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I use the block select mode all the time (I find it an invaluable feature) and I often have problems making a selection using the keyboard. I position the start of the block then Alt+Shift+mouse click to select the end, but there are times when TextPad seems to ignore the state of the keys and just extends the selection as Lines rather than a Block. And once it does this once I find it very easy to repeat the problem with the same area (after clearing the selection first). No combination of holding down one key first or hitting them at the same time seems to help. This might suggest that it's connected with the text being selected, but I can usually eventually make it perform the selection. I wonder if it's to do with the initial mouse click that positions the start of the selection?

Regardless of where the problem actually is, I think it would be a significant boost to usability if the Alt+Shift+mouse click always extended the selection as a Block -- what happens at the moment is that this keystroke will not do that if the current selection is in Lines. This would hopefully help cure the intermittent problem.

A small update on this: it appears that it is connected to the mouse clicking to select the start point -- when I get stuck like this I can reliably use the keyboard to just move left then right to the same selection point and then Alt+Shift+mouse click will select as a block. Maybe what's happening is that TextPad is thinking that a zero-sized region has been set by the mouse click (actually, a laptop touchpad), and so it's in line selection mode then. Obviously no region is shown on screen (just the insertion point, as normal).

Artoo,

I had a play around with this and couldn't reproduce the problem if I place the start cursor position with the mouse (I don't have a laptop or touchpad). But I came across a variation with the following steps:

1. Place the cursor anywhere, using either keyboard or mouse.
2. While holding down Shift, press right arrow and then left arrow, and then release Shift (that is, start and then cancel a text selection).
3. Hold down Alt+Shift and click in another part of the document. The selection will be in Lines mode rather than Block.

Just something else to consider.

Andrew

Thanks for that -- I think that adds weight to the suggestion that Alt+Shift+click should always extend the selection as a block (rather than just extend any current selection).