Triple clicking

Triple clicking is a workflow improvement that will save you hours, days or maybe even weeks in the long run. But what does it do?

Triple clicking on any text block selects that whole block.

It doesn’t sound impressive. But it will turn you into a speed freak when copying and pasting because it gives you an enormous clickable area. You just don’t have to be precise with your text selection any more.

Use cases for triple click

I move paragraphs around all the time. I might reverse the paragraph order in a post to put the conclusion front and centre. Triple click > Cut > Paste is almost a lizard-brain reflex for me in this situation.

HTML heading styles and list items are text blocks too. So triple clicking lets you select a heading, list item, or any other block-level element to manipulate as you wish. This applies to browsers and editors like Dreamweaver too.

In CSS, it selects a whole line. So you can chop your declarations around dead easily. It applies to proper coding too…

Triple click-and-hold

Of course there’s a next level. Triple click a paragraph and hold the final click (hard to explain, easier to do) then drag your mouse. Now you’re selecting text by blocks, not by characters. Killer in so many ways.

Yes, there are other ways to do these things. Different software lets you select text blocks in other ways. But this is cross-application – it works in nearly every program – which means it quickly becomes natural. Especially if you combine it with the amazing wonder that is PureText.

A quick office poll suggests not many people know about this but I may be wrong. Let me know whether you have other uses for it that I’ve missed – or just say hello on @myddelton…