Rectangular text selection in Leopard

By accident I found that if I hold down the Shift + Option keys and drag the cursor with the trackpade on my MBP I get a rectangular selection of text. I can select the middle of each of ten lines, e.g. A Cross-hair appears as the selector-tool.
This has been a neat feature of Nisus Writer for a decade, hold down option to get a rectangular selection. I have mostly used it to remove items from a tabbed list, say take out the addresses to leave only the names and phone numbers.
But is is now part of Leopard? I did a little search of this forum, and came across nothing closer than the dictum that "selection methods are generally a feature of the particular application," but this works in Nisus, TextEdit, DevonThinkPro, and MarsEdit. Did not work for me in Safari, more's the pity.
Is there a pretty-complete guide to such features which doubtless do exist? Maybe in David Pogue's book on Leopard?

That did not work with my computer....
EDIT: Never mind I was trying in Safari... It does work in Text Edit...
Neat...
Message was edited by: WBW

Similar Messages

Text select tool not working properly

When I use the text select tool, it selects columns, not words in a row, which is what I want. It used to work correctly. I am using Acrobat Pro, version 9.0.0.
I tried adding the ALT key, with no good result.

Is it with this specific document o any pdf you work on?
If it was earlier working fine for you, try repairing Acrobat by going to 'Help' menu > Repair Acrobat.
Also make sure you have updated it to the latest patch.
Regards,
Ravi.

How can I change a the dropdown menu background according to the text selected?

How can I change a the dropdown menu background according to the text selected?

Read here about how to use the color object correctly:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9.1/Acrobat9_1_HTMLHelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/w whelp.htm?context=Acrobat9_HTMLHelp&file=JS_API_AcroJS.88.260.html
http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9.1/Acrobat9_1_HTMLHelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/w whelp.htm?context=Acrobat9_HTMLHelp&file=JS_API_AcroJS.88.261.html

"resolving alias to" message using aliases on 10.6.8 plus slow text-selection behavior

Recently after no particular change to my Mac Pro3,2 running 10.6.8 other than some routine software updates, whenever I open an alias on my desktop to standard folders or files, a message shows up "Resolving alias to" whatever the alias name and there's a 2-3 second delay before the folder/file opens. I've found discussion of this issue in some archived discussions but never found a comfirmed solution described, so I'm raising this again. As in others' encounter with this behavior, the slow opening of aliases happens (1) only in my own user account, not in a guest account I set up for test purposes [I have no other user accounts than these], and (2) only happens the FIRST time I open an alias. Subsequent uses of the alias work normally.
Another strange but possibly related behavior that began at the same time as this alias delay is harder to describe but involves a problem when selecting text using mouse clicks or even highlighting with the mouse for editing. For example, to edit the name of a file or folder on my desktop, I would normally click on the file/folder name, pause a moment and click again: this puts me in edit mode with the current file/folder name highlighted/selected. Now when I attempt this procedure, the second time I click immediately opens the file/folder, as though I had double-clicked rather than clicked+paused+clicked. The only way I can select the name of the file/folder to edit it is to click+long pause (like 3 seconds)+click. Then the text is selected as desired. It's as though the clicks are being recognized (by whatever in the OS recognizes clicks) as much faster than actually made. There is a similar problem in any program I use that permits text editing, whether Word (Office 2011 for Mac), TextEdit, etc. I have to consciously slow down my cursor/click behavior when selecting text. If not, my actions are misinterpreted as double clicks. This text selection behavior also disappears when using a "Guest" user account, only appearing in my own user account. I Using a different mouse has no effect.
Steps taken so far. I've Repaired Disk Permissions and Verified Disk using Disk Utility, have Safe Booted, and have turned off all login items in my user account,and recently installed the 10.6.8 supplemental update, all to no avail. Any suggestions or has anyone had and solved this/these problems?

I think my problem has been that in Sytem Preferences>Mouse, my "Double-Click Speed" was set to the SLOWEST setting. After some experimentation, I now have the that setting two notches from the "Fast" end of the scale. In case it's important, the "Primary mouse button" in my Preferences is set to "Left".
This not only solves the text selection issues described, but also seems to eliminate the strange "resolving alias to" problem.
[For the curious, I have a Logitech Performance MX wireless mouse which can be configured with "Logitech Control Center". But the LCC software doesn't control double-click speed; this setting can only be made in the Mouse System Preference pane.]

