Editor keyboard shortcut - column selection

Problem/Question/Abstract:

Editor Keyboard Shortcut - Column Selection

Answer:

The Delphi editor is something we all take for granted - I know I do. In past versions of Delphi, the editor lacked features that forced many of us to do as we did with Paradox: Use another editor add-in that provided more editing features. One thing that I use a lot is column selection; that is, instead of selecting an entire block of text in the editor, I only want to select a certain number of columns over several lines. For instance, this is incredibly useful for setting up several arrays with the same element count. There are lots of uses.

Column selection keyboard shorcuts are defined as follows:

Shortcut
Description
Alt+Shift+Left Arrow
Selects the column to the left of the cursor
Alt+Shift+Right Arrow
Selects the column to the right of the cursor
Alt+Shift+Up Arrow
Moves the cursor up one line and selects the column from the left of the starting cursor position
Alt+Shift+Down Arrow
Moves the cursor down one line and selects the column from the left of the starting cursor position
Alt+Shift+Page Up
Moves the cursor up one screen and selects the column from the left of the starting cursor position
Alt+Shift+Page Down
Moves the cursor down one line and selects the column from the right of the starting cursor position
Alt+Shift+End
Selects the column from the cursor position to the end of the current line
Alt+Shift+Home
Selects the column from the cursor position to the start of the current line


There are lots of great editor shortcuts included in the Delphi Editor. For a listing of them, search the Delphi online help for "editor shortcuts." You'll find them as useful as I do!