Using SHIFT and CTRL together in Word to highlight whole words

OK, this is where it gets exciting! If you've just joined us, WTW's mission is to serve up basic, but incredibly useful tips on using Microsoft Word. The goal is to help people who may have been using Word, maybe even for years, but have never really gone beyond using SPACE to format things (a really nasty habit!) There are lots and lots of time-saving hints on using Word of which advanced users will say, "that's obvious!", but I assure you, it isn't!

Today I want to combine two previous tips: Skipping words with CTRL and Highlighting words with SHIFT. If you didn't catch those, check them out now, and then come back here!

Again, what I see an awful lot of people doing is using the mouse unnecessarily (it slows you down and can cause back and arm trouble in the long term!), in this case to highlight words, even if these words are ones in the same sentence, or nearby. You don't need to! As we learned, you can

1) Quickly reach the word you want using CTRL + cursor keys
2) Highlight letters using SHIFT + cursor keys.

Well, now try both together! Type a short sentence, then press CTRL + SHIFT and, say, the left cursor key.

Abracadabra! Your text gets highlighted a whole word at a time, and you can either hold down the cursor, which can rapidly highlight multiple words, or press it repeatedly, to highlight one word at a time.

Either way, this is a really simple, but incredibly useful way to copy/paste text that you have recently typed. Go on, try it now! Do it a few times, and it will become second nature, trust me!