Barry MacDonnell's Toolbox for WordPerfect for Windows - How to select a rectangular block of text

Barry MacDonnell's Toolbox for WordPerfect

Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows® © Copyright 1996-2024 by Barry MacDonnell. All Rights Reserved.		Page updated Jul 27, 2021

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How to select a rectangular block of text so you can delete it, copy it, or cut it to the clipboard

Suppose you wish to select a rectangular block of text — e.g., only columns c, d, and e in this example — to remove (or copy) it:

Once selected, you can delete¹, copy, or cut out the block of text with the methods below.

Important

First: Be sure your WordPerfect version is up to date. See Updating, upgrading, or reinstalling. The methods demonstrated below for selecting and deleting a rectangular section of text might not work in some early builds/editions of the program.

Second: Be aware that a checkbox setting in WordPerfect — if enabled (ticked) — can affect the way the cursor selects text by forcing the selection of entire words. The setting is found here:

Tools, Settings, Environment, "Automatically select whole words when dragging to select text."

The setting is enabled by default when WordPerfect is installed.

There are two general methods to select a rectangular block of text depending on the state of the above checkbox setting, as explained below.

Tip: For those in a hurry, see Method B - Alternative 3, which works regardless of the state of the checkbox setting.

Method A

You can disable (un-tick) the above Environment setting to let WordPerfect select individual characters instead of entire words, in which case you can select columns c, d, e as shown in the example below.

Step 1

Place your cursor after the "b" in rhe first line, then drag your mouse downward while depressing the left mouse button to locate the cursor after the "e" in the last line.

Step 2

Click on Edit, Select, Rectangle.

Step 3
Press Delete to remove it or Ctrl+X to cut it to the clipboard.

Or press Ctrl+C to copy it.

The selection should look like this: The selection should now look like this: The text should now look like this:

Method B

If you prefer the above Environment setting enabled (ticked), which is the program default and the choice for many users, then you can use any one of the 3 alternatives (in the rows) below to select a rectangular area of text — here, the same columns c, d, e.

Step 1
Alternative 1:
Place your cursor after the "b" in rhe first line, then drag your mouse downward while depressing the <Alt> key and the left mouse button to locate the cursor after the "e" in the last line.

... or ...

Step 2

Click on Edit, Select, Rectangle.

Step 3
Press Delete to remove it or Ctrl+X to cut it to the clipboard.

Or press Ctrl+C to copy it.

Alternative 2:
Place your cursor after the "b" in rhe first line, then use the keyboard, not the mouse: Hold down the <Shift> key while using the Arrow (and/or Page) keys to select the text.

... or ...
Click on Edit, Select, Rectangle. Press Delete to remove it or Ctrl+X to cut it to the clipboard.

Or press Ctrl+C to copy it.

Alternative 3:
Try this simple 2-step method Place your cursor after the "b" in rhe first line, then drag your mouse downward while depressing the <Shift> key and the right mouse button to locate the cursor after the "e" in the last line. Press Delete to remove it or Ctrl+X to cut it to the clipboard.

Or press Ctrl+C to copy it.

The selection should look like this: The selection should now look like this: The text should now look like this:

¹ Arcane tip: You can undelete (recover) deleted text to another location — essentially moving it — with an old keyboard shortcut. From WordPerfect's Help module:

To recover deleted text

1. Click where you want to insert the deleted text.
2. Press Alt + Shift + Backspace.
3. Click one of the following:

· Restore — inserts the deleted text
· Previous — displays the previous deletion
· Next — displays the next deletion

Related tip: In modern versions of WordPerfect these shortcut keys are assigned to the Windows keyboard (Bksp+Alt+Shift) with the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog (see more about that dialog here) with the "Undelete..." feature on the Edit category list. You can reassign them to any available shortcut key/s on any keyboard such as on the DOS keyboard.