Don't select space after the word when double-clicking

debiedowner

When double clicking a word on a web page, just select the word, without the following space character, or at least provide an option to do so.

On Windows, the following space is included in the selection. This behavior is due to the usage in word processors, when you double click a word and cut it, you want to cut the following space as well, not to leave double space on that location. On web pages, you cannot cut text, only copy it, so selecting the space after the word is unproductive. Often, when I double click a word, it is to search for that word in the page, so whenever I double-click a word, I am forced to hit Shift+Left Arrow to correctly select the word before pressing Ctrl+F. Or delete the space after pasting it (by pressing the End key, and then Backspace). Just adding a space if I need it would be much more sensible.

For comparison, Firefox has this setting in its about:config, Layout.word select.eat space to next word.

kahukura

@debiedowner Sounds like a good idea although I never had issues with the present behavior.

Pesala

@debiedowner An easier workaround to select the word without the space is to double-click, then move the mouse to the right to select the next word, then move the mouse to the left to select just one word.

TsunamiZ

@debiedowner

a current workaround is to DOUBLE-click-drag on the current word. DOUBLE-click-drag does select by word.

upvoted. and you should also vote on my related request, which would allow you to select by word with just a SINGLE-click-drag...

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/30263/smart-text-selection-by-word

Komposten

Weird, when I double-click a word it selects the word and the space after and a split second later it de-selects the space (so only the word is selected).

(Windows 10, Vivaldi 2.8.1649.4)

kahukura

@Komposten It depends on a certain condition but I noticed that behavior too.

Edit: Last Stable Vivaldi 2.7 (Win)

Komposten

@kahukura It appears to have stopped happening. Now double-click includes the space after.

LonM

FYI this is reported internally as VB-34580

kahukura

@Komposten Sometimes you can double-click then unselect with a right mouse click elsewhere and just a double-click again to select only the word.

kahukura

@LonM Thank you for letting us know.

greybeard

The behaviour does not bother me much.
If I have selected the [SPACE] and do not want it, I use:
SHIFT+LEFT ARROW
which deselects the space (one keystroke left from the right end of the selection).
I learned this and other keyboard tricks over 20 years ago and find them much easier than using a mouse or trackpad.

I have gotten so used to this it is almost automatic.

Pesala

@greybeard Using the keyboard is not convenient when selecting with the mouse.

Here, moving the cursor 1 pixel either way after double-clicking seems to remove the space from the selection. That is even easier than my previously suggested workaround.

Pathduck

Seems to be a Chromium thing, same in Opera. Not in Firefox where only the word is selected.

debiedowner

This bothers me greatly, so thanks to @Pesala's tip, I had written the following workaround on AutoHotkey at the time; here it is in case it is useful to anyone.

#If WinActive("ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1")
  ~LButton::
    if (A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 400) and (A_TimeSincePriorHotkey <> -1)
      MouseMove, 1, 0, 0, R
    return
#If

If you double click (i.e. within 400 ms) on Vivaldi, it moves the cursor by one pixel before you release the mouse key, so that only the word is selected. I thought I posted it here at the time, apparently I didn't.

This works perfectly if you use a mouse, or if you actually forcefully click twice on the touchpad. But in those cases it is not very useful anyway, as you could just easily apply the cursor move trick every time. What I really wanted was a way to apply the trick when double "tapping" on touchpad. I can't just double tap and move, as that would simulate click and drag.

But this script doesn't work well if you double "tap" on the touchpad. Presumably this is because, when you first tap the touchpad, it doesn't immediately send the click to the system, as it doesn't yet know if you actually want to click or do something else, e.g. double tap and move, which means click and drag. So if you double tap, it sends both clicks at the end of the second tap as a single event, so AutoHotkey can't interfere. (However, it works if you double tap slowly enough that the first tap is sent as a click by itself, but quickly enough that the second tap/click still counts as double click; but it's tricky to get it right.)

As I finally completed my move from Firefox 56 to Vivaldi, this was one of the things bothering me, so I was able to come up with the following:

#If WinActive("ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1")
  ~LButton::
    if (A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 400) and (A_TimeSincePriorHotkey <> -1)
    {
      MouseMove, 3, 0, 0, R
      MouseClick
      MouseClickDrag, Left, 0, 0, -1, 0, 0, R
    }
    return
#If

So I scrap the first double click since I can't interfere with it, and redo the double click with @Pesala's trick. The first mouse move is to prevent those new clicks to be interpreted as triple/quadruple clicks which would select the whole paragraph. It turns out that at least a 3-pixel move is necessary for that. Got to make sure not to click at the right edge of the word!

So far this works fine, and triple click still works when I need it. But I hope that this issue gets fixed and I can retire this convoluted and shaky workaround!

TsunamiZ

Please add an option to "don't select space after the word when double clicking".

[bug reported VB-76779]

Ornorm

@TsunamiZ Seems to be a duplicate of :

@LonM said in Don't select space after the word when double-clicking:

FYI this is reported internally as VB-34580

LonM

Unfortunately this is an issue persisted by chrome so it is difficult for the vivaldi developers to fix. I would suggest a bug be filed against the chrome engine tracker if anyone wants to pursue this further.

Gregor

Old, but working (on some pages not):
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/oddspace/jnmgaljhnlbogedbhgdhhbebchemeadh
Maybe someone do know how to update its code (oddspace.js) so it can also work for example here https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/extensions?

Pesala

Double-click, drag left.

DAOWAce

Is this still not a thing after all these years?

Been annoying me for as long as I can remember. Just found out firefox has a config option to stop it.. now looking for everything else and coming up dry.

It's the most aggravating thing when you're trying to copy/paste a word or phrase and have to constantly, every single time, delete the trailing space. Especially irritating when copying codes, as most systems think its a character and error out instead of ignoring it. Things not double/triple click highlighting smartly (especially number strings) is another related issue and frustration.

I just don't understand how these things last years, decades even, without ever being improved.

Discovering you can drag left to make it remove the space is interesting, but ultimately is not a solution to the issue, and is prone to error as well as causing more hand strain. wish it was the other way around.