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Selecting Text in Microsoft Word

Before doing many operations in MS Word, you have to highlight or select the text you want to work with. Once you select the text it is displayed inside a colored bar. (The text is in the opposite color.)

Clicking anywhere in the document removes the highlight and deselects the text.

Click and Drag

The easiest and most common way to select text is to click and drag the mouse cursor from the beginning of the selection to the end of the selection or the end of the selection to the beginning of the selection. This method is efficient to select a small amount of text.  


It's often easier to select from the end to the beginning.

Shift-Click

There are other selection methods that may be more precise or more efficient. For example, it is difficult to click and drag when there is more text than can fit on the screen. Word automatically scrolls (very fast) when you reach the top or bottom of the window.  

Here's an easy way to select large amounts of text: Click to put the flashing cursor at the beginning of the text you plan to select. Use the scroll bar to scroll to the end of the text (letting the flashing cursor at the beginning.) Hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the text. All of the text between the first click and the shift click is now selected.

Try these tips to improve your efficiency:

To select one word Double-click on the word to select the entire word.
To select an entire sentence Hold down the control key and click anywhere in the sentence.
To select an entire paragraph: Triple-click anywhere in the paragraph.  
To select the entire document:   Hold down the control key and hit A (or choose Select All from the Edit Menu).

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