SlickEdit Community
SlickEdit Product Discussion => SlickEdit® => Topic started by: afflictedd2 on January 18, 2008, 02:10:34 AM
-
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.
hello hello hello hello
hello hello hello hello
hello hello hello hello
hello hello hello hello
hello hello hello hello
-
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).
-
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
-
I use the right mouse button to create block selections.
-
Yes, use the right mouse button is very convenient!
-
@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?
-
No. The problem was I didn't know what that type of selection that was called.
-
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.
-
Just tried it & it "works for me". :D 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
-
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.