Blogger Diana Huggins highlights a handy tip in Microsoft Word for selecting text vertically rather than the traditional horizontal select we're all used to.
The key: just hold down the Alt key (or Option key on your Mac) while you drag your selection. Not only does vertical text selection work in Word, but you can use the same shortcut to select text vertically in a lot of plain text editors. With a little cursory testing, it works for a charm for me on Notepad++ on Windows (not plain old Notepad, though), as well as on TextMate and TextWrangler on my Mac. For my money, this tip is a lot more useful for plain text editors, which generally use a fixed-width font so each character will always match with the one above it. Either way, vertical text selection is a handy trick to have up your sleeve.
Vertical Text Selection In Word [lockergnome]
