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 changes, such as adding new text. The techniques vary, depending on whether you’re 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
.
Set the text insertion mark to the right or left of the text that you want to delete. - Do one of the following:
- To delete the previous character (the one to the left), press Backspace.
- To delete the next character (the one to the right), press Del or Delete.
To delete additional characters, continue pressing Backspace, Del, or Delete.
- If necessary, replace the deleted text by typing new characters.
To delete or replace selected text
- To select the text
to be deleted or replaced, do one of the following:
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 Shift-click the opposite end.
- Set the text insertion mark at one end of the text to be selected, and then—while holding down Shift—press arrow keys to move to the end of the text.
- Double-click to select a word or triple-click to select a paragraph.
Selecting Partial Words
If you find that you’re frequently (and automatically) selecting entire words when trying to select partial words, a Word Options setting is interfering.
To change the 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
. Click OK to save the new setting.
To simplify text selection, remove the check mark from the second check box in the Editing options section. - Do one of the following:
- To delete the selected text, press Backspace, Del, or Delete.
- To replace the selected text, type the replacement text. When you begin typing, the selected text is deleted.
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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 Home : Clipboard : Cut icon (see 
in “Entering Text”) or press Ctrl-X.
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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 
, choose Copy Here.
When right-dragging text, you can elect to perform a copy rather than a move.
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 Home : Clipboard : Paste icon (see in “Entering Text”) or by pressing Ctrl-V.
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To undo the most recent edit, immediately click the Undo icon in the Quick Access Toolbar 
or press Ctrl-Z. (Note that you can undo multiple actions—one by one—by clicking the Undo icon’s down arrow.)
You can often reverse your most recent action.
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 
. Click the icon to choose a formatting option. (You can also choose these formatting options from the Home : Clipboard : Paste icon’s menu.)
Choose a text-formatting method from the Paste Options drop-down menu.