Keyboard Shortcuts Week Five: Textual Selection with the Shift key

This week’s tip is an extension of the textual navigation shortcuts presented last week. Sometimes you need to select a word or an entire block of text in order to delete it or replace it. You can use the Shift key on your keyboard to select text in various ways:

Hold shift and use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to select one character to the left or right.

Hold ctrl+shift and use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to select one word to the left or right.

Similarly, hold ctrl+shift and use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to select one line above or below the cursor.

Shift also works with the mouse. You can place the cursor at the start of a block of text you want to select, hold Shift, and then click the end point of your selection with the mouse. Everything in between will be selected.