Shift+click is a method of highlighting text or other objects by holding down the Shift key and clicking with the mouse.

Practice Shift-clicking

Below is a text box to practice using the Shift and click method to highlight text. Follow the steps below to highlight text using Shift+click.

  • Click at the beginning of the text or where you want to start highlighting text.
  • Hold down either Shift on the keyboard.
  • While continuing to hold down Shift, click at the end of the text or where you want to stop highlighting. If done correctly, all text in-between the two areas clicked becomes highlighted. For example, you could click before “Computer” and then hold down Shift and click after “Hope” to highlight “Computer Hope.”
  • Once the text is highlighted, you can let go of the Shift key.

Why does the Shift+click not work?

The Shift+click method of highlighting text or files works for PC, Mac, and Chromebook computers on any area that can be manipulated. For example, most of the text on this page cannot be changed by you and therefore does not work with Shift-click. However, the text in the textarea text box we used in the above example can be manipulated and lets you do a Shift-click.

To practice highlighting text, click at the beginning of the text you would like to highlight, hold down Shift, and click where you would like to stop highlighting. Thanks for visiting Computer Hope!

If you want to highlight more text after the highlighted text, you can press and hold Shift again, and click further out to highlight even more text.

Once the text is highlighted, you can right-click the text to get additional options or use a shortcut key to copy or cut the text.

Click, Keyboard terms, Mouse terms, Shift key

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