Text Selection and Navigation

Text Selection and Navigation

Text Selection and Navigation

Move the insertion point and select characters, words, lines, and paragraphs using the mouse or keyboard.

The mouse lets you quickly select text or text objects and move the insertion point. However, if you work with a lot of text, you might find that the keyboard techniques let you move the insertion point more precisely to edit more quickly.

Making Text Selections

Before you can cut, copy, move, delete, type over, or perform other operations on text characters, you need to select the text within a text object. You can select text when a text object is in Edit mode.

The phrases “selected text,” “text selection,” and “highlighted text” all refer to an active selection of characters within a text object. Selected text appears highlighted; the highlight color depends on your system’s color settings.

Keep in mind that a text selection is not the same as a selected text object. When you select a text object, you can move, copy, delete, and perform other operations on the entire object. When you make a text selection, the editing actions will affect only the highlighted characters within the object.

To Deselect All Highlighted Text:

Click anywhere in the text object or layout. Clicking outside the selected text object creates another text object at that location.

Using the Keyboard for Text Editing

While editing text, use the key combinations listed in the following table to move the insertion point and select text.

Key Combinations for Text Editing

Press this key

and these keys

to do this in Edit mode

None

Up arrow, Down arrow, Right arrow, Left arrow

Move insertion point 1 space right or left

Page Up, Page Down

Move insertion point 3 lines up at the left margin (Page Up) or down at the right margin (Page Down)

Home, End

Move insertion point to the beginning (Home) or end (End) of the text object

Ctrl

Right arrow, Left arrow

Move insertion point to the next word end (Right arrow) or beginning (Left arrow)

Up arrow, Down arrow

Move insertion point to the left margin of the line, or up 1 line at the left margin (Up arrow), or down 1 line to the left margin (Down arrow)

Home, End

Move insertion point to beginning (Home) or end (End) of line

Shift

Right arrow, Left arrow

Extend selection 1 space right or left

Up arrow, Down arrow

Extend selection 1 line up or down

Page Up, Page Down

Extend selection 3 lines up or down

Home, End

Extend selection to the beginning (Home) or end (End) of the text object

Shift + Ctrl

Right arrow, Left arrow

Extend the selection 1 word right or left

Up arrow, Down arrow

Extend the selection to left margin (Up arrow) or right margin (Down arrow). From the margin, extend the selection to the other margin, or up or down 1 line

Page Up, Page Down

Extend selection 3 lines up or down

Using the Mouse for Text Editing

Using the mouse and modifier keys, you can quickly place the insertion point, select specific words, and select sections of text in Edit mode. For information on putting a text object in Edit mode, see Text Edit Mode.

Mouse Actions for Text Editing

To do this in text

Do this with the pointer

Select a continuous block of text

Drag over the text you want to select.

Select all text between the insertion point and another location

Press the Shift key and click where you want the selection to end. Windows users can use the right mouse button like the Shift key (hold down the right button and click with the left).

To deselect all highlighted text

Click anywhere in the text object. (Clicking outside the text object creates a new text object at that location or puts another text object into Edit mode.)

Deselect text between the insertion point and another location in the selection

Press Shift and click in the highlighted text.

Select a word

Double-click the word.

Select a line of text

Triple-click the line.

See also:

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