Text Selection Hangs Since iOS 5.1.1 Update

I have an iPhone 4 32GB on the AT&T network.
Updated it to iOS 5.1.1 about two weeks ago.
Since the update multiple applications (Apple and 3rd Party) have been showing this behavior:
1) Click in a text entry or text area form field,
2) Begin typing text,
3) Touch anywhere in the field to bring up the monicle selection caret,
4) The monical selection caret is shown and I can move the monical/caret around the screen,
5) Un-touch the screen,
6) ERROR - The monicle and the selection caret don't respond to user touch input and the app/OS hang for anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds,
7) The standard "Select | Select All | ..." context pop-up window is shown, after that the app/system are responsive again.
Regarding the ERROR at step 6) above: Clicking Home does nothing, turning on/off with top-button does nothing, force shutdown responds only after the monicle/caret selector un-hangs.
Once this has happened in a given text field/text area, it doesn't happen again on a subsequent text selection touch event... UNLESS I sleep the device, wake the device on the same app/field and try to select again... then it hangs again.
To note, while it's hanging the loading-spinner is displayed in the title bar next to the AT&T 3G/Wifi Antenna icons, suggesting something in the background is doing a network search that's locking then entire foreground process.
I've attempted to:
1) hard reset the device,
2) restore from a backup of 5.1 (doesn't have the aforementioned problem) and reinstall the 5.1.1 update (has the problem)
3) swear at it and curse Steve Job's mock-turtleneck for allowing such a peice of **** bug to exist (even if it's not his fault ex post homine)
Any further help would be great... I may end up downgrading to 5.1 just to not have to deal with this perpetual headache.
Thanks,
Etienne

I'm having the same issue. Phone started to degrade after update to 5.1.1 I have restarted, reset and restored from backup. I haven't tried to restore as new, as I'm not sure what the impact will be in my need to reset my corporate exchange e-mail, etc.
I see from many posts on other boards this is not isolated and is impacting many users. I'm using verizon as a the cell carrier.
My phone is warm and eating battery at a rate of 10% per half an hour in standby mode. No new apps or anything else of that nature.
Tinus Barnard wrote:
Will they fix this?

Preview's PDF text select ignores columns and misses word spaces

I have a number of scanned pdf newspaper articles that I was attempting to copy the text from. Preview appears to register the existence of columns, as there is a pale blue background between the columns.
However when I use the text select tool, it completely ignores the column - and just selects across all columns. And when I paste the text into my text editor, it's missing all the spaces between the words, and the font size is always huge.
Conversely, Adobe reader in XP has no problem selecting by column, and the pasted text is also an exact replication of the original content. I don't know why Preview performs so badly in this regard? Anyone else experience any issues with pdf text select?

Anyone else experience any issues with pdf text select?
Yes, and not just recently.
There is a reason Preview is named, well, preview. It is not an authoring environment and PDFs are not meant to serve in that context either...unless maybe you understand all of inherent the font traps, tricks & tips and how to tune your scanning/OCR software to keep rework to a minimum.
Scanning PDFs is always tricky, and without the occasional heavy metal to bring to the task, it just seems to be that more problematic.
Keep trying, but I'd really suggest to look to other tools at this time.

Keyboard shortcuts for text selection not working in Flash CC

In the new Code Editor in Flash CC running on Mac OS X, most standard Keyboard Shortcuts for traversing through the text work as expected (as the Operating System works globally) but there is one that doesn't and it's I think the most important one.
Hitting "OPTION + SHIFT + [right or left arrow keys]" to select words doesn't work. Hitting "OPTION + [right or left arrow keys]" works as expected, moving the cursor to the next word or break point, but adding shift doesn't do the selection.
I don't understand why this changed since it's a basic OS global shortcuts, and every other program behaves the way it should. Flash CS6 running on the same system behaves fine, but Flash CC doesn't. If you have ever written code, you know that any second that a programmers hand doesn't have to leave the keyboard to search for the mouse is invaluable, and this has forced me to stop using Flash CC and use Flash CS6 to edit my Action Script classes becuase it's unusable otherwise.
These shortcuts are also not listed in the keyboard shortcuts for the program, so I can't change the default behavior. Does anybody know if there's a way to set it back to the way it was before, or just disable special text shortcuts so that selecting text behaves like any other application in the operating system?
System Configuration:
Flash CC
Mac OSX 10.8.5

Amy~ Yep the lasso tool was what I verified with another user. 'L' seems to be bound indefinitely to loop through different types of lasso tools and it was annoying them because they just wanted L to be the regular freehand lasso. I removed 'L' from being an option on the polygon lasso and even set it explicitly to SHIFT+L as well as set the lasso tool to a completely different keyboard combo. 'L' still cycled through lassos haha. It needs some fixes.
fertolg~ At least you have a workaround for now. I'd go nuts if I couldn't use keyboard text selection writing code, oy! You're welcome and if you're all set please mark correct so we can filter unanswered. Good luck!

