[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

AFAIK, the Insert key has been enabled in every version of Word by default,
so in Word 97 you must somehow have checked the box to "Use the INS key for
paste." In Word 2007, you'll need to go to Office Button | Word Options |
Advanced: Editing options and check the box for "Use the Insert key to
control overtype mode." Note also that in any version of Word you can
double-click OVR on the status bar to toggle modes.

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

"SlickRCBD" wrote in message
...
Back with Word97 I was dismayed to find that Word did not recognize
the standard usage of the INSert key to switch between insert mode and
overwrite. When I finally got Word 2003, having skipped purchasing the
intervening versions and having limited exposure at community college,
I was elated to discover that they had added a feature to allow me to
do so.

Now I'm taking some night courses to try to get a better college
degree and I just had occasion to use Word 2007 in a lab. I haven't
been this frustrated since the time I tried Word XP and found that it
wouldn't let me format the outline using the number and letter scheme
my teacher insisted on me using and I wound up doing the thing in
Wordpad.

I digress. I've discovered that once again I can't use the INSert key
to toggle between overwrite and insert modes. The teacher for the
class I'm doing wants the papers to have a standard format and I've
created a template using that format, but the template has several
placeholders to make sure the text is formatted correctly. When I try
to use the highlight and delete method of getting rid of the text
placeholders, it often also deletes the formatting changes. In Word
2003 I'd solve this problem by switching to overwrite mode and simply
type over the placeholders.
How do I do that in Word 2007 or is it too much of a PITA to do so to
change two lines of text before switching back to insert mode?

Also, was there a way that I never learned of to be able to use the
INSERT key in Word 97 to serve the same function as it did in Word
2003?

[Robert]

On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 07:36:49 -0600, Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:

Note also that in any version of Word you can
double-click OVR on the status bar to toggle modes.

In my version of Word 2007, a double-click won't work. But a single click
does!
--
Cheers
Robert

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

But in Word 2007 it doesn't say OVR, either, but "Insert" or "Overtype."

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

"Robert" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 07:36:49 -0600, Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:

Note also that in any version of Word you can
double-click OVR on the status bar to toggle modes.

In my version of Word 2007, a double-click won't work. But a single click
does!
--
Cheers
Robert

[Robert]

On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 07:11:03 -0600, Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:

But in Word 2007 it doesn't say OVR, either, but "Insert" or "Overtype."

This does not make the double-click work either.
--
Cheers
Robert

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

My point is that reference to double-clicking OVR does not apply to
something that says Insert/Overtype instead of OVR. I was not talking about
Word 2007.

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

"Robert" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 07:11:03 -0600, Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:

But in Word 2007 it doesn't say OVR, either, but "Insert" or "Overtype."

This does not make the double-click work either.
--
Cheers
Robert

[Robert]

On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 11:25:20 -0600, Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:

My point is that reference to double-clicking OVR does not apply to
something that says Insert/Overtype instead of OVR. I was not talking about
Word 2007.

You wrote exactly this:

"In Word 2007, you'll need to go to Office Button | Word Options |
Advanced: Editing options and check the box for "Use the Insert key to
control overtype mode." Note also that in any version of Word you can
double-click OVR on the status bar to toggle modes."

I am sorry but I find it difficult to dissociate Word 2007 from
"double-click OVR" in your post, coming as it does on the heels of "In Word
2007" and "in any version of Word". How could "any version of Word" not
include Word 2007, especially as you¢d just been talking about Word 2007?
We just read posts, we are not mind-readers.

What's more, I find the distinction between "OVR" and "Overtype" rather
specious. As I understand things, "OVR" is only a kind of acronym for
"Overtype".

Whether you call it "OVR" or "Overtype", that mode can only be toggled with
a single click in Word 2007. I know. I learnt it the hard way. I had been
so used to double-clicking "OVR" ("Overtype") on the status bar of previous
versions that I instinctively did it in Word 2007. It did not work. I found
out that it now required a single click when I failed to do a proper
double-click, and single-clicked by mistake.
--
Cheers
Robert

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You are right. I should have written, "In any previous version of Word."
When I wrote that, I hadn't checked the status bar in Word 2007, which I did
after I posted (and saw that it doesn't have OVR). But it is also true that
the state of the setting on the status bar in Word 2007 is much more obvious
than in earlier versions (OVR black or dimmed), and that all the other
status bar buttons require a single rather than a double click (as in
previous versions).

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

"Robert" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 7 Jan 2010 11:25:20 -0600, Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:

My point is that reference to double-clicking OVR does not apply to
something that says Insert/Overtype instead of OVR. I was not talking
about
Word 2007.

You wrote exactly this:

"In Word 2007, you'll need to go to Office Button | Word Options |
Advanced: Editing options and check the box for "Use the Insert key to
control overtype mode." Note also that in any version of Word you can
double-click OVR on the status bar to toggle modes."

I am sorry but I find it difficult to dissociate Word 2007 from
"double-click OVR" in your post, coming as it does on the heels of "In
Word
2007" and "in any version of Word". How could "any version of Word" not
include Word 2007, especially as you¢d just been talking about Word 2007?
We just read posts, we are not mind-readers.

What's more, I find the distinction between "OVR" and "Overtype" rather
specious. As I understand things, "OVR" is only a kind of acronym for
"Overtype".

Whether you call it "OVR" or "Overtype", that mode can only be toggled
with
a single click in Word 2007. I know. I learnt it the hard way. I had been
so used to double-clicking "OVR" ("Overtype") on the status bar of
previous
versions that I instinctively did it in Word 2007. It did not work. I
found
out that it now required a single click when I failed to do a proper
double-click, and single-clicked by mistake.
--
Cheers
Robert