In the last article, we looked at keyboard shortcuts for quickly and conveniently moving the cursor through text. Here there is a place to tell about how to select any parts of the text and fragments of any configuration.

What is text selection.

I think you have already noticed the general concept and logic that can be traced in the use of "hot keys" when working with text. Thanks to this, combinations and their corresponding actions are very easy to remember. If you understand the logic of moving through the text using the keyboard, then it will not be difficult to master the techniques for selecting text and its fragments.

So what is selection? Text selection is an operation that allows you to select a piece of text for further work with it - copy, cut, delete, move. The size of such a fragment is not limited in any way - it can be either the selection of one character, word, line, page, or the entire document.

I assume you already know what it is. But I'll tell you anyway. Highlighting is typically displayed as coloring the selection of text in a different color, usually in complete contrast to the normal current background and text colors. Since the classic color scheme is most often used - black text on a white background, then when highlighting, the colors are inverted - black (or blue) background and white text.

Selecting text with the mouse

Most often, users use the mouse to select text. Selecting text with the mouse can be indispensable where you need to select non-editable text, such as on a web page.

To select text with the mouse, you need to hold down the left button and move the cursor over the text fragment that you want to select. It is possible that this the only way which you are using. But the fact is that this method is not the only and not always the most effective, especially when you work with editable text.

Judge for yourself. Let's say this situation: you are typing or editing text, and you need to completely delete the line on which in this moment there is a cursor. Of course, it will be faster and more efficient to do this only with the help of the keyboard by pressing three keys than to reach for the mouse, aim and select the desired fragment. Therefore, we will stop at such combinations.

How to select words, paragraphs, lines and arbitrary text fragments with the mouse.

But first, let's talk about mouse selection. The standard way, which works almost everywhere, is double and triple left-clicking. A double click allows you to select the word on which it is made, and a triple click allows you to select a paragraph. True, the behavior of a triple click may differ in different applications. For example, in a MS Word word processor or in a browser Mozilla Firefox, triple-clicking allows you to select exactly a paragraph of text, and in some applications this technique selects a line. One way or another, wherever you need this feature, try it, and it will immediately become clear how it works.

In addition, the selection of the desired fragment of the edited text can be done as follows. Remember once and for all: always and everywhere, in any application, text selection is made using the Shift key. Excluding various consoles and command shells. But in them all the tricks differ from the standard work with text in classical graphic applications, which we are considering here.

I suggest that you use the following as a traditional selection with the left mouse button pressed: place the cursor at the beginning of the fragment to be selected, press the Shift key, and while holding it, click the mouse at the end of the desired fragment. In my opinion, this gives more precise control over the selection of a piece of text.

Selecting text with the keyboard.

And now about the most effective ways. You can select any piece of text using the combination of the Shift key with the arrow keys to control the cursor - Left, Right, Up, Down. In this case, the combinations Shift + Left and Shift + Right select the text character by character. Therefore, this method is suitable only for small fragments of text, part of a word, several characters. moreover, even for highlighting part of a word, it is not always the most effective, but more on that later.

Keys for highlighting lines of text

Shift+Up and Shift+Left combinations allow you to select text line by line, one line up and down from the cursor, respectively. It should be noted that if the initial position of the cursor is in the middle of the line, then such a combination will select a fragment from the middle of the line, starting from the place where the cursor is located, to the middle of the bottom or top line, respectively, to the place exactly above or below the cursor.

Next, let's remember the keys to go to the beginning (Home) and the end (End) of the line. Using them in conjunction with Shift will give the effect of selecting a fragment from the current cursor position to the beginning or end of the line, respectively.

Highlighting a single word.

I suppose you already understand the logic of text selection, so remembering the combinations of word-by-word movement through the text, you can display the corresponding word-by-word and paragraph-wise selection. Ctrl+Shift+Left (Right, up, down). But such a combination is already quite difficult. The position of the fingers for him is the left little finger - the left Ctrl, the left ring finger - the left Shift, and the right little finger to the desired arrow key. Here the difficulty can be represented by pressing ctrl and shift at the same time. But in any case, it needs to be mastered, because it is used not only when working with text, but also in many other combinations.

Pagination

To do this, use the shift+pgUp and shift+pgDown keys to select the page up and down, respectively.

The combinations Ctrl+Shift+Home and Ctrl+Shift+Home will allow you to select the entire document from the current cursor position to the beginning or to the end.

How to select all text.

