Selecting only the text you need in Word

Within Word there are a number of ways to select text and some of them are:

A word	Double-click it
A line of text	Move the mouse pointer to the left of the line until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then click
A sentence	Hold down Ctrl and click anywhere in the sentence
A paragraph	Triple-click anywhere in the paragraph
Multiple paragraphs	Move the mouse pointer to the left of the first paragraph until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then press and hold down the left mouse button while you drag the mouse pointer up or down
An entire document	Move the mouse pointer to the left of any text until it changes to a right-pointing arrow, and then triple-click
A vertical block of text	Hold down ALT while you drag the mouse pointer over the text

If you don't want to use a mouse you can use the following keyboard commands to select with:

A word	Place the cursor at the beginning of the word, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW
A line of text	Press HOME, and then press SHIFT+END
A sentence	Hold down CTRL and click anywhere in the sentence
A paragraph	Move the cursor to the beginning of the paragraph, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW
An entire document	Press CTRL+A
From the beginning of a window to its end	Move the cursor to the beginning of the window, and then press ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+PAGE DOWN
A vertical block of text	Press CTRL+SHIFT+F8, and then use the arrow keys. Press ESC to turn off the selection mode
A word, a sentence, a paragraph, or a document	Press F8 to turn on selection mode, and then press F8 once to select a word, twice to select a sentence, three times to select a paragraph, or four times to select the document. Press ESC to turn off the selection mode

For more ways to select in Word take a look at Microsoft's Select text website.

These steps will work in both Word 2003 and Word 2007.

Happy selecting!

Comments

[Chas]

I am being driven up the wall by being unable to simply click on a SPACE between words or "inside" a word without highlighting an entire word. Yes, I have unchecked that box in Word options, advanced, highlight whole word. It doesn't work. Seemingly there is no way to simply click in a space between words or in the middle or a word and have nothing at all highlighted. I can't tell you how much work time this loses me and how frustrating it is. I am ready to try and switch to some other word processing program just on this one issue.