[OT] Word select in Microsoft products?

[Mark Davis]

[Off topic -- just looking for information from a broad audience.]   Anyone know how to turn off the extremely annoying automatic word select (AWS) in Microsoft products? This is the "feature" that causes dragging outside of a word to behave like double-click. I often want to select part of a word, such when editing at the start of a sentence. For example, in the sentence       Only the finest products...   to remove the word "Only" I would click after the first "t", then drag back to include "Only t", then type a T. I have been doing this for years; to select words you just double-click.   In Word and PowerPoint, I can turn off AWS with Tools > Options > Edit > "When selecting, automatically select entire word".   Excel, FrontPage, Access, Notepad, the desktop (e.g. in filenames), and the vast majority of non-Microsoft products do the right thing WITHOUT setting an option.   What I can't do is figure out how to turn off AWS in Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Outlook, or WordPad. These products are also -- of course -- very inconsistent. When selecting characters in the main window, IE does do AWS. But not in the Address bar, dialog boxes, file selection, etc. Anyone have an idea?