How do I get rid of the confirm qn when deleting text

[Guest]

In my recently installed copy of Word 2003, whenever I select text and hit
the 'delete' key, I get an annoying confirmation question "Delete Text Y / N"
and have to press yes. I can't find any way to remove this annoyance in the
Options. It's probably something simple I am missing, but none of the
knowledge base articles have any reference to 'Delete Text confirmations'.
Can anyone help?

 

[Tony Jollans]

Tools > Options > General tab
Uncheck the two WordPerfect options.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

In Word, click on Tools | Options | General | uncheck the two
boxes for WordPerfect help and navigation | OK.

 

[Guest]

I found the answer. It's tied in with the WordPerfect help feature. This
needs to be turned off in Tools>Options>General before the deletion
confirmation disappears. It seems a bit stupid though. I have been using
WordPerfect in different versions for over 20 years and have never had to
bother about any confirmation like this!

 

[Guest]

Thanks.
It seems a bit stupid though. I have been using WordPerfect in different
versions for over 20 years and have never had to bother about any
confirmation like this!

 

[Guest]

Thanks.
It seems a bit stupid though. I have been using WordPerfect in different
versions for over 20 years and have never had to bother about any
confirmation like this!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

ISTR this from WP 6.0 DOS, which is about the level these options seem to be
aimed.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

It was certainly there in WP 4.2 and 5.1. As I recall, early versions didn't
have much in the way of undo.

The problem is the way Word records macros involving dialog boxes is to
capture all of the data on a dialog box, not just the things that are
changed when recording the macro. So, if someone recording a macro has these
settings in place and doesn't edit the macro to trim out the excess, those
settings are replicated when the macro is run. Unfortunately, some
commercial software has such macros. Also, home-built macro solutions are
likely to have such problems. This means that we Word users are stuck with a
WP legacy that WP gave up long ago. If the next version of Word is not going
to use vba, then I suspect that this may finally disappear, but I don't know
this. I just know that the interface is changing in ways that are likely to
make existing vba programs that deal with it problematic. (And that
"knowledge" may just reflect my ignorance, see below.)
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, discussion with the developers about why these antiquated and dangerous
options (Fast Saves is another) were left in was that it was better to leave
them in so that users at least would have some control. If a macro such as
you mention changed the setting and there was no way for a user to change it
back (short of editing the Registry), that would be much less desirable.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Tony Jollans]

That is a poor excuse.

They can, and do, leave settings available via VBA but remove them from the
UI. Sometimes by accident (some of the Track Changes options in Word 2002
for example), sometimes seemingly by design (can't think of a Word example
immediately but the Lotus Help option in Excel is now only available in VBA;
it doesn't have any effect but old code whih included it still runs).

If nobody wants these features and their presence causes problems, they
should be removed.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

But the ordinary user doesn't know how to use VBA to change settings and
hence is at the mercy of any poorly written add-in that changes them for
him.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Tony Jollans]

I quite agree, but my point was that you don't have to be at the mercy of
poorly written code. A way to remove the feature and allow existing VBA not
to fail is to keep the keyword in VBA but make it ineffective.

This is exactly what has been done with the Excel example I quoted. There
used to be a transition option in Excel to allow the use of Lotus 123 Help
keys and there was a corresponding VBA setting
(Application.TransitionMenuKeyAction). The feature was removed from Excel
2003 (although it did have some uses - perhaps becuase it did have some
uses, I don't know) but the VBA option remains. Setting the option in VBA
has no effect - the Lotus option is no longer available - but code that
contains it does not fail.

The same could be done with the WordPerfect Options in Word. They could be
removed from Word and from the UI but the VBA statements could remain valid
whilst having no effect. The only losers would be those who actually wanted
the feature; as it seems nobody does this wouldn't be a loss. The winners
would be those who currently suffer from poorly written code and find Word
behaving in a way that they don't want and don't understand.