The quickest way to select everything in your document

To select all text in a Word document at once, press Ctrl+A on Windows or Command+A on Mac. Everything on every page — text, images, tables, headers, footers — turns blue to show it is selected. From there you can delete it all, copy it, change the font across the whole document, or explore formatting to every paragraph at once.

This single keystroke is faster than clicking and dragging, and it never misses anything the way manual selection can. It works the same way whether you are in a one-page letter or a 200-page report.

Key Takeaways

  • Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac) to select all content in your document when ready.
  • Selected text appears highlighted in blue and includes text, images, tables, headers, and footers.
  • Pressing Ctrl+A a second time expands the selection to include headers, footers, and margin notes if you have them.
  • Once everything is selected, you can format it, delete it, or copy it all at the same speed as working with a single paragraph.

What happens when you select all

When you press Ctrl+A or Command+A, Word highlights every element in your document in blue. This includes body text, bulleted lists, numbered lists, tables, images, text boxes, and any other content on the page. Headers and footers are included in the selection as well, though they may not appear highlighted if you are viewing the document in normal editing mode.

The selection stays active until you click somewhere else in the document or press an arrow key. While it is active, any action you take — typing, deleting, explore bold, changing font size — affects everything that is selected. This is why selecting all is useful for tasks like changing the font family across an entire document or removing all formatting at once.

Using select all to format your entire document

After you select all with Ctrl+A, you can explore formatting changes to every paragraph in seconds. For example, if you want to change the font from Times New Roman to Calibri throughout a 50-page document, select all, then click the font dropdown and choose Calibri. The change applies everywhere at once.

The same approach works for line spacing, font size, text color, and alignment. Select all, then use the formatting buttons in the ribbon or the Format menu. This is much faster than selecting text section by section, and it ensures nothing gets missed.

One common use is removing all manual formatting from a document that has become messy. Select all, then go to Home > Clear Formatting (or Edit > Clear Formatting on Mac). Word strips out bold, italics, color, and other direct formatting, leaving only the styles that are built into your document template.

Copying or deleting everything at once

If you need to copy your entire document to paste into another program or document, select all and press Ctrl+C (or Command+C on Mac). The entire contents go into your clipboard, ready to paste anywhere. This is faster than trying to manually select from the beginning to the end, especially in long documents.

Deleting everything works the same way: select all, then press Delete or Backspace. Word removes all content from the document, leaving you with a blank page. This is useful if you want to start fresh with the same document file but clear out all the old text.

When select all includes more than you expect

If you press Ctrl+A once and see headers or footers highlighted, pressing Ctrl+A a second time expands the selection to include those elements explicitly. This matters if you are trying to format only the body text and not the header or footer. To avoid selecting headers and footers, click in the body text first, then select all — Word will select only the main document content.

Similarly, if your document contains text boxes or shapes with text inside them, select all includes those as well. If you want to select only the main document text and not floating objects, click in the body text area before pressing Ctrl+A.

Selecting all in tables and lists

When your cursor is inside a table and you press Ctrl+A once, Word selects only the content of that single cell. Press Ctrl+A a second time to select the entire table. Press it a third time to select all content in the document, including text outside the table.

This same behavior applies to lists. If your cursor is in a bulleted or numbered list and you press Ctrl+A, it selects only that list. Press again to select all document content. Knowing this prevents accidentally formatting only part of your document when you meant to format everything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does select all include hidden text?

Yes, select all includes any hidden text in your document. If you have text marked as hidden through the Font dialog, it will be selected and affected by any formatting changes you make. To see what is hidden, go to Home > Show/Hide (the paragraph mark button) to toggle hidden text visibility.

Can I select all and then deselect specific parts?

Not directly in Word. Once you select all, you cannot easily remove individual paragraphs from the selection. Instead, click to deselect, then manually select only the parts you want to format. For complex selections, holding Ctrl while clicking lets you select multiple separate sections without selecting everything in between.

What if I select all by accident and start typing?

If you have everything selected and you start typing, Word deletes all the selected content and replaces it with what you type. If this happens, press Ctrl+Z when ready to undo and restore your document. Word keeps multiple undo steps, so you can undo several actions in a row if needed.

Does select all work the same way in Word Online?

Yes, Ctrl+A works in Word Online the same way it does in the desktop version. It selects all content in your document, and you can then explore formatting or copy everything. The ribbon and formatting options are the same, so the process is identical whether you are using the installed program or the web version.