Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Quickly Selecting Text.

Quickly Selecting Text

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 30, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

You already know that you can use the mouse to select text by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse to make a selection. There is an even quicker way to select text using the mouse, however. This is done in the following manner:

Position the insertion point where you want the selection to begin.
Move the mouse cursor so it points to where you want the selection to end.
Hold down the Shift key as you click once on the left mouse button.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (973) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Quickly Selecting Text.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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