Selecting all editable text at once can be done using the Ctrl + a combination. And this combination works not only for text. Let's say you can select a complete web page with it. The same combination can be used in operations with files and folders, which you can learn about in the corresponding article.

Delete selected text.

Any selected text fragment can be completely deleted with the Delete, Backspace keys, and in this case they will work the same way. Selected text can be replaced by pasting, or by typing a replacement fragment on the keyboard.

Now you can effectively edit text without using the mouse at all. And if you use these methods, you will notice very soon that the speed of working with text has increased significantly.

It remains to master the combinations for copying, cutting and pasting, if you do not already use them.

How to select all text at once in a Word document, on a website or in any text editor?

Press and hold the Ctrl key, then press the A key. All text will be selected. This keyboard shortcut also works in other programs and browsers, not only in Microsoft Word. The keyboard shortcut "CTRL+A" (meaning the Latin letter A) replaces the menu action "Edit" > "Select All". Please note that absolutely everything will be selected, including various links and even pictures. But you can always deselect by holding down the "Shift" key and selecting only the desired piece of text.

If you are not satisfied with the selection of everything and everyone on the page of the site or document, it is better to use this technique:

• using the left mouse button, select one fragment of the page;

• then move the pointer to the next fragment;

• press the "Ctrl" key and, without releasing it, select the next fragment. After that, the "Ctrl" key must be released.

It is very important when selecting several fragments of text at the same time, first press the "Ctrl" key, and only then, while holding this key down, proceed to select the next fragment.

This method allows you to select any number of text fragments. In addition, this method is convenient in MS Excel tables to simultaneously select several table cells that are far from each other.

If you're using Mac OS, just use "Command + A" - it works similar to the keyboard shortcut for Windows.

The duo of the mouse and keyboard is obtained when the user uses the mouse at the same time as the keyboard in his work.

Let's look from a computer literacy point of view, how you can use the mouse along with keyboard keys such as Shift and Ctrl, and what this gives the user to increase the efficiency and convenience of his work on the computer.

How to highlight a piece of text?

Shift key when pressed, allows you to enter not lowercase (small) letters, but uppercase (capital) letters.

But if this key is used simultaneously with the mouse, then it allows select entire chunks of text, for example, in Word or Notepad. This can be used to later copy the selection to the clipboard. For this you need:

• First move the mouse cursor to the beginning of the selected fragment.

• Click the left mouse button and release it. A cursor icon will appear.

• Then press the Shift key on the keyboard and, holding it down, move the mouse cursor to the end of the selected fragment, and then click the left mouse button.

The page fragment will be highlighted. Very useful for selecting large text fragments that do not fit in the visible part of the window.

How to select text in parts?

Ctrl key(abbreviation of the English word Control - in this context it is translated as "special") allows you to enter special characters from the keyboard. And when used simultaneously with the mouse, this key allows select multiple sections of text at once.

It works like this:

• First, using the left mouse button, select one fragment of the page.

• Then move the mouse pointer to the next fragment.

• Press the Ctrl key and, without releasing it, select the next fragment. After that, the Ctrl key must be released.

It is very important when selecting several fragments of text at the same time, first press the Ctrl key, and only then, while holding this key down, proceed to select the next fragment.

If you do not press Ctrl, but immediately start selecting a new fragment (by clicking on the left mouse button), then the previous text selections will be canceled, since computer program interprets clicking the left mouse button (if the Ctrl key is not pressed) as canceling all previously made text selections.

This method allows you to select any number of fragments in the Word editor or Notepad.

In addition, this service is very convenient when using MS Excel spreadsheets to simultaneously select several table cells that are not next to each other.

How to move text?

By using Ctrl keys you can not only select, but also move and copy text fragments.

• To do this, in the MS Word text editor, you can select a part of the text, move the mouse cursor to this selected fragment.

• If you then press and hold down the left mouse button, then by moving the mouse, this piece of text can be moved to another part of the editable text.

Similarly, you can, for example, rearrange words in the text.

How to move text with safety net?

But if you need the moved piece of text to be preserved in the old place, then it is enough to hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard while moving.

In this case, a small plus sign (+) will appear under the mouse pointer, which means automatic creating a copy of the selected text fragment. It will be copied to the new location and, in addition, saved to the old location.

How to increase text size?

A very interesting effect can be observed with the simultaneous use of Ctrl keys and mouse wheel.

If you press and hold the Ctrl key and simultaneously turn the wheel, then the image visible on the monitor screen

• either will increase when rotating the wheel "away from you",
• or decrease when turning the wheel towards you.

