Tips for making selections in Word and Excel

When you are using Microsoft Word to create a document, you often wish to select some text in preparation for making some changes to its formatting (ie making it bold or underlined or italic or even a combination of formats).  So many times during my training career, I have seen Word users using the 'drag over' method to select text or even a single word.  In other words, they put the insertion point (the 'I' icon) before (or after) the word, hold down the left mouse button and then move the 'I' icon across the word to select it.  It works, but it is a bit tedious.  Here are a few tips for you to try;

Let's use the saying "The fat cat sat on the mat" as some example text

1. To select the single word "cat"- perform a double click anywhere in the word.
   
2. To select the sequential words "fat cat sat" - double click anywhere on the word "fat" (or "sat"), hold down the <Shift> key on your keyboard then double click on the word "sat" (or "fat").
   
3. To select the non-sequential words "fat", "sat" and "mat" - double click on "fat", hold down the <Ctrl> key on your keyboard, then double click on "sat" then "mat" with the <Ctrl> still held down.
   
4. To select all the text in a document - hold down the <Ctrl> and press the letter "A"

The above techniques also apply to selecting cells in an Excel spreadsheet.

Other selecting techniques you may wish to try in Word are available if you move the cursor to the left of the text until the cursor changes to the following;

1. A single click will select the entire line of text.
   
2. A double click will select an entire paragraph of text.
   
3. A triple click will select all the text in the document.

I find that these methods, for me personally, are the most used.