Once the words are in your document, you often need to move them around, fix the same mistake in twenty places, or set information out in a table or in newspaper-style columns. These editing features help you structure and organise a document quickly.

View the videos below before trying the steps.

Build on what you learned in Forms 1–3

These Lower School ICT posts cover the basics of this topic:

• Text and Graphics, Page Breaks and Columns – laying out a page
• Formatting a Letter – Text, Tables, Layout – using a table in a real document

In this post:

• Block operations: select, cut, copy, paste, move and delete
• Find and Replace
• Tables: inserting, adding/deleting rows and columns, merging and splitting cells
• Columns

Block operations

A block is any selected piece of text (a word, a sentence, several paragraphs). Block operations act on the whole selection at once.

Operation	How (Word)	Shortcut
Select	• Drag over text • double-click a word • triple-click a paragraph • Ctrl+A for everything	Shift + arrow keys
Cut (move)	Home → Cut, then click the new place → Paste	Ctrl+X, then Ctrl+V
Copy	Home → Copy, then Paste where needed	Ctrl+C, then Ctrl+V
Delete	Select, then press Delete or Backspace	Delete
Drag and drop	Select, then drag the text to a new place (hold Ctrl to copy)	–
Undo / Redo	The arrows at the top of the window	Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y

Cut removes the block and places it on the clipboard; copy leaves the original and puts a duplicate on the clipboard.

Find and Replace

Find (Ctrl+F) locates every place a word appears. Replace (Ctrl+H) changes it to something else – one at a time (Replace) or everywhere at once (Replace All). Example: change “Tobago” to “Trinidad and Tobago” in a long report, or fix a misspelled name.

Video: Using Find & Replace in Microsoft Word – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZSlu4DWJ5k

Steps (Word):

1. Home → Replace (or Ctrl+H).
2. Find what: type the word to change.
3. Replace with: type the new word.
4. Click More to tick options such as Match case or Find whole words only.
5. Click Replace to check each one, or Replace All to change them all.

Google Docs: Edit → Find and replace (Ctrl+H). LibreOffice: Edit → Find & Replace (Ctrl+H).

Tables

A table organises information into rows and columns – timetables, price lists, results.

• Insert a table: Insert → Table → drag to choose rows × columns.
• Add rows/columns: click in a cell → Table Layout → Insert Above/Below/Left/Right (or press Tab in the last cell for a new row).
• Delete rows/columns: Table Layout → Delete.
• Merge cells: select cells → Table Layout → Merge Cells (e.g. for a title across the top).
• Split cells: Table Layout → Split Cells.
• Format: Table Design → choose a style, shading and borders; adjust column width by dragging the borders.
• Sort: Table Layout → Sort, e.g. alphabetically by name.

Video: Word: Tables – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNBrCEgzddw

Columns

Columns split text into side-by-side sections like a newspaper or brochure. Layout → Columns → Two or Three. To put columns on only part of the page, select that text first, or insert a section break (continuous). Use Layout → Breaks → Column to push text into the next column.

Video: Word: Columns – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1n2VG1yxFs

Related

Related: Videos: Search/Replace, Tables, Columns

Paper 1 practice (multiple choice)

Choose the best answer for each question. Try them all before you check.

1. Which keyboard shortcut opens Find and Replace in Word?
(A) Ctrl+F
(B) Ctrl+H
(C) Ctrl+R
(D) Ctrl+P

2. Which operation removes selected text and places it on the clipboard?
(A) Copy
(B) Cut
(C) Paste
(D) Undo

3. Combining two or more table cells into one is called
(A) splitting
(B) merging
(C) sorting
(D) wrapping

4. A newsletter with text in side-by-side sections uses
(A) columns
(B) tables
(C) headers
(D) footnotes

5. To change only some occurrences of a word after checking each one, you would click
(A) Replace All
(B) Replace
(C) Find Next only
(D) Undo

Show answers

1. B
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. B

Paper 2 practice (structured question)

Marcus is typing a 15-page report on Caribbean tourism. He has spelled “Grenada” as “Granada” throughout, wants page 4’s paragraph on Tobago to appear on page 2, and needs a table showing visitor numbers for five islands over three years.

(a) Describe how Marcus can correct “Granada” everywhere in the report quickly. (2 marks)

(b) Explain the difference between cut and copy. (2 marks)

(c) State the number of rows and columns his table needs, including headings:

(i) rows (1 mark)

(ii) columns (1 mark)

(d) He wants the title “Visitor Numbers” in one cell across the full width of the table. Name the feature and say how it is used. (2 marks)

Total: 8 marks

Show answers

(a) Use Find and Replace (1): type “Granada” in Find what and “Grenada” in Replace with, then click Replace All (1).

(b) Cut removes the selected text from its original place to the clipboard (1); copy leaves the original in place and puts a duplicate on the clipboard (1).

(c)

(i) 6 rows – one heading row and one per island; accept 7 if a title row is included (1 mark)

(ii) 4 columns – island name plus three years (1 mark)

(d) Merge cells (1): select all the cells in the top row and choose Table Layout → Merge Cells (1).

Next: Word Processing: Reviewing and Protecting a Document – AutoSave, Backups, Passwords and Restrict Editing

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CSEC® Information Technology Syllabus (CXC 30/G/SYLL 17), Section 4: Word-Processing and Web Page Design, Specific Objective 3 (“use appropriate editing features to structure and organize a document”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

No third-party images are used in this post. Embedded videos are credited on YouTube to their channels.

© 2026 Vedesh Kungebeharry. All rights reserved.