Home Forums Mac Software Mac Operating Systems Drag and Drop Text

Is there any way to globally switch off "drag and drop" text? Ever since Apple introduced it, I've found it to be the most infuriating obstacle to text editing that I've ever encountered. In the old days, you could simply click and drag through any text without worrying that it was going to be inadvertently shifted around. Now, I have to be ever so cautious, click things numerous times to deselect text that has been selected by default. For example, in the old days you could change a character in a file name with a single click and drag. Now, it takes about three clicks and a drag and very careful timing to make sure that two successive clicks aren't interpreted as a double click, etc.

I know of a few applications that allow you to turn it off for that application only. But it's always there in the Finder and system dialogs, and it annoys the heck out of me.

Am I the only one who finds this really annoying?

My only suggestion would be to post a suggestion in Apple's Mac OS X Feedback but you would have to upgrade to Snow Leopard or later to ever see the results.

Thanks. I guess I'll do that then. I thought I'd better check here first though, to make sure I hadn't missed a preferences option in some obscure place.

If you are looking for hidden preferences, and I mean really hidden, as in not otherwise available through the GUI, and you are running OS X 10.5 or 10.6 check out MacPilot. They offer a 15 day trial.

Now I have to backpedal and apologize. I must have been on crack. It wasn't in the Finder where I was having all the grief, and now I'm trying to remember where it was. I should have posted my problem right when I was having it, rather than wait a few days.

Anyway, anyone who reads this topic and wonders what on earth I was talking about, you can safely ignore my complaint. There is no drag and drop text function when editing file names in the Finder.

BTW, Thanks for the link to MacPilot. I downloaded the trial version, and it looks to be very useful.

I use the keyboard a lot but I run into this problem periodically too, accidentally dragging text.

I must say that one of the things I've always liked about the Mac's text editing, is the ability to double-click and drag to select multiple whole words. I find this very convenient, and combined with the old cut, copy and paste functions, is far more useful than drag and drop has ever been.