how to turn off overwrite mode and highlight on click on gmail

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Christian Philip Ege Nielsen

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Jan 11, 2014, 7:02:38 PM1/11/14
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hello i have a strange problem on gmail but only on gmail every time i make a click it highlights the text and when i try to edit the text i have written it overwrites it but it is only on gmail so how do i turn it off?

the question about how i turn off overwrite mode has been asked before and answered with click on the insert key but i have never clicked on it because i have turned that key off and if overwrite mode was active every where i would click the button but it is only active on gmail so what do i do?

Andy

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Jan 11, 2014, 10:34:53 PM1/11/14
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On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 7:02 PM, Christian Philip Ege Nielsen <mort...@gmail.com> wrote:

hello i have a strange problem on gmail but only on gmail every time i make a click it highlights the text and when i try to edit the text i have written it overwrites it but it is only on gmail so how do i turn it off?

the question about how i turn off overwrite mode has been asked before and answered with click on the insert key but i have never clicked on it because i have turned that key off and if overwrite mode was active every where i would click the button but it is only active on gmail so what do i do?

Actually, what you described in the first paragraph is pretty much how everything behaves for me, in MS Windows.  Once any editable text is highlighted, anything you type at that point replaces the highlighted text, regardless of whether the current mode was insert or overwrite.  The act of highlighting something, makes Windows replace it with the next thing you type, or paste.

Perhaps your O.S. is not MS Windows?

The unusual thing about what you described, is that simply clicking on something makes it highlighted.  For me, I have to either double-click, or drag the cursor, for it to become highlighted.  A single click just moves the cursor there.

I suppose the question would be, what OS are you using, and what web browser?  (But those details wouldn't help me answer any better.)

Andy



Keir Thomas

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Jan 26, 2014, 9:22:18 PM1/26/14
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Same problem for me, started recently.  I use the latest Chrome on Windows XP.

BC

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Jan 27, 2014, 12:11:31 PM1/27/14
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I'm experiencing the same problem. Just in Gmail. Started today. And it's NOT a matter of pressing the 'insert' key. I'll post again if I find a solution.

Marko Vukovic

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Jan 27, 2014, 12:50:02 PM1/27/14
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On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 7:11 PM, BC <blane.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm experiencing the same problem. Just in Gmail. Started today. And it's NOT a matter of pressing the 'insert' key. I'll post again if I find a solution

You tried the old 'clear cache and cookies' step?

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Marko

Abdirahman Essa

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Jan 31, 2014, 1:25:49 AM1/31/14
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Can you upload the picture to get solution
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reenie

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Feb 13, 2014, 12:43:19 PM2/13/14
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I had the same issue happen to me this morning.  Shift+Insert key seemed to fix it.

Hope this helps!
-Reenie

Erin Figueroa

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May 31, 2014, 11:01:23 PM5/31/14
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Hi! I had the same exact problem and all I had  to do was I clicked anywhere in the text and I pressed the Insert and the Caps Lock Key. 

Hope this helps!
-Erin :P

Casimiro Perez

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Jun 2, 2014, 4:37:12 PM6/2/14
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I just solved this problem on my laptop. For some reason, Gmail is recognizing my "print screen" key as the "insert" key. Try to press print screen and it might disable overtype. It worked for me.

Bob H

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Aug 3, 2014, 1:14:07 PM8/3/14
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I had the problem this am.  Thanks for the answers, although they didn't work for me.  What did work for me however, was the Windows key+Alt to remove the highlighting.

Hope that helps!

Nadeem Afzal

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Aug 17, 2014, 9:11:07 AM8/17/14
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Thank you for this thread and solutions - I have windows 7, Google chrome browser, use a PC but an APPLE keyboard. Did not find the solution anywhere but this thread helped

For me I felt that getting rid of the highlight was the solution so that is what i tried to do

After trying everything randomly found pressing Alt + the slanting arrow up key worked for me - 
Doing so closed off the email browser but once logged in again, the problem was solved

So my suggestion is that if depending on whatever hardware you may be using, try to get rid of the highlighting which will serve as a solution too

aaron sims

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Aug 19, 2014, 7:51:25 PM8/19/14
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Hitting the "insert" key fixed it for me.

