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The next most important operation in Word, after entering text, placing pictures and other content, is probably highlighting them in various ways. Almost every operation begins with the selection of something, whether it be text, an image, a table, or something else. Next, we will show several ways to highlight content in Word.
Using the keyboard
Using the keyboard, you can easily and quickly select content using the key Shift in combination with other keys. The table shows keyboard shortcuts for these purposes.
| To highlight… | Click… |
|---|---|
| One character to the right of the cursor | Shift + → |
| One character to the left of the cursor | Shift + ← |
| Content block from cursor to end of line | Shift + End |
| Content block from cursor to start of line | Shift + Home |
| Block of content from the cursor position to the same position one line above | Shift + ↑ |
| Block of content from the cursor position to the same position one line below | Shift + ↓ |
The following picture shows an example of using the key Shift combined with down arrow to select multiple lines.
In one of the articles, we talk about how to select an entire sentence at once.
Using the mouse
Selecting content with the mouse is a more familiar selection method and makes it easy to select large amounts of content. It is enough to move the mouse pointer to the beginning of the content you want to highlight and drag the mouse over it with the left button pressed. The content will be highlighted in color, i.e. selected. Drag the mouse pointer to the end of the desired block and release the mouse button – this will mark the end of the selection.
When you’ve finished selecting, a mini-toolbar will appear that allows you to quickly and easily adjust basic formatting options.
Use expandable selection mode (F8)
Pressing F8 in Word, turns on expandable selection mode. This anchors the cursor to its current location and is ready to begin selecting content. Move the cursor using the arrows on your keyboard to change the borders of the selection.
Expandable selection mode can be used to select different blocks of content. For example, a single click F8 turns on expandable selection mode. When you press F8 the second time, the current word is highlighted. Third press F8 highlights the current offer. Click F8 a fourth time, and the entire current paragraph will be selected. Press the fifth time – the entire document will be selected from beginning to end.
The status bar shows how many words are in the selection.
Word remains in expandable selection mode until you do something with the selection (such as formatting) or until you click Esc. If the expandable selection mode was terminated by some action on the content, then the selection is deselected. If you exit expandable selection mode by pressing Esc, the content will remain selected and you can do something with it.
Sometimes you need to highlight an inconsistent piece of text. For example, it is necessary to allocate a certain number of characters in each line. To do this, click Ctrl+Shift+F8 and use the arrows on your keyboard to highlight the desired content.
If you want to use not the arrows, but the mouse to select a fragment, then after pressing F8 highlight content along with key pressed Alt. The selection will occur in the same way as after pressing Ctrl+Shift+F8.
Remember that after launching expandable selection mode, you need to do something with the selected content, or press Escto exit this mode.
Selecting the entire document
You can quickly select the contents of an entire document. If your document is very long, then a special command to quickly select the entire document will be very useful. To do this, open the tab Home (Home). In chapter Editing (Editing) click Highlight (Select) and from the drop-down menu select Select all (Select All). This will select the entire document.
You can also use keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Ato select the entire document, provided that the cursor is in the document (anywhere in it). Team Select all (Select All) or pressing Ctrl + A similar to pressing F8 Five times.