All right, this has interupted my writing flow for the last time... What the heck have I accidently pressed when any typing I do within the text starts replacing the text I trying to put it between? I'll be writing a good few sentences before I realize anything's gone. It's happened to me for quite a few years now, but I've never thought to ask what seems like such a silly question. How do I fix this without throwing the computer out a window? I realize I could just copy and paste the story into a new file, but that would be giving it what it wants - and I do not give in to those sort of demands!
You've probably pressed the insert key by accident (yes this has happened to me. it's really annoying). You probably did it accidentally while pressing backspace or tab. Look on your keyboard. It's usually above the four arrow keys, left of Home, just above delete. it's a toggle thing All you have to do is press the key again to turn it off.
Okay, Lordofhats and Wrey deserve hugs. I've been having this problem for years. I never knew what it was. *hugs* You two rock.
You can see the status of this setting in the status bar. There will be a status indicator which says either INS (insert mode) or OVR (overtype mode). You can double click the indicator to change the mode. However, Word 2007 is not sensitive to the INSERT key, and doesn't have the indicator in the status bar. You have to explicitly change a option from the Windows Icon menu. Apparently, many users have expressed frustration over thhis very problem, so Microsoft has made it harder to switch modes accidentally.
Much thanks, lordofhats. Silly, nonsensical insert key. >.< It has no business being right next to the space bar.
The undo key helps, but it also means everything you typed after you accidentally switched modes will have to be retyped. No doubt about it, Word 2007 did the right thing by eliminating the INSERT key's action. And if you're REALLY a fan of switching modes with the INSERT key (anyone? anyone at all?), you can map the key yourself. I don't know offhand if you can unmap the key in earlier versions of Word, but it may be worth looking into.
In Word 2003, I have it mapped to "insert object". You can remap by going to Tools->Customize and clicking the "keyboard" button at the bottom.
