In my previous post I talked about selecting multiple, sequential items in a document or spreadsheet (though this works in all kinds of applications). It’s a great option to have, but what about if you want to select multiple non-sequential items? What if there are entries scattered all over a spreadsheet or a text document? Is there a way to select, say, the first word in this sentence and the last word in this sentence and nothing in between? You bet!
As with the previous tip for selecting sequential items, pick one to start with. For this tip, you can pick ANY start point rather than thinking from beginning to end. After you’ve clicked on the first item, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and then click the next item you want highlighted, then the next. In a text document you would hold control and click-drag to highlight the word. Do this until you’ve selected all the items you want. It’s a simple as that. If you accidentally selected an item you didn’t want and would like to remove it from the selection, simply Control (Ctrl-click) the item again to remove it from the selection.
As already mentioned, you can select multiple, non-sequential words in a text document, as well. See the example below. Once selected, I could elect to delete these words, change their form
atting, whatever. The change will only happen to those words I’ve highlighted.