Deleting Text

Knowing how to delete text is almost as important as knowing how to type it in the first place. Although you can delete any amount of text if you bang on the Delete or Backspace key enough times, it's much more efficient to use other methods when you want to select more than a few characters . Table 2.4 lists techniques for deleting different amounts of text.

Table 2.4. Techniques for Deleting Text

Technique	Result
Delete key	Deletes character to the right of the insertion point
Backspace key	Deletes character to the left of the insertion point
Ctrl+Delete	Deletes word to the right of the insertion point
Ctrl+Backspace	Deletes word to the left of the insertion point
Select text and press the Delete key	Deletes selected text (can be any amount)
Select text and	Deletes selected text (can be any amount)
start typing	and replaces it with the text you type

To delete several words, hold down the Ctrl key as you press Delete or Backspace several times. If you want to delete only the end of a word ”for example, you want to change the word functionality to function ”click in front of the part you want to delete (before the letter a in this example) and press Ctrl+Delete. If you want to delete the beginning of a word ”to change the word ultraconservative to conservative , for instance ”click just after the part you want to delete (just past the letter a in this example) and press Ctrl+Backspace.

Word treats paragraph marks, tabs, and spaces just like other characters, so you can delete them with the Delete and Backspace keys, just as you delete other characters. In most cases, it's obvious where they are even though they are hidden. At times, however, you may find it helpful to display these hidden characters onscreen so that you can see exactly where they are. To do this, click the Show/Hide button in the Standard toolbar. (You learned about the Show/Hide feature in the section "Viewing Paragraph, Tab, and Space Marks" earlier in this hour .)