How to Prevent Accidentally Dragging and Dropping Text in Microsoft Word

accidentally dragging and dropping text
Accidentally Dragging and Dropping Text

Have you ever been clicking about in a Microsoft Word document and accidentally dragged text to the incorrect place? To avoid this, disable text dragging and dropping. We’ll demonstrate how to accomplish it in Word.

There is an option in Word to disable drag and drop for your text. When you activate it, you can’t drag and drop your text around. This prevents you from mistakenly shifting text around.

How to Disable Text Drag and Drop in Word

Open Word on your Windows or Mac computer first to activate that option. If you see the Word Start screen, go to the next step. If you see the Word editing screen, click “File” in the top-left corner.

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Click “Options” in the Word sidebar on the left.

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Word will display the “Word Options” window. Click “Advanced” on the left sidebar.

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There is a “Editing Options” area in the right pane of the “Word Options” window. Disable the “Allow text to be dragged and dropped” option in this area.

Then, at the bottom of the “Word Options” box, press the “OK” button.

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That’s the end of it. Word will no longer enable you to drag and drop text to avoid unintentional alterations to your documents.

If you ever need to use the function again, go to the “Word Options” window and check the “Allow text to be dragged and dropped” box.

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Hi, I'm John, a BS.marine engineering student. I am a Video Editor at Manila Shaker, where I shoot video clips and edit them for our YouTube content.