[SOLVED} Delete word and the following space?

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amanchesterman
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I type some text and then decide that I want to delete one of the words. I double-click on that word, which highlights it, and then I press DEL; the word is deleted. But the space following that word is not deleted, so my text ends up with a double space which is unsightly. I then have to manually delete one of the spaces, which is time-consuming. It’s not a major problem, of course; but it is an annoying niggle and I would like to change the behaviour if I can, so that when I double-click and delete a word, Writer automatically deletes the space following that word as well. I suspect there’s a setting somewhere in one of the menus to do this but I haven’t found it yet, and searching on this forum I haven’t found a post which deals with this. Can anyone tell me the solution? I’m using LibreOffice 5.0.4.2 with the locale en-GB, running on Ubuntu 14.04.3. Many thanks.
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Mazinger-Z
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Use your keyboard shortcuts better
IMHO, use the mouse to edit text is not the fastest way to work. The common shortcut keys used in the most of operative systems if the best way to do a precise and more efficiente job. That’s to say: If I want to select a word and the space following that word, first, I will “jump” to the first letter of that word ( Ctrl + -> ) then I will jump again to the adjacent word, but toggling selection ( Ctrl + Shift + -> ). The word and the text following that word will be selected. You can press “Del” key just now.

Using the mouse in not the best way to work quickly.

Wink
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amanchesterman
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Not always I think?
Thank you Mazinger Z for your advice. I can see, and agree, that if I am typing a paragraph and have just typed some text and immediately realise that I need to correct it, then using the cursor keys is a speedy way to do so. It may well be quicker than taking my hand off the keyboard, finding the mouse and then using that to move within the text. Thank you for pointing that out. However that is not usually my situation. Usually, I have typed a page — maybe several pages — and I am proofreading through the text before (e.g.) printing it. As my eye scans down the screen I notice that a word is redundant: maybe I have typed it twice by mistake or maybe the text will read better without it. So I need quickly to jump to that particular point on the screen — one line out of many, one word on that line out of many — and highlight and delete that. Under those circumstances my habit is to use the mouse to ‘point and click’. Whether or not that is faster, it is (I believe) normal behaviour for computer users. What I want to do is to have LibreOffice delete the word + following space by default, rather than just delete the word. So I repeat my question: does anyone know how to make it do that? Many thanks.
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Mazinger-Z
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Well, I understand your way
Well, I understand your way of work. I have no a solution that let you select the word and adjacent space, but I’m sure you just know other trick to do what you need, and this is to use “search and replace”, to search for double spaces (I bet no one use that tricky text format nowadays in a word proccessor) and replace for only one space.

Maybe someone can suggest you a best way to do it in this forum.

Best regards Wink

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Lupp
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An open question in return
amanchesterman wrote:
…my habit is to use the mouse to ‘point and click’.
I am not the most experienced proofreader. This may be the reason for what I do not understand in what way you delete the word (selected by a doubleclick supposedly) using the mouse. Do you (mis) use the ‘Cut’ item of the context menu?

I you shift to the keyboard anyway for the ‘Del’ command, possibly having one finger hovering above the ‘Del’ key, you can use the ‘Shift’+‘Del’ modification instead to get what you want. This will, however, delete the space in front of the selected word instead of the one behind it. The action therefore is also well shaped for cases where a punctuation character is following.

Unfortunately this usage of a key combination is not configured in a way editable via the ‘Customize…’ > ‘Keyboard’ tool. Therefore I cannot find a way to assign it otherwise. We may have two fingers hovering since.


Currently installed: LibO V5.1.2 on Windows 10
Maybe we might! (Create a powerful UFO: United Free Office!) Lupp from München
amanchesterman
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Your question answered and my problem solved!
Thank you Lupp for your very helpful response. Yes, to clarify what I wrote originally: I point to the word with the mouse and double-click to select it: my problem then was how to delete it so as not to leave a double space in the text. Your suggestion works perfectly — and as you say it preserves any punctuation that follows the deleted word. I shall use this often, many thanks. I don’t know how to mark this thread ‘SOLVED’?
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Lupp
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Marking solved
Go to your first post (your original question), edit it, and prefix [SOLVED] to the subject.

Currently installed: LibO V5.1.2 on Windows 10
Maybe we might! (Create a powerful UFO: United Free Office!) Lupp from München

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