Word selection when holding Ctrl and dragging with mouse

[Montago]

in VS2015 you can select whole words by holding down CTRL and do selection, it's faster and easier !!

you can also CTRL + CLICK to select a whole word.

MAKE IT SO ... please :)

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Edit by @hediet: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfyO8haWKfg

[alexdima]

This is also possible in VSCode via alt+click out of the box. The modifier can be changed to ctrl+click via the menu Selection > Switch to ctrl+click for multi-cursor.

Additionally, box selection can be done via ctrl+shift+alt and dragging.

[Montago]

No, those two features are unrelated !

I'm NOT talking about multicursor.

I'm talking about WORDS SELECTION

There is no option to enable CTRL+CLICK for selecting a whole word or holding down CTRL and CLICK/DRAG for selecting words.

You need to try in Visual Studio 2008/2012/2013/2015/2017

[Montago]

ctrl+shift+alt and dragging doesn't do anything in VSCODE ... or it doesn't work for me...

[Montago]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43428264/use-ctrlclick-to-select-word-in-vs-code

[alexdima]

I think box selection is doable via shift+alt, not ctrl+shift+alt:

[Montago]

Regarding box-selection, i think its annoying that you need to place the cursor before starting the selection. in VS2015 that happens automatically + the whole selection has a background that indicate the selection. In VS2015 you can also select blank space if you need to - this doesn't work in VSCODE (can't say i miss it though.. but occasionally it made sense to do so)

Regarding the CTRL + CLICK to select a word and CTRL + DRAG to select multiple - i hope you can do something about that.

[Montago]

remove the "editor-columnselect" tag too

[trevordaniels]

I think the new title is not correct as this request is not just about selecting words by dragging the mouse, but also selecting a whole word by using ctrl + click.

[trevordaniels]

3130

[trevordaniels]

also related #27905

[AdjutantML]

+1 This is one of the the first features that I missed in VS Code when coming from Visual Studio

[mammadkoma]

When we can use ctrl+click to select word? 3 years have passed!

[WalterRoberts]

Please add this feature as soon as possible! Using this in combination with Ctrl+X/C/V would be a true time saver when making selections and editing with the mouse!

[alexanderkushnirchuk]

Still waiting for this feature, it's really useful

[shinolex]

Will this feature come soon? I just started to use vs code and I realized how often I was using ctrl+click to select word and ctrl+click+drag to select a piece of code in visual studio :( Also I wish that multi row edit were working like it was in visual studio(alt+click shortcut in visual stuio)

[ModCraig]

This drives me crazy. I have to work so much slower in VS Code when copy/pasting because I have to carefully place the cursor at the start of the word each time instead of just Ctrl-Clicking like in most other programs.

Please can this be added to the change list asap?

[jjblodgett]

This is SO INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING to not be able to CTRL + Click to select a word and then to subsequently drag the mouse to continue selecting additional words in a continuous phrase.

If I'm copying a large amount of text from one location to another in the same file or different files, it is dramatically slower to have to take my right hand off of the mouse and use keyboard action instead of just keeping the left hand on the keyboard and right hand on the mouse.

This is how it should work:

• Hold CTRL held down with my left hand.
• Use the right hand to click a word and it should automatically select the entire word.
• Holding down the mouse button and dragging should continue to select additional characters and snap to the next word that the cursor is positioned over (similar to CTRL+SHIFT+Right Arrow).
• Left hand continues to hold CTRL down and then simply presses C or V depending on whether I'm copying from or pasting to a location I just selected using the procedure above.

In this scenario, the hands never move from the keyboard or mouse. Instead, I have to constantly take my hand off the mouse or keyboard to do various combinations of actions that work perfectly in Visual Studio, SSMS, and most other Microsoft Tools.

I need to use this mechanic frequently (usually daily) and it takes me orders of magnitude more time to constantly position my cursor precisely and take my hands on / off the keyboard and mouse. PLEASE ADD THIS FEATURE ASAP!!!

[hediet]

Can you provide a screenrecording of how this feature works in in Visual Studio?

[Montago]

Can you provide a screenrecording of how this feature works in in Visual Studio?

Ive make a video of it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfyO8haWKfg

[legier]

Years are passing and this feature is stil not done. I would love to have it since it speeds up copy and pasting immensely.

[belov-sergei]

It turns out that after double-clicking, we can drag the mouse to make the selection snap to entire words. I didn't know. I think this solves the problem. On Windows, this works everywhere, even in notepad.

[jjblodgett]

Hi. Thanks for providing that option. While this provides a partial solution to "part" of the problem, it is still at least "double" the work by definition. If you're copying and pasting hundreds of individual words, having to double click each one is still cumbersome.

And it still does not allow for more rapid entry because in a CTRL + Click scenario, I can rapidly click and drag without having to pause in between. This means I can leave my left hand on the CTRL button and rapid select-copy-paste where I need it to go with the mouse being constantly in motion. In the option you've provided by double-clicking, I must go over the word, pause, double-click, then drag.

Adding in the pause/double-click to the process introduces a disruption of the flow of movement (I have tried it several times). It is very clunky and segmented where it should just seamlessly work from phrase to phrase. And if I'm copying and pasting phrases over top of each other, I have to double click at both the copy AND paste and it is even worse. It's much harder to get into any kind of a rhythm by throwing in double clicks at each major step.

I get that some people may not want this feature, but it's a VERY valuable tool to have available. It should definitely be something that's able to be used by those that can take advantage of it. We shouldn't ignore the feature just because there are some partial solutions elsewhere.

[KisaDmitriy38]

R19.08.2023, 23:01, "jjblodgett" @.***>:

Hi. Thanks for providing that option. While this provides a partial solution to "part" of the problem, it is still at least "double" the work by definition. If you're copying and pasting hundreds of individual words, having to double click each one is still cumbersome. And it still does not allow for more rapid entry because in a CTRL + Click scenario, I can rapidly click and drag without having to pause in between. This means I can leave my left hand on the CTRL button and rapid select-copy-paste where I need it to go with the mouse being constantly in motion. In the option you've provided by double-clicking, I must go over the word, pause, double-click, then drag. Adding in the pause/double-click to the process introduces a disruption of the flow of movement (I have tried it several times). It is very clunky and segmented where it should just seamlessly work from phrase to phrase. And if I'm copying and pasting phrases over top of each other, I have to double click at both the copy AND paste and it is even worse. It's much harder to get into any kind of a rhythm by throwing in double clicks at each major step. I get that some people may not want this feature, but it's a VERY valuable tool to have available. It should definitely be something that's able to be used by those that can take advantage of it. We shouldn't ignore the feature just because there are some partial solutions elsewhere.

—Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: @.***> -- Kisa4545 Kisa6677

[jjblodgett]

For everyone else, see this comment in a related thread: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/27905#issuecomment-1012801784

A developer has created a hook to do this generally in Windows. I've asked for an update to click/drag instead of just selecting a single word. But it's way better than the "nothing" we've gotten in the last 5-6 years of waiting for a solution.

Here's the direct link. Hopefully he can modify to allow for dragging to select multiple words and I'd definitely chip in some $$$ to support him! https://github.com/dougbenham/CtrlClick/releases/tag/v1.0