How do I change the settings to where I can press the space bar and it put a space after the letter instead of deleting the letters after it. For example, when I have a sentence like " I hav to go." And I want to put the cursor after the v to add an e it will end up like this "I haveto go" then I go to put a space between them and it does this " I haveo go" then add another space " I have go" then "I havego" then another space and it does the same thing " I haveo" and it deletes the letters after it.
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6@Burgi: A broken keyboard will rarely malfunction in such a regular fashion.– KevinJul 8, 2019 at 21:08
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6Possible duplicate of Windows INSERT key anti-functionality accidentally triggers; how to stop it permanently?– jwwJul 9, 2019 at 5:02
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I think that 'Insert' is only partialy responsible. I have the same feature: on one half of my space key it's written: 'Space * Backspace'. If I hold both space keys for 3-5 seconds then it switches betweeen Sapce/Backspace. If I hit space now, it will remove character instead of adding space. Can't post as answer, question closed without valid respnose IMO techland.time.com/2012/09/20/…– Marcin Konrad CeglarekOct 12, 2020 at 9:11
2 Answers
This is caused by the Insert key on your keyboard, it replaces the letters to the right as you explained.
Simply press the Insert key and it will deactivate the replace mode. Pressing it the second time reactivates it.
I guess you are in replace mode, just press the "Insert" key on your keyboard.
From comments (Thanks @FabioTurati)
The cursor is different: in Insert mode it's a vertical bar placed between two letters, whereas in Overtype mode it's an underscore, and it is under one letter (the one which will be overwritten if you type something)
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33Also known as Overtype mode as opposed to Insert mode. Look for OVR or INS at the right end of the status bar to determine which mode the editor is in.– user385793Jul 8, 2019 at 1:24
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13Absolutely. And it isn't limited to Notepad++ either, many text editors (and plenty of other programs) support this mode.– MastJul 8, 2019 at 10:35
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13@undefined: I use it regularly when I want to overtype d'uh. It's also very useful when working with tables in plain text files (e.g. in tabular plain text databases or when adding a table to a markdown document).– phresnelJul 8, 2019 at 12:49
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18@undefined: To extend phresnel's comment, if you've ever made ASCII art, you'd use OVR religiously as well.– FlaterJul 8, 2019 at 13:53
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4...and now that I think about it, I should be using overtype more often when writing in my programming esolang. Its a 2D language, so needing to overtyping NOP commands is a regular occurrence. I feel silly for not realizing this sooner, as overtype mode is more often an annoyance rather than a desired behavior. Jul 8, 2019 at 14:17