Ms Word Lesson 8

Select Text in Word

Selecting a text is one of the most important skill required while editing a word document. You can perform various operation on a selected text like you can delete it, copy it, move it, apply formatting to it, change its capitalization etc.

The most common method of selecting a text is to click and drag the mouse over the text you want to select. Following table lists down few other simple method which will help you in selecting text in different scenarios:

SN	Component & Selection Method
1	Selecting text between two points Click at the start of the block of text, hold down Shift, and click at the end of the block.
2	Selecting a single word Simply double click anywhere on the word you want to select.
3	Selecting a paragraph Simply triple click anywhere on the paragraph you want to select.
4	Selecting a sentence Hold down Ctrl key and click anywhere in the sentence you want to select.
5	Selecting a column of text Hold down Alt, click and hold the mouse button, and drag over the column you want to select.

Note that only one part of the document can be in selected state. If you have one portion of the document in selected state and as soon as you try to select any other part of the document, previous part will automatically be de-selected.

Using the Selection Bar:

The black shaded area in the following screen shot is called selection bar. When you bring your cursor in this area, it turns into a rightward-pointing arrow.

You can use selection bar to select various components of a document as described in the following table:

SN	Component & Selection Method
1	Selecting a line Bring your mouse in selection bar area and click in front of the line you want to select.
2	Selecting a paragraph Bring your mouse in selection bar area and double click in front of the paragraph you want to select.
3	Selecting the document Bring your mouse in selection bar area and triple click.

Using the keyboard:

Keyboard provides very good support when you want to select various components of the document as described in the following table:

SN	Key & Selection Method Selecting Text
1	Ctrl + A Press Ctrl + A keys to select the entire document.
2	Shift Keep pressing Sift key and use any of the arrow keys to select the text.
3	F8 Press F8 and then use any of the arrows keys to select the text.
4	Ctrl + Shift + F8 Press Ctrl + Shift + F8 and then use any of the arrows keys to select column of the text.

Delete Text in Word

It is very common to delete text and retype the content in your word document. You might type something you did not want to type or there is something extra which is not required in the document. Regardless of the reason, Word offers you various ways of deleting the text in partial or complete content of the document.

Using Backspace & Delete Keys:

The most basic deletion technique is to delete characters one at a time by pressing either backspace or delete keys. Following table describes how you can delete single character or whole word by using either of these two keys:

SN	Keys & Deletion Methods
1	Backspace Keep the insertion point just after the character you want to delete and press backspace key. Word deletes the character immediately to the left of the insertion point.
2	Ctrl + Backspace Keep the insertion point just after the word you want to delete and press Ctrl + Backspace key. Word deletes the whole word immediately to the left of the insertion point.
3	Delete Keep the insertion point just before the character you want to delete and press delete key. Word deletes the character immediately to the right of the insertion point.
4	Ctrl + Delete Keep the insertion point just before the word you want to delete and press Ctrl + Delete key. Word deletes the word immediately to the right of the insertion point.

Using Selection Method:

You have learnt how to select various parts of a word document. You can make use of that learning to delete those selected parts as described in the following table:

SN	Component Selection & Delete Methods
1	Deleting text between two points Click at the start of the block of text, hold down Shift, and click at the end of the block to select the text and finally press either backspace or delete key.
2	Deleting a single word Simply double click anywhere on the word you want to delete and finally press either backspace or delete key.
3	Deleting a paragraph Simply triple click anywhere on the paragraph you want to delete and finally press either backspace or delete key.
4	Deleting a sentence Hold down Ctrl key and click anywhere in the sentence you want to delete and finally press either backspace or delete key.
5	Deleting a column of text Hold down Alt, click and hold the mouse button, and drag over the column you want to delete and finally press either backspace or delete key.
6	Deleting a line Bring your mouse in selection bar area and click in front of the line you want to delete and finally press either backspace or delete key.
7	Deleting entire document content Press Ctrl + A keys to delete the entire document and finally press either backspace or delete key.

Note: The black shaded area in the following screen shot is called selection bar. When you bring your cursor in this area, it turns into a rightward-pointing arrow.