June 26, 2002

Highlighting in Word Processors and Just About Anything Else

This Tutor Tip combines several common highlighting techniques for most word processors and other programs. Some of these will even work in programs where you wouldn't expect them to work, so try them out wherever you can. Keep in mind some of these tips won't work in every program.

Highlighting Words, Lines and Paragraphs

Here are some tips for quick text highlighting in your documents:

1. To highlight a word, double-click it.
2. To highlight a single line, click once directly to the left of the line, in the margin.
3. To highlight an entire paragraph, double-click directly to the left of the paragraph, anywhere in the margin; or triple click anywhere in the paragraph.

Here are two ways to highlight an undefined area of text (other than the obvious, and sometimes cumbersome, click and drag):

1. Place the cursor at the beginning of the text, then hold down Shift and click at the end of what you want to select.
2. Place the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to select, and then, while holding down Shift, use the arrow keys to expand the selection.

Highlighting an Entire Document

Here are three options for selecting the entire document:

1. Press Ctrl-A
2. Triple-click in the left margin
3. Place the cursor at the beginning of the document and press Ctrl-Shift-End.