This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Basic Text Editing
You can use any of the following techniques to correct errors in a document and make other desired changes, such as adding text. The techniques vary, depending on whether you are changing selected or unselected text.
To delete unselected text:
- Position the text insertion mark immediately to the right or left of the text you want to correct or remove (Figure 4.23).
Figure 4.23 Set the text insertion mark to the right or left of the text you want to delete.
Do one of the following:
- To delete the previous character (the one to the left), press
.
- To delete the next character (the one to the right), press
or 
.
To delete additional characters, continue pressing
, , or .- To delete the previous character (the one to the left), press
- If necessary, replace the deleted text by typing new characters.
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To delete or replace selected text:
- To select text (Figure 4.24) to be deleted or replaced, do one of the following:
- Set the text insertion mark at one end of the text to be selected, and then drag to or
-click the opposite end.
- Set the text insertion mark at one end of the text to be selected, and then—while holding down —press arrow keys to move to the end of the text.
- Double-click to select a word or triple-click to select a paragraph.
Figure 4.24 Selected text is highlighted like this.
- Set the text insertion mark at one end of the text to be selected, and then drag to or
-
Do one of the following:
- To delete the selected text, press , , or .
- To replace the selected text, type the replacement text. When you begin typing, the selected text is deleted.
- To delete the selected text, press
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Selecting Partial Words
If you find that you're frequently (and automatically) selecting entire words when trying to select partial words, the reason is that a Word Options setting is getting in your way.
To change this setting, click the File tab. In the Backstage, click Options. In the Word Options dialog box, select the Advanced category and remove the check mark from When selecting, automatically select entire word (Figure 4.25, above). Click OK to save the new setting.
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Figure 4.25 To simplify text selection, remove the check mark from the second check box in the Editing options section.
To insert new text:
Position the text insertion mark where you want to add the new text.
You can insert new text anywhere in a document.
-
Do either of the following:
- Type the new text.
- Paste the new text by clicking the Paste icon in the Clipboard group of the Home tab or by pressing
.
TIPS
- You can also delete text by cutting it. Unlike a normal deletion, cut text is stored in the Clipboard (and the Office Clipboard), where it's available for pasting. To cut selected text, click the Cut icon in the Clipboard group of the Home tab (see Figure 4.22) or press
. - You can use drag-and-drop to move selected text from one location to another—either within a document or between Word documents. This is equivalent to performing a cut-and-paste.
- If you want a drag-and-drop to leave the original text intact (working as a copy-and-paste rather than as a cut-and-paste), drag the selected text using the right mouse button. From the context menu that appears at the destination (Figure 4.26), choose Copy Here.
Figure 4.26 When right-dragging text, you can elect to perform a copy rather than a move.
- To undo the most recent edit, immediately click the Undo icon in the Quick Access Toolbar (Figure 4.27) or press
. (Note that you can undo multiple actions by clicking the Undo icon's down arrow.)
Figure 4.27 You can often reverse your most recent action.
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Controlling Paste Formatting
When you paste text into a Word document, its formatting is determined by settings in the Advanced section of the Word Options dialog box. Depending on the text's source and whether the styles conflict, either the original formatting is retained or the text is reformatted to match the surrounding text at the destination. However, you can override the default Paste formatting.
When pasting, the Paste Options icon appears at the end of or beneath the pasted text (Figure 4.28, above). Click the icon to choose a formatting option.
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Figure 4.28 Choose a formatting method from the Paste Options drop-down menu.