Make vertical selections in Word

Have you ever wanted to quickly delete unneeded symbols in front of a bulleted list, or select text in a column in Microsoft Word?

There's actually an easy way to make vertical selections. Simply hold down the Alt key and then drag across the area you want to select. This works in both Word 2007 and Word 2010:

Once you've made your selection, simply press Delete to remove its contents (great for removing those unnecessary characters), or you can cut or copy it where you need it. In my example above, I can copy the numbers 1, 2, and 3 and then paste them to create the start of a list.

Suzanne