Suppose you want to select all text in Notepad, place the cursor anywhere in the document and hit Ctrl+A to quickly select the entire text, and then perform whichever action you want to.

Clicking and dragging is a perfectly good way to select text, but there are others, possibly better, ways to go about it.

Of course, you should know your regular Cmd + Z to undo whatever you just typed or pasted. For copying text, you’ll also want to remember Cmd + A to select all text or items in a document or folder.

How to select all words in Word using the keyboard shortcut To select all text in Word using the shortcut, press the Ctrl + A keys together and the entire text in the document will be selected.

Trying to select a large paragraph's worth of text doesn't have to mean clicking and dragging. Click your cursor anywhere in the paragraph, then click two more times in rapid succession.

Apple has improved the ways you can quickly select, copy, and paste text, but the new gestures take some learning — especially if you regularly used the previous ones.