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Block/column select - strange functionality

2008-08-08
2012-11-14
  • fred bloggs

    fred bloggs - 2008-08-08

    080808/1805

    I am trying to select block of text
    e.g.
    1.Line 1111111111111111
    2.Line 1111111111111111111111
    3.Line 33333333333333
                        ^
    I'm holding alt + Left mouse, but it only selects up to the length of the last shorter line, I've tried pushing END, but nothing works, unless I pad the line out with spaces

    I would really like to get the same type of select as textpad, Please, please, please how do I do this?

    Is there another editor that I can use, or do I have to re-install textpad?

    If I'm being a donkey, please tell me where I'm going wrong.

    Mr.G

     
    • eccenthink

      eccenthink - 2008-09-12

      I have the same problem. This is a feature I'd love to be able to use. A coworker and myself have been trying to figure it out and it just doesn't work like you and I would like it to (unless you, my coworker, and myself are all missing something).

      Does anybody know how to do this?

      To elaborate on the example above:

      1.Line 1111111111111111
      2.Line 1111111111111111111111
      3.Line 33333333333333

      If you do ATL+left mouse you can copy and paste you get:

      1.Line 11111111111111
      2.Line 11111111111111
      3.Line 33333333333333

      What I want to do is if you have:

      1.Line 1111111111111111
      2.Line 1111111111111111111111       //dumb comment you don't want to copy
      3.Line 33333333333333

      You can do ALT+left mouse and paste it and get the following by selecting a rectangle that excludes the comment portion but includes all of the extra characters on line 1 that extent further than line 3 (I hope my explanation makes sense):

      1.Line 1111111111111111
      2.Line 1111111111111111111111
      3.Line 33333333333333

      I've done a ton of searches and can't find a way to do it other than manually adding spaces to line 3. If it's doable and someone knows how that'd be much appreciated. If not and somebody knows how to add the feature you'd make notepad++ the only editor I'd ever need to use.

       
    • Jim Johnson

      Jim Johnson - 2008-09-13

      This is the way UltraEdit works.  Notepad++ is the closest free replacement for UltraEdit that I've found.  This is one of the few shortcomings I've come across with Notepad++, I hope this can get changed someday.

       
  • Alexei Tetenov

    Alexei Tetenov - 2009-09-29

    HOW TO : Select column in Notepad++  (How to Block Select)

    “Alt + Left Mouse Click” puts you in Column Mode Select

    Using only the keyboad you can use the shift+alt key to select columns using the arrow keys.

    http://kudithipudi.org/2008/07/08/howto-select-column-in-notepad/

     
  • cchris

    cchris - 2009-09-30

    You have to go to Settigs > Preferences -> Editing -> Enable Multi-edit. The feature is disabled by default. Enable it and you'll get the expected behaviour.

    CChris