Mac Tip: Try Highlighting Text With A Single, Double, Or Triple Click »

This Mac tip is easy to miss, but super helpful when you need it – here's how to single, double, and triple clicking helps make highlighting the correct text easier.

From @threehourcoffee (emphasis mine):

This mouse highlighting shortcut is a game-changer for me!!!

A friend (who’s not on twitter) just told me about it.

Had to share.

Made a video to demonstrate.

Double click, then drag, to highlight words not letters. pic.twitter.com/MPa51Ek4WT

This is one of those Mac tips that people probably haven’t heard of, or have so deeply engrained into their muscle memory that they didn’t realize it was a tip to give (I’m the latter).

Either way – make sure to try triple clicking to select entire paragraphs too.

Update: Antonio Bueno mentioned this additional tip to me on Discord:

Something related I discovered God-knows-when: You can make little adjustments to one side of the selection with shift+left arrow and shift+right arrow.

The nice detail is that the side depends on the direction of the selection: Select from right to left and the keys will modify the left side. Select from left to right, and it’s the right side that can be modified.

View the video on Twitter.

Posts You Might Like

Technique: Open URLs into Mac apps using Shell Scripting
In the update to my TV app shortcuts, I debuted a new technique for opening links into Mac apps using Run Shell Script – here's all the details for my membership program.
Show More
How to cancel tasks in Things
My first Tips & Tricks post covering how to mark a task as cancelled in Things for iOS and Mac
Show More
How to make a full-page screenshot of an app or website with StitchPics
StitchPics is my favorite tool for making screenshots of complete Shortcuts – check out the video of how it works.
Show More
Customize Your Mac Workspace With CurrentKey’s Menu Bar Script Images
When in your custom workspace created with CurrentKey, the Menu Bar icon provides context – now you can use Script Images to create more signals (and show them using Shortcuts).
Show More