how to delete a text

How to delete text in a document

Updated: 06/06/2021 by Computer Hope

Whether you want to delete one or more characters, a whole word, or a full line of text, there are several ways to accomplish the task. Click each link below for ways to delete text in a document.

Delete one or more characters.
Delete entire word.
Delete full line of text.
Delete all text in a text file.

Delete one or more characters

To delete one or characters (letters, numbers, or symbols) in a document, try one of the following methods.

Open the document in Microsoft Word or another word processor.
Move the mouse cursor to the last character you want to delete.
Click the left mouse button to place the cursor after the last character.
Press Backspace one or more times to delete the characters in front of the cursor.

Open the document.
Move the mouse cursor to the first character you want to delete.
Click the left mouse button to place the cursor before the first character.
Press Delete one or more times to delete the characters after the cursor.

Note

For Apple keyboards that only have a Delete key and not a Backspace key, pressing delete removes the text before the cursor.

Delete entire word

To delete an entire word in a document, try one of the following methods.

Open the document in Microsoft Word or another word processor.
Move the mouse cursor to the beginning of the word you want to delete.
Press and hold the left mouse button, then drag the mouse to the right until the entire word is highlighted.
Press Backspace or Delete to delete the word.

Open the document.
Move the mouse cursor over the word you want to delete.
Double-click the left mouse button to highlight the entire word.
Press Backspace or Delete to delete the word.

Tip

You can highlight a full word by only using your keyboard if you hold down the Shift and Ctrl keys, and then press the arrow key in the direction you want to highlight.

Note

For Apple keyboards that only have a Delete key and not a Backspace key, pressing delete removes the text before the cursor.

Delete full line of text

To delete an entire line of text, try one of the following methods.

Open the document in Microsoft Word or another word processor.
Move the mouse cursor to the beginning of the line of text you want to delete.
Press and hold the left mouse button, then drag the mouse to the right until the entire line of text is highlighted.
Press Backspace or Delete to delete the line of text.

Open the document.
Move the mouse cursor to the margin, left of the line of text you want to delete. The cursor should look like an arrow slanted to the right.
Press the left mouse button to highlight the entire line of text.
Press Backspace or Delete to delete the line of text.

Tip

You can hold down Shift and press the down arrow or up arrow key to highlight one row of text at a time. You can also hold down Shift and press the Page up or Page down keys to highlight one page of text at a time. Once the text is highlighted, pressing the Backspace or Delete key deletes the highlighted text.

Note

For Apple keyboards that only have a Delete key and not a Backspace key, pressing delete removes the text before the cursor.

Delete all text in a text file

To delete all text in a text file, you can use the shortcut key to select all text which is Ctrl+A. Once all text is highlighted, press the Del or Backspace key to delete all highlighted text.