I am working with a document that has a lot of comments attached to various parts of the text. I just switched to a new macbook air, and on this new machine I can’t select text in my document if it has a comment linked/attached. I was able to do this on my 2017 mac air.
In order to change a portion of a sentence which has a comment linked, I have to navigate to the text with my arrow keys and then delete that way, as opposed to selecting and deleting (or replacing. What gives?
I will add…when I do hover my mouse select tool over text which has a comment linked, the icon changes to the hand.
This is more of a general Mac tip (at least for native Mac software like Scrivener) on selecting text within links: hold down the Command key when clicking and dragging. This will override the normal behaviour a click and thus avoid activating the link.
Note this also is a way of creating multiple selections, so do make sure to click somewhere once to avoid your new selection being added to whatever you had selected before.
Thanks. The problem is still there, however. Selecting command doesn’t allow me to select multiple words using either my mouse or my trackpad. I can insert the cursor when text is linked to comments, but the issue is being able to select several words at once.
Sorry, I guess I don’t quite understand what you mean, then. When clicking and dragging with the Command key held down, it doesn’t activate the link. I can select a word, five words, several paragraphs, and everything in between.
If you mean that you have this: TEXT WITH COMMENT and you’d like to select “WITH COMMENT”, or “TEXT” or "TEXT WITH, I did find that possible, but not if I want to select “WITH” as that will change the cursor to the hand.
Are you trying to select interior text, or non-contiguous text?
I am trying to select interior, or non-contiguous text, as in “TEXT HERE WITH COMMENT” and I’m trying to select “HERE WITH”. I, too, can select text (that has a comment) if I start from either edge. It seems strange this is not possible, but I suppose I’d like to know if this is simply how Scrivener is, or if it is a glitch.
I’m not sure what to tell you! Perhaps it is an OS version thing (though I recall it being this way for ages, I’m on 15.2 for what it’s worth). When I hold down Command the cursor turns into a crosshair, and I can click and drag from wherever I want inside of a link.
What you are describing, having to start outside of the link and dragging in, is how it works without the Command key held down.
Well, if this is how Scrivener is, that’s fine, it just seems like a silly inconvenience given how basic of a word processing move it is (at least in Word).
And yes, I tried with the Command key held down, and no dice! (I also tried Shift, Control, Option, for good measure)
Thanks for the attempts to help!
Well, I’d maybe direct the frustration at the right place, at least! None of this is Scrivener, this is how the Mac works, or should work, in most places (Word doesn’t count, that comes from another universe).
Hmm, you said you tried Option, that’s the other one that works for me. Option lets you select in a rectangle (which is kind of weird), and Command adds new selection ranges, so you could make five words bold at once for example. Are you not seeing any of that?
Double click (no modifiers) on WITH and it will be selected, then you can use the keyboard keys as normal. If you then cmd-click
on another word, it selects it, but you have two separate selections, and copying and pasting will create two new individual comments.
Thanks. I’d forgotten that. I could’ve thought to try it to help out though!
Ah! I assumed it was Scrivener, not Mac, but yes, Word/Office is another universe.
Option gave me no such triangle, and if I select with Command engaged I can indeed select several word within the middle of a notes-linked text, BUT if I try to copy or cut those selected words the entire linked phrase gets copied/cut, not the parts I selected. However (!) I just figured out that if I select one word with Option, and the other words with Command, then I can delete, copy, cut just those specific words. Finally, a workaround!