Right-clicking selects text

[mkbest]

Hi! I'm a newbie OS X Mavericks user and I can't find the answer to my problem online. When I right-click on something (no matter which right-clicking method I use), the text I click on is being selected. I don't recall it happening before. It's really annoying because when I click on a link to open it in a new tab, the text remains selected and I have to click somewhere else to deselect it. It happens not only in Safari, but in any program dealing with text. Have I triggered it unknowingly or is this a bug? I tried restarting applications and the computer itself but it didn't help.

You can see what I mean on the video below. Notice that I click only once and it selects the text. Normally I would have to click twice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqoAHxQDPL4

 

[cotterface]

i really hate when i right click and it selects things, i want to just right click and paste sometimes, not right-click "replace" ... anyone know if this setyting is possible in 2023?

 

[chabig]

When I right-click on something (no matter which right-clicking method I use), the text I click on is being selected. I don't recall it happening before. It's really annoying because when I click on a link to open it in a new tab, the text remains selected and I have to click somewhere else to deselect it. It happens not only in Safari, but in any program dealing with text. Have I triggered it unknowingly or is this a bug?

This is just how macOS works.

 

[Gregg2]

i really hate when i right click and it selects things, i want to just right click and paste sometimes, not right-click "replace" ... anyone know if this setyting is possible in 2023?

Left click, then paste. No text will be selected, but you'll have to add a space (of course).

 

[cotterface]

Left click, then paste. No text will be selected, but you'll have to add a space (of course).

not sure if "left click paste" is a thing, i right click to open the menu to paste it .. not sure why opening a menu requires a text selection, that's the part that's always baffled me .. if i wanted to select it, i'd just select it then right click on it

 

[cotterface]

This is just how macOS works.

yea, but i don't think i'm the ONLY PERSON to think it's really annoying, i just can't think of any fathomable reason why this can't just be a setting .. is there really someone at apple like "no, we must require them to select something to open the menu"

 

[Gregg2]

not sure if "left click paste" is a thing,

Left click, then paste.
Mouse, then keyboard.

Do you need a mouse only method? Sounds like you'll have to ask Apple to develop one.

 

[cotterface]

Left click, then paste.
Mouse, then keyboard.

Do you need a mouse only method? Sounds like you'll have to ask Apple to develop one.

my fingers/hands situation is ... situational ... but i'll practice i guess, i just reeeeally wish i didn't need to go back and forth from mouse to keyboard

 

[sahnert]

i really hate when i right click and it selects things, i want to just right click and paste sometimes, not right-click "replace" ... anyone know if this setyting is possible in 2023?

The way I understand this behavior is that the right-click menu is going to show you what it is acting on. If nothing is selected and you right-click area under the click becomes selected to show you where the action will take place (for example replacing a word if you right-click on the word and then choose paste).

If you are editing text and have the blinking text cursor active, right-clicking in any blank space will act upon the location of the blinking cursor, with nothing additional being selected.

So if you want to click and paste without replacing, you would first make sure the cursor is where you want it, then make sure your right-click is in any blank space and not on an existing word.

 

[cotterface]

The way I understand this behavior is that the right-click menu is going to show you what it is acting on. If nothing is selected and you right-click area under the click becomes selected to show you where the action will take place (for example replacing a word if you right-click on the word and then choose paste).

If you are editing text and have the blinking text cursor active, right-clicking in any blank space will act upon the location of the blinking cursor, with nothing additional being selected.

So if you want to click and paste without replacing, you would first make sure the cursor is where you want it, then make sure your right-click is in any blank space and not on an existing word.

i hear you, but it selects the spaces too, so for years i need to press a few spaces or dots just so it has something to grab so it doesn't replace things i want to keep, just a miserable feature, especially for a mouse whore like me, i use the right click menu a ton

and i think it would be totally reasonable to manually select whatever you wana replace if that's your goal, it's extremely quick, easy, and obvious when you manually select it and then right click on it, but with the current settings how they are, it's not very constant about what it might automatically select or how much of it will be selected when you right click

sometimes it selects a whole link, sometimes it selects half the link, sometimes it selects a whole email address, sometimes it selects half, sometimes it just grabs the space, some it grabs the word next to the space .. it's just such an absurd setting to force on the world, the act of manually selecting something to right click on seems so much less painful than this tedious alternative

and i just remembered, i often want to paste something right in the middle of characters with no spaces, but there's no way to just right click exactly where i want it because it automatically grabs the word or code or whatever, it's truly the bane of my existence

 

[sahnert]

That makes sense based on the situations you describe.

When I first noticed this behavior (can’t remember how long it’s been around) I remember specifically about the selecting of white space between words. I used to think I had to add back the spaces before I realized that it tries to be smart about it and adds necessary spaces between words when pasting.

But I can see how it would be nice to have the option to be less “smart” and more precise like you are describing.