Selectionse93's selection mechanism is on of its more distinguishing features. At first glance, e93 selects text in the same way as many other modern editors, namely: To select text for cut, copy, paste, or other operations, first move the mouse pointer to the position where the selection should begin, click the left button, and while holding it down, drag the mouse pointer to the end of the desired selection. The process "highlights" the selected text (by drawing it in inverse colors.) The highlighted selection can then be operated on by a number of editor functions. e93 also supports word, line, and document selection by double, triple, and quadruple clicking respectively. (Double clicking is clicking the mouse button twice in rapid succession.) If you double click, holding the left button down after the second click, e93 will the select words as you drag the mouse along. This also works for lines when triple clicking. To adjust a selection, hold down the shift key on the keyboard, and click the left mouse button in the document. This will either enlarge, or reduce the current selection, depending on where you click. Clicking outside the current selection will enlarge it so that it extends to the point where you clicked. Clicking inside the selection will reduce it by pulling the nearest edge in to the point where you clicked. You can also shift-double, shift-triple or shift-quadruple click, and get the expected results. Segmented SelectionA powerful feature of e93 not found in most other modern editors is known as "Segmented Selection." This means is that e93 is capable of creating a discontiguous selection (one which has "holes" in it.) This feature is used by e93 to implement a more familiar form of selection: Columnar SelectionTo create a columnar selection, click the right mouse button (if your mouse has more than one button) and drag the mouse over the document. This will create a selection that is rectangular.
NOTE: If your mouse only has one button, you can create a columnar selection by holding the "Command" key on the keyboard down, while clicking and dragging. You would typically use columnar selection to manipulate data that appears in columns of text. As above, double clicking will force the selection to begin and end at word boundaries. Triple and quadruple clicking will also work as expected. You can also use the shift key as described above to expand or reduce the columnar selection. NOTE: Although a columnar selection looks rectangular to you, it is important to understand that e93 does not really think of it that way. As far as e93 is concerned, a columnar selection is nothing more than a discontinuous selection that spans pieces of the text. (In this case, a small portion of one line, followed by portion of the line below it, and so on...) This distinction will become important as operations that work on selections are discussed.
|