Selecting Text: Part 1

Using your keyboard

We select text mostly the same way we move around it (see the Navigating Text tutorial), only this time we'll hold down the Shift key () when we press our key combinations.

Getting used to the methods of selecting text in this tutorial will save you a lot of time when writing, editing, and formatting text.

Keys used:

• Arrow keys (Up ↑, Right →, Left ←, Down ↓)
• Shift key ()
• Option key ()
• Command key ()

Selecting characters and words

Selecting single characters is easy: all you do is put your cursor beside the character you want to select, then press Shift + Right or Shift + Left. To select a whole word, put the cursor at the beginning of the word and press Option + Shift + Right, or at the end of the word and press Option + Shift + Left. Give it a try. If your cursor is in the middle of a word, you can select to the beginning or to the end of the word, too.

Selecting lines

To select to the start of or to the beginning of a line, use Shift + Command + Left or Right. Selecting lines up and down has a twist, though. Shift + Up or Down will select up to the cursor's position on the next line. So, if you are at the start of a line, Shift + Up will select up to the start of the line above (the whole line above the cursor). It may sound confusing, but try it out and it should make sense in no time.

Selecting paragraphs and documents

Selecting paragraphs works a lot like selecting lines. There are only two differences: 1. The shortcut for selecting a paragraph is Option + Shift + Up or down 2. This shorcut selects paragraphs instead of lines. (No big surprise there!) To select up to the beginning or down to the end of a document, use Shift + Command + Up or down.

Practice

Here are a few short paragraphs that you can use to get used to selecting text using your keyboard. There is a fair bit of material here, so don't feel bad if you can't retain it all immediately. You can bookmark this page and brush up on your crazy keyboard character capturing whenever you wish. Once these shortcuts come naturally to you, and you use them along with cutting, pasting, bolding, italicising, and so on, you should notice that working with text isn't such a chore--well, at least it will be a chore that doesn't take as long as it used to take.

Now that you're a master of selecting text with your keyboard, you'd better take a look at Part 2 of this tutorial to see what your mouse has to offer.

Part 2: Using Your Mouse >>