Highlighting / Selecting Text

Before existing text can be formatted, it must be selected or highlighted. Most often, people simply click and drag though the text they wish to select. Below are a few more efficient ways of selecting text:

1. To select a single word, simply double-click it.
2. To select a single sentence, press and hold the Ctrl key while clicking anywhere within the sentence.
3. To select a single line of text, move the mouse to the left of the line until the mouse pointer changes to a right-pointing block arrow, then click.
4. To select an entire document, press Ctrl + A.
5. To make multiple selections within a document, make the first selection using any of the methods decribed above. Then press and hold the Ctrl key while selecting the next section(s) by dragging.
6. To specify the beginning and end of a selection without holding the mouse button and dragging, simply place the cursor at one end of the desired selection, then, pressing Shift, click at the other end of the selection.

Open up a Word document and try playing with these methods for a while to get used to them. Once you get them down, you will find them easier to use and more precise than the simple drag-and-click routine.

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