Often times, when compiling reports, I find myself copying parts of other Word documents. There are times when what I need to copy isn't a horizontal block such as paragraph. Instead, I might need the middle columns of a phone list that wasn't in a table format. (Includes 2 minute online tutorial on vertical text selection.)

Another common example might be a forwarded email I've pasted into Word that has the > character at the beginning of each line. The email has great information, but I don't need to have all the carets display. In instances where I don't want this extra information, I highlight the desired text using the ALT drag method.

To highlight a vertical text section in Microsoft Word,

1. Using your mouse, click to mark the beginning of your text selection

2. Press and hold the ALT key while dragging the mouse to make your selection

3. You can now apply formatting options to this selection as usual.

• 2-Minute Online Demo Showing How to Select Columns

Related Microsoft Word Tutorials:

• Converting Word Docs to Microsoft Excel
• Increasing Word Efficiency with AutoText