Extend Selection Mode: MS Word

Many times I hear from people complaining that when they are trying to select a large block of text using Word, the text scrolls too quickly to accurately highlight the text.

When you try to select a block of text that spans multiple pages in a large document, the pages start to fly by at a speed that makes your head spin! Stopping where you want to end your highlighting is next to impossible. If you go past and then try to go back, the pages scroll just as fast in the opposite direction. What to do?

That's where Extend Selection Mode comes into play! There are a couple of ways to invoke Extend Mode. You can click where you want to start highlighting and either press the F8 key, or you can double-click EXT in your status bar.

Once you have invoked Extend Selection Mode, you can use the arrow keys and other navigation keys to extend the selection:

1. Press F8 repeatedly to enlarge the selection to the current word, sentence, paragraph, section or document.
    
2. Shift + F8 reverses the progression.
    
3. If you type a character, the selection extends to the next instance of that character which comes in handy for jumping to the end of a parenthetical phrase. If you perform a search, the selection will extend to include the found text.
    
4. Click somewhere in your document and the highlight will extend or shrink to that point.
    
5. You can also press Ctrl + Shift + F8 and then use the arrow keys or mouse to select a rectangular block of text.

Extend Selection Mode ends when you cut, copy or format the selection or press Esc.

Visit Carol's web site to learn more tips like this one!