I frequently need to copy or edit the text in one cell of a Word table.  If you are very careful with the mouse, you can indeed scoop just the text.  But go one micron too far and Word highlights the whole cell - or worse, several cells -  asking if you want to delete the cell.

 

Is there any way of turning this behaviour off?  It makes table editing time-consuming and frustrating  (and turns the air here blue). Thank you!

 

Somethign that helps (which you may like or dislike) is to allow Word to show "hidden characters" (this is my default setting, but I am old and used to it).

This way you know when to stop selecting.

 

But the real "trick" is to use the keyboard.

 

You start selecting from the end (just before the little circle like character) backwards, actually if you single click on a cell the cursor should get right there.

And then you press Shift+Home and select just the text in the cell.

On the other hand if you get to the cell using the cursor up/down/left/right you may get to the beginning of the text in the cell, in which case you press Shift+End (and you select the whole cell) then press the Shift+left cursor to select just the text.

 

jaclaz

 

Thank you, Jaclaz. I will give your workaround a try!

 

What I really want, though, is a Word option that ensures that the cursor selects only text, not whole cells or rows.  I'm guessing that this doesn't exist.