How to Use Selection Shortcuts in Microsoft Word

These shortcuts will help you work faster in any Word document. These instructions will work for most versions of Word.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Microsoft Word

1. To select a word, place the cursor anywhere within the word and double-click.

2. To select an entire line, place the cursor in the left margin (the cursor becomes a left-pointing arrow), then point at the line and click.

3. To select an entire paragraph, place the cursor anywhere within the paragraph and triple-click.

4. To select an entire document, place the cursor anywhere within the document, and press Command A or Ctrl + A. Alternatively, go to the Edit menu and click Select All.

5. To select an irregular area, click once at the beginning of the selection, then Shift-click at the end of the selection.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also select a paragraph by placing the cursor in the left margin (the cursor becomes a left-pointing arrow), pointing at the paragraph and double-clicking.
• You can also select the document by placing the cursor in the left margin (the cursor becomes a left-pointing arrow), pointing at the document text and triple-clicking.

on 11/22/2005 Select the paragraph and press Alt + Up Arrow to move your paragraph or row up without using the cut and paste function.

You can also use Alt + Down Arrow to move it down.

on 11/22/2005 Highlight the text you want to delete. Then click either Enter or the space bar. It's gone. I don't know why Microsoft doesn't tell us about this.