It seems that lately my mouse selects text when I’m merely trying to insert the cursor between letters or after a sentence. So I’ll be trying to insert the cursor somewhere in the text and suddenly the nearest word gets selected. If I click again, the entire paragraph gets selected. Perhaps this started with the last Yosemite update (10.10.3)?
I’m using a MacBook Pro Retina with an external wired keyboard and a Kensington Anywhere MX wireless mouse, but I noticed yesterday when I was using the trackpad it was doing the same thing. Right now when I clicked the middle of this sentence to enter a comma, it selected the nearest word instead. Subsequent clicks select the sentence and then the entire paragraph. I have to click somewhere outside the selected text to get out of this selection madness. This seems different behavior to me and it’s driving me crazy. If this is a “feature” please tell me how to turn it off.
It’s not a feature of Scrivener, and there is nothing that even recognises a sentence as a construct so that whole behaviour must be coming from outside of the software. This is not too unlikely given how utilities on a Mac can alter how other programs work. For example I use a utility called BetterTouchTool that adds a lot of configuration power to the trackpad and mice. I can for example set my trackpad so that when I tap with three fingers it loads the Binder sidebar, leaving any collection or search result (I’m not saying it is BTT, I don’t think it recognised sentences in text either, it’s just an example of how one program can change how the mouse works in another program). Stuff like this can sometimes cause things to go haywire until I restart the software. So the first thing I would do is check to make sure everything you run in the background is up to date and has been restarted, and if the problem continues, try a safe boot (hold Shift down after the startup chime on a reboot and let go when you see the Mac startup progress bar) and test a bit with nothing running but Finder and Scrivener. If it works fine in safe mode, you can reboot normally and then figure out which background program is causing the problem.
“Normal” behavior – OS X Yosemite, Apple trackpad, no additional utilities – is for a double-click to select a word and triple-click to select a paragraph. So it sounds like something is adding an additional click.
To support what Katherine said, this is not just normal behaviour in Yosemite, but has been standard in OS X for at least a decade (if not from the beginning). That is, single click places the cursor, double click selects the word, triple click selects the paragraph.
It is possible that the double click speed has been adjusted. This could mean that two separate clicks are being treated as a double click (etc for triple clicks). This can adjusted in System Prefernces.
This doesn’t explain how a sentence is being selected (unless it is an entire paragraph).
If a simple double-click/triple-click doesn’t explain the behaviour you’re experiencing, explore Briar Kit’s suggestion regarding a problem with your mouse (I experienced an issue like that a few years ago, drove me nuts!).
Thanks for the responses. I started playing around with Apple’s Magic Mouse to see if I’m having the same problem and, yes, I am. What happens usually is that I click a word with the intention of inserting a cursor. But somehow the word gets selected instead. And then, of course, the next click of the mouse selects the entire paragraph. It’s possible I’m accidentally moving the mouse slightly upward as I click, which selects the word instead of placing the cursor? It’s a weird problem because it has never been a problem before.
The second problem, it seems to me, is that when I click on a highlighted word, I’m still expecting the cursor to be placed. But instead that second click selects the entire paragraph.
But here’s something I just discovered right now while experimenting.
Double click on a word. That highlights the word. Click again, that selects the paragraph.
Now do this. Double click on a word, highlighting that word. Now move your mouse to another part of that word and click again. That places the cursor. Has it always been like this?
“I agree with nom’s suggestion to look at the double-click speed in System Preferences.”
Thanks so much for reiterating that what I’m experiencing is not actually normal.
The key, as Katherine and Nom pointed out, is adjusting the double click speed. (By the way, this is in the Accessibility pane of the System Preferences.) Previously my double click speed was somewhere in the middle. I moved the sliding bar almost all the way to the right to get it to where I can comfortably place the cursor like I want it. If I select a word, I merely wait a millisecond before clicking it again, and this places the cursor instead of selecting the entire paragraph.
Wow, I am in your debt. Thanks again.
I am still wondering of something changed in the latest OS X update, but I’m seeing nothing out there to confirm that.
In my last post, I mentioned that to adjust the double-click speed, you go to the Accessibility pane of System Prefs, and I thought this was an odd place to go to adjust your mouse settings. But actually, for most people, the double click setting will be in both the Accessibility and Mouse panes.
Apparently, if you’re using two mice at the same time, the double click adjustment moves to the Accessibility pane alone. As soon as I turned off bluetooth on my computer, the double click adjustment went back to the mouse pane (and remains in Accessibility as well). I have no idea why. I just wanted to clarify this point.
What you were describing (double-click for word, then single click for paragraph) is normal behaviour and has been for years. I was typing on my iPad last night so couldn’t check all the permutations.
Also, reading some of your comments, I wonder if maybe you sometimes hold the shift key when you click? That will cause text to be selected from the current text cursor position to the mouse cursor position.
Finally, double click speed is always adjustable in Accessibility settings, although I believe that it is also adjustable under Mouse settings if you use a mouse other than (or in addition to) a Magic Mouse. I use a Magic Mouse* so I can’t confirm this – for me, double-click speed can only be changed via Accessibility settings.
[size=85]*Aside: I’ve gone through a several mice over the years. I can confidently say that the Magic Mouse has been the most reliable, and longest lasting, mouse I have ever used. Maybe because it has no moving parts (other than the on switch), but it just works. Every time.[/size]
Yes, I understand it’s normal to double click a word to highlight it. But what was tripping me up is that I typically wait a millisecond to click again in order to place the cursor. Although I’ve been using Macs since the iici, I’ve never selected paragraphs using the double-click-plus-extra-click method. I’m more likely to click and drag the cursor to select a larger body of text. But I’ve never had to put much thought into it, which is why this recent text select behavior has befuddled me so.
So no, I don’t hold the shift key down. I think my problems really do stem from the double click speed. Maybe I accidentally changed that setting at some point.
By the way, I greatly dislike the Magic Mouse because it’s so damned small and seems very unergonomic as well. Makes my fingers crimp up. The Logitech Mouse is much better for me.
Fair point. I’m not a heavy mouse user and I tend to have a “light” touch - basically my fingers are in the same position as when I type and only touch the top when I need to click. It’s different than some of the mice I’ve used in the past where I used them as a finger rest.