Please consider adding the optional feature to intelligently select text word by word. When highlighting one word, only select the characters. When you select more than one word, select entire words at a time. When selecting left to right, and the mouse is moved backwards, revert to selecting one character at a time. If the cursor is moved right again over multiple words, continue with the select by word behavior. This feature would only apply to Writer and Impress. The option to disable it could be placed under Tools -> Options -> Writer AND Impress -> General -> Editing The option could be called "When selecting text, automatically select entire word" The feature would be especially useful for those of us on laptop with imprecise input devices like touchpads or pointing sticks. You can see an example of how this could be implemented by using MS Word or Powerpoint.
Looks a nice feature to have :). Therefore I mark it as such (enhancement request) and NEW. Kind regards, Joren
Added Samuel as he's been active in this area.
Doesn't this already work? When I select a whole word by double-clicking on it, then move the mouse, the whole next word is selected.
The same works with paragraphs btw.
Right now, the select-by-word mode has to be enabled by double-clicking on a word and then dragging. The user has to remember to start with a double click. Instead, I am suggesting to have a more intelligent select that starts with a single-click and drag. Once you have highlighted more than one word, it will automatically switch into select-by-word mode. To disable this mode, you move the move backwards to return to the select-by-character mode. This is how most modern word processors behave. Do you have access to Word Perfect or MS Word? If not, I can record a video on youtube.
Ok, I have now checked Word and seen how this works.
Still not available in Version: 5.2.0.0.alpha1+ Build ID: 4266caadbbe67fa23de0df3b84f4d923cfd57201
Adding needsUXEval keyword. Such autoselection of an entire word would be really useful. Sometimes I miss this when editing words or terms multiple times. But I also like the current behavior of LibreOffice because sometimes you don't want to select a full word. For me, it would be sufficient to have an accelerator key (maybe shift or ctrl) to shift to the other selection mode temporarily. So we have to discuss 3 issues: 1. What should be the default behavior: Selection by character or word? 2. Where should this setting be changable? 3. How can it be made possible to switch temporarily to the other mode?
Additional note: It's already possible to select word by word with keyboard by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + ARROW KEY. So, this enhancement request would harmonize (1) a mouse + keyboard selection and (2) a keyboard only selection.
And the fourth issue: 4. Behavior of selecting a single or some character(s) or word(s) and what if user changes selection back. This is mentioned by the bug opener in comment 0. MSO Word behaves also differently: Starting text selection by mouse within an arbitrary position in a word only selects the selected characters. If the user selects also the first character of the following word then the selection of the first word expands to the entire first word and all following words will be selected in its entire length. (Switch from character to word selection.) If the user is going back to the first word with its selection then the selection mode switches back from entire word to characters. (Switch from word to character selection.)
I don't see need to change much. You select word-wise per shift+ctrl+cursor - on all applications. Actually it sounds dangerous to me if this behavior varies and I wonder if unselecting parts of the automatically added words is possible. My take is WF. Any other opinion?
Dear Luke, This bug has been in NEEDINFO status with no change for at least 6 months. Please provide the requested information as soon as possible and mark the bug as UNCONFIRMED. Due to regular bug tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDINFO status with no change in 30 days the QA team will close the bug as INSUFFICIENTDATA due to lack of needed information. For more information about our NEEDINFO policy please read the wiki located here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/Bugzilla/Fields/Status/NEEDINFO If you have already provided the requested information, please mark the bug as UNCONFIRMED so that the QA team knows that the bug is ready to be confirmed. Thank you for helping us make LibreOffice even better for everyone! Warm Regards, QA Team MassPing-NeedInfo-Ping
Why would it be "dangerous"? This is exactly how Word and PowerPoint behave my default. In my description, I said, "this feature would be especially useful for those of us on laptop with imprecise input devices like touchpads or pointing sticks." Actually compare Writer with Word and you will see why this would be such a useful feature. I do not miss this feature when using a mouse. That's why I said it should be an optional feature, just like it is in MSO.
IMO comment 3 describes perfectly working solution. I would hate to have that "smart" processing, where in order to select from precisely half of this word till half of another would need me to make magic passes to stop the "smart" selection. Double-click does *not* take time when selecting; cancelling smart selection in other software takes me time. WF imo.
This topic was on the agenda of the design meeting. To answer Thomas' questions: + What should be the default behavior? + start with character, revert per character + Where should this setting be changeable? + no option here (at least not in the UI) (Heiko) + option at Tools > Options > Writer & Impress -> General -> Editing (Luke) + How can it be made possible to switch temporarily to the other mode? + all or nothing The point here is probably not primarily the keyboard (works well with shift+ctrl) but selection per cursor (mouse, touchpad etc.). It's known on Windows but would be rather disturbing on Linux.
Hello! Do you know if there has been any change regarding this feature request? Most programs on Windows 11 (MS Office, MS Edge...) select word by word when you add to the text selection, even when you press in the middle of the word. Here is a video example (pressing the shift key to add to the selection): https://youtu.be/C_2Oz25Rohs It's pretty hard to unlearn years of text selecting, so a toggle would be very appreciated and would help with the onboarding of Windows users.
I agree with the initial suggestion, but IMHO multi-word selection seems meaningful only when single-word one previously works as expected. I usually use the double-click expecting a whole word selection each time, though I understand there may be slightly different word boundaries depending on language. In my french case, "déjà-vu" is a word from d to u, and the double click on j takes only "déjà". And when we use ', we consider it as a separator for two words, yet a double click on "l'action" selects from l to n, as a click on english "it's" takes from i to s, while I would expect only "action" or "it" to be selected. NOTE: Autocorrection also relies on this, and I have a hard time with some particular cases, but I don't know if it's related to Windows own word slicing system or LibreOffice's one. Best regards. Faeldihn Finishing his first ever book written with LO.
(In reply to Timothee from comment #16) > Hello! Do you know if there has been any change regarding this feature > request? > > Most programs on Windows 11 (MS Office, MS Edge...) select word by word when > you add to the text selection, even when you press in the middle of the > word. Here is a video example (pressing the shift key to add to the > selection): > https://youtu.be/C_2Oz25Rohs > > It's pretty hard to unlearn years of text selecting, so a toggle would be > very appreciated and would help with the onboarding of Windows users. > It's known on Windows but would be rather disturbing on Linux. There's your answer. Don't expect anything more from LibreOffice people. When it comes to Windows, they won't do anything unless it's a. very easy to do and, b. does not conflict with "how Linux works" – which is the way they think is "how it **should** be". LibreOffice is not a Windows program. It's a Linux program that happens to also work on Windows.