Strange behavior of <Ctrl>+<Right> and <Ctrl>+<Left> in TexStudio editor

Question

I am using TeXstudio 3.0.1, Qt 5.12.1, under Windows 10.

Assume I have a tex file with schematic contents like this

...
text text text
\begin{equation}
    \label{eqn:1}
    \left( x \right) = 2 \left[ u^{-1} \log{u} \right]^{2/3} % <--- point 1
    \quad ,
\end{equation}
%
text \cite{art1} text text \ref{eqn:1} text text $\sin(x)$ text
...

If the cursor is at point 1 or before, hitting <Ctrl>+<Right> moves word-by-word. If the cursor is anywhere between the following character (i.e., the first blank in the line of \quad) and before the opening curly brace in \ref{eqn:1}, hitting <Ctrl>+<Right> moves before the closing curly brace, and eqn:1 is selected, jumping over whatever text is in between. Something similar happens when navigating a document with <Ctrl>+<Left> from after \ref{eqn:1}. (Note: I couldn't get the systematic of what commands or else act as hurdles for these long jumps, but it is irrelevant.)

I expect that <Ctrl>+<Right> and <Ctrl>+<Left> always navigate word-by-word.

Is this normal? Can this be changed? How?

Answer 1

Short answer: You are navigating between placeholders.

So delete your current placeholder with ctrl+shift+K.

Long answer is here: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/329725/how-to-remove-box-outlines-around-parenthesis-brackets-in-texstudio

Had the same problem and it drove me crazy.