Select line in word

To select a single word, quickly double-click that word. To select a line of text, place your cursor at the start of the line, and press Shift + down arrow. To select a paragraph, place your cursor at the start of the paragraph, and press Ctrl + Shift + down arrow.

How do you select a line?

Select one character at a time by holding down the “Shift” key and and using either arrow key (right or left). Select an entire line of text by holding down the “Shift” key and pressing “End”, if you are at the beginning of the line, or “Home” if you are at the end of the line.

How do I select a horizontal line in word?

Microsoft Word

1. Put your cursor in the document where you want to insert the horizontal line.
2. Go to Format | Borders And Shading.
3. On the Borders tab, click the Horizontal Line button.
4. Scroll through the options and select the desired line.
5. Click OK.

How do I select a line in word using the keyboard?

To select by line, position the cursor where you want to start the selection and then press Shift + down arrow or Shift + up arrow.

How do you select a thin line in word?

Click before the first character in the line to place the insertion cursor, hold the “Shift” key and press the “Right Arrow” key until you select all characters in the line.

What you’ve experienced is the default behavior in Word that you can change. The easiest way to get rid of it is to use the Ctrl+Q combination on your keyboard. Simply move your cursor anywhere in the paragraph above the line that you want to delete, and then use Ctrl+Q.

How do I copy just one line in Word?

The commands for the Windows Clipboard are: CTRL+C to copy. CTRL+X to cut. CTRL+V to paste.
Windows Keystrokes for Selecting Text.

How do I draw a straight line in Word?

How to Add a Horizontal Line in Word

1. Launch Word.
2. Click the Insert tab, then click the “Shapes” button in the Illustrations group.
3. Click the first line icon in the Lines menu that drops down.
4. Press and hold down the “Shift” key to keep your line straight when you draw it.
5. Format the line, if desired, by clicking it.

How can I draw a line in Microsoft Word?

On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Shapes. Under Lines, right-click the line or connector that you want to add, and then click Lock Drawing Mode. Click where you want to start the line or connector, and then drag the cursor to where you want the line or connector to end.

What is Ctrl N?

Alternatively referred to as Control+N and C-n, Ctrl+N is a keyboard shortcut most often used to create a new document, window, workbook, or other type of file.Ctrl+N in Word and other word processors.

What is Ctrl F in Word?

What is Ctrl-F?Also known as Command-F for Mac users (although newer Mac keyboards now include a Control key). Ctrl-F is the shortcut in your browser or operating system that allows you to find words or phrases quickly. You can use it browsing a website, in a Word or Google document, even in a PDF.

What is Ctrl W?

Alternatively referred to as Control+W and C-w, Ctrl+W is a keyboard shortcut most often used to close a program, window, tab, or document.Ctrl+W in Word and other word processors.

How do I type above a line in Word?

1. Open the Word document and scroll to the section with the line.
2. Click the Insert tab, then click the “Text Box” button.
3. Click inside the text box to type any text you want above the line.
4. Handwrite any text you want to appear above the line.
5. Click the orange Text Box Tools tab, then click the “Shape Outline” menu.

How do I edit lines in Word?

Select the line that you want to change. If you want to change multiple lines, select the first line, and then press and hold Ctrl while you select the other lines. On the Format tab, click the arrow next to Shape Outline. Note: If you don’t see the Format tab, make sure you’ve selected the line.

What is Ctrl Q?

In Microsoft Word, Ctrl + Q removes all formatting from a highlighted paragraph. How to highlight or select text.

8. Select the first byline in the newsletter (By Ken Dishner). Point to the left margin next to the byline. When the cursor changes to a white arrow, click the mouse one time.

Click the line, connector, or shape that you want to delete, and then press Delete. Tip: If you want to delete multiple lines or connectors, select the first line, press and hold Ctrl while you select the other lines, and then press Delete.

How do I selectively copy text?

How to Copy and Paste Text from Multiple Locations in Microsoft…

1. Select the block of text you want to copy.
2. Press Ctrl+F3.
3. Repeat the two steps above for each additional block of text to copy.
4. Go to the document or location where you want to paste all of the text.
5. Press Ctrl+Shift+F3.

