Weird editor behaviour

savornicesei

Hi all,

Some while ago I needed to do a column-based select in a text file and I tried all kinds of key combinations to find the shortcut to it.
Since then, selecting and editing text in Notepad++ became an impossible task, please see this short demo video.

I’m wondering if I did not accidentaly enabled something that can be easily disabled before reinstalling N++.

Thank you for this awsome software.

Best,
Simo

PeterJones

@savornicesei ,

I cannot see your video, as IT blocks that site for me.

But column-based selection is activated by holding down the Alt key while selecting with the mouse, or holding down the Alt-key while Shift-arrowing to make your selection. I don’t remember any setting that affects column-mode selection, so I don’t see how you could accidentally disable it.

Sometimes, Windows OS gets in a mode where it thinks Alt has been held down for too long, and either keeps it on after you let go, or behaves like alt is not held down. Also, some screen sharing software doesn’t properly pass Alt through (when I use remote desktop software from a linux machine into my Windows laptop that has Notepad++, I cannot send the Alt key, so cannot do column select).

savornicesei

@PeterJones
Yeah, I’ve uploaded that short video in my google docs.
I’ll try to explain the behaviour:

when I’m selecting a text, the selection moves on its own 2 characters to the left or to the right so what I wanted to select does not correspond to the text copied in the clipboard
same when I want to edit a text: if the cursor is not 2 characters away from the place where I want to insert text, it will be inserted in the wrong place (2 chars off, from what I see).

PeterJones

@savornicesei ,

Column-selection doesn’t have off-by-two-characters for me.

With your description, I cannot even come up with any hints of where to look. Sorry.

Maybe someone who can see your video will be able to give insight.

mpheath

@peterjones said in Weird editor behaviour:

Maybe someone who can see your video will be able to give insight.

I could not see the video yesterday, though today I could.

The highlighted text dances with a shifting move of 2 characters, every couple of seconds. It is like an inline selection rather than a block/column selection.

@savornicesei

I cannot reproduce, though perhaps I may not have the same version. Can you post your debug info from the ? -> Debug Info... menu option.

What I would try is to run Notepad++.exe -noPlugin command and see if the issue can be reproduced. If not, then a misbehaving plugin might be the issue.

You could download and try a portable version and try to reproduce the problem.

These ideas might help to narrow down the cause.