Any way of highlighting just a column?

[FrankSMS]

UPDATED
In Microsoft Word 2003 there is a neat trick where you can highlight a vertical area by using the ALT key and dragging the mouse. It doesn't need to be in a frame or whatever the borders are people use. You just drag the mouse pointer and it highlights. Now I was wondering if there's some way of doing that in Firefox. Imagine you have a bank of numbers you want to add up or just information on the left side of the page you want to copy over. Very handy trick if its possible to do. Sure beats dragging the mouse across each and every line!

[morat]

Omit.

[jscher2000]

In a basic HTML table, in Firefox for Windows, Ctrl+clicking individual cells or Ctrl+dragging over a set of adjacent cells will select those cells. If the list uses a different structure, that doesn't apply.

[FrankSMS]

Not sure what you mean by "basic HTML table".
When I drag the mouse over text using Control nothing happens. Using Shift results in the same thing as if nothing is used. Win7 with latest Firefox. In the Iron (Chrome) Control and Shift don't seem to affect the mouse highlighting at all. This is curious! In Microsoft Word one uses Control with mouse dragging.

What would be great would be to be able to highlight whatever area you want with the mouse irregardless of cells or frames.

[morat]

That works in Firefox.

Unfortunately, I can't do the Ctrl+clicking or Ctrl+dragging trick in Chrome.

Basic HTML Table
http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp ... html_table

[jscher2000]

In Microsoft Word one uses Control with mouse dragging.

For what, exactly? When does Control + left-mouse-button selection yield a different selection from left-mouse-button selection by itself?

In your original post you mentioned the wheel. I can't make anything good happen using Ctrl and the wheel in Word 2016.

Maybe it would help if you link to a page where you are trying to make a particular kind of selection and it's difficult to do.

[FrankSMS]

https://lifehacker.com/vertical-text-se ... ond-244483

Sorry - its Alt and dragging the mouse that works in highlighting just the text you want in Word 2003. What a feature! We need this exactly with browsers.

[FrankSMS]

In Microsoft Word one uses Control with mouse dragging.

For what, exactly? When does Control + left-mouse-button selection yield a different selection from left-mouse-button selection by itself?

In your original post you mentioned the wheel. I can't make anything good happen using Ctrl and the wheel in Word 2016.

Maybe it would help if you link to a page where you are trying to make a particular kind of selection and it's difficult to do.

I've updated the original post. It was sloppy. For Word 2003. Should have mentioned that as its changed so much over the years and so many things don't work as they used to. Thanks Microsoft. Always appreciate when you remove features.

[FrankSMS]

Omit.

I don't blame you! The original was a mess. Updated now so hopefully it makes sense. Sorry.

[FrankSMS]

In a basic HTML table, in Firefox for Windows, Ctrl+clicking individual cells or Ctrl+dragging over a set of adjacent cells will select those cells. If the list uses a different structure, that doesn't apply.

Yeah I realize we can highlight a cell. That's pretty typical browser behavior. I want to highlight just a vertical area (like the left half) of that cell. That's the challenge. Maybe its not even possible. But its very handy sometimes.

[jscher2000]

https://lifehacker.com/vertical-text-se ... ond-244483

Sorry - its Alt and dragging the mouse that works in highlighting just the text you want in Word 2003. What a feature! We need this exactly with browsers.

Word no longer has the concept of a rectangular selection. I think proportional fonts made it largely obsolete and eventually they gave up trying to figure out how to keep it relevant.