How do I select text without clicking and dragging?

Click the “Select” drop-down menu in the Editing group on the ribbon and choose “Select All.” All of the body text on the pages will be highlighted. You can now format it, cut, copy, align the text and more. The keyboard shortcut “Ctrl-A” will accomplish the same result.

How do I select just one column in Word?

To select a column, move the mouse over the column until you see a black down arrow and then click to select that column. To select multiple columns, hold the mouse down when you click in the first column to be selected using the black arrow cursor and drag over the other columns to select them.

How do you draw a line in Word 2020?

How to draw in Word

1. Click the ‘Shapes’ button and select ‘Scribble’ Open up your Microsoft Word document.
2. Hold down your mouse to draw. Click and hold down your mouse to draw.
3. Release the mouse. As soon as you release your mouse, the drawing will be finished.
4. Edit your drawing. Double-click your drawing.

You may not have numbering enabled for all the lines in your Word document. Even so, Microsoft Word tracks all lines in a document with numbers. Thus, going to a specific line in your document is a very simple task for Word.

Most of us do not think of our document as containing a certain number of lines. We tend to look at documents as chapters, sections, pages, paragraphs, sentences, etc

But Word has a special feature that takes you to a specific line.

The feature allows you to jump not only to a specific line in your document. You can also use it to move backward or forward relative to your current position in the document. To select the line, you must use the mouse or a keyboard shortcut.

Furthermore, you may also want to select a specific line without knowing its line number. You can do this by using the keyboard. Thus, we can select a line in a Word document in one of two ways:

• Using the line number
• Without using a line number

Let us see how to do the above in simple steps.

Method #1: Selecting a Line using its Line Number

Note: This method is useful if you know the number of the line you want to select.

If you do not know the line number, proceed to method #2.

Step #1: Open the Word document

Open the Word document where you want to select a line using its line number.

Step #2: Use the Go To feature

Click on the Home tab in the top menu bar to change the ribbon.

Under section Editing, click on the Replace button.

The Find and Replace dialog box opens. 

Click on the tab Go To.

Under the section Go to what, click on Line.

In the box under Enter line number: enter the number of the line you want to reach.

Here, you have a choice to move forward or backward from your current position.

• To move x number of lines forward, enter +x
• To move y number of lines backward enter -y

Click on the tab Go To at the bottom of the dialog box. Click on the Close tab to exit the dialog box.

Word moves the cursor to the beginning of the line you have indicated.

Step #3: Select the line using mouse

Position the mouse on the cursor.

Click and hold the left mouse button. Drag the mouse to the end of the line.

Release the mouse button. Word selects the line.

Step #3A: Select the line using keyboard shortcut

On your keyboard, press and hold the left or right Shift button.

Press the End button.

Word selects the line.

Method #2: Selecting a Line without using its Line Number

Note: This method is useful if you do not know the number of the line you want to select.

Step #1: Open the Word document

Open the Word document where you want to select a line.

Step #2: Select the line using mouse

Place the cursor at the beginning of the line you want to select.

Position the mouse on the cursor.

Click and hold the left mouse button. Drag the mouse to the end of the line.

Release the mouse button. Word selects the line.

Step #3A: Select the line using keyboard shortcut

Place the cursor at the beginning of the line you want to select.

On your keyboard, press and hold the left or right Shift button. Press the End button.

Word selects the line.

Conclusion

Follow our stepwise instructions here. You will learn various methods of selecting a line in your Word document.

Quickly Select Text in Word Documents Using a Mouse or Keyboard Shortcuts

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated May 17, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 or 365 (Windows)

You can use several keyboard or mouse shortcuts in Microsoft Word to select characters, words, lines, paragraphs and blocks of text in your documents.

Recommended article: 10 Microsoft Word Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts for Selecting in Tables

Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Word? Check out our virtual classroom or live classroom Word courses >

1. Select an entire document

Click in the document and then press Ctrl + A to select the entire document.

2. Select a word

To select a word, double-click the word.

3. Select a sentence

To select a sentence, Ctrl + click in the sentence.

