Text editing on Windows or Macintosh

Text editing on Windows or Macintosh

Editing text is one of the strengths of computers. For this lesson, we'll combine Activites with narrative explanations.

Activity

1) Open the SimpleText program if you use a Mac. (Click here if you don't know how to do this.) Open the WordPad program if you use Windows. (Click here for help with WordPad on Windows.)

2) Type a couple of paragraphs of text. (Don't worry about the text too much...just type.)

Controlling where you type

You like this Blinking Insertion Point. Because when you type, your typing "inserts" to the left of that Blinking Point, moving the line to right. So if you want to type at a certain point you need to know how to move the Blinking Insertion Point around. Here's how to do that:

Using the Arrow Keys

Activity

3) Use the arrow keys to move the blinking insertion point around through your text.

Using the Mouse and I-Beam

If you move the mouse so that the pointer is inside a text editing area, you'll notice that the pointer changes shape from the left-leaning arrow to the "I-beam". That looks like this:

(I blew this up a little larger so it's easier to see.)

There is a connection between the I-Beam and the Blinking Insertion Point. If you put the I-Beam over text and click, the place where you clicked now has the Blinking Insertion Point! You may now roll the mouse to get the I-Beam out of the way and type. Your typing will go where the blinking insertion point is.

Activity

4) Roll the mouse so that the pointer (in the I-Beam shape) is at the beginning of your text.

5) Click the mouse button once. Note that this places the blinking insertion point where you clicked. You may now type there! You may ignore the I Beam -- when you roll the mouse the I Beam will reappear.

In fact, you can use the mouse to place the Blinking Insertion Point in the general area and then use the arrow keys to jockey the Blinking Insertion Point into exactly where you want it to be.

Selecting Text

Mouse Selection Tactics

Press and Drag

Be careful not to drift down or up as you go over text. The computer may mistakenly interpret your action as going to the line above or line below. This will make your selection seem to jump around.

Activity

6) Move the mouse so the I beam is at the beginning of a word. Click the mouse to place the blinking insertion point at the beginning of that word.

7) Press the mouse button down and roll the mouse so that you drag over the word. Let up the mouse button and, if you dragged carefully, you'll have selected or highlighted the word. You may now do something to that selected word: delete it by typing the delete key, or change the formating as you like.

Double-click to select a word

One cool trick is to double-click on a word in order to select that word.

Activity

8) Put the I-Beam pointer over any part of a word and double-click the mouse. This will highlight or select the word. You may then change the formatting, delete, over type or otherwise modify that selection.

Keyboard Selection Tactics

If you hold down the shift key while using the arrow keys you can select text. Try it!

Activity

9) Click to place the blinking insertion point at the beginning of a word.

10) Hold down the shift key and, while continuing to hold down the shift key, type the arrow key several times. This will select text. You may now delete or edit or format those selected letters as you like.

General and application specific selection tactics

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