What practical use does the ‘overtype’ function on a computer serve? It honestly seems more annoying than helpful

Question

What practical use does the ‘overtype’ function on a computer serve? It honestly seems more annoying than helpful

In: 26

Answer 1

Have you ever filled in a form using a word processor like Microsoft Word? If the field you’re filling in is within some sort of box, or on a line, you will notice that the new text pushes the symbols afterwards across the page, and it messes up the entire form.

Instead, you can “insert” the text in place by replacing the character underneath. This maintains the format of the document but allows you to type freely.

Nowadays, it isn’t as useful for most people, but this was a very common issue a few decades back.