29

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.

WBT
  • 1,802
  • 5
  • 33
  • 45
Alam
  • 477
  • 1
  • 4
  • 8
  • 6
    @Burgi: A broken keyboard will rarely malfunction in such a regular fashion. – Kevin Jul 08 '19 at 21:08
  • 6
    Possible duplicate of [Windows INSERT key anti-functionality accidentally triggers; how to stop it permanently?](https://superuser.com/q/31794/173513) – jww Jul 09 '19 at 05:02
  • 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 https://techland.time.com/2012/09/20/new-microsoft-keyboard-splits-space-bar-left-side-used-as-backspace-key/ – Marcin Konrad Ceglarek Oct 12 '20 at 09:11

2 Answers2

111

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)

Toto
  • 17,001
  • 56
  • 30
  • 41
  • 33
    Also 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. –  Jul 08 '19 at 01:24
  • 2
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insert_key – phuclv Jul 08 '19 at 06:22
  • 13
    Absolutely. And it isn't limited to Notepad++ either, many text editors (and plenty of other programs) support this mode. – Mast Jul 08 '19 at 10:35
  • 3
    are there even legitimate use cases for this annoying mode? – undefined Jul 08 '19 at 11:52
  • 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). – phresnel Jul 08 '19 at 12:49
  • 18
    @undefined: To extend phresnel's comment, if you've ever made ASCII art, you'd use OVR religiously as well. – Flater Jul 08 '19 at 13:53
  • 4
    ...and now that I think about it, I should be using overtype more often when writing in my [programming esolang](https://github.com/Draco18s/RunicEnchantments/tree/Console). 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. – Draco18s no longer trusts SE Jul 08 '19 at 14:17
  • The insert mode, would be replacing those letters with spaces, not deleting them though... – bug-a-lot Jul 09 '19 at 07:49
  • 2
    @undefined a response along a different path: I have been using [Ctrl] and/or [Shift] together with [Insert] and [Delete] since before Windows came along, and after I switched away from QWERTY which made [Ctrl]+[X]/[C]/[V] inconvenient. – KlaymenDK Jul 09 '19 at 13:43
42

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.

Worthwelle
  • 4,538
  • 11
  • 21
  • 32
Kingston Fortune
  • 536
  • 4
  • 6