In general, to select (or highlight--used interchangeably for text) text in a word processor or some other application, move the mouse cursor to the beginning of the passage you want to select, then click and hold the mouse button, and drag the cursor to the end of the passage you want to select (while still holding down the mouse button). The normal color that indicates highlighting is pale blue, so you will see the text you have selected surrounded by a pale blue box. Now, you can Copy or Cut the text and the computer will know which passage you are referring to.
Other things on the screen can be selected, such as buttons that say "OK," "Cancel," "Yes," or "No." When these are selected with either a shadow or a blue fill, if you push the "enter" or "return" key on your keyboard you will achieve the same effect as simply clicking on the button with your mouse pointer.
If the button is selected with a black or blue outline, you can "push" the button by pushing the "space" key on your keyboard. If there is more than one button on the same window, you can cycle through selecting each one by pushing the "tab" key on your keyboard.
Finally, the third common thing that can be selected is text boxes. These are most common on the Internet, where they appear as the places where you type in usernames and passwords to log in to websites, or to type in an address on an online order form. Similarly to buttons, to cycle through multiple text boxes (also called "text fields"), simply push the "tab" key on your keyboard.
There are other things that can be selected, but these are often variations on the above three categories (for example, checkboxes and "radio buttons," which are similar to checkboxes, except only one can be selected at a time)
Examples
These pictures are from an Apple computer. People using other brands of computer (and consequently the Windows or Linux operating system) will see slightly different colors and styles of selecting things.
Highlighted text:
A text field with a username typed into it (notice how it's outlined in light blue):
Also, notice the empty checkbox next to "Save this Online ID" right under the text field. When this box is selected, pushing "space" will cause it to switch between checked and unchecked.
Buttons and other things that can be selected:
Things to look for:
- The "Print" button is a button that is filled in blue. Pushing the "enter" or "return" key would let the computer know to print the page.
- The "Cancel" button is outlined in blue. Pushing the "space" key would tell the computer to cancel the command to print. Pushing "tab" will make the blue outline "jump" along all of the different selectable objects on the screen, including buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, etc.
- The empty checkbox next to "Reverse Page Orientation" (towards the bottom of the window), and the checked checkbox next to "Collated."
- The two radio buttons next to the "Pages:" option, asking to print all of the pages, or only a given range of pages. It is impossible to select both at the same time—clicking the empty radio button makes the dot in the other one "move" to the one you clicked on.
- The different "Drop-down" menus that appear as buttons with a double arrow pointing up and down (such as the one that says "Layout." When you click on these buttons, a small menu appears that lets you choose different options.
- The text fields asking for how many copies and which pages to print.
Wow, that was a long post! Tomorrow's will be shorter: the Edit menu
