Sublime Forum

Text selection doesn't work properly

#1

Text selection doesn’t work like 99.9% of all other standard text areas in Windows.

When holding shift and using the left mouse button, you should be able to select/deselect multiple parts of text, even if you let go of the mouse button and click again with shift.

ST2 seems to not allow this, and instead you have to use alt… however if you have a large selection of text, this becomes very frustrating.

You also can’t hold shift + left mouse, then scroll up and down using the mouse wheel to select large segments of text.

I love <3 ST2 so much, to the point where I could make inappropriate sexual remarks justifying my undying love for this lovely piece of code… but this bug makes me sad :frowning:

Please please please fix it!

Cal

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#2

I’m confused… those things work just fine for me - and they do work like any other text input field, editor, IDE, word processor, etc… even this forum post’s text selection is the same as ST2 when holding the shift key…

Furthermore, if I hold down the Alt key, I can’t do any text selection (opposite of what you’re saying)… are you sure you don’t have a plugin or something getting in the way?

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#3

Sorry let me clarify.

It will allow me to do the text selection, but it won’t allow me to ‘subtract’.

So if you select a bunch of text using shift + left mouse, then let go of the mouse button. Then keep holding shift and attempt to select more text, it will work fine. But if you try selecting less text, it won’t subtract the selection.

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#4

Ahh yes, I see what you’re saying now.

I can’t say for certain, but I would expect that this is due to the nature of how multiple selection works. You’ll find that if you try to select less, the cursor turns to an arrow instead of the text editor pipe. however, if you move the cursor above the selection, you see it turn back to a text select pipe. Keep holding down shift and click in text above your selection and you’ll find that your selection grows upward (maintaining it’s current selection). That’s not something other text editors can do, and in this very specific incident, I agree with you, it is awkward - but probably by design.

I’d suggest sidelining this issue and learn the rest of the editor, including multiple selections (aka multiple cursors), and I’d be willing to bet that you learn new ways of getting the text you need selected (I definitely did when I switched from N++).

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#5

Not sure if I’m supposed to necro this thread or make a new one, since I came here to discuss the exact same problem.

Is there a solution to this yet - an option to make selection behavior more like most editors (so that you can adjust the second “endpoint” of a selection regardless of whether it shrinks or grows that selection).

Thanks.

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#6

As a relatively new user of Sublime, I created a forum account just to comment that this is still very much an issue - one that pushes away new users.
Text fields in almost any editor allow the “subtraction” of selected text by holding Shift and clicking within the selection. That includes this forum. Someone needs to elevate this issue to bug status, or at least post a workaround.

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