Dang Thi Kim Thoa

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Aug 26, 2014, 2:53:00 AM8/26/14
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Thanks you aaron,

I have fixed it

Yarimee Gutierrez

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Sep 10, 2014, 10:23:03 PM9/10/14
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Erin, you are a GENIUS! That fixed the problem for me. You have no idea how long I tried to figure that out. Thanks :) 

Kitty

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Oct 6, 2014, 6:49:59 AM10/6/14
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None of these things worked for me. My insert key is a smaller font under my delete key and I'm using Windows 7 on Chrome. This happened while I was composing in gmail.

Marko Vukovic

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Oct 7, 2014, 5:10:50 AM10/7/14
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On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 12:49 PM, Kitty <kittench...@gmail.com> wrote:
None of these things worked for me. My insert key is a smaller font under my delete key and I'm using Windows 7 on Chrome. This happened while I was composing in gmail.

​Compose a message, type some text then put the cursor somewhere on that text. Press the Insert key. ​The normal cursor should change to highlight the character in front and back again if you press Insert again.

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Marko

Tia T.

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Nov 13, 2014, 3:34:24 PM11/13/14
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Me too... Function + Insert worked for me. :)  Hope this helps!

joond

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Nov 14, 2014, 5:33:14 PM11/14/14
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THANK you, thank you, thank you, Erin F! That worked when nothing else would! Not sure why it won't work with the shift key and required the CAPS LOCK but at this point, I don't care. It did the trick.

DRB

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Dec 16, 2014, 7:38:32 PM12/16/14
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If none of the above work, then hold down the "fn" button and hit insert.  That's what people are missing (at least i was!)

Tara B

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Jan 4, 2015, 8:49:47 PM1/4/15
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I just had it happen to me. Just tapping the "Insert" button turns it off. It was doing this to me in Twitter. I was going crazy. 


On Saturday, January 11, 2014 7:02:38 PM UTC-5, Christian Philip Ege Nielsen wrote:

gmailpatrick gmailkim

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Jan 10, 2015, 8:09:34 PM1/10/15
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According to my little knowledge,  You have to create a filter for  manage the gmail with little of my opinion, l wish you'll create a filter for gmail by "label "  to control all gmails; for example of my mail, trash mail, read mail,unread mail,
and so on.  Then you'll do this way, I think, it's lot of helping you.
 

                                                                       Regard it !

From Patrick C. Kim
Date  Jan 10, 2015
Subject: Create a label;                                                                     

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Daniel George

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Jan 13, 2015, 7:36:50 AM1/13/15
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Just hit 'insert' and it should fix it. Worked for me.

Marko Vukovic

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Jan 13, 2015, 10:36:49 PM1/13/15
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On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 2:38 AM, DRB <david...@gmail.com> wrote:
If none of the above work, then hold down the "fn" button and hit insert.  That's what people are missing (at least i was!)

​The 'fn' button is specific to your laptop. It is not a standard key and has nothing to do with the Insert/Overwrite mode. The 'Insert' key however is what changes this behavior, that's all.

--
Marko

Cyn Sch

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Jan 14, 2015, 6:33:30 PM1/14/15
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My HP  Pav g7 does not have an insert key so it overwrites in gmail. I found a solution for Word though.

Shannon Giammichele

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Jan 15, 2015, 2:14:15 AM1/15/15
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It took a couple of tries..but insert worked for me as well! *Fn Insert took a screenshot! It took about 10 tries..and me clicking away from the page...but then I quickly struck the key pretty hard and it worked! *The key wasn't sticky...but..for some reason it worked!

Marko Vukovic

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Jan 15, 2015, 3:09:39 AM1/15/15
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On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 1:33 AM, Cyn Sch <hazeley...@gmail.com> wrote:
My HP  Pav g7 does not have an insert key so it overwrites in gmail. I found a solution for Word though

​Every computer keyboard has an Insert key. ​It's probably just labeled 'ins' on your laptop.

Inline image 1

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Marko

Marko Vukovic

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Jan 15, 2015, 11:01:16 PM1/15/15
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On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 9:14 AM, Shannon Giammichele <scgiam...@ucdavis.edu> wrote:
It took a couple of tries..but insert worked for me as well! *Fn Insert took a screenshot! It took about 10 tries..and me clicking away from the page...but then I quickly struck the key pretty hard and it worked! *The key wasn't sticky...but..for some reason it worked!

​If it's the same as the HP laptop keyboard then yes, holding Fn and pressing that key will take a screenshot (prt sc i.e. print screen). That's what it's supposed to do.​ Hitting the key hard will make no difference, this is not a piano.