4. Select a line using the invisible selection bar

To select a line using the invisible selection bar, move the pointer into the area to the left of the line and click (the pointer should turn into a right-pointing arrow).

5. Select a paragraph

To select a paragraph, triple-click in the paragraph.

6. Select a paragraph using the invisible selection bar

To select a paragraph using the invisible selection bar, move the pointer into the area to the left of the paragraph and double-click (the pointer should turn into a right-pointing arrow).

7. Select from the cursor to the end or beginning of the line

Press Shift + End to select from the cursor to the end of the line. If you press Shift + Home, Word will select from the cursor to the beginning of the line.

8. Select by word using arrow keys

To select by word, position the cursor where you want to start the selection and then press Ctrl + Shift + right arrow or Ctrl + Shift + left arrow.

9. Select by line using arrow keys

To select by line, position the cursor where you want to start the selection and then press Shift + down arrow or Shift + up arrow.

10. Select by paragraph using arrow keys

To select by paragraph, position the cursor where you want to start the selection and then press Ctrl + Shift + down arrow or Ctrl + Shift + up arrow.

11. Select by character using arrow keys

To select by character, position the cursor where you want to start the selection and then press Shift + right arrow or Shift + left arrow.

12. Select blocks of text by Shift-clicking

To select text blocks, position the cursor where you want to start the selection and then move or scroll to the location where you want to end the selection and Shift-click.

13. Select by screen

To select by screen, position the cursor where you want to start the selection and then press Ctrl + Shift + PgUp or Ctrl + Shift + PgDown.

14. Select vertically

To select vertically in a document, press Alt and drag up or down.

You can save lots of time in Word using shortcuts for selecting text.

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To select a single word in the document Microsoft Word, do one of the following:

• Using the keyboard: place the cursor at the start of the word (at the end of the word) and then:
  • Press Shift+ the right arrow (the left arrow) as many times as needed to select all the word letters.
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+ the right arrow (the left arrow).
• Using the mouse:
  • Click in front of the first letter of the word (after the last letter of the word) and hold while you drag your cursor to select the text you want,
  • Double-click the word:

    

To select a sentence in the document Microsoft Word, do one of the following:

• Using the keyboard: place the cursor at the start of the first word of the sentence (at the end of the sentence, usually after a dot), and then:
  • Press Shift+ the right arrow (the left arrow) as many times as needed to select all the sentence words.
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+ the right arrow (the left arrow) as many times as many words in that sentence.

    To select the line of text, press Shift+ the arrow down (the arrow up).

• Using the mouse:
  • Click in front of the first letter of the first word of the sentence (after the last letter of the last word of the sentence) and hold while you drag your cursor to select the text you want,
  • Hold Ctrl and click any place within the sentence:

    

To select a paragraph in the document Microsoft Word, do one of the following:

• Using the keyboard: place the cursor at the start of the paragraph (at the end of the paragraph, usually after a dot), press Ctrl+Shift+ the arrow down (the arrow up).
• Using the mouse:
  • Click in front of the first letter of the first word of the paragraph (after the last letter of the last word of the paragraph) and hold while you drag your cursor to select the text you want,
  • Triple-click the paragraph:

    

To select a fragment in the document Microsoft Word, do one of the following:

• Using the keyboard: place the cursor at the start of the fragment you want to select (at the end of the fragment), press Shift+ the right arrow (the left arrow).

  To select the line, press Shift+ the arrow down (the arrow up).

• Using the mouse: click in front of the first letter of the fragment (after the last letter of the fragment), hold Shift, and then click after the last letter of the fragment you want to select (in front of the first letter of the fragment):

  

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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Selecting a Line of Text.

If you are new to Word, coming from using a different type of word processor, you probably noticed that there is no command in Word to delete a line of text. You might view this as an oversight, but it really isn’t. Once you learn a very simple technique, you’ll find it very easy to delete a line (or more) of text.

Move the mouse pointer to the left of the line of text you want to select. Don’t move the mouse pointer into the style area (if you have the style area displayed), but just to the left of the left margin. The mouse pointer turns into an arrow pointing up and right. Click once on the left mouse button, and the entire line of text is selected. If you want, you can hold down the mouse button while the mouse pointer is pointing up and to the right, and you can select multiple lines of text by dragging up or down.

