What Is the Select Key on the Computer Keyboard?

The traditional keyboard for Windows computers does not have a dedicated "Select" key. However, users can use a combination of a pointing device (mouse) and the keyboard to select and use data.

While there is no dedicated key for this process, the user can highlight content with his keyboard similarly to how he could select content with his mouse. After selecting data, the user can press "Control" + "C" to save it to the clipboard to copy or "Control" + "X" to cut the data. The user can then press "Control" + "V" to paste data into a new location.

While there is no dedicated "Select" key on a user's keyboard, she can press "Tab" to move the cursor from element to element. On a Web page that contains a lot of content, this process could take some time as the cursor moves between text, images and other elements. When the user highlights an element such as a link, she can press "Enter" on the keyboard to activate the link. If the user wishes to highlight text using just the keyboard, she can tab to the content and press the "Shift" key and an arrow button to highlight the data.

Using the "Tab" and "Enter" keys allows users to control the computer even when there is no installed mouse, when the mouse is working incorrectly or when the computer is in a mode, such as BIOS, that does not recognize the mouse.