Any way to change the undo duration in Word 2007?

[WebColin70]

I posted a similar question about a week ago, but no one answered.

In Word 2007, after typing new or replacement text, Undo (whether by the
button in the Quick Access bar, Ctrl-Z, or Alt-Backspace) always just
removes 1 character at a time, which I find too slow for reverting text.

Is there a way to change this so Undo removes a word or other larger block
at a time instead of a character at a time? That's how it works in the
Outlook 2007 e-mail editor (and Live Mail for posting to this newsgroup) and
I swear that's how it always worked in previous versions of Word, unless I
paused for a long time between each character I typed.

Am I right that this is new behavior in Word 2007?

Thanks,
Colin

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

That is not the way that undo works in 2007 here.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[WebColin70]

On further investigation, I think it relates to the setting in the Keyboard
control panel, at least in Vista (all updates and SP's applied) -- if that's
set to the minimum delay between keypresses, it changes how Undo works in
Word. It does not change how Undo works in Outlook, Live Mail, or any other
application.

I think this qualifies as a bug in Word 2007, if others can reproduce it.

Just go to Start | Control Panel | Keyboard | Speed tab, and set the Repeat
delay all the way to Short (I also happen to have the Repeat rate all the
way to Fast, but I don't think that's related). Then in word, type a few
words. Then hit undo. It will undo a character at a time.

If you then change the Repeat delay to anything longer that Short, Word will
work as expected.

Again, this problem seems limited to Word, even the other Office 2007
applications don't have this problem. At the very least, it's inconsistent.

- Colin

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I do not see that setting making any difference to the functioning of Undo
here.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[WebColin70]

Are you saying that Undo still removes whole words or phrases with the
repeat delay set to its minimum setting on your system?

On 2 separate Vista (SP2) computers now, I have confirmed that this changes
the way Word 2007 reacts to Undo. Other programs do not change when changing
this setting, only Word 2007 (12.0.6504.5000 SP2 MSO (12.0.6425.1000)).

- Colin

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Yes, I am saying that changing the minimum delay between key presses via the
Control Panel made no difference to the behavior of the Undo function.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[WebColin70]

At a minimum, then, at least for some systems, there is interaction between
these settings that is not correct behavior. I still believe this is a bug,
even if it's not experienced by every user or on every system.

I generally work at not installing any fringe software or tinkering with too
many settings (to be fair, changing repeat delay would count as tinkering).
Yet on both my computers, one a Toshiba M400 tablet and one a dual AMD
Opteron desktop (no brand, built from parts), I experienced the exact same
problem. I realize that's not 1,000 systems, but given that it's 100%
reproducible on those systems, seems enough to say it's not just a fluke.

- Colin

 

[Tony Jollans]

Do you see the same behaviour if you start Word in Safe mode (press and hold
Ctrl while starting Word)?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm wondering if there might be some accessibility option enabled that's
affecting this.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[higado2]

I registered just to leave a comment and thank you for posting a solution that works! I am (still) using Windows XP on my home computer, and indeed, fiddling with the "Repeat Delay" in the "Keyboard Properties" section fixed it! You may need to try different settings of the slider between "Long" and "Short" to get it "just right". However, in my case, it started working when I set the slide all the way to "Short"! Thanks again!