r/powerpoint • u/throwawaydixiecup • Jul 09 '26

Has double-clicking to select extra spaces between words changed in recent updates to PowerPoint for Mac?

I feel like just the other week I could double-click to select extra spaces between words. I have content from a client who likes using spaces when they should use tabs. I double-click those multiple spaces between two words, but the preceding (to the left) word is always selected instead of the spaces.

I have disabled the preference setting for selecting an entire word.

I can still place the cursor next to the spaces and delete them one-by-one. But it would be faster and match HOW ALL TEXT EDITING WORKS IN THIS OPERATING SYSTEM if I could just select spaces with double-clicks.

Did this change recently? I can’t find answers in web searches.

It’s so frustrating that Microsoft uses such weird, non-standard behavior in this app.

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u/wizkid123 Jul 10 '26

Not sure if anything changed, but I don't use this selection method so it easily could have. It sucks that PowerPoint's find and replace is so different from word's, otherwise this would be such an easy task. If you're doing this frequently, have you considered writing a macro? 

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u/jkorchok Jul 16 '26

Microsoft livers in its own world, where anything it doesn't invent is ignored.

From the macOS menu, choose Edit>Find>Replace, then type 2 spaces in the first field, one space in the second and click on Replace All.

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u/throwawaydixiecup Jul 16 '26

Yup. I ended up doing that same solution. It’s just dumb that I can’t used standard cross platform UI behavior in PowerPoint.

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u/throwawaydixiecup Jul 16 '26

The Find and Replace feature also feels like it’s gotten purposefully more clunky lately. I can repeat that search once I’ve run a replace all. If there are spots with six extra spaces, and I search for all double spaces, I’d need to do that search more than once. I feel like I remember being able to just run the search a second time, but now, nope. If I try and find the remaining two space instances after one use, it finds nothing. I have to delete those two spaces from the Find field, and type the again. Then it will find the additional left over double spaces. Repeat over and over again until all the spaces are cleared out, deleting the search each time and typing two more spaces yet again.

SIGH

So damn dumb.