Once you’ve selected the line (or lines), you are then able to do any other editing function on that selection, including deleting it (by pressing Del or Ctrl+X).

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen…

MS-Word is a word processing application used for editing and creating documents or files. There are many features and tools provided in it, and it makes your work or task easier. 

Selecting the Text

Selecting the text is a very common and frequently used operation. It is used many times and in many ways. For example, If you need to delete text (Specific or whole paragraph) then you need it to select first. Similarly, In many operations Selection of the text is the basic operation or minimum requirement first. So, In this article, we will see how to select the text in different ways:

• Single-word: For selecting a single word in MS-Word quickly double-click that word with mouse.
• Line of text: For selecting a line of text, place your cursor at the start of the line and then press “Shift + down arrow”.
• Paragraph: For selecting a whole paragraph, place your cursor at the start of the paragraph and then press “Ctrl + Shift + down arrow”.

Now, we will see the above-mentioned ways step-by-step with instructions and images:

Method 1: For Selecting a Single Word

Steps to follow:

Step 1: First open MS-Word on your PC.

Step 2: Now, Open the document or create a new one in which you want to perform this operation.

Step 3: Now, for selecting a single word, move the cursor to that word. (Here we will select the word “Geeksforgeeks”)

Step 4: Now, quickly double-click that word with the mouse.

Step 5: That word is selected successfully. (the selected word is highlighted in the below image.)

Method 2: For Selecting a Line of text

Steps to follow:

Step 1: First open MS-Word on your PC.

Step 2: Now, Open the document or create a new one in which you want to perform this operation.

Step 3: Now, for a selecting a line of text, move cursor to the start of line of you choice. (Here we will select the line “Let us learn about MS-word through Geeksforgeeks.”)

Step 4: Now, Press “Shift + down arrow” from the keyboard.

Step 5: That line is selected successfully. (the selected line is highlighted in the below image.)

Method 3: For Selecting a Paragraph

Steps to follow:

Step 1: First open MS-Word at your PC.

Step 2: Now, Open the document or create a new one in which you want to perform this operation.

Step 3: Now, for a selecting a paragraph, move cursor to the start of paragraph of you choice. (Here we will select the paragraph starting from “Microsoft announced Multi-Tool Word…….. ” to “…………demonstrated Word running on Windows.”)

Step 4: Now, Press “Ctrl + Shift + down arrow” from the keyboard.

Step 5: So, paragraph is selected successfully. (the selected paragraph is highlighted in the below image.)

There are also Some other ways for Selecting the text and these are discussed below:

Method 4: Selecting specific text

We can also select a specific word, line of text, or one or more paragraphs by just dragging the cursor with help of mouse. For this operation we will first place our cursor in front of the first letter of the word, sentence, or paragraphs which we want to select and then just click and hold while dragging your cursor to select the text you want, and it is done.

Now, let us see this operation step by step:

Steps to Follow:

Step 1: First open MS-Word at your PC.

Step 2: Now, Open the document or create a new one in which you want to perform this operation.

Step 3: Now, for a selecting a desired text, move cursor to the start of text which you want to choose. (Here we will select the text starting from “Geeks! Let us learn about MS-Word”)

Step 4: Now, just click and hold while dragging your cursor to select the text you want and drag it to cover the text you want to select.

Step 5: So, the desired text is selected successfully. (the selected text is highlighted in the below image.)

Method 5: Selecting all text

For Selecting all the text, we can simply select it by using the Key “Ctrl + A”. Just press this key and all the text is selected.

Let us also see this with help of images and instructions:

Steps to follow:

Step 1: First open MS-Word on your PC.

Step 2: Now, Open the document or create a new one in which you want to perform this operation.

Step 3: Now, to select whole text, first click anywhere in the document.

Step 4: Now, Just Press “Ctrl + A” and it is done.

Step 5: So, All the text is selected successfully.

So, This is all about Selecting Text in different ways.

Microsoft Word is the handy word processor for all of us. When working on a document, you can change the format of a text by changing the font family, font size or font color. However, in many cases you first need to select the specific text before applying the format change. Therefore, quickly selecting the text can improve your productivity. In this article, we will explain how to select text in Microsoft Word using different options.

