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: Selecting a Word.

Selecting a Word

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 10, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you are using a mouse, Word provides a shortcut to select an entire word. To do this, follow these two steps:

Using the mouse pointer, point to the word you want to select.
Double-click on the mouse.

If you want to select additional words, hold down the mouse button after the second click and drag the mouse across them. Word adds one word at a time to your selection. Once the words are selected, you can do any other editing function on those words.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1278) 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: Selecting a Word.

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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