This just takes practice. While I hate the Alt+click shortcut as much as
anyone, I have no trouble Alt+dragging to select a column. The trick is to
press the mouse button *and not release it* till you've finished dragging.
This prevents the action from registering as a "click."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jay Wilson" Jay wrote in message
...
I am a mainframe programmer who often uses Word as a scratch pad and a
tool
to review reports. I frequently want to highlight a column of text,
sometimes
only one column. When I use the Alt + click to attempt to highlight that
one
column, research pane starts. It works fine for 2 columns and greater.