Deletes Characters While Typing

Question

Hello group.  I am using Microsoft Word 2003 with W7.  I know I'm one of the last holdouts.

Anyway, my problem is and I don't know the proper terminology to explain it but this is what happens in my 2003 MW.

Every once in a while i'll go back to read what I wrote and notice that I typed a word wrong.  I'll go back and deleted and re-rewrite the correct word.  While I'm writing the correct word it starts to delete each character after that new word.

In other words, imagine putting your flashing cursor in between any word just to add a character and when you do the new character it deletes the next character instead of pushing the next character and allowing the new character to be inserted. 

This only happens once in a while and it has been going on for many years. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!!

Answer 1

This sounds like Overtype mode. You should be able to turn it off by pressing the Insert key on your keyboard. The Insert key is probably how you inadvertently activated Overtype in the first place.

Answer 2

Thanks for the feedback. Recent versions of Word actually prevent you from making this mistake, because you have to instruct Word to let you use the Insert key for Overtype mode. I don't remember if Word 2003 lets you control the behavior of the Insert key. You can look for an option under Tools > Options > Edit or possible Tools > Options > General. (Hm, I really miss the good old Tools > Options dialog box in Word 2003. Well-organized, as opposed to the corresponding dialog box in ribbon versions of Word.)

Answer 3

This is a separate question entirely, but see https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/microsoft-365-word-and-excel-restores-windows-of/0db1a574-3ba6-4abd-9ab3-659bd7100edc.

Answer 4

Thank you for replying back!  I followed your instructions and in my edit tab the overwrite mode was unchecked but it doesn't work even when checked.  That's okay because now I know what to look for and if I mistakenly hit the insert button I will automatically know what to do in the future.  It's kind of burned in my mind now. 

You know, I have a friend of mine who always laughs when I tell him that I'm still using MW 2003.  My reply is always, it does everything I want so why change.  Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous post I'm also still using W7 and as everyone knows there are no more updates.  When Windows 7 finally fails I will not only have to update to what ever the latest OS will be but all the programs, new printer and everything else.  Hopefully I'll be Ruptured by then.  Thanks again for being there, you have been a big help Stefan!!!

Answer 5

Stefan, i'll bet I'm mistakenly hitting the insert key when pressing the delete or backspace buttons.

That explains why it only happens so often.  After all these years.  Thanks for being there!!!