W97 – “Runaway” scrolling if selecting with mouse (Word 97)

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Has anyone else encountered runaway scrolling when selecting text with the mouse — the cursor zips ahead (or back) several screens? Does anyone know of a way to limit the speed of text selection, or should one just use SHIFT and the cursor arrows to select, and forget using the mouse?

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Welcome to the Club of the Runaway Screens! – I think a lot of the problem lies with the faster processors of today – I have O97 on an older WIN95 box (66Mh) and the problem is not as apparent – I can usually stop it where I want – but on my machine at work (NT4 and O97- 350Mh) I’m lucky to stop it within 4 pages of where I wanted to be. Then again maybe I’m just getting too old for this stuff . Safest way is to use the shifted arrow keys.

The difference between Genius and Stupidity:
A Genius knows their limits.
- Albert Einstein

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I agree, use shifted arrow keys on the keyboard. However if you want to use the mouse, click where you want the selection to start, use the scroll bar (important you do NOT click into the document) to show where you want the selection to finish, then hold down the shift button while you click where you want it to finish. Selection selected.

HTH

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Hi Rod:

In addition to what’s been mentioned, you can also use:
1) Shift + Page Up or Down for long distances, or
2) F8 (which is extend mode) & then you can use arrows, page up or down, & mouse clicking anywhere in the document.

Hope this helps.

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Actually, you can use Shift and ANY ‘move’ combination to select around the document, not just Shift and PgUp or PgDn – eg:

Shift and Ctrl-left arrow/right arrow to select a word at a time
Shift and Ctrl-up arrow/down arrow to select a paragraph at a time
Shift and Ctrl-Home/End to select from the current point to the beginning or end of the doc, etc

I use the last a lot because if you use Ctrl-A to select the entire document in W97 the ruler bars vanish, but if you go to top or bottom and use Shift-Ctrl-Home or End they remain and you can set tabs/margins for the entire document. Don’t ask me why it works this way, but it does!

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Hi Beryl:

Interesting observation about Ctrl+A vs. selecting the document from top to bottom or bottom to top. So far as I can tell, it works the same in Word 2000.

However, it doesn’t seem to be consistent. That is, Ctrl+A doesn’t always get rid of horizontal & vertical rulers. From what I can tell, it doesn’t do it in a short document.

Also, depending upon where the cursor is when you press Ctrl+A affects whether the rulers disappear. If the cursor is near the beginning of the document, Ctrl+A hides the rulers. Somewhere near the middle, the behavior changes. However, it’s not just dependant upon the position of the cursor in the document. It also depends upon whether the cursor is near the top or bottom of the screen. I can get different results when I leave the cursor in the same position, but scroll up or down before pressing Ctrl+A.

See what you’ve started

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Hi Beryl,

<>

This is because your cursor is has moved to the end of the document. If you use this method and scroll to the end of the document using the scroll bar, you’ll find the rulers are present on the active page where your cursor is placed.

So if you use the in conjunction with another keyboard command, you are both navigating and selecting text and you end up on the active page.
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Cheers!

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Thanks, Bam, but that was the point – Ctrl-A is one key press, if that doesn’t work, next best is two key presses, Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-Shift-End (or vice versa) – using the scroll bar takes a heck of a lot longer, especially in larger documents.

Having said that, why should there be no ruler bars on any page? If you scroll off of the active page otherwise the ruler bars don’t vanish – they might show the ones that are valid for the page the cursor is actually on, but they still show.

I’m afraid I still see it as a bug!

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Hi Beryl,

My response was in regards to your statement: “Don’t ask me why it works this way, but it does!”

I was merely explaining “why” you see the ruler using one command vs. the other.

Personally, I use Styles for formatting and make my editing changes, such as moving text, in Outline View so I seldom do select large blocks text.
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Cheers!

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Hi RodKeith,

When Office was first developed, they tied the scrolling speed to the processor. So as others have pointed out, the faster the processor, the sooner you reach the end of your document using the click-hold and drag method.

You’ll be glad to know that Word 2002 has changed this behavior.

Here are some alternatives that you can use:

One method that is little known or little used that can be pretty powerful is the Extend Selection mode.

You can turn on Extend Selection by either double-clicking “EXT” in the status bar or pressing . This is similar to holding the key and you select text by either clicking, or by using the navigation commands. However, what makes the Extend Selection mode different than is it will extend the selection to the next character you press on the keyboard. For example, to select by paragraph, press the .

To go out of the Extend Selection mode, press or double-click “EXT” in the status bar.

This is handy if you have a wheel mouse, double-click “EXT”, wheel to the end, click to anchor, double-click “EXT” to turn it off.

You can also press multiple time to extend a text selection:
Once: Turn on
Two: Word
Three: Sentence
Four: Paragraph
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Cheers!
Five: Document

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Actually there is an easier wheel mouse shortcut (at least in Word 2000). Put the mouse cursor where you want to start the selection. Click and hold the left mouse button, and while holding the button down, turn the wheel. This is a very quick way to adjust the speed of your selection while being able to slow down when you want to read the text. You can even reverse the selection.

I don’t know if it works with other versions of Word, but hey…try it.

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Probably does – but they don’t run to wheelmice at work …

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