Select Large Area
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Does Notepad++ provide a means to select a large area (possibly thousands of lines) of text; thus avoiding the need for a ‘click-and-drag-forever’ method- such as some form of mark-and-bound?
Randy Reist, a Newbee here
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Yes. See Edit (menu) -> Begin/End Select.
You invoke it the first time (at which time the menu item becomes ticked) when you have no selection and your caret is where you want to start the selection. Then you move the caret wherever you need (e.g. “thousands of lines away”) and invoke that command again. All text between the 2 invocation points will be selected.
It also works to select a column (rectangular) block if you enter column-select mode before invoking Begin/End Select the second time.
It even works when using “multi-editing” (selecting multiple non-column chunks of text)…see Settings (menu) -> Preferences… -> Editing (box on left) -> Multi-Editing Settings for more hints about using this feature. Using the scrollbar to bring an endpoint (or another startpoint) into view is key when using this variation of the Begin/End Select technique.
Sadly, Begin/End Select has no default key-combination. But of course you can add one via the Shortcut Mapper! I chose to make it ctrl+b but choose whatever you want…
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@Randy-Reist You can also mark a small bit of the text, then use the mouse to pull the scroll bar down to where you want to end the selection. Hold down the Shift key and left-click the mouse to extend the selection to wherever your mouse cursor is.