The Learning Ladder Computer Basics Module

Using the Keyboard (continued)

Multi-line text editing

Sometimes you'll be editing or working on text that's more than one line long. The insertion point works the same way, but it can still take a little bit of practice.

To delete several lines at once, click at the end of the last line, and drag the mouse up. Notice that as you do this, the selection will "snap" to include the entire line as you move the mouse up. Drag the mouse to the start of the first line you want to delete, so you have a block of several lines selected. Then press the delete key to remove them all. Practice this until it's easy!

The "Return" key

At the right of your keyboard (above the shift key) is the return key. (On some keyboards, it's called enter instead of return, but it does the same thing.) When you're typing, the return key does something a little different depending on whether or not you're editing a multi-line box.

When you're in a multi-line box, pressing the return key inserts a carriage return. A carriage return is invisible, like a space, and it inserts a new blank line.

As you press return, you're inserting new blank lines.

The following example shows how to split a line with the return key. Click right before the word "You" in the box below, and press return.

See how the the return key splits the line into two lines.

Finally, even though you can't see carriage returns, you can delete them with the delete key just like any other character you type. In the box below, click just above the word "Up" and press the delete key.

You can practice as much as you want to on these pages, remember; click the "Reset" buttons to reset the boxes and continue practicing. When you are ready, click "next" to go to the final page on using the keyboard.

Click "next" to continue to the next page.

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