This method is very useful when reading texts with small print or when browsing Internet pages that also use small fonts.

I think many will agree that information is absorbed better when it is presented on a scale that is comfortable for perception, and

Thus, we see that the capabilities of the mouse manipulator, including when used simultaneously with the keyboard, are much greater than when it is normally used only in combination with the left button.

How to copy and paste text?

But that's not all. You can use the keyboard to perform frequently repeated actions.

For example, when editing texts, you often have to copy selected text fragments, and then paste them to other parts of the document, or to other documents being edited at the same time.

In this case, it is convenient to use keyboard shortcuts:

(Such keyboard shortcuts are written in computer literature as Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.)

In this case, the mouse is used first to select the fragment to be copied, and then to indicate the place where this fragment should be inserted. And the processes of copying and pasting are performed by pressing the specified keys.

How to press multiple key combinations correctly?

By the way, please note that if any key combination is specified (for example, Ctrl + C), then first you need to press the first key indicated in the combination (in this example, this is the Ctrl key), and then, while holding this key pressed , you should press the second key (in our case, this is the key with the image of the Latin letter C).

They also act if a combination of three keys is specified at the same time. They are pressed sequentially from the first to the third: first the first key, then, without releasing it, press the second, and finally, without releasing the first two keys, press the third key.

After the operation is completed, all keys can be released at the same time. But if they are pressed at the same time, then the expected result may not work.

It should also be noted that Latin symbols are always indicated in keyboard shortcuts. This does NOT mean that when using a keyboard shortcut, you should include case to enter English text.

Keyboard shortcuts work regardless of which keyboard layout is currently enabled.

Latin names of keys are written in such keyboard shortcuts so that they are understandable to users from any country speaking any language.

Who needs hotkeys and why?

Oddly enough, advanced users very often prefer to use the Ctrl and Shift key combinations with other keyboard keys (this is called the term "), and this is especially often used when editing images.

From a household point of view, the mouse is the most suitable for editing images, since its use provides greater clarity.

But it turns out that for those who are professionally engaged in "drawing" or "drawing" on a computer, in many cases it is faster and easier to use "hot keys", since they provide the speed, accuracy and quality of performing specific operations assigned to these keys.

Ctrl combinations with other keyboard keys in different programs can have different meanings. However, gradually these shortcuts are being standardized.

For example, in many programs the combination Ctrl+A means "select entire document".

The combinations described above are similar in many respects.

• ctrl+c("copy"),
• ctrl+v("insert")

"Hot keys" are not only combinations of Ctrl with other keys, but also just individual keys. For example, pressing a key Del(short for English Delete - “delete”) almost always means removal selected section of the document.

As "hot keys" a combination is used not only with the Ctrl key, but also with the Shift key. The keys F1-F12, etc. are also used for this.

An easy way to learn keyboard shortcuts

You can easily find out the purpose of the "hot keys" if you pay attention to the main menu of the program. You will see that next to some names of menu items, there is also a keyboard shortcut that performs this action.

For example, if in Notepad (Start->Programs->Accessories->Notepad) click on the word "File" in the main menu, then in the window that opens next to the action "Create" the key combination Ctrl + N will be written, next to "Save" – Ctrl+S etc.

Thus, if you gradually master the combinations of "hot keys" and keyboard shortcuts that work simultaneously with the mouse, this will allow you to more confidently, quickly and professionally enter and edit texts, images and other elements of information.

Computer literacy exercises

Exercise 1.

Using the hotkeys Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, copy the text of this article along with the computer literacy exercises and place it in a text editor (for example, Notepad).

Hint 1: Select the text of this task No. 1 using the keyboard. True, you need a mouse to use it to set the cursor to the left of the first character of the selected fragment.

After setting the cursor, release the mouse, press the Shift key and, holding it down, move the cursor using the keyboard (right arrow key) to the end of the selection. The fragment will be highlighted.

Task 2.

Select only using the keyboard the text of task No. 2.

Hint 2: To do this, use the mouse to place the cursor to the left of the first character of the sentence.

Hold down the Shift key and press the down arrow key once, then repeatedly press (or press and hold once) the right arrow key to select the text up to the period "." - End of sentence.

If you "skip" the end of the sentence and select more than necessary, then, while continuing to hold the Shift key, cancel the extra selection by pressing the "left arrow" key.

Feel how text is selected or deselected by arbitrarily moving the cursor down, up, left, and right while holding down the Shift key.

