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Build Identifier: 3.7M2a When the user wants to do rectangular selection they need to click a toolbar button first. They then need to click the same toolbar button to exit rectangular selection mode. If would be helpful if holding down a modifier key while dragging enabled rectangular selection as this would be quicker for a single selection. TextMate and several other text editors have this feature and it is very handy. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. N/A 2. 3.
You can use Alt+Shift+A or assign your own key binding to 'Toggle Block Selection' command.
A hotkey has a similar workflow issue with clicking a toolbar button: turning it on and off add steps that slow down text editing. Compare with Notepad++ (which uses Scintilla) where alt+drag with the mouse or shift+alt+arrow with the keyboard makes it very fast and efficient to make a block selection. The dedicated block selection mode is still useful, but being able to make block selections without entering the mode is also very convenient. Enabling block selection without entering a dedicated mode is slightly different when pasting. I propose to remember the type of selection when copied (block or normal) then use that same type when pasting.
Similarly SlickEdit has right-click drag for block selection and allows block pasting of content copied by that method (as suggested by Nathan). This is slightly more optimal from a workflow perspective and existing shift+arrow block-edit mode compatibility would be a bonus.