Trick to easily bookmark one or several range(s) of lines, in the current file

[guy038]

Hi, All,

If you need to bookmark one or more bunch(s) of consecutive lines, all at once, here is my trick :

• First put any number of consecutive # symbol(s) at the end of, both, the first and last lines to be bookmarked

• Repeat this action for any other range of lines, which needs bookmarking

• Use the Mark dialog and search a specific regular expression

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So, here is the road map, with a recent N++ release :

• Put, for instance, the string ### at the end of a first line to be bookmarked

• Put an other string ### at the end of a last line to be bookmarked

• Repeat these two points above, for any range of lines, which needs bookmarking ( any number of # symbols is valid )

• Now, open the Mark dialog ( Edit > MArk... ) I personally mapped the Ctrl + M to the Mark dialog !

• SEARCH #+$(?s).+?#+$

• Tick the Bookmark line, Purge for each search and Wrap around options

• Untick the Backward direction options, if necessary

• Select the Regular expression search mode

• Click on the Mark All button

Voilà !

• Now, untick the Bookmark line option ( IMPORTANT )

• Click on the Clear all marks, again, to delete the red highlighting => Only the bookmarks remain visible

• Eventually, you may remove all these # symbols, at end of lines, with the simple regex S/R :

SEARCH #+$

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

Best Regards,

guy038

P.S. :

On reflection, I’d say that it would be nice if, after an Edit > Begin/End Select action, a Ctrl + F2 would bookmark / unbookmark all the lines of that selection !

Of course, in case of a normal selection, a Ctrl + F2 action would just bookmark, as now, the last line of the selection

[Alan Kilborn]

@guy038 said in Trick to easily bookmark one or several range(s) of lines, in the current file:

Tick the … Wrap around option
Untick the Backward direction option

My experience has shown that, any time the Wrap around checkbox is ticked, the state of the Backward direction checkbox is meaningless.

[guy038]

Hi, @alan-kilborn and All,

Alan, thanks for this information ! I rarely use the backward direction and rather with normal search mode !

Indeed, when the Wrap around option is ticked, a click on buttons :

• Find All in Current Document

• Replace All

• Mark All

processes current file from beginning to end of file, whatever the state of the Baskward direction option

However, a click on buttons :

• Find Next

• Replace

does depend on the state of the two independent options Backward direction and Wrap around

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As for the other buttons :

• Find All in All Opened Documents

• Replace All in All Opened Documents

• Find All

• Replace in Files

obviously, they act on the scanned files, from beginning to end, independently of the state of the options Backward direction and/or Wrap around !

Cheers,

guy038

[Alan Kilborn]

@guy038

I was a little loose with my “any time” verbage. Your context was the Mark operation, which was what I meant, but said poorly.