Computer and Software Support


How to click and drag

When you are told to click and drag, it means to use your mouse to either highlight text, or to move an item to another location. (Click on the hyperlink for assistance with that step)

Example one

Jack went into work at 5 am and worked till noon. The alarm clock went off at 4 am. He got off work at noon and went fishing.

You realized you made a mistake. You wanted the sentence "The alarm clock went off at 4 am." to be in front of "Jack went to work at 5 am and worked till noon.

To move the sentence, you can either highlight the sentence, cut it and then paste it where you want it, or you can drag it to the location you want it. To drag it, do the following

  1. Click the left mouse button to the left of the sentence.
  2. When you click, hold the left mouse button down and do not release
  3. While holding the button, drag the cursor over the entire sentence till it is highlighted as such

The alarm clock went off at 4 am.

  1. Release the mouse button
  2. Place the cursor over the highlighted text
  3. Click the left mouse button and hold the button down.
  4. While holding the button down, drag the sentence to the location you want the text.
  5. Release the mouse button

If you do not want to use your mouse to highlight the text but want to use your keyboard, do the following

  1. Place the cursor to the right of the text
  2. Press and hold the Shift key
  3. Push the right arrow key till all the text that you want highlighted is highlighted.

Example two

You have a file in the folder pictures called work.txt that shouldn't be in that folder. It should be in the folder called work. You can either cut and paste the file into the work folder or you can drag it.

  1. Left click the file work.txt to highlight it
  2. Click the left mouse button and hold it down.
  3. While holding it down, drag the file to the folder work
  4. When the work folder is highlighted, release the mouse button

If you want to highlight all files from Alpha.txt to Foxtrot.txt, do the following

Alpha.txt  Beta.txt  Charlie.txt  Delta.txt  Echo.txt Foxtrot.txt Golf.txt

  1. Click to highlight Alpha.txt
  2. Press and hold down the Shift key
  3. While holding down the Shift key, click Foxtrot.txt
  4. You will notice that all files between Alpha.txt and Foxtrot.txt is now highlighted.

Alpha.txt  Beta.txt  Charlie.txt  Delta.txt  Echo.txt Foxtrot.txt Golf.txt

If you want to highlight only Alpha.txt, Charlie.txt, and Echo.txt but not the rest, do the following

  1. Click to highlight Alpha.txt
  2. Press and hold down the CTRL key
  3. While holding down the shift key, click on Charlie.txt and Echo.txt
  4. You will notice only those files are now highlighted

pha.txt  Beta.txt  Charlie.txt  Delta.txt  Echo.txt Foxtrot.txt Golf.txt