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About this lesson
Learn to use this tool when working with graphics and styles.
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Exercise files
Download the Word document used in the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Selection Tool and Format Pane.docx2.5 MB
Quick reference
Selection Tool and Format Pane
Learn to use this tool when working with graphics and styles.
When to use
The Selection Tool gives you control over objects, and the Format Pane gives you many more options for working with pictures.
Instructions
Select all text with similar formatting
- Click into any text in the document.
- Choose Select in the Editing group (shown above.)
- Click Select Text with similar Formatting.
- No matter how long the document is, it will select only the matching formats and allow you to change formatting all at the same time.
- At the bottom of the pane, click the “Distinguish Style Source” so that you can match the format to the corresponding style in the Styles Gallery.
Activate the Selection Pane
- Hide/Unhide objects (shapes) by clicking the hide button to the right of the shape name. Note: A picture is not an object, it is a picture and therefore cannot be hidden.
- Change the name of the shape by clicking it in the list and retyping a name.
- Ctrl + click to select multiple shapes in order to move them around simultaneously.
View the Format Picture Pane
- Right click a picture and choose Format Picture.
- Float you mouse on the top options and read the tooltips.
- 00:05 I wanna talk to you about the Selection tool and
- 00:07 the Format pane when we're dealing with pictures and objects on a document.
- 00:11 First of all, they are located on the Home ribbon, which is, when you're really good
- 00:15 at the Home ribbon, that means you are a proficient computer user.
- 00:18 Well, one of the most advanced things I can teach anyone is right over here.
- 00:21 Very end of the Home ribbon, it's call the Selection pane.
- 00:25 I'll go ahead and activate that.
- 00:26 And please notice the first option says Select All, with the tool tip, Ctrl+A.
- 00:30 Now the only way I've ever done it is with Ctrl+A,
- 00:33 I didn't even know you could choose Select All.
- 00:35 Because I've only been using the Selection pane for a couple years, but
- 00:39 I been using Microsoft Word for 25 years.
- 00:42 So when I click that, I just selected all.
- 00:44 In my opinion, control is faster.
- 00:46 Regardless, let's go back to the selection Pane and here we have Select Objects.
- 00:51 Now, this is very interesting.
- 00:52 What was going to happen?
- 00:53 When I click Select Objects, I move my mouse into a text area and
- 00:57 I'm trying to click my text, it will not let me.
- 01:00 I just told my mouse only select objects.
- 01:04 You're not allowed to select any text, just objects.
- 01:07 Now, this is a wonderful feature.
- 01:09 Because if you're working with newsletters,
- 01:11 sometimes your pictures are in front of or behind your text and
- 01:15 you don't want to click the text you want the picture.
- 01:18 So that's a great way to force your mouse only to select objects.
- 01:22 You got to go back in there and turn the thing off though, okay?
- 01:25 So unclick Select Objects, and now there's not a gray square on it.
- 01:29 Okay, the next is Select Text with Similar Formatting.
- 01:31 So I'm going to click on this text right here.
- 01:34 Gonna come over here and say, Select Text with Similar Formatting.
- 01:37 Watch what happens up above, see both of them just were selected just now.
- 01:42 Now I can make one change, maybe this is a 20-page document and
- 01:46 I've got 10 headers in there, I can change them all at one time.
- 01:50 All right, and the last one is a Selection Pane.
- 01:52 This is the end all know all to being an expert user of any software,
- 01:57 Microsoft Server, the Selection Pane is wonderful, click.
- 02:00 There it is, folks.
- 02:01 This selection pane is going to allow you to get in here and
- 02:06 select a triangle, the oval, the rectangle.
- 02:11 Once in a while your pictures and your sheets are kinda stacked up on each other,
- 02:17 and it's hard to battle through and get them rearranged.
- 02:20 But the selection pane makes it easy for you.
- 02:23 Now another thing about the selection pane is, take a look right over here,
- 02:26 you're not imagining this these are little eyelids.
- 02:28 And you can shut an eyelid and basically hide that particular object so
- 02:33 that you can then work on one that was buried.
- 02:36 And then, when you open up the eyelids, they pop back on.
- 02:40 Another thing you can do is rearrange them.
- 02:42 It's kind of hard to tell this this yellow triangle.
- 02:46 I can right click and Send to Back, Send to Back, Send Backward, Send Behind Text.
- 02:52 How about I just click on the triangle?
- 02:54 Let's hear, here we go and tell it to move down.
- 02:58 This is easier.
- 02:59 What if I had multiple triangles on my screen?
- 03:01 Isosceles triangle 678.
- 03:03 Here, how about I just rename it to yellow, yellow triangle.
- 03:08 It just makes more sense.
- 03:10 Picture 6 is the koalas, so I'll double click and I'll type koala.
- 03:14 And now when I come back in here in a month or however long,
- 03:17 there's no question which is which,
- 03:19 I don't have to click around to figure out which one is the koala picture.
- 03:23 The selection pane is a wonderful feature.
- 03:26 Now one more thing, I want you to right-click on a picture and
- 03:29 notice the very bottom.
- 03:30 Well, first of all, we do have Styles, so we can choose any style for the picture,
- 03:35 we can crop the picture from here as well and I hit Escape.
- 03:38 But when you right-click, hit Format Picture, take a look at this.
- 03:41 When I click Format, now I've got two panels side-by-side.
- 03:45 It's kinda nice, 'cause they work together, but I'm gonna close this selection pane.
- 03:49 And on the Format Picture, you simply have to open up, your job is to open up every
- 03:53 one of these little left-hand triangles and read the list.
- 03:56 Become a better computer user by knowing all the options
- 03:59 on the screen in front of you.
- 04:01 All right, that's it for this lesson, thank you.
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