Moving Text in Microsoft Word
In this course, we’ll talk about how to move text in MS Word. Sometimes you need to move a piece of text from one place in a document to another place in the same document or in a different document.
With a mouse, you can use the drag-and-drop method to move text from one place in a document to another. This tutorial will show you how to move text by dragging and dropping it.
Table of contents
What is Moving Text?
Move text is one of the many things that MS Word can do. For example, a user might be writing something like an article or assignment and realize, either after finishing the document or in the middle of writing, that he or she wrote or typed something that needs to go somewhere else in the document.
So, in this case, the feature called “Moving text” comes in very handy and does the work for the user by moving the text to where it needs to be.
Moving Between Different Documents
Moving text between different documents is possible. To do this, you will have to change the size of at least one Word window so that you can see both documents at the same time. After that, you can choose the text and drag it into the new document.
You might not know that you can move text between different Microsoft Office programs, but you can. For example, move text from a Word document to an Excel spreadsheet using the same method. Or a PowerPoint presentation.
Move Text Around Your Word Document
Sometimes, you’ll need to move parts of the text you’ve already typed around in a Microsoft Word document. To do this, first select the text you want to move, and then do one of the following:
- Click on the text you want to move and drag it to where you want it. As you drag the text, a vertical insertion point with dots will appear to show you where the text will go when you let go of the mouse.
- Copy the text by pressing Ctrl-C, move the cursor to where you want it, and then press Ctrl-V to paste it there. This isn’t really moving text, so keep that in mind. It’s just the same thing.
- Cut the text by pressing Ctrl-x, move the cursor to where you want the text to go, and then press Ctrl-v to paste it there.
Tables are often used to line up different blocks of text. If you do use tables, it will be easy to move a block of text because pressing the tab key while moving from one table cell to the next will automatically select all of the text in a cell.
What is the difference between Moving and Copying Text?
The difference between them is that copying text entails making a copy of the selected text and repositioning it while leaving the original text unchanged. Moving text, on the other hand, means that selected text can be taken from one place and put in another.
How to Move Text Quickly in Your Word Document
In this article, we’ll show you three ways to move texts more quickly in your word document.
- Copy and Paste the Selected Texts
Most of the time, we cut and paste the texts we want into our document.
Follow these 2 steps to do it:
1. To cut, select the text you want to move, and then press the shortcut key “Ctrl + X.”
2. Move the cursor to where you want the text to go, and then press “Ctrl + V” to paste it there.
- Click and Drag to Move the Selected Texts
Also, if you want to move your texts without having to press shortcut keys, you can just click and drag the texts. Read this part to find out how.
1. Select the text you want to move first.
2. Then, click on the texts you’ve chosen and drag them to where you want them. When you move the text, a vertical insertion point with dots will appear. It tells you where your text will go when you let go of the mouse. - Quickly Move Texts in a Long Document
We’ve already said that you can easily move the selected texts by clicking and dragging. However, it does not quite suitable for long documents. So, we’ll show you a different way that works well for long documents.
1. Select the text you wish to move first.
2. When you press “F2” on your keyboard, “Move to where?” will appear in the lower left corner of your Word document, as shown below.
3. Place the pointer on the location where you wish the text to appear by scrolling down the page. Then, press the “Enter” button on your keyboard. The texts will thereafter be transferred rapidly.
Shortcuts Keys To Select and Move Text in a Document
The table below shows how to use shortcuts keys to move text in a MS Word document.
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move cursor When the Scroll Lock key is enabled, the arrow keys will scroll the page in both edit and read mode. |
| Ctrl+A | Select All document’s contents |
| Ctrl+C | Copy the text or object you select |
| Ctrl+Down | Move item one row down in a list or table |
| Ctrl+Up | Move item up one row in a list or table |
| Ctrl+V | Paste text or object |
| Ctrl+X | Cut selected text or object |
| Delete | Delete selected graphic |
| Delete | Delete selected text or object |
| Shift+Ctrl+Down | Select text up to same point of next line |
| Shift+Ctrl+Left | Select previous word |
| Shift+Ctrl+Right | Select next word |
| Shift+Ctrl+Up | Select text up to same point of previous line |
| Shift+Ctrl+Down | Select text to the end of the line and then move focus to the next line. |
| Shift+End | Select text to end of current line |
| Shift+Home | Select text to beginning of current line |
| Shift+Left | Select previous character |
| Shift+Right | Select next character |
| Shift+Up | Select text at the start of the current line and move the focus to the preceding line. |
Summary
In this tutorial, we’ve talked about the ways to move text in MS Word documents as well as what those terms mean. We also gain insight into what the tips are for moving text in a document. Furthermore, we also picked up some skills on what the shortcut keys in selecting and moving text.
We hope this tutorial helps you as you plan to create a document in MS Word.
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