What is causing Word to start selecting text while I type? Periodically while typing in Word on a 2019 MacBook Pro, my keystrokes are captured by some sort of search mode that causes them to select text instead. In the example below, while I was typing &quot;synonym&quot;, the letter &quot;n&quot; did not print to the screen, but caused the selection of text until the next &quot;n&quot; in the paragraph. Then when I typed the letter &quot;p&quot;, the selection expanded to cover the next letter &quot;p&quot;.



What is making me enter this mode and causing Word to select text by itself like this? Is it related to brushing the touchpad somehow?
Update: This seems to happen especially when I type the letter &quot;y&quot;. And it also happens in Outlook.
I asked and answered this question over at SuperUser. It turns out to be a Word shortcut for extending your selection, bound to F8. It only happens to me on the MacBook Pro touch bar, because of the much more sensitive function keys that I can brush when I type 'y'.
You can disable this shortcut by going to Tools &gt; Customize Keyboard, selecting the category &quot;All Commands&quot;, searching for &quot;ExtendSelection&quot;, and clicking Remove for the F8 hotkey.