Section 3 - Selecting Text Overview

In order to make some changes to text in Microsoft Word you must select it first. Word provides many ways to select text. The selection bar is the empty space at the left hand margin of the text. The selection bar allows you to quickly select lines, paragraphs or the entire document without scrolling.

Click here to view the Microsoft Word 2000 window.

When you are in the selection bar area the pointer becomes a right pointing arrow. The following table demonstrates the actions used to select different sections of text.

To select the following	Do the following
A Word	Double-click mouse on word
A line	Click in selection bar beside the line
A paragraph	Double-click in selection bar
A block of text	Click at beginning of text block, hold down the <Shift>key and click at the end of text block
Entire document	Ctrl while clicking in selection bar or Press Ctrl A
Deselect a block of text	Click anywhere on white background
Press the Command Key () instead of Ctrl key when using a Macintosh.