Writer Guide

Now you can work with the selected text (copy it, delete it, change the

style, or whatever).

Note

Macintosh users: substitute the

Command

key when

instructions in this chapter say to use the

Control

key.

To select nonconsecutive items using the keyboard:

1) Select the first piece of text. (For more information about

keyboard selection of text, see the topic “Navigating and

Selecting with the Keyboard” in the OpenOffice.org Help (

).)

2) Press

Shift+F8

. This puts Writer in “ADD” mode. The word ADD

appears on the Status Bar.

3) Use the arrow keys to move to the start of the next piece of text

to be selected. Hold down the

Shift

key and select the next piece

of text.

4) Repeat as often as needed.

Now you can work with the selected text.

Figure 53: Selecting items that are not next to each other

Press

Esc

to exit from this mode.

Selecting a vertical block of text

You can select a vertical block or “column” of text that is separated by

spaces or tabs (as you might see in text pasted from e-mails, program

listings, or other sources), using OOo’s block selection mode. To

change to block selection mode, use Edit > Selection Mode > Block

Area, or click several times in the status bar on STD until it changes to

BLK.

Now highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown in

Figure 54.

68 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide