How to select a column of text in Sublime Text 3?

Question

In Sublime Text 3 column selection shortcuts are Ctrl+ALT+Up and Ctrl+ALT+Down. Same shortcuts are defined In Lubuntu (/Openbox) as GoToDesktop Up or Down, respectively. I commented those shortcuts out in ~/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml and now they don't work anymore (they don't switch to related Desktop), but they still don't work in Sublime Text 3 too.

How could I determine, what is eating those shortcuts away, so they don't reach to Sublime?

Solution

Although the use of Ctrl+Alt+↑ and Ctrl+Alt+↓ are currently suggested for column selection in Sublime Text 3 for Linux,

they don't work. Instead, one has to use alt+shift and the appropriate arrow key according to this technical support response.

To get these keybindings to work in Lubuntu 18.04, I commented out the following lines in ~/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml:

<keybind key="S-A-Left">
  <action name="SendToDesktop">
    <to>left</to>
    <wrap>no</wrap>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-A-Right">
  <action name="SendToDesktop">
    <to>right</to>
    <wrap>no</wrap>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-A-Up">
  <action name="SendToDesktop">
    <to>up</to>
    <wrap>no</wrap>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-A-Down">
  <action name="SendToDesktop">
    <to>down</to>
    <wrap>no</wrap>
  </action>
</keybind>

saved the file, ran openbox --reconfigure and now I can use Shift+Alt together with the appropriate arrow keys to select a column of text in Sublime Text v 3.2.1.

---

Note: openbox --reconfigure does two things:

• It parses your rc.xml or menu.xml files for errors and
• it "reloads" the edited (and saved) file so you don't have to log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.

Note: If you have LXDE the file to modify is ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml instead.

Comments

[vanadium]

You logged out and then back in?

[wk.]

@vanadium actually, it is old story, I disabled those shortcuts already some Lubuntu versions ago, but reached out for help just now

[wk.]

@DKBose i have offcial repo in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/

[wk.]

@DKBose No, it goes silently

[wk.]

@DKBose i did not find them also in keybinding, but shortcuts are documented here sublimetext.com/docs/3/column_selection.html Because I don't know Sublime internal command for column selection, I can't redifine them in user settings

[wk.]

@DKBose I use mouse as few as possible and this situation is one of those so far. With mouse it is not so big trouble, but using laptop's touchpad or nipple are so clumsy for such kind of operation, it gives me a lot of stress always ;)

[DK Bose]

Please note that I could get things to work with Shift+Alt+Arrow. Using Ctrl+Alt+Arrow now does nothing.

[wk.]

And it works! You just happen to try Shift+Alt? Thank you, very much!

[wk.]

And special thanks for openbox --reconfigure too, i was not aware of this!

[DK Bose]

You're welcome! openbox --reconfigure does two things. It parses your rc.xml or menu.xml files for errors and it "reloads" the edited (and saved) file so you don't have to log out and log back in for the changes to take effect. BTW, I will edit my answer to only comment out the lines with Shift+Alt because those are the keybindings that conflict. That way, you can still use Ctrl+Alt to change desktops.