Selecting text

OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Chapter 3: Working with Text

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• Selecting text
• Cutting, copying, and pasting text
• Finding and replacing text and formatting
• Inserting special characters
• Formatting paragraphs
• Formatting characters
• Autoformatting
• Creating numbered or bulleted lists
• Using footnotes and endnotes
• Checking spelling
• Using language tools
• Using the thesaurus
• Hyphenating words
• Using word completion
• Using AutoText
• Line numbering
• Undoing and redoing changes
• Tracking changes to a document
• Inserting notes
• Linking to another part of a document
• Working with hyperlinks
• Tips and tricks

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User Claire: do no further edits until you contact me or another sysop.--TJ 03:48, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Before you can do anything with text, you need to select it. Selecting text in Writer is similar to selecting anything in other applications.

In addition to selecting blocks of text, you can select items that are not consecutive, and columns (vertical blocks) of text.

Selecting items that are not consecutive

To select nonconsecutive items using the mouse:

1. Select the first piece of text.
2. Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and use the mouse to select the next piece of text.
3. Repeat as often as needed.

Now you can work with the selected text (copy it, delete it, change the style, or whatever).

Selecting items that are not next to each other.

To select nonconsecutive items using the keyboard:

1. Select the first piece of text. (For more information about keyboard selection of text, see the topic “Navigating and selecting with the keyboard” in the Apache OpenOffice Help (F1).)
2. Press Shift+F8. This puts Writer in "Add" mode. The word ADD appears on the status bar.
3. Use the arrow keys to move to the start of the next piece of text to be selected. Hold down the Shift key and select the next piece of text.
4. Repeat as often as needed.

Now you can work with the selected text.

Press Esc to exit from this mode.

Selecting a vertical block of text

You can select a vertical block or “column” of text that is separated by spaces or tabs (as you might see in text pasted from e-mails, program listings, or other sources), using OOo’s block selection mode. To change to block selection mode, use Edit > Selection Mode > Block Area, or click several times in the status bar on STD until it changes to BLK.

Now highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown below.

Selecting a vertical block of text.