Is it possible to highlight every other paragraph, but not as in Ctrl F?

This question cries out for more detail:

What software are you talking about? Microsoft Word? Some other word processor?

What do you mean about “highlighting … for the purpose of pasting”? Highlighting is applied to text in the document (in Word and most other word processors) and then left there as a visual aid to readers. “For copying” means “selecting” the text, and copying to a clipboard or directly to another application.

And Ctrl-F is used (in Word) to “find” text or formatting in the document. So I’m at sea here. It’s hard to know exactly what you mean by this question.

It would probably also be possible to set up a MS Word style or macro that would apply certain formatting to “every other paragraph”. But again, I’m just guessing right now.

It is, using Ctrl c.

For the purpose of copying the text, there is no automatic way to do it, but you can click and drag the first paragraph you want to copy, press CTRL, then click and drag the next paragraph you want to copy, etc. For it to work, you must hold the CTRL button the entire time, without letting go.

Because this is tedious, and because it’s so easy to let go by mistake and lose text you’d already copied, many people just copy one paragraph (or other block of text) at a time, and paste it into the target document, before returning to the source to copy more text. In other words, with a bit of practice, this might be a good solution for you, but don’t be discouraged if you waste some time figuring it out. You may even decide that it’s not worth the trouble. We’ve all been there.

@dappled_leaves It is better than nothing that you have to keep holding the CTRL key, but it would take forever to do things one at a time. Thanks for the tip.

@CWOTUS re.. “Ctrl-F” in my OP, I was referring to finding a word, a sentence, a paragraph, in an article for example.

@Brian1946 I guess I should have added …without the previous highlighted paragraph becoming unhighlighted, when you try to highlight another paragraph.

Here’s an example, using Ctrl c.

Hopefully, you can see that the preceding paragraphs remain highlighted.

Also, you only have to hold the Ctrl c just before and while highlighting the subsequent paragraphs. After that, it can be released while you’re going to the next one, and the preceding paragraphs remain highlighted.

@Brian1946 I tried holding on Ctrl -C but the 1st paragraph doesn’t stay highlighted.

Okay@Brian1946 it’s in Word you’re referring to. I was referring in an article etc. on the internet which I didn’t mention in my OP.

You have to have Ctrl c fully pressed down, before you left-click the mouse to highlight the next paragraph.

If you left-click before Ctrl c, then that removes the preceding highlights.

@Brian1946 Ok let me correct myself re. my last post. You weren’t referring to in Word because you took a screenshot of this thread.

So, anyway, I tried hoding down CTRL C when I try to highlight another paragraph. It isn’t working for me.

What browser are you using?

I’m using Firefox.

@flo Just hold down CTRL, not CTRL-C.

@dappled_leaves I trieds that too. Same thing.

@Brian1946 Ok, I was using Explorer. But I still like to have Explorer around since it worked when Firefox wouldn’t for an unrelated tasks.

Thanks all. I posted an OP how to paste those paragraphs in one shot.

By the way, when using Gmail Firefox says “you’re using an unsupported browser”, that’s why I use Explorer sometimes.

That last statement … just makes no sense at all, @flo. Firefox IS a browser. Firefox would not tell you – while using any application or website within itself – that you are using an unsupported browser. Now, I can’t say why it might happen, but Gmail or some other application or client might tell you that Firefox is an unsupported browser for the client, because Gmail is an email application / client and Firefox is a browser. So for whatever reason – which I’ve never encountered – Gmail might tell you something about your choice of browsers, but I doubt that a browser would tell you that you’re using an unsupported browser.

I still can’t make heads or tails out of the original question.

@CWOTUS Gmail will certainly give you that message if your browser needs updating.

Yup if you are running 24 for Firefox (it is 53 now, I think) you are running an unsupported browser.

@CWOTUS I meant to say “when using Firefox, Gmail says… ”

As for the OP please see @Brian1946‘s and @dappled_leaves answers (esp @Brian1946‘s with the link.)