Word 2007 Delete key intermittent failure to delete

I am using Word 2007. Intermittently the delete key doesn't delete but
merely moves the cursor along one character to the right.

At the moment I get round this by copying the whole text of the document
I am working on and pasting it into a new document and work on the new
document.

But can this problem be fixed so that I do not have to do this?

--
Stephen White (whitesr@srgw.demon.co.uk)

On Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:22:11 +0100, Stephen White
<whitesr DeleteThis @srgw.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>
>I am using Word 2007. Intermittently the delete key doesn't delete but
>merely moves the cursor along one character to the right.
>
>At the moment I get round this by copying the whole text of the document
>I am working on and pasting it into a new document and work on the new
>document.
>
>But can this problem be fixed so that I do not have to do this?

I suspect that you're turning on Track Changes without realizing it
(probably hitting Ctrl+Shift+E by mistake), and that the Track Changes
option for deleted text is set to "(none)" so the change just looks
like ordinary text.

To verify the suspicion, right-click the status bar at the bottom of
the Word window and check the option to display Track Changes on the
status bar. The next time the Delete key doesn't delete, look at the
status indicator.

Also, go to the Reviewing tab of the ribbon, click the down arrow in
the Track Changes button, and click Change Tracking Options. Set the
markup for deletions to Strikethrough, maybe with a red color. That
will make it obvious that Track Changes has hijacked your Delete key.

When changes are inadvertently tracked, you have to turn it off AND
click the Accept button's down arrow and choose Accept All Changes in
Document. Don't leave the changes sitting in the document.

See
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html
for more on this.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
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