I love a good keyboard shortcut. Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts for highlighting text from the Lifehacker Website
Universal Key Combinations
These key combinations should work in most every application:
- Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right arrow: Select text by whole words. (Swap Alt/Option with Ctrl for Mac users.)
- Shift+Up/Down arrow: Select text by entire lines
- Shift+Page Up/Page Down: Select one screen’s height of text
- Shift+Home/End: Select all the text from the current caret position to the beginning or end of the current line. (Mac users, try Cmd+Shift+Left/Right arrow.)
- Ctrl+Shift+Home/End: Select all the text from the current caret position to the beginning or end of the document. (Mac users, Cmd+Shift+Up/Down arrow should do the trick.)
- Ctrl+A: Select the entire document (Swap Cmd with Ctrl if you’re on a Mac.)
Microsoft Word Specific
Once again, Word shines when it comes to text selection, offering more than just the standard key combinations:
- Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down arrow: Select text by paragraphs. (Cmd+Shift+Up/Down arrow on Mac.)
- Ctlr+Shift+F8: Begin selecting a rectangular block of text—use the arrow keys to size the rectangle; cut, copy, or press Esc to exit this selection mode. (Does not seem to work on Mac.)
- F8: Press repeatedly to expand the selection from the current word to the current sentence, then the current paragraph, and finally the whole document (Shift+F8 will shrink the selection); cut, copy, or press Esc to exit this selection mode. (Does not work on Mac.)
Give them a try — Jill
