Lo-Tek Tips

What’s the one thing you absolutely have to be able to do in order to do any of these operations:

• Move a file
• Make a copy of a file or text
• Delete a file or text
• Change a font, color, or style of text
• Many other things…

You have to select it…

The Mouse – an Early Lifeform

Before  the invention of the mouse, selection was built into whatever system you were trying to use. Word processors had their own methods of selecting text for deletion or copying. The mouse added two extremely important functions to the computer:

• Random-access – you could point anywhere in a document or point at any file.
• Drag – the number of operations this allowed is nothing short of astounding.

Suddenly you could relate to objects on a screen in a completely different way. Point at it, and do something with it! Anything –  files, graphic objects, images, words, volume controls, audio or video segments – can be manipulated.

The Evolution of the Multi-Selection

Selecting seems like a pretty straightforward operation. Just click a file or object, or drag across a section of text. Still, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen someone struggling to select a paragraph, part of a web address, or even a word.

Every application has the option of implementing its own selection methods, but the operating systems have a number of selection options built-in. Here are some quick ones:

• Double-click a word to select it. This may have some quirks – some systems select everything but special characters, like underscores, numbers, etc. So you certain strings of characters may not get selected even though they seem like they should be treated as words.
• Certain programs expand the selection as you continue to double-click, so it selects a word, then a paragraph, then a page, then everything.
• Draw a box around a set of objects – these could be files, graphic objects, or other screen objects you want to select for some reason.

Note: There are two different box-selection implementations:

• Select anything that’s touched by the box
• Select anything completely within the box.

It doesn’t take long to figure out which method is used – your relationship to the objects is different with each method, and each method is better suited to certain kinds of operations.

Truth or Con-Sequences

Ok, my technophobes, this is the stuff that can turn you into a power-user in spite of yourself. If and when you get it, your computing life will be changed forever. Here’s the magic.

Lets say you want to select one sentence in the middle of a paragraph. Yes, you could click and drag. Depending on your mouse skill level and how far zoomed in you are, it could be easy or it could be a challenge. What if you don’t get the last two letters? Try this:

1. Click to place the text cursor before the first character of the sentence. If you missed, you can use the left or right arrow keys to get it to the correct place.
2. Move the mouse cursor to the end of the sentence without clicking anything. Place it just after the period.
3. This is the magic juice: Hold Shift and click the mouse. The text between the two cursors is selected! Now you can copy, cut, or whatever you want to do with it.

It just gets better from here. The same thing applies to files in a folder.

• Click a file, then shift-click a file later in the list.

It selects them sequentially – that is, in the order that they appear in the window. If they are alphabetically sorted, you select them in alphabetical order.

Command and Control

For files in a folder, it gets even better. Try this:

1. In a folder, select a bunch of files with the Shift-click method I just described. You have a bunch of files selected now.
2. Now, instead of holding Shift, hold Control (or “Ctrl” on Windows) or Cmd on Mac and click one of the files. It is no longer selected!
3. Ctrl-click a few more files. Then Ctrl-click one of the ones that isn’t selected.

• Bottom line: Ctrl-click allows you to add or remove objects from a selection. This includes drawing objects and other objects that you can drag around.

Another Arrow In Your Quiver

The Ctrl or Cmd key is fast becoming your friend, and you’ll be wanting to have lunch with it soon. Check this out. In a text document or other text box*:

• Hold Ctrl or Cmd, and press Left or Right arrow. The cursor moves a word at a time!
• Hold Ctrl or Cmd, and press Up or Down arrow. The cursor moves a paragraph at a time!

* This is implemented at the operating system level, but certain applications limit or override these functions. It has become a standard.

Curse you, Shift – or Maybe Not!

Now that you understand that Shift-click selects everything between the current selection and where ever you click, you can combine this with the arrow keys for even more control. Try this:

1. In a Word or other text document (even an email) click to place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph.
2. Hold Ctrl or Cmd along with the Shift key.
3. Press the right arrow repeatedly. Each time you press, you are selecting another word!
4. Press the down arrow repeatedly. Each time you press, you are selecting another paragraph!

So To Sum Up

The true magic boils down to these simple concepts:

• Shift-click to select everything between the mouse cursor and the current selection or text cursor position. (Text, files and other objects)
• Ctrl or Cmd-click to add to or remove from the selection. (Files and other objects)
• Ctrl or Cmd-arrow horizontally to move by word and vertically to move by paragraph. (Text)
• Combine Shift with Ctrl or Cmd-arrow to select words or paragraphs. (Text)

You will be amazed at how quickly this becomes second nature. You will also be amazed how much time and frustration it will save you.