More space at the left of the first column

Gerardo Giordano

Hello,
I use notepad++ with very enthusiasm and I think that is a very good editor.

If possible, I want to suggest to insert a little phantom column to better select with mouse the first column of the row.

Actually, for a row there are the following fields:
a. little gray space
b. number of row on a gray background
c. great gray space (I think maybe 28px)
d. the vertical line for collapse/expand group (14px) on a light gray background
e. the first character of the row on white background

I think that is very useful to insert a space between d. and e. (about 12-14px) to easily select the first character.
Maybe also a good idea to reduce the field c. to give more space to the white field.

Many thanks for your attention
Gerardo

guy038

Hello, @gerardo-giordano and All,

With recent versions of Notepad++, you benefit from the change history thin margin which helps to place the caret at column 1 !

If this solution is not enough :

Select the Settings > Preferences... > Margin/border/Edge panel
At the bottom right, in the Padding section, change the left value from 0 to 5 or 10

Best Regards,

guy038

Gerardo Giordano

Oh Great!!
It is exactly what I need!

Thank You for answer ;)

Gerardo

TBugReporter

@guy038 said in More space at the left of the first column:

With recent versions of Notepad++, you benefit from the change history thin margin which helps to place the caret at column 1 !

Not really - clicking on that column selects the full line, but the OP just wants to move the cursor to the beginning of the line. Your other solution works better for this.

guy038

Hello, @gerardo-giordano, @alan-kilborn, @tbugreporter and All,

I do think it’s easier to move at beginning of a line with this new margin. To be convinced, just disable the Display Change History option at bottom of the Settings > Preferences... > Margin/border/Edge panel. Select the default zoom value or values below and compare !

Now, @tbugreporter, you said :

Not really - clicking on that column selects the full line,…

You’re perfectly right !

But, in case you click on the Change History margin by mistake, simply hit the Left Arrow key to move the caret at beginning of the EXPECTED line !

Note that this work-around is correct even if the Word Wrap feature is set !

Best Regards,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

I’m confused by this “click the margin” stuff.

Yes, clicking the Change History will select the line of the click in its entirety, including the line-ending, so the caret will be put in the first column of the following line.

But the Change History margin is narrower (harder to hit) than the Line Number margin, which does the same thing and has for years – probably since the very beginnings of N++.

BUT…OP didn’t want to select the whole line, they just wanted to move to column 1. I know this topic concerns the mouse, but why not just press the Alt+Home keycombo to do this? Caret moves to column 1, no selection is created.

Alan Kilborn

@Gerardo-Giordano said in More space at the left of the first column:

c. great gray space (I think maybe 28px)
Maybe also a good idea to reduce the field c. to give more space to the white field.

There are good reasons for the width of the various margins; you are apparently too new to Notepad++ to know all of the uses.

The “great grey space” is actually 2 margins, the aforementioned Change History margin on the right, and the Bookmark margin on the left.

BTW, it is IMO poor design that the default background color for these two margins is the same or very close to the same; visually for me they are indistinguishable (so it does indeed appear as “great gray space (I think maybe 28px)”).

guy038

Hi, @alan-kilborn and All,

You said :

I know this topic concerns the mouse, but why not just press the Alt+Home keycombo to do this? Caret moves to column 1, no selection is created.

The shortcut Alt + Home works as expected if the Word Wrap feature is disabled. But, when this feature is set, the best is to hit two times on the Home key ( and sometimes three times if current line contains leading spaces/tab characters ! ) depending on the caret location within current line

BR

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038

Is it possible that there is no (N++ assignable) Scintilla command to move the caret to column 1 of the current line, absolutely, with a single action on the keyboard?

I think I tried them all, but maybe I missed it??

If I didn’t miss it, then I think I made it work with this sequence (it’s macro-recordable):

First (and one-time only), assign a keycombo to the SCI_VCHOME Scintilla command in Shortcut Mapper.

(start macro recording)
Invoke the SCI_VCHOME command via your keycombo
Press the up arrow key
Press the End key
Press the right arrow key
(end macro recording)

A limitation of this technique is that this won’t work if invoked on line 1.

guy038

Hello, @alan-kilborn and All,

Alan, no need to define a macro for this task. Simply affects a shortcut to the Scintilla command SCI_HOME !

In all cases, even in line 1, the caret will be moved at column 1 of current line ;-))

Best Regards,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 said in More space at the left of the first column:

Simply affects a shortcut to the Scintilla command SCI_HOME

Ach. How could I have mis-tested that one??
It seems that you are correct.

guy038

Hi, @alan-kilborn and All,

… And to get the very end of current line, in all cases, affect a shortcut to the Scintilla command SCI_LINEEND !

BR

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 said in More space at the left of the first column:

And to get the very end of current line, in all cases, affect a shortcut to the Scintilla command SCI_LINEEND

That reminds me of some related discussion as part of this thread: https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/23381