8th February 2001

Coming from the "Block that Text" Department, Lockergnomie Alparslan Arslan has stumbled upon a novel way to select words in Word. When you need to copy data to the Windows clipboard, you have to highlight (select) it first. "Confess, Chris; I know that you like keyboard shortcuts -- especially when there's no menu alternative. We used to work with word processors like WordStar and Pro-Write; they had a "block selection" feature. With it, you could highlight a rectangular area (block) instead of a sequential series of words." Back to the present day; in Microsoft Word, hold down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT while you select an area with your left mouse button. Suddenly, you're thinking outside the box! So to speak. How will this help? When you want to copy column characters not sitting inside a table. See, sometimes it's truly hip to be square.