Help needed with column mode editing

Christopher Wagner

Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for the help. I am having an issue where column mode editing does not seem to be working. I have tried to select multiple lines either with ‘alt’ + click or by using ‘alt’ + ‘shift’ + arrow keys. Each time the text is selected in the standard mode. Is there a setting that has been turned on (or off) to make this happen? What other information might be useful here?

Claudia Frank

@Christopher-Wagner

What other information might be useful here?

Used windows and npp version (menu ?->debug-info) is a good starting point.

Depending on your installation you might give it a try to rename the
%APPDATA%\notepad++ directory, which should get recreated on npp startup.

Cheers
Claudia

Christopher Wagner

Thanks Claudia. I did try starting fresh with the %APPDATA% folder. I also un-installed and reinstalled and it doesn’t seem to work. I still can’t make ‘column mode’ selections. Any additional guidance would be appreciated.

Here is my debug information:

Notepad++ v7.5.1 (32-bit)
Build time : Aug 29 2017 - 02:35:41
Path : C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : OFF
OS : Windows 10 (64-bit)
Plugins : mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll NppFTP.dll

Claudia Frank

@Christopher-Wagner

I did try starting fresh with the %APPDATA% folder.

just to be sure, did you check whether notepad++ directory has been recreated
once you started npp?

Would you mind test the zipped version? Just download, unpack to whatever folder you like and doubleclick notepad++.exe.

Cheers
Claudia

Scott Sumner

@Christopher-Wagner

Okay, so what exactly are you doing? “Alt+click” maybe isn’t descriptive enough for anyone to tell what is happening for you–it makes me think you aren’t dragging (see below), which is key to column-mode selection with the mouse. Also, “alt+shift+arrow” makes me think you might be doing this all one one line, which would make it not look like a column block, but just like a standard selection.

Try this to test mouse operation:

Copy this text into a new editor window:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc
dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Hold an Alt key down and Left-Click (and hold) on the third a in the first line
Now (with Alt and the Left mouse button still down), drag the mouse down and to the right, and if you move down into the line of e characters, the result should be something like this:

Imgur

The above is what a proper column block might look like–notice the first 2 columns of each line are NOT part of the block selection, nor are the non-highlighted columns to the right of the block.

Try this to test keyboard operation:

Use the same text in the same editor buffer
Use the arrow keys (alone) to get the caret (cursor) positioned in column 3 of line 1 (it will look like it is between the second and third a on the first line)
You should have no highlighted selection at the moment
Press and hold Shift+Alt while you press and release the down arrow key 4 times. You should obtain a “tall, skinny” caret/cursor…something like this (ignore the green–something specific to my setup, you won’t have it):

Imgur

Without doing anything else first (you should still be holding Shift+Alt), next press and release the right arrow key a number of times; here’s how it should look:

Imgur

Okay, so that ends the column mode tutorial–report back if you don’t achieve the same results and we’ll try to help further.

Christopher Wagner

@Claudia-Frank:

just to be sure, did you check whether notepad++ directory has been recreated
once you started npp?

I did check, and yes, the directory was re-created.

@Claudia-Frank:

Would you mind test the zipped version? Just download, unpack to whatever folder you like and doubleclick notepad++.exe.

I downloaded and tested the zipped version of the software. Still no dice.

@Scott-Sumner said:

@Christopher-Wagner

Okay, so what exactly are you doing? “Alt+click” maybe isn’t descriptive enough for anyone to tell what is happening for you–it makes me think you aren’t dragging (see below), which is key to column-mode selection with the mouse.
…
Okay, so that ends the column mode tutorial–report back if you don’t achieve the same results and we’ll try to help further.

Thanks for the tutorial. I am endeavoring to use the feature correctly. On a previous computer on a previous project I used this feature all the time. I did try using both [alt] + [click] (and drag) as well as [alt] + [shift] + [arrow keys] to make selections. I am able to turn on “multiple editing” in the settings which enables [ctrl] + [click], but this is not as convenient for the blocks of text I am working on.

Thanks for your continued help.

PeterJones

Have you checked the Settings > Shortcut Mapper > Scintilla commands, for the

I would expect to see

SCI_LINEDOWNRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Down
SCI_LINEUPRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Up
SCI_CHARLEFTRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Left
SCI_CHARRIGHTRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Right

with no shortcut conflicts found.

Christopher Wagner

@PeterJones said:

Have you checked the Settings > Shortcut Mapper > Scintilla commands, for the
I would expect to see

SCI_LINEDOWNRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Down

SCI_LINEUPRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Up

SCI_CHARLEFTRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Left

SCI_CHARRIGHTRECTEXTEND = Alt+Shift+Right

with no shortcut conflicts found.

Thanks for the suggestion. I can confirm that those shortcuts are correctly listed with no conflicts.

Claudia Frank

@Christopher-Wagner

really strange, does the alt key work anyway?
What if you press alt+end, does the cursor jump to the end of the line?

Do you have some special mouse software in use (One which can configure different actions
for different mouse buttons)?

Cheers
Claudia

Nauduri Venkata Ravi Rama Sastry

Hi, faced a similar problem. i got resolved only after a System restart

vij4yd

I know its frowned upon to reply to old threads, but seeing that this topic was never resolved, and to help anyone else reaching here after googling:
If the alt key on the left side of your keyboard does not work, try with the one on the right. That worked for me, I don’t know why it doesn’t like the one on the left. :/

I had to signup just to comment this.

Alan Kilborn

@vij4yd

I know its frowned upon to reply to old threads

I don’t know that this is true, at least here…

I had to signup just to comment this

Yes, you did. Is that a problem?

If the alt key on the left side of your keyboard does not work, try with the one on the right

I’ve never heard of this making a difference, but what does make a difference, and isn’t mentioned in this thread, is using the dedicated arrow keys (works) versus using the shared arrow keys on the numeric keypad (doesn’t work). So…if any future readers are trying to get column selecting to work with the numeric keypad arrows, it isn’t going to.