Mouse Actions

Below you can find a list of action you can carry out in the editor using the mouse.

Dragging means to move the mouse before releasing the mouse button you pressed. If you move the mouse pointer to the edge of the editor space while dragging, the text will start to scroll automatically.

Modifier keys like shift or control must be pressed before pressing the mouse button and kept depressed until the mouse button is released.

Left click: Moves the text cursor to the spot where you clicked. Any text that was previously selected becomes unselected, unless you enabled persistent selections and clicked outside the selection.

Shift+Left click: Moves the text cursor and expands or shrinks the selection. If there is no selection, the text between the old and new cursor positions becomes selected. If you click outside of the selection, the selection plus the text between the selection and the new cursor position becomes selected. If you click inside the selection, the new selection is the text between the original start of the selection and the new cursor position.

Ctrl+Left click: Moves the text cursor to the spot where you clicked. Selects the line that you clicked on entirely, unless there already is a selection and you enabled persistent selections.

Ctrl+Shift+Left click: Moves the text cursor and expands the selection just like Shift+Left click does. In addition, if the selection starts and/or ends in the middle of a line, the selection will be expanded to include the partially selected lines entirely.

Left click+drag: When clicking outside the selection, a new selection is created from the point where you press the mouse button until the point where you release it. When clicking inside the selection, the selected text deleted and inserted again at the spot (outside the selection) where you release the mouse button.

Shift+Left click+drag: Expands or shrinks the selection like Shift+Left click, but then the text cursor is moved and the selection adjusted until you release the mouse button.

If you press Alt while changing the selection with any of the above left click methods, the selection becomes rectangular. If Block|Rectangular Selections is active, pressing Alt makes the selection linear.

Left double click: Moves the text cursor to the spot where you clicked. If you double-clicked on a word, the word becomes selected. If you double-click whitespace, all adjacent whitespace becomes selected. If you double-click anything else, all characters up to the preceding and following word become selected. All occurrences of the newly selected text will be highlighted if you turned on the option to make double-clicking highlight all occurrences of a word in the Search Preferences.

Shift+Left double click: Moves the text cursor and expands or shrinks the selection just like Shift+Left single click does. In addition, if the selection starts and/or ends in the middle of a word, the selection will be expanded to include the words at the start and/or end entirely.

Left double click+drag: A new selection is created from the point where you double-clicked until the point where you release it. If the selection starts and/or ends in the middle of a word, the selection will be expanded to include the words at the start and/or end entirely.
Shift+Double click+drag Expands or shrinks the selection like Shift+Left double click, but then the text cursor is moved and the selection adjusted until you release the mouse button. Words at the edge of the adjusted selection will be selected entirely.

Left triple click: Moves the text cursor to the spot where you clicked. Selects the line that you clicked on entirely (even when selections are persistent).

Shift+Left triple click: Moves the text cursor and expands or shrinks the selection just like Shift+Left single click does. In addition, if the selection starts and/or ends in the middle of a line, the selection will be expanded to include the partially selected lines entirely.

Left triple click+drag: A new selection is created from the point where you triple-clicked until the point where you release it. If the selection starts and/or ends in the middle of a line, the selection will be expanded to include the partially selected lines entirely.

Shift+Triple click+drag: Expands or shrinks the selection like Shift+Left triple click, but then the text cursor is moved and the selection adjusted until you release the mouse button. Lines part of the adjusted selection will be selected entirely.

Rotate wheel: Scrolls the text a single line up or down.

Shift+Wheel: Moves the text cursor a line up or down, like pressing the up or down arrow keys on the keyboard.

Ctrl+Wheel: Scrolls the text an entire screen up or down.

Shift+Ctrl+Wheel: Moves the text cursor a screen up or down, like pressing page up or down on the keyboard.

Scrolling the text with the wheel, the text cursor keeps its position relative to the text. This may cause the text cursor to be scrolled off screen and become invisible. If you do not like this, select “always keep the text cursor in view” in the Cursor Preferences. Then, scrolling with the wheel will also move the text cursor if needed to keep it visible.