Understand how you can do without a mouse to perform operations to select text fragments.

Task 3.

Highlight the 1st and 3rd sentences in the text of task No. 2.

Hint 3: To do this, first select the 1st sentence with the mouse, press and hold down the Ctrl key, move the mouse cursor to the beginning of the 3rd sentence, then, without releasing Ctrl, select the 3rd sentence in the text.

If you do the 3rd exercise directly on this web page and it doesn't work, the reason may be in the browser. Try all the same to do not on the Internet page, but in a text editor.

Task 4.

Using the "hot keys" Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V, copy the text of task No. 3 into your document created using the MS Word editor or in Notepad.

Hint 4: To do this, select (by any method now known to you) this piece of text, press the hot key combination Ctrl + C (first press Ctrl, then, while holding it down, press the key with the image of the Latin letter C, regardless of the installed keyboard layout).

After that, go to the MS Word editor or Notepad, create a new document, place the cursor at the beginning of the document and press the key combination Ctrl + V.

The text you copied should appear on the screen if everything was done without errors. See what happens if you press Ctrl+V again.

Task 5(Last but very important!).

Try increasing or decreasing the font size on your screen using the mouse wheel and the Ctrl key..
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The Internet is a huge world where everyone will find something valuable for themselves. Some people like to watch videos on, others prefer to chat on thematic forums, and still others use the World Wide Web as an encyclopedia. Indeed, here you can find so much valuable information that you won’t be able to read in a lifetime. We save some important files in Text Document. Fortunately, browsers allow you to select both entire pages and individual fragments, words or even letters. But not all PC users know how to do it. But don't worry, we'll help you!

Selection: various ways

• Popular browsers (, Google Chrome, Opera and Internet Explorer) do not differ at all in this regard. If you need to copy some fragment in the text on the site, then just move the mouse arrow to initial word and highlight desired text. On most sites, such a background around the text changes its color, although on some, no change is noticeable at all - it depends on the preferences of the owners of Internet resources. By the way, text cannot be copied on some sites - this is a kind of protection against theft of articles, which is very easy to get around (the text can be found through the code using the CTRL + U key combination and further search).

• If you want to select all the text on the page at once, then you don’t even need a mouse for this. Just press the key combination CTRL + A (meaning the Latin letter A). The same can be done by selecting "Edit" - "Select All" in the browser menu. But consider one important point- absolutely everything will be selected, including various links and even pictures. However, you can always deselect by holding down the Shift key and selecting the desired piece of text. All of this fully applies to documents Microsoft office word.

• If you are not satisfied with the selection of everything and everything on the page of the site or document, then we recommend that you do the following. Select the text, click on the left mouse button next to the first word of the article or paragraph. Then hold down the Shift key and hold. Now find the last word in a paragraph or article, press the left mouse button next to it and only now can you release Shift. Thus, you have selected the fragment you need. You can find more details about this method in the screenshot below:

Sometimes it happens that you have to work with text in any of the editors using only the keyboard. Let's say the mouse is broken, and you need to print the document immediately, there is no time to go to the store. In addition, in hotel situations, you can perform any actions using the keyboard much faster. No wonder the manufacturers of many programs add to them the function of the so-called hot keys. In this article, we will look at how to select text using the keyboard, as well as generally ways to work on a computer without using a mouse.

Highlighting a test using a keyboard on a laptop

In the event that you use a laptop or netbook for work, you can select text using the keys in the following ways:

1. Place the cursor at the beginning of the fragment that needs to be selected. You can do this by sliding your finger across the TouchPad. Next, you need to hold down the Shift key and move the cursor to the end of the fragment.
2. You can also place the cursor at the beginning of the text by holding down the left button on the TouchPad and move it to the end of the passage.

How to highlight text using the keyboard while working on a PC

If you work on a computer, selecting text without using the mouse is also easy. To do this, you need to move the cursor to the beginning of the fragment, using the arrows. Next, hold down the Shift key. Without releasing it, select the text using the same arrows. In this case, when you click on "right" or "left", the selection area will move one character in the corresponding direction, when you click "down" or "up" - on the line. To select one word, place the cursor in front of it and use the combination Ctrl + Shift + right arrow.

How to highlight paragraphs

To select a paragraph above the cursor, use the combination Ctrl + Shift + up arrow. The paragraph after that will be selected to the very beginning, regardless of where the cursor is, at its end or somewhere in the middle. To select a paragraph to the end, you need to press the key combination Ctrl + Shift + down arrow.

