Comment 2 for bug 638503

"OpenOffice.org Writer handles this a better way: selecting the word does not select the nearest space, but deleting or dragging automatically deletes or moves the adjacent space as well. That works for the retyping and formatting cases as well as the deleting and dragging cases, and even with OOo's vast array of options, it doesn't have -- or need -- an option for it."

Matthew's idea is way better. Do the fix that way.