[robg adds: This was news to me, too, and it seems to work across Carbon, Cocoa, and even Java apps (jEdit, at least).]
|
|
|
This might be old hat to some, but I just discovered this behavior by accident (in both 10.3 and 10.4). If you double-click to select a whole word, and then hold the mouse button down, you can then drag to select contiguous words, one word at a time. This is similar to how Microsoft Word works. It seems to work in Safari, TextEdit, TextWrangler, Mail.app, Finder, etc.
[robg adds: This was news to me, too, and it seems to work across Carbon, Cocoa, and even Java apps (jEdit, at least).]
•
[7,482 views]
Hint Options
Select text word-by-word
Geez, this behavior goes back to System 4, maybe further. Not sure how far back but way far.
Select text word-by-word
... and if you triple click, hold and drag you can select text paragraph by paragraph.
Select text word-by-word
It's original. From the days of the 128k Mac (with no hard drive, just one 400k floppy drive which held system, app, and data!).
Select text word-by-word
I think its easier to double-click the word, and then simply shift-click the final contiguous word you want in your selection. Accomplishes the same thing with less mousing.
Handy Old-School Trick
As noted, this is definitely an old-school trick, but it's still really handy! It works in Windows too. Dragging is also a cool part of it, as is triple-click with dragging.
Select text word-by-word
I use this click-&-½ technique every day, and have done so for at least 15 years. It's particularly elegant with my trackball, where my left button does a normal click and my right button locks the mouse button down. So I can left-click + right-click on a word, then roll the trackball to the end of the selection and right-click again to release.
Select text word-by-word
I am ashamed to admit this but I have been a Mac user since the beginning (and I used an Apple IIe before that) and I... DID NOT KNOW THIS. UGH! I am stunned that my ignorance of this was so persistent.
Select text word-by-word
It's worked for me (in most apps) for as long as I can remember (back to 1986). Unfortunately, it doesn't work (for me) in Firefox.
Select text word-by-word
That's because FireFox is not a Mac application. It tries, and mostly fails.
Select text word-by-word
Oddly enough, it doesn't work in Camino either, which is further along in being a Mac application.
Select text word-by-word
Well, face it, web browsers have pretty much broken every user interface guideline that Apple has ever published. At least some sanity is returning with Safari, but the very nature HTML combined with the monkeys that write it has pretty much hosed decent web page GUIs forever. (Example: Selecting a menu item loads a new page.)
Select text word-by-word
In Quark, and other page layout programs, a triple click will select the entire line, clicking 4 times will select the entire paragraph, and clicking 5 times will select all the text in the box.
Select text word-by-word
I do the double-click, drag thing all the time.
Select text word-by-word
Actually, in MS Word (if you disabled the automatic word selection), double-clicking selects a word and dragging only selects characters.
Select text word-by-word
This behavior does not exist in Firefox or in Thunderbird. Does anyone know 1) why? and 2) how to make it work with those two apps? Does Mozilla use it's own text editor? Can I tell those apps to use the native text editor? |
SearchFrom our Sponsor...Latest Mountain Lion HintsWhat's New:HintsNo new hintsComments last 2 daysLinks last 2 weeksNo recent new linksWhat's New in the Forums?
Hints by TopicNews from Macworld
From Our Sponsors |
|
Copyright © 2014 IDG Consumer & SMB (Privacy Policy) Contact Us All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. |
Visit other IDG sites: |
|
|
|
Created this page in 0.22 seconds |
|