What Does the Auto Attack Button do?

[Bixby]

Hitting tab doesn't put you in combat. All that does is target an enemy. Auto-attack is active while you're in combat with an enemy. It's active while you're out of range or stunned or facing the wrong way, too, it's just not actually going to happen (no sword swinging) until those conditions end.

Auto-attack is a toggle. You can turn it on by itself by right-clicking an enemy, targeting an enemy and hitting the Confirm button on a gamepad, or targeting an enemy and using the Auto-Attack button. Or you can turn it on by performing any DoW (i.e., not Aero; DoM skill) skill that takes an enemy as a target (i.e., not Cure or Convalescence; player/self-target, not Flash; no target required). As long as auto-attack is on, you will be swinging your sword (or axe or fists or lance or bow) at regular intervals without any further action.

Once it's on, it's on until one of the following occurs:
-You die
-The enemy dies
-You turn it off (via the Auto Attack button, or sheathing your weapon)
-You or the enemy run far enough away that you exit combat and autosheathe your weapon

[CrisGer]

OK yes i know that arrow thing well. thanks very much i do appreciate the help, as i said, sometimes it takes me time to figure things out, and I would rather learn what is actually going on and look dumb rather than BE dumb and keep quiet because i am too shy to ask ..thanks so much again. I have been using the TAB target select but i do see the same thing with the arrows. I will try the right click way.