Google Docs has long been one of the most popular tools for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in the workplace and at home alike. With all these tools, however, there’s always been one glaring omission – you could only edit documents one at a time. Google has now addressed this shortcoming with an easy-to-use new feature that allows users to select and edit multiple texts at once. Here’s how it works. How to Select and Edit Multiple Texts in Google Docs , How to Select and Edit Multiple Texts in Google Docs
How to select multiple texts
Table of Contents
Some people need to be able to select multiple texts at once. Here’s how you can do it: First, right-click any text or word. A small menu will appear that gives you a list of options. Go down until you see Highlight and click on it. All texts between your cursor location and where you clicked will now be highlighted. To highlight text after another one, hold down Shift while clicking on other texts (this works with all selection methods). Right-clicking also gives you additional options such as copying/cutting highlighted texts or pasting them into other programs. Now that your texts are selected, try out some of these tips for changing their color, font size or text style.
When you are ready to edit
The new update is great, but it would be even better if we had an option to select multiple pieces of text simultaneously. I like having more control over what I am editing because I can fix issues faster, but it’s pretty tedious when I have three or four sentences that are very similar, especially when some words are spelled differently.
Maybe it’s a bit picky for me to mention it now after only just finding out about this feature today. All that aside, if you’re like me and have lots of writing on your hands at one time, then perhaps you’ll appreciate Google finally allowing us to select multiple texts at once; now we just need some way to edit them all together.
Editing multiple texts at once
No longer will you have to tediously select one text at a time. Instead, simply open up any document within Google Drive and select Multiple Items on your toolbar. The familiar formatting tool box appears with all of your formatting options laid out before you. Choose which text boxes to format at once by holding down CTRL or SHIFT on each text box you would like included in your selection, then click on any one of these boxes to apply your formatting changes. That’s it! Now you can spend less time selecting/de-selecting texts individually and more time working.
Editing multiple texts at once
Use keyboard shortcuts to make selecting, moving, copying, cutting and pasting multiple texts a breeze. Instead of relying on your mouse or trackpad, use Ctrl+A (select all), Shift+Arrow (move text/images) or Alt+Arrow (copy/cut text/images). The combination of shortcuts will allow you to quickly copy and paste one paragraph into another. To get more advanced, learn how to create macros using Keyboard Maestro ($34.95 on sale at MacUpdate), which can help you edit multiple documents at once with just a few clicks.
Step 1: Open Document
To open a document, click on File and select Open. This opens a list of all of your available documents for you to choose from. Once you have chosen your desired document, click Open. This will load your selected document into a new tab within Google Docs.
Step 2: Select
To select multiple texts at once, click on any word within a text that you want to be part of your selection. When you do so, you will see a blue highlight (also known as selection handles) surrounding that word. Click and drag your mouse over all of the other words in that text that you want to add into your selection. You can also hold CTRL while clicking each word if having issues with selecting everything.
Step 3: Go To Line Number
In your browser, open a document that you want to edit. For example, you can open any existing Word or PDF documents from Drive or Docs; or, create a new blank document by going to File > New > Blank Document. From here, click on Tools, then Select, and finally Select All. You should see all of your text highlighted with a blue highlight box surrounding it. Now you’re ready for step 2!
Step 4: Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Open a new document in Google Docs. The first thing you will want to do is open a new document. You can do so by going to File, New, Blank Document. This will open up a blank document on your screen that you can now begin writing your text into.
Section 5 – Deleting Words, Sentences, or Lines of Text
There are times when you’ll want to just delete words, sentences, or entire lines of text. For example, let’s say that you’ve written an entire paragraph but decide it doesn’t really add anything of value. Deleting a sentence or two can be as simple as highlighting them with your cursor and pressing delete. But what if you need to remove more than a few sentences? One option is to simply highlight each sentence (or line) individually, then press delete for each one. This works well for removing one sentence at a time from a document. But what if you have four sentences that all follow one another?
Section 6 – Adding Words, Sentencing, or Lines of Text
Within a text box you can add additional words, sentences, or lines of text. It is important to note that if you begin typing while holding down Control (CTRL) or Command (⌘), your cursor will select letters/words. To move a block of selected text, hold down Shift while pressing one of these keys. Otherwise, press Enter on your keyboard after each word or line of text that you wish to select.