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Column Editing Feature in v4.2.x

2007-08-15
2012-11-13
  • Nobody/Anonymous

    I had high expectations from the new column editing feature and was looking forward to this release, knowing Notepad++ has great potential. Being familiar to the UltraEdit implementation, I however was disappointed by the way it works. I expected a real column MODE that you switch to with ALT-C. Instead, for inserting text you now have to ALT-select a selection, hit ALT-C, type your text, hit enter...
    Usability issues:
    1) No real "sticky" column MODE (need to use ALT over and over again)
    2) No vertical selection line visible when selecting multiple lines, with selection width of 0 chars. Very confusing to see what was selected.
    3) Block deletion and overwriting is done straight from the main editor, while insertion needs an extra dialog. Why not just insert text in the main editor, while typing in a multiline selection ? If this is just because of the number insertion, I'd keep the dialog just for that purpose.

    Many thanks for this great editor !
    David.

     
    • steakhacher

      steakhacher - 2007-08-21

      I agree, even I would like to thanks don for the new functionnality, it could be very better with what you suggest. Now the use of column mode insertion has got some limitation.

      An another thing wich could be improve could be the possibility to make column selection even if there is no space in the original file. For example with text
      I love notepad ++
      It is good
      It is currently impossible to select
        notepad++
      good
      The good column mode could be seen in Crimson or in Ultra Edit. Nevertheless it could be difficult to integrate it in notepad++.

      Nevertheless I think that it could be interesting too make some little improvements. Add a button to insert the without closing the column mode dialog box.
      Add a field which directly insert text in the file.
      Selection the last inserting text when opening the column mode dialog box, to be able to directly change the text to insert without having to clear the last text.
      Have a way to watch the number of space in text to insert, because I lot of use the column mode for my code alignment.

      Thanks for your job

       
      • Nobody/Anonymous

        I agree.  Crimson does a nice job with regards to column editing, for exactly the reasons suggested here.  The main reason why I'm looking for an alternative to Crimson is code-folding, which seems to be implemented well in Notepad++.

        I've tried code-folding in Ultraedit for my VHDL, but it's weak, at best.  It's stronger in Notepad++.

        Right now, the reason why I have not switched from Crimson to Notepad++ is the lack of a good column edit mode.

        Crimson code folding - none
        Crimson column edit - strong

        Ultraedit code folding - weak
        Ultraedit column edit - strong

        Notepad++ code folding - strong
        Notepad++ column edit - weak

         
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