change the way double-clicking works re: selecting text ??

[djbeta]

Is there any way I can make it so that
a triple-click will select not a whole line of
text but rather, just the word I'm clicking
on as well as the word to the right of it?

*** so_triple_clicking_on_this also_selects_this but_not_this ***

 

[fryke]

I don't think so. The rule generally is character-word-line-paragraph. You can, however, double-click a word and then Shift-RightArrow until the next word is highlighted as well. Or simply double-click one word, hit Shift and click at the end of the second word.

 

[Sunnz]

You can, however, double-click a word and then Shift-RightArrow until the next word is highlighted as well.

I have been wondering, this doesn't work on my Mac-Book, why?

 

[billbaloney]

You can also double-click and Option-Shift-[left or right arrow] to highlight by word.

Applications can override the default OS X behavior (see broken behavior in Microsoft Office, or augmented behavior in BBEdit).

Sunnz, which step in fryke's description doesn't work? Surely highlighting works.

 

[Sunnz]

Sunnz, which step in fryke's description doesn't work? Surely highlighting works.

Oh, it works in text editors, in fact, it works in Firefox too!!! But it doesn't work in Safari.

What happens is double-click highlights a word, but pressing shift-{left|right}arrow key de-selects it!!!

 

[billbaloney]

That's true of all versions of Safari, I think, when you're highlighting displayed (HTML) text.

 

[Mikuro]

It doesn't work in Safari because the text is not editable. If it works in Firefox (I haven't tested it), it's because Firefox is completely nonstandard.

When double-clicking a word, if you hold the second click and drag, it'll select word by word instead of character by character. I find this very useful. So with a quick drag you could do just what you want. (This does NOT work in Firefox, because, again, Firefox is completely nonstandard.)

 

[Sunnz]

I have no ideas what kind of 'standard' you are on about, but if the text is select-able, so why not make it work with the keyboard as well as the mouse?

 

[Mikuro]

By "standard", I mean Apple's standard interface elements — text boxes, menus, button, etc. — that are available to developers and behave the same in every program that uses them. Firefox doesn't use any of them, but instead creates its own that look similar but act quite differently. (So that it's more consistent across platforms...or at least easier to port.)

I suppose the reason it's not nagivable with the keyboard is that the keyboard is used for other things. The arrows scroll, for example. Non-editable text fields don't usually get the keyboard focus.

I'm not trying to say it's better this way, just explaining the reason.

 

[Sunnz]

Well Firefox does behave the same across platforms and I find that convenient. (Well, it behaves mostly the same as the one I use on Linux.)

Ok well, that makes sense, kinda, it doesn't have to deselects things though - pressing up/down/left/right scrolls, but shift-up/down/left/right deselects it and does absolutely nothing otherwise? %$**#@