Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Moving Text Using the Mouse.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 21, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365
Word incorporates many different tools you can use to edit your document. Perhaps one of the least used, but most unique methods of editing your document, uses the mouse entirely. You can use your mouse to move text, the same way you would move another element, such as a graphic. To move text with your mouse, you need to first ensure that the feature is enabled. To do this, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The advanced options of the Word Options dialog box.
Once enabled, you can use the mouse to move text by following these steps:
If you want to simply copy your text (instead of actually moving it) you can hold down the Ctrl key while using the mouse to drag the selection.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7125) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Moving Text Using the Mouse.
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2022-09-21 05:34:46
Jamies
And for a very useful option:
Holding down the alt key while selecting with the mouse allows you to select rectangular blocks of the document
You can then cut that out, or copy and paste it elsewhere in the document inserting the lines of the selected block into the lines at, and below the paste selection point:
I use that for manipulating data that I want to have as a table, or in Excel.
set page width to the max, and font down to about 2 point (maybe using the reduce size option to keep relative font sizes) to avoid line wrap.
Zoom as needed to see the data well enough to identify and manipulate it with tabs set to split that data so it is presented looking as if it was in a table.
Create a column of tabs, copy that column and past it into the text so add what would appear as an extra column in a tabular view.
You can then - when it is aligned, move columns of data, and eventually select the block of data you want to have in excel, or a table.
Paste that as appropriate and reset the font size as appropriate.
Note, if posting into Excel, it often helps to have the first column of the data to have something in every line
so create a line with a space "#" whatever and then a tab, copy that and replicate it to create a column of similar lines, and then copy that into the data - or just use find replace to set the para markers to have the "#" and tab after then, then fix the first line.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here:
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