How to highlight pages and all text at once

In order to select the entire page at once, you need to use the Shift + pgUp combinations if the cursor is at the bottom of it. If it is located at the top of the page, you should use the Shift + pgDown combination.

Now look at the keyboard right away. It is very easy to do this. You need to press Ctrl+A. Further, everything printed can be deleted, centered, copied to, or some other similar action can be performed. How to do this without using the mouse, see below.

From the current cursor position, you can select text up to the very beginning of the document by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Home. To the very end - Ctrl+Shift+End.

selection

How to select text using the keyboard, you now know. This is done elementarily. Fragments are usually selected either to be deleted or to be moved to another part of the text. In the first case, you just need to press the Del key, to copy the fragment - Ctrl + C. To insert it into necessary place(doesn't matter, in the same editor or in another), you should use the Ctrl + V combination. You can cut a piece of text with Ctrl+X.

How to navigate the editor menu without a mouse

So, we have figured out how to select text using the keyboard if the mouse is broken. But how do you work with the editor menu? With a laptop, everything is simple. In this case, the same convenient TouchPad will help. On the computer, you will have to use certain Which ones, let's look at the example of the well-known Word program.

How to launch Word and change the position of the window on the monitor

Selecting text is not the only task that can be accomplished using only the keyboard. You can launch the editor from the desktop by simply moving between the shortcuts with the arrows. The same applies to opening a program from the Start menu. It is displayed after pressing the flag icon on the keyboard. The menu will also open when using Ctrl+Esc.

In order to minimize the editor window, you should press the combination Alt + space and in the drop-down menu, use the up or down arrows to select the item "Minimize". To move the program, click on the "Move" line. After that, the arrows can be used to move the editor window to any place on the monitor. In order to close the menu that appears after pressing the Alt + spacebar combination, you just need to press the Esc key.

How to open a file or create a new document

For those who often work with the Word editor, it will be useful to know not only how to select part of the text or all of it without using the mouse, but also how to open a file or create a new document. In the first case, you should use the combination Ctrl + O. After that, the explorer will open, in which you can find the necessary file. To move around the explorer, use the Tab key (move around from folders to the files in them, the “Open” button, the “Cancel” button, etc.) and the arrows. To create a new document, press Ctrl+N.

How to change the appearance of text without using the mouse

Sometimes the question of how to highlight text on the keyboard arises for users due to the fact that it needs to be made bold, underlined, etc. In this case, you can also apply keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl+I changes the selection to italics. Use Ctrl+B to make text bold, and use Ctrl+U to underline it.

See the table for some other popular keyboard shortcuts.

In order to remove the formatting of the selected fragment, you need to press Ctrl + space.

How to copy formatting

In the Word program, using the keyboard, you can, among other things, copy the formatting done. To do this, select a fragment with the right design and press Ctrl+Shift+C. To apply formatting, you need to select the area to be changed and combine Ctrl + Shift + V.

Navigating text without a mouse

To go to the very beginning of a document, no matter what size it is, use the Ctrl+Home combination. You can move to the end of the typed text using the Ctrl+End shortcut. Arrows are used to move through the lines in the horizontal or vertical direction.

How to navigate the table without using the mouse

To move to the next cell in a table row, press Tab. You can move to the previous cell using the Shift+Tab combination. If necessary, using hot keys, you can quickly get to the last (Alt + End), as well as the first cell (Alt + Home). In a column, you go to the first cell by using the combination Alt + Page Up, to the very last cell - Alt + Page Down. You can go to the lines adjacent to the top and bottom using the usual arrows. You can move the text along with the line up or down by using the combination Alt + Shift + down arrow or the same keys and the up arrow.

Vertical block of text: selection

Selecting text using the keyboard in the Word program is also possible in a vertical position. In order to execute it this way, you must press Ctrl + Shift + F8, then limit the block with arrows. Now the letters in the selection can be made bold, italicized, underlined, etc. You can also highlight the block with a color or change the color of the letters themselves. True, copying this section of text will not work.

How to save the typed text and exit the program

To save the printed document on your computer, press Ctrl+S. To print the file, you need to use the combination Ctrl + P. You can navigate within the displayed dialog box using the Tab key and arrows. To close the document, press Ctrl+W. You can also stop Word with the Ctrl + F4 combination.

Thus, we have figured out how to select the entire text using the keyboard, its individual parts horizontally or vertically. As you can see, this is not at all difficult to do. So, if your mouse breaks, you can now easily print the document you have started.