Weekly Computer Tip # 51
31 January 2004


Tricks and shortcuts for

As we saw last week Microsoft Word provides a number of tricks and shortcuts for selecting blocks of text if using your mouse. However,

Did you know ...

You can select text by holding down [SHIFT] on your keyboard and pressing the key that moves the insertion point.

Here's how:

  • To select characters and/or lines: press [SHIFT] + [RIGHT] or [DOWN] arrow
  • To select words and/or paragraphs: [CTRL] + [SHIFT] +[RIGHT] or [DOWN] arrow
  • To select to start of line: [SHIFT] + [HOME]
  • To select to end of line: [SHIFT] + [END]
  • To select to start of document: [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [HOME]
  • To select to end of document: [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [END]

These are - I feel - the most commonly used, but there are many more. In general, if you know the key combination to move the insertion point, you can select the text by using the same key combination while holding down [SHIFT].

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