and then type Control-i again whilst the cursor is in the middle of this joined pair of words then the italic for the first word is turned off.

StuartR

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I get that behavior, too, if “when selecting, automatically select entire word” is selected (in Tools > Options > Edit tab). I nearly always work with that feature cleared (unchecked), because an an editor, I’m always wanting to get at the beginnings and ends of words.

Pam C

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That’s it – I thought I was working with an unmodified version of Word, but I had forgotten that I the first thing I always do in Word is to turn off “When selecting, automatically select entire word”. I wouldn’t have guessed that this setting controls the behavior described by Roger, but it does! Thanks!

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Thanks very much everyone–I had it in the back of my mind that it was a pesky thing like that, but I couldn’t quite remember what …

Philip

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