Multiple Cursors in Sublime Text 2 Windows

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I have installed Sublime Text 2 in windows and I am trying to use the multiple cursors feature.

Firstly I highlight the selection I am looking for (three lines).

Then I can press CTRL + D to select each re-occurrence, or ALT + F3 to select all. There are four repeats in my situation.

I now want to move the cursors in the middle of the three lines and add some information, to be added to all occurrences.

As soon as I click in the selection, the multiple selection is gone? Is there something I am doing wrong, I am sure it is wrong but as the documentation is so weak I cannot find out how?

Best Answer

It's usually just easier to skip the mouse altogether--or it would be if Sublime didn't mess up multiselect when word wrapping. Here's the official documentation on using the keyboard and mouse for multiple selection. Since it's a bit spread out, I'll summarize it:

Where shortcuts are different in Sublime Text 3, I've made a note. For v3, I always test using the latest dev build; if you're using the beta build, your experience may be different.

If you lose your selection when switching tabs or windows (particularly on Linux), try using Ctrl + U to restore it.

Mouse

Windows/Linux

Building blocks:

  • Positive/negative:
    • Add to selection: Ctrl
    • Subtract from selection: Alt In early builds of v3, this didn't work for linear selection.
  • Selection type:
    • Linear selection: Left Click
    • Block selection: Middle Click or Shift + Right Click On Linux, middle click pastes instead by default.

Combine as you see fit. For example:

  • Add to selection: Ctrl + Left Click (and optionally drag)
  • Subtract from selection: Alt + Left Click This didn't work in early builds of v3.
  • Add block selection: Ctrl + Shift + Right Click (and drag)
  • Subtract block selection: Alt + Shift + Right Click (and drag)

Mac OS X

Building blocks:

  • Positive/negative:
    • Add to selection: ⌘
    • Subtract from selection: ⇧⌘ (only works with block selection in v3; presumably bug)
  • Selection type:
    • Linear selection: Left Click
    • Block selection: Middle Click or ⌥ + Left Click

Combine as you see fit. For example:

  • Add to selection: ⌘ + Left Click (and optionally drag)
  • Subtract from selection: ⇧⌘ + Left Click (and drag--this combination doesn't work in Sublime Text 3, but supposedly it works in 2)
  • Add block selection: ⌥⌘ + Left Click (and drag)
  • Subtract block selection: ⌥⇧⌘ + Left Click (and drag)

Keyboard

Windows

  • Return to single selection mode: Esc
  • Extend selection upward/downward at all carets: Ctrl + Alt + Up/Down
  • Extend selection leftward/rightward at all carets: Shift + Left/Right
  • Move all carets up/down/left/right, and clear selection: Up/Down/Left/Right
  • Undo the last selection motion: Ctrl + U
  • Add next occurrence of selected text to selection: Ctrl + D
  • Add all occurrences of the selected text to the selection: Alt + F3
  • Rotate between occurrences of selected text (single selection): Ctrl + F3 (reverse: Ctrl + Shift + F3)
  • Turn a single linear selection into a block selection, with a caret at the end of the selected text in each line: Ctrl + Shift + L

Linux

  • Return to single selection mode: Esc
  • Extend selection upward/downward at all carets: Alt + Up/Down Note that you may be able to hold Ctrl as well to get the same shortcuts as Windows, but Linux tends to use Ctrl + Alt combinations for global shortcuts.
  • Extend selection leftward/rightward at all carets: Shift + Left/Right
  • Move all carets up/down/left/right, and clear selection: Up/Down/Left/Right
  • Undo the last selection motion: Ctrl + U
  • Add next occurrence of selected text to selection: Ctrl + D
  • Add all occurrences of the selected text to the selection: Alt + F3
  • Rotate between occurrences of selected text (single selection): Ctrl + F3 (reverse: Ctrl + Shift + F3)
  • Turn a single linear selection into a block selection, with a caret at the end of the selected text in each line: Ctrl + Shift + L

Mac OS X

  • Return to single selection mode: ⎋ (that's the Mac symbol for Escape)
  • Extend selection upward/downward at all carets: ⌃⇧⇡, ⌃⇧⇣ (See note)
  • Extend selection leftward/rightward at all carets: ⇧⇠/⇧⇢
  • Move all carets up/down/left/right and clear selection: ⇠, ⇡, ⇣, ⇢
  • Undo the last selection motion: ⌘U
  • Add next occurrence of selected text to selection: ⌘D
  • Add all occurrences of the selected text to the selection: ⌃⌘G
  • Rotate between occurrences of selected text (single selection): ⌥⌘G (reverse: ⌥⇧⌘G)
  • Turn a single linear selection into a block selection, with a caret at the end of the selected text in each line: ⇧⌘L

Notes for Mac users

On Yosemite and El Capitan, ⌃⇧⇡ and ⌃⇧⇣ are system keyboard shortcuts by default. If you want them to work in Sublime Text, you will need to change them:

  1. Open System Preferences.
  2. Select the Shortcuts tab.
  3. Select Mission Control in the left listbox.
  4. Change the keyboard shortcuts for Mission Control and Application windows (or disable them). I use ⌃⌥⇡ and ⌃⌥⇣. They defaults are ⌃⇡ and ⌃⇣; adding ⌃ to those shortcuts triggers the same actions, but slows the animations.

In case you're not familiar with Mac's keyboard symbols:

  • ⎋ is the escape key
  • ⌃ is the control key
  • ⌥ is the option key
  • ⇧ is the shift key
  • ⌘ is the command key
  • ⇡ et al are the arrow keys, as depicted
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