Related: How to change default font in Word?

How Does Selection Work in Word?

Using mouse is the easiest way you can use for selecting text in Word. However, you can also use the keyboard and selection mode (F8) options. Here we will explain the possibilities with all three options. Word will highlight selected text content in gray color and apply the formatting changes only to the selected text.

1. Selecting Text with Mouse

This is a super easy option and all of us use frequently.

• Click before the text you want to select in your document.
• Hold the left mouse button and drag your selection until the end of text you want to select.
• Release the mouse button when you are done with the selection.

However, you have different other ways to select text using mouse.

• If you want to select a single word then simply double click on it.
• In order to select a single sentence, hold the control key and click anywhere on that sentence. Word will highlight the entire sentence in gray color.
• For selecting a single line (not a sentence), first move the mouse to the left margin of the document. You will notice the cursor changes into an arrow symbol. Now, click the line and Word will select the entire line. You can hold the left mouse button and move up or down to select multiple lines of text.
• Instead of selecting a single line, you can select a paragraph by double clicking on the left margin next to that paragraph. Alternatively, click three times on a paragraph text to select the entire paragraph.

• Sometimes, you may need to select the entire content on your document. You have two options for doing that with your mouse.
  • Press control key and then click on the left margin of the document.
  • Alternatively, click three times on the left of the text.

Using Key Combination and Mouse

• It is not necessarily, you always select consecutive words, lines or paragraphs. In order to select non-consecutive words, lines, sentences or paragraphs, select the first text element. Then hold the control key and select the next text element. Word will highlight all selected text content in gray color. Now, you can delete, copy, bold, italicize or do any other formatting with all selected content at once.
• Do you ever wonder, how to select text in a vertical block? Yes, you can easily do that in Word. First, hold one of the alt keys and select the text block using your mouse. This will select the text in a vertical block and you can apply colors and highlight that content. However, you can’t copy or cut the vertically selected text block.

• You can quit the vertically selected text block by clicking anywhere on the document or simply pressing one of the arrow keys.

2. Selecting with Keyboard

Don’t get panic when your mouse suddenly stopped working. Use the following shortcuts keys to select text content with your keyboard.

Related: How to disable startup screen in Word?

3. Selecting Text With Selection Mode

As part of using keyboard, you have another selection option using F8 key This will activate the selection mode in Microsoft Word document which you can use for text selection. First, move your cursor to the start of the text that you want to select and then press F8 key. You have the following options with the selection mode:

• When you press F8 every time, Word will select another text passage and add to the previously selected content.
• In order to select text, first press F8 key to start the selection and use the mouse click to end of the selection. With this Word will select the text starting from the cursor position before activating the selection mode till the position where you have clicked using the mouse.
• Press the escape key to deactivate the selection mode. However, Word will continue to highlight the selected text content after deactivating selection mode.
• If you find the F8 selection mode is useful, you can add a shortcut in the status bar to disable it quickly. Right click on the status bar and enable “Selection Mode” option. Whenever, you press F8 key, Word will activate the selection mode and show the “Extended Selection” option in status bar. You can click on it to deactivate the selection mode. After deactivating the selection mode, the “Extended Selection” display on the status bar will also disappear.

Related: How to setup night light mode in Windows 10?

Select Text with Similar Formatting

Word also offers a quick solution to replace the formatting of similar text. Let us take an example that you have highlighted 10 words with bold in different places on your document. Suddenly, you feel that showing them in red makes sense. It is a tedious job to select all 10 words one by one and change the formatting. Word allows you to select all the instances of 10 bold formatted words in your document and change to another formatting.

• First, select a single formatted text (in our case it is a text with bold formatting).
• In order to select all similar bold formatted text, go to “Home” tab and click on the “Select” option under “Editing” group.
• Then select the option “Select All Text With Similar Formatting (No Date”.
• Now, Word will select all similar formatted text in your document.
• You can now assign new formatting to these selected text passages. For example, you can remove the bold formatting, apply red color, and italicize.

This is very useful function to correct formatting mistakes you have done on entire document.