Slick V3.3 manual Text Editing, Character Selections, Block Selections

Selections

Text Editing

SlickEdit® Core provides familiar operations for selecting, copying, moving, and operating on text, with en- hanced capabilities to meet the needs of developers. This section also describes how to work with lines, sort text, and insert literal characters into your text.

Selections

SlickEdit® Core supports three kinds of selections: character, line, and block. Each provides different capabilities for different editing situations, and easy access for those who like to work using the keyboard only or the mouse. For a table of keyboard shortcuts, see Selection Keys.

Selected text is rendered with a shaded background. To change the selection color, use the Color Set- tings dialog box (click Window → Preferences, expand SlickEdit and click General in the tree, double- click the Color setting). See Setting Colors for Screen Elements for more information on changing colors.

Tip

When using the mouse for selections, you can switch the selection type from character to block or to line. While the left button is down, click the right button to toggle through the selection types.

Character Selections

Character selections are used to select words, parts of a line, or a range of text between a starting loca- tion and an ending location. To create a character selection, use one of the following methods:

•Keyboard method - Position the cursor at the beginning of the text to be selected. Next, enter the se- lect_char command (F8 or Edit → Select → Char). Then, move the cursor to the end of the text to be selected by using the arrow keys (or by using the mouse).

•Cursor method - Press and hold Shift with any cursor key, including PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End, to create a quick character selection. For example, Shift+Home will create a character selection from the cursor position to the beginning of the line. Shift+End will create a selection from the cursor to the end of the line. You can also use Ctrl+Shift+Home to create a character selection from the cursor position to the top of the file, or Ctrl+Shift+End to create a selection from the cursor to the end of the file.

•Mouse method - Left-click and drag the text to be selected, or double-click to select a whole word. To extend a selection to the cursor, hold down the Shift key and left-click.

Note

The key bindings are different if using the Vim emulation. See the Vim emulation chart (located in the /docs subdirectory of your installation directory) for a listing of selection keys.

Block Selections

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