Vertical Editing (in TexStudio)
Vertical editing (or column selection) is a very helpful tool available in many text editors. It allows for columns to be selected and edited instead of rows. This can be great for copying and pasting in table information for an entire column that otherwise would need to be copied and pasted for each and every value.
For a visual example, see this video demonstrating column selection in Notepad++ (an excellent open source text editor).
My Tex-specific editor of choice is TexStudio. While not the most popular editor out there, I like it for its ease, features, open source code, free price, and dual platform support for Mac and Windows (works with Linux too).
Vertical editing in TexStudio is simple, but perhaps not widely known. Here are the relevant commands:
Windows
- Ctrl+Alt+Arrows: Creates additional cursors above/below the line (no selection)
- Ctrl+Alt+Mouse: Creates a column of cursors, or new cursors at arbitrary places (no selection)
- Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Arrows: Selects a block
- Shift+Ctrl+Mouse: Selects a block
Linux: Same as above, but users may have to work through conflicts with your window manager.
Mac: Same as above, but substitute Cmd for Ctrl
Do you know if it’s possible to reassign these shortcuts?
Hi,
In Windows you can change the first two shortcuts (creating additional cursors above/below the present line and creating a column of cursors, or new cursors at arbitrary places) by going to Options > Configure TeXstudio > Shortcuts > Expand “Editor” > Expand “Basic Key Mapping” > Select {Create cursor mirror up, Create cursor mirror down}. I believe the final two shortcuts require Shift, but they may be linked to other shortcuts that you could change.
This procedure should be the same on Mac, but just start with “Preferences.”
I don’t know why TeXstudio is not popular, so far it has made all but one of the task I expect from a Tex editor: select text from the pdf.