--
Marko

Dionysia Rhonda

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Feb 9, 2015, 5:21:08 AM2/9/15
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If you just click on the "Ins" key (rignt corner of the keyboard, same button as number 0), the insertion starts again, so it stops overwriting.

Marvin Israel

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Mar 1, 2015, 7:19:17 PM3/1/15
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This solved my problem; none of the other suggestions worked.

Andrea Gaylord

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Mar 8, 2015, 7:03:55 PM3/8/15
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I was having this problem also.  I am using Chrome on Windows and on a Dell Laptop.  I don't have an "insert" button, but I held the function key (Fn) and pressed my print screen key (PrtScr) and it turned overwrite off.  Hope you got it figured out!

Vikki Searle

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Mar 11, 2015, 4:31:34 PM3/11/15
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This worked for me - genius.
Thanks Erin

Bo Brown

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Apr 8, 2015, 8:31:22 PM4/8/15
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I'm going to go ahead and post this because there seems to be a problem that nobody is addressing but one poor soul mentioned (that I could find).  This is only in gmail.

I too have an APPLE keyboard.  The APPLE keyboard does not sport an "insert" key--at least, not one that is labeled.  The insert text feature (as opposed to overwrite) seems to be shut off rather randomly in gmail, and without an insert key, I am at the mercy of it being randomly turned back on.

I thought I found the solution, because I used control-caps lock and it started inserting again, but could not turn it back on. However, when I used the "home" key, overwrite did turn back on, but -- wait for it -- I cannot turn it off again.  So, as I said, apparently completely random.

I have tried all the F# keys, and all the combos I can think of with control, apple and alt/option keys.  The simplest solution would be if there were say, an easily accessible tools and options section on Google.  Yeah, I can dream.  So far, this board is as far as I can get.

Finally, I have been able to work around this by putting in a "return" before where I want to add text, adding the text at the end of the line and then removing the return with a backspace.

If someone has solved this with an Apple keyboard and/or knows how to find the tools in Chrome, maybe they can post here.  Thanks so much.

Bo

Zack (Doc)

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Apr 8, 2015, 8:37:15 PM4/8/15
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When I searched the internet for "apple keyboard insert key", not only was it a top suggestion (meaning other people search for it), but it had lots of responses.  Here's the first one... Does this not work as advertised?


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Bo Brown

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Apr 10, 2015, 5:04:14 PM4/10/15
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Hi, Zack. I'm sorry, I'm between jobs and completely at loose ends right now so didn't respond earlier. It was a faint hope that there was an answer to this problem, and I thank you for trying.

I did that search, too, but it doesn't make any sense to me.  Cut and paste into Linux?  What?  LOL.  And PS, it does not work.  And the second person's response references an Fn key, which I believe is only on laptops, and I can't get the F# keys to cooperate.  Also, using "clear" does not turn off numlock as promised, so there's that.

I worked on a Windows system at my job, and we have Macs (and Linux) at home, so now I've brought my Windows system home and it's interfaced for use with the Mac keyboard and monitor, and I'm having all kinds of learning pains.

FYI, I am trolling around that website to see if I can find a way to program one of the F# keys, so maybe I'll be able to post something.  But I'm holding out faint hope.  Thanks again.


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Tara B

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Apr 18, 2015, 8:38:21 PM4/18/15
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It was happening to me just now...... I had to do the "Cap Locks" and "Insert" at the same time to turn it off 

Timothy Dong

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Apr 29, 2015, 9:09:24 PM4/29/15
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The insert + caps lock combination worked for me!  Thanks!

raquel

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May 17, 2015, 12:12:47 PM5/17/15
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FUNCTION key + INSERT key
on Windows 8 + Chrome


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elizabeth Hitson

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Jun 4, 2015, 4:43:46 PM6/4/15
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Aaron - pressing the "insert" key worked after all other options. Thanks!

Sarah Levy

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Jun 27, 2015, 10:41:41 PM6/27/15
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This helped. Thanks

Texchanchan

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Jun 18, 2017, 7:22:21 AM6/18/17
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fn-Insert worked for me. I tried Insert (which is on the Delete key), Shift-Insert, Ctrl-Insert, Alt-Insert, Caps Lock-Insert and none of them worked, but fn-Insert worked. Using gmail in Chrome under Windows 10 on an Asus laptop. 
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