This blog includes three practical Word tips, and shows you how to:
- instantly select a word, sentence or paragraph
- quickly format a word, paragraph, range of cells, textbox or autoshape using the
Format Painter tool
- insert a non-breaking space to keep adjacent words together
Instantly select a word, sentence or paragraph
This tip is an oldie but a goodie, and particularly useful for people who do a lot of writing and editing.
| Action | Do this |
| Select word | Double-click anywhere within the word |
| Select sentence | Ctrl + click anywhere within the sentence |
| Select paragraph | Triple click anywhere within the paragraph |
Quickly format a word, paragraph, range of cells, autoshape or textbox using the Format Painter tool
This time saving tool has been around for years. It is very easy to use and can save you a great deal of time spent applying manual formatting. You can use it in all Microsoft applications. It’s a great tool to use when you want to quickly apply the formatting of a particular:
- character, word or paragraph to another word or paragraph in your document
- range to another cell or range in your Excel workbook
- autoshape, textbox etc to another in your document or presentation.
The Format Painter icon appears on the Home tab as 
. There are many ways of using it:
- select the character, word or paragraph that has the formatting you want to copy.
- click the Format Painter icon. Your mouse pointer turns into a paint brush pointer
. - click or drag your paint brush pointer across the section to which you want to apply the formatting.
Using Format Painter on a non-contiguous range
To apply the same formatting to non-contiguous characters, words or paragraphs – when you first select the Format Painter, double-click the icon. Your mouse pointer will continue to act as a Format Painter tool until you de-select the Format Painter icon or press Esc key.
Keep adjacent words together using the non-breaking space
Ctrl + Shift + spacebar
When Word calculates line width and wraps text to the next line, it tries to break the line at either a space or a hyphen. Sometimes however, you may want Word to keep two adjacent words together on the same line, for example 5 kg, 500 km, or even Catch-Up Training. To keep the number 5 and kg together you need to insert a non-breaking space (also known as hard space) between the 5 and kg. To do this, you
- type the number 5
- hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys as you press the Spacebar
- type the units kg.
Word will then not break the line between 5 and kg.
Alternatively insert non-breaking space via Insert tab + Symbols
- Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
- Select Symbols and then More Symbols. (Word displays the Symbol dialog box.)
- Click on the Special Characters tab (see below).
- Highlight the Nonbreaking Space
- Click on Insert.
- Close the dialog box by clicking on Close.
If you would like a particular topic covered, or have any questions, please contact me, heather@catchuptraining.co.nz. Until next time, remember “if it’s going to be, it’s up to me”.