Pointing
Pointing happens when every candidate for a digit inside a 3×3 box lines up on a single row or column. The box has to contain that digit somewhere, so it must live in one of those lined-up cells — which means the rest of that row or column can't have it. You get to cross the digit off every other cell on that line.
What is Pointing?
Pointing — sometimes called box-line reduction — is usually one of the first intersection techniques you pick up after singles. The setup: inside one 3×3 box, all the pencil-mark candidates for a particular digit fall on the same row or the same column. That row or column is now claimed by the box for that digit, so any other candidate for it on the same line, outside the box, is dead. Regular Pointing only does the elimination — it doesn't check whether a placement falls out of it. That extra step is what Direct Pointing adds.
How to spot it
Flip through the boxes one at a time and look for a digit whose candidates all sit on one row or one column. With pencil marks on, this jumps out — the marks for that digit form a little line inside the box instead of scattering. Once you see it, follow that row or column outside the box and erase the digit wherever it appears. Pointing shows up a lot in the first half of a solve, when the grid is still crowded with candidates and one clean elimination can open things up.
The logic
Every box needs each digit 1–9 exactly once. If a digit's only candidates in a box are all on one row, one of those cells has to be the digit — there's nowhere else in the box it can land. But a row only holds each digit once, so once the box uses up that digit on the row, no other cell on the same row can have it. That's why every candidate outside the box on that row can be crossed off.