Marking blocks of text

There are many ways of marking text in a document that is being edited.  Some are described below.

Marking a block of text with the mouse

  1. Position the mouse pointer over the character that is to start the block.
  2. Click and hold mouse button 1.
  3. Drag the mouse pointer to the end of the block of text you want, and release the mouse button.  The block is now marked according to the default blocking mode in effect.

Marking a block of text using the keyboard

  1. Use the cursor keys to move the cursor to the character that will start the block.
  2. Press Alt+B.
  3. Move the cursor to the end of the block of text.
  4. Press Alt+B again.  Text between the two points is marked.

    In a similar manner, use Alt+R to select a rectangular area, or Alt+L to select lines of text.

Marking an entire line of text

  1. Place the cursor anywhere on the line to be marked.
  2. Select Select from the pop-up menu or from the Edit menu.
  3. Select Line.  The line is marked.

To mark all lines between the line selected above and another line inclusive:

  1. Move the cursor to the last line of the group of lines you want to select.
  2. Use the steps described above to mark that line.  All lines between the first and second lines selected are marked.

Marking a rectangular area of text

  1. Place the cursor on the character position defining one corner of the area you want to mark.
  2. Select Select from the pop-up menu or from the Edit menu.
  3. Select Rectangle.  The first corner of the rectangle is marked.
  4. Place the cursor on the character position defining the opposite corner of the rectangular area of text you want to mark, and repeat steps 2 and 3 above.  The rectangular area between the two corners is marked.

Unmarking a block of text

To unmark a block of text in the current editor view:

To mark new text when there is an existing non-stream marked block in the current view, you must first unmark it as described above.  Otherwise, the existing marked block will be extended.

You can also use the block clear command to unmark a block of text in any editor view:

block clear 

Note:  The availability of the menu items indicated above depends on the application implementing the editor.  The keyboard operations indicated are effective only in certain editor profiles.

Related tasks
Manipulating blocks of text
Changing the default marking mode
Issuing editor commands

Related reference
block command