Slickedit Select Area

[afflictedd2]

Hi everyone, does anyone know how to select an area of text with Slickedit.. like a column. I know editors like Nedit provide such functionality with ctrl+shift+ click. But I'd like to know if Slickedit provides this.

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[Kohei]

Sure.  The select-block command does exactly that.  You can bind that command to any key you want if you want to activate it with a single click (like I do).

[jbhurst]

The select-block command can be used to great effect with well-known commands such as cut (Ctrl+X) and copy-to-clipboard (Ctrl+C). You can also use select-block and  select-line with more power with commands such as copy-to-cursor and move-to-cursor. These are not bound to keys in the CUA emulation.

Also check out the block-insert-mode command (Edit > Other > Block Insert Mode), which allows you to do complex edits for a whole column at once.

You might also like to try unchecking "Shift + Cursor always char select" in the Selections options (Tools > Options > General, Selections tab). This allows you to select lines or blocks using Shift + cursor movement keys. I've found it a very quick and intuitive way to do quick small selections.

Regards

John Hurst
Wellington, New Zealand

[Lisa]

I use the right mouse button to create block selections.

[Ding Zhaojie]

Yes, use the right mouse button is very convenient!

[Lisa]

@afflictedd2, we are always looking for ways to improve our documentation. Just out of curiosity, did you post because you had trouble finding this answer in the Help system?

[afflictedd2]

No. The problem was I didn't know what that type of selection that was called.

[lastlion78]

I have found the right-click select very useful.  However, it doesn't seem to work in Version 14, which seems to have right-click bound to an open menu command by default -- is this something other users have experienced or is it something with my configuration or installation? 

I tried rebinding right-click to the select-block command, but that does not work the same as the old right-click select.  How do I restore the old right-click functionality?  Thanks.

[jimlangrunner]

Just tried it & it "works for me".    Seriously, though, it should work.  Right click & release should be a menu, but right click & drag should bypass the menu and be a selection block.  Does it work that way for you?  If not, there are two things to try. 
1. Try a different keyboard emulation (or reset yours to the default if you dare).  This will tell you if it's your emulation causing the problem.
2. Try starting slick from a clean config.  Create an empty directory and launch slick from the command line with the -sc option (i.e. vs -sc c:\fred)  See if it works that way.

If either of those work, you have a place to start to chase it down.

Jim

[lastlion78]

I tried resetting to default keybindings.  Now when I right-click, I get the menu on the click-down, without releasing.  I drag with the button held down, and my cursor moves over the menu, rather than selecting. 

When I switch keyboard emulation from CUA to "SlickEdit (text mode edition)", the behavior is the same.  When I switch to vim, it is the same as well.

BUT, when I start slickedit with a clean config using the command you suggested (vs -sc path), it just works.  The right-click select works the way I expect it to.  Thanks for your help--this gives me a place to start to try to figure out what's wrong.