Non-consentual page moving. What is it called?

[DavidGYoung]

I am trying to find a solution to the most annoying feature of Open Office Writer, but I do not know what it is called. Here is the description. What search terms should I use?

I want to copy a portion of text.
The beginning of the text is near the top of the screen.
There is a page break below the beginning.
When I place the cursor at the beginning and hold down the left mouse button, the screen automatically moves down a couple of lines without my consent and selects the text at an earlier point.

What is this annoying feature called? I need to know so I can find out how to turn the thing off permanently.

Why on earth did anyone introduce it in the first place, let alone set it as the default?

[JeJe]

Do you mean when you click on a partially visible line at the top of the screen it scrolls up a few lines so it and the preceding few lines are visible?

(But if the line is fully visible it doesn't happen)

[DavidGYoung]

No.

I mean when I click on a completely and utterly visible line where there is at least another line above it but it still scrolls a couple of lines downwards anyway.

I have seen the phenomenon you describe, but this is something else.

However, if you can tell me what that other phenomenon is, so I can switch that off as well, that would be greatly appreciated.

[Villeroy]

Please upload a document where you observe this behaviour and tell us where to click. [Forum] How to attach a document here. We have really no idea what you are talking about.

[DavidGYoung]

I cannot show you it happening after it happens. I would need to be recording the screen as a video file at the precise moment it happens to be able to show it.

However, the related feature in which clicking on a partially visible line automatically scrolls the screen down is also something I would like to switch off. What is that called and where do I find how to disable it?

[Villeroy]

It does not happen to me. I have no idea what you mean.

[DavidGYoung]

If anyone has seen the phenomenon that JeJe asked about in the second post on this thread, could they please explain how to switch it off? The one I am referring to is quite similar.

[JeJe]

Next time it happens try and go back to where you were and discover the conditions needed to replicate it.

Nothing in the options that I can see to change the behaviour of scrolling when a line is only partially visible I'm afraid - it looks like you'd have to rewrite the software itself to change that behaviour. It happens in both LibreOffice and OpenOffice.

Wordpad shows the partially hidden line fully.
Word does it sometimes - but only a line or so.

Edit:
Notepad never shows partial lines so it can't happen.

Edit 2:
AbiWord does the same as WordPad and shows the partially hidden line fully.

[RoryOF]

I note that if one clicks on a half line displayed at screen top, the screen scrolls downward several lines so that partially displayed line is now about 1/3 of the way down the screen and fully displayed. However, the cursor is still in the (formerly) partially displayed line at the click position, and if one continues to hold the mouse button down it shows a shading indicating selection from that cursor position to the top of the page. But pulling the cursor down unselects that text and continues the selection downward from the clicked position in the line in question.

I see no setting that can change the behaviour. I offer a little information which may be helpful:
A single mouse click positions the cursor between two letters, a double click selects the word under the cursor, a triple click selects the current sentence, and four consecutive clicks select the current paragraph.

I frequently find it easier to select text selecting from the end to the beginning, rather than conventionally top to bottom.

[Bill]

Why on earth did anyone introduce it in the first place, let alone set it as the default?

I can't reproduce this feature. Like described by RoryOF, no page scroll occurs when I click on a fully visible line. A scroll does occur when clicking a partially visible line, but the scroll is about 15 lines, not 2. Maybe it's something unique to your document, but without a sample document to test, we can't eliminate that possibility.

[JeJe]

The arrow keys do something similar... when at the bottom or top line the scroll position will jump several lines not just one. Thread:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=827

Requests for single line scrolling since 2002... but not many requests...