I just discovered something very useful.

One of the primary frustrations for me with HTML mail has been in trying to
select parts of the text to save in a note-filing program, such as NotePad
Deluxe. Have you tried the usual selecting action of clicking and dragging
past the top or bottom of of window? In most applications this works quite
well; the text begins to scroll, slowly or rapidly depending on the position
of the cursor in relation to the window border. However, in Entourage, for
some reason, and only with HTML text, the scrolling does not continue. The
window scrolls a few lines and then stops! The only way I have found to
extend the selection further is to continually move the cursor back and
forth across the window border. Each time you cross the border, the window
scrolls a few more lines and stops.

I already have repetitive stress injury in my arm, wrist and shoulder; I
don't need this! So, I had begun to develop the habit of selecting the
ENTIRE message (Cmd-A), copying it all to NotePad Deluxe, and then doing my
selection in NPD, where it works just fine. Why can't this be fixed in
Entourage?

Just now, however, I accidentally discovered a better way. I clicked at the
bottom of an article in TidBITS magazine (HTML mail edition), started to
drag-select, and then realized I was going to cross the border and encounter
the problem I've just mentioned. I actually did drag the cursor past the top
of the window, saw the text partly selected, start to scroll and then stop.
Thinking, "Oh, rats! How long is this thing, anyhow?" I released the mouse
button (still outside the window) and clicked on the scroll bar. I scrolled
the window back to the start of the article; it was several pages long. For
no particular reason, I just clicked the cursor at the start of the
article--and suddenly the whole thing was selected!

The trick, it seems, is starting the selection (click once to get the arrow
cursor to change to the text pointer, the vertical line cursor), holding
down the mouse button and dragging until the cursor is outside the message
window. The scrolling stops and the selection may actually disappear (the
highlighting, that is). Now, use the scroll bar to position to the other end
of the part you want to select, and just click once at the point you want.
Bingo! It takes a little practice, but it works.

Still, MBU readers, I wish the selection worked better and more "normally."
-- 
Allen Watson, Portland, OR -- <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
My web page: <http://home.earthlink.net/~allenwatson/>
Teach only love, for that is what you are. (A Course in Miracles)


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