MS Word

[Krispy]

When I place the insertion point in the middle of a paragraph everything I type types over what I have. WTF is wrong with my settings and how can I stop this?

[Maes]

Hmmmm....isn't that pretty much the purpose of the "insertion" point?

[Krispy]

No, maybe I need to be a little more clear. Rather than adding more text in my paragraph, it writes over what I have, thereby destroying my work and pissing me off.

[Krispy]

Nevermind, just closed it and reopened it and it was fixed. Just a shitty software issue.

[Maes]

But the "insert mode" in all editors I know actually overwrites text, rather than "inserting" new text and shifting the old one forward. Probably a big misnomer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_key

Perhaps they should call it "overwrite" mode to make it clear what it does.

The "non-insertion" mode (which is also the default in most cases) actually inserts text without overwriting.

In any case, this is usually toggled on/off with the "Insert" key, and if you're lucky, there will be two different cursors or some indicator somewhere showing that you're in "insertion" mode.

[Krispy]

You're right, I probably hit the insert key.

[Csonicgo]

Maes said:

Perhaps they should call it "overwrite" mode to make it clear what it does.

Word 97 SR-2 Does this, it's listed as OVR mode in the status bar.

[printz]

Double click the OVR box in the status bar, if the Insert key doesn't work.

[Aliotroph?]

Note that this works in just about every text editor you're likely to encounter now. I find it a strange feature. It's only useful if the new text is the same length as the text you're removing. Even then you need to think about that when you do it.

[printz]

The "enter" character is not overtyped, and the feature is more useful, as usual, to programmers.

[40oz]

Aliotroph? said:

Note that this works in just about every text editor you're likely to encounter now. I find it a strange feature. It's only useful if the new text is the same length as the text you're removing. Even then you need to think about that when you do it.

Or longer, assuming the sentence you're overwriting was the last one in your paragraph.

[Aliotroph?]

printz said:

The "enter" character is not overtyped, and the feature is more useful, as usual, to programmers.

There was me being stupid. I've used it while programming. I suppose it never occurred to me a useful programming feature would make it into consumer software.

[Maes]

Aliotroph? said:

I suppose it never occurred to me a useful programming feature would make it into consumer software.

That's the entire problem with the computer industry: once you remove "consumer friendliness" out of the equation for anything that is NOT a videogame designed to be played with a stick and two buttons, then maybe software and computers can go back to doing what they were meant to: number crunching, engineering calculations etc. and being "computer literate" will mean, once again, being a white-coat scientist and bring some dignity and decent incomes back into this field. Until then, enjoy your latest "PRESS THID BUTTN TO FART AND THEN TWEET IT L0L" "app" made by 13yo kids.

[printz]

Speak for yourself. I prefer a good GUI first and foremost, and the applications to be usable by everyone, with as smooth a learning curve as possible. I understand that programming such is time consuming, while all this has to be under the condition that the application allows experts to tinker with and mod it as well.

[Maes]

printz said:

while all this has to be under the condition that the application allows experts to tinker with and mod it as well.

Sure, with the source code available, otherwise tough cookie puss.

[printz]

Maes said:

Sure, with the source code available, otherwise tough cookie puss.

I didn't mean open-source software. I meant applications that are intuitive for beginners and moddable enough for experts. By that I mean having a customizable GUI, a console, being scriptable, supporting plug-ins etc.

[Maes]

printz said:

By that I mean having a customizable GUI, a console, being scriptable, supporting plug-ins etc.

Of course. But even that is often a PITA to code in, especially if you're rushed or certain that you'll be coding a one-time affair in which case moddability would be pointless, and it would be quicker to just hack things in.

There's a certain very delicate balance between moddability that actually helps development (and it often simply falls within the less glamorous realm of "parametrization"), and extreme moddability to the point of having the majority of the logic residing in multiple several layers of meta-language (external scripting).

[Gez]

printz said:

Speak for yourself. I prefer a good GUI first and foremost, and the applications to be usable by everyone, with as smooth a learning curve as possible. I understand that programming such is time consuming, while all this has to be under the condition that the application allows experts to tinker with and mod it as well.

The problem with the learning curve is that no matter how smooth you make it, the starting point will be too low. It's as the saying goes: "
If you make something idiotproof, someone'll build a better idiot".

So you have a program that can do three things, with a command line interface and three commands. Idiots will not remember the commands, or misspell them, etc. So you replace it with a GUI with three icons, and people will not know how to click.

[Maes]

Gez said:

people will not know how to click.

Soon enough, they will just keep smudging the screen with their horrible sausage-fingers and wonder why it "doesn't work", ignoring the purpose of that rounded piece of plastic near their computer. In a generation from now, they won't know how to use their hands, and thus any interface not responding to verbal commands and able to understand the worst hillbilly accent with superhuman accuracy will die out.

[Use]

Maes said:

In a generation from now, they won't know how to use their hands, and thus any interface not responding to verbal commands and able to understand the worst hillbilly accent with superhuman accuracy will die out.

You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!

[Quasar]

Maes said:

...thus any interface not responding to verbal commands and able to understand the worst hillbilly accent with superhuman accuracy will die out.

Thus driving the evolution of AI :P

[printz]

Maes said:

Soon enough, they will just keep smudging the screen with their horrible sausage-fingers and wonder why it "doesn't work", ignoring the purpose of that rounded piece of plastic near their computer. In a generation from now, they won't know how to use their hands, and thus any interface not responding to verbal commands and able to understand the worst hillbilly accent with superhuman accuracy will die out.

I like that trend. And it will teach people to get rid of their regional accents :P

[Maes]

printz said:

I like that trend. And it will teach people to get rid of their regional accents :P

Not even a century of audio recording, radio and TV were able to do that, plus companies would bend over backwards and throw billions of dollars in trying to make voice interfaces "consumer friendly", rather than going with a "let's re-educate the consumer himself" attitude. Might have worked in the 50s-60s, today if something doesn't "just work" with minimal training and it's NOT aimed at the pro market, it's considered market suicide.

No wonder the only practical voice interfaces are those used in mil-spec environments, and then only with a particular tone of voice and restricted vocabulary. A military man can be trained to use it. Some "the customer is always right" bozo, never.

Quasar said:

Thus driving the evolution of AI :P

....hopefully to the point where it realizes that it's too smart to be wasted on futile things like trying to understand the horrible cow, horse & pig rapist accent of Random P. Ass in order for him to buy some Zynga points or perform something equally trivial and useless, and rebels.

[NiTROACTiVE]

I remember having this problem too. When I would work on an assignment like an essay for my English class, I would press certain keys and it would activate overtype mode. I Fixed this too by closing and reloading MS Word. This problem is annoying but it rarely happens to me.

[printz]

NitroactiveStudios said:

I remember having this problem too. When I would work on an assignment like an essay for my English class, I would press certain keys and it would activate overtype mode.

You could go to Customize to change the shortcut key. I wonder if 2007 and up allow configuring keys.