Which event dispatched after text selection done on spark text area in Apple iPad using Adobe Flex 4

I need to know which event triggered after text selection done in Apple iPad. This way i have done in desktop air app code (mouse events)
protected function txtEditor_mouseUpHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
            if(txtEditor.selectionAnchorPosition != txtEditor.selectionActivePosition){
                showNoteToolBar(event);
                txtEditor.focusEnabled = true;
                txtEditor.setFocus();
But in Apple iPad how to achieve through "Touch Event" ? And also i need how to hide all context menu on Spaek TextArea?. Why Touch.End event is not fired after place cursor on text area ?
Please help me !

Ok, so I finally got it working but this is not ideal at all. Adobe really needs to give us some direction on how to properly deal with font embedding and TLF now that the release build breaks all functionality with loading runtime fonts and TLF.
Problem:
I am embedding collections of fonts (faces) into single family classes. Each individual face is registered with Font.registerFont(). I need to do this because I have to have mixed fonts within text flows - at least according to Alex H's recent blog post.
Fonts do not display in TLF without doing the following:
1. GlobalSettings.resolveFontLookupFunction = null;
2. editor.textFlow.flowComposer.swfContext = ISWFContext(this.getFontContext("AnyFamilyNameFromAnyFontEmbedded", false, false, FontLookup.EMBEDDED_CFF));
3. Instead of #2, use editor.textFlow.invalidateAllFormats();
Either #2 or #3 need to be performed. If I have a spark richEditableText control in MXML with defined familes from the loaded fonts. I even tried placing the control into a separate state so it wasn't created until after the fonts were loaded... I still needed to invalidate the formats or set the context.
The "AnyFamilyNameFromAnyFontEmbedded" does not need to be all of the embedded family names. It only needs to be one of them. Once one is used, all embedded fonts work. Also, I have to use the internal namespace to even get access to getFontContext, another oddity that, in my humble opinion, should never be necessary to create mixed style TLF content.
My questions are then:
1. Why am I required to use ISWFContext if I am using Font.registerFont()?
2. Why is GlobalSettings.resolveFontLookupFunction = null; also required for this to work?
3. What is the recommended workflow to embed fonts from multiple SWF files into the release build and have it work without having to jump through all these hoops?

Text selection problem in linked containers

Hi,
I get a strange behavior on the selection of text in a textFlow with several linked containers (from the latest SVN version it seems).
The problem occurs on the following case: http://lafabrick.com/labz/tlfTest/ (source code enabled)
If I select some text in container D to A (or vice versa): display of text selection is correct.
The problems are:
- If I select some text in the containers B or C, and that I move the selection to the right or left: the container is moving ...
- If I select some text in the containers B or C, and that I move the selection to the up or down: the display of the selection is not normal (I have a "blinking selection")
TLF version : 502 (715519)
Regards
fabien

Hi Richard,
Would you like to said that this fixe is not present on the SVN (/trunk) ?
In this case it's of course a bad news for me: my app can't takes all benefits of TLF for now (and for MAX...).
But a good news for all ! It means that TLF is perhaps soon to release !
Thanks a lot.
Fabien

KdeGraphics-Okular - How to change the color of Text Selection tool

Hello All
I'm trying to know how to change/fix the color of the Text Selection Tool (Ctrl + 4). Because when I highlight the text, it's only one color (Dark Blue) that make me could not read clear.
---- My OS Configuration
OS : Arch
DE: LXDE
WM: OpenBox

The highlight color is determined by the system-wide color scheme that you're using. There's no way to change it only for okular.

In Preview, I suddenly am unable to get the "Adjust Color" tool panel to edit images. I just get the rectangular image selection tool instead. How do I ge the "Adjust Color" tool panel back?

In Preview, I suddenly am unable to get the "Adjust Color" tool panel to edit images. I just get the rectangular image selection tool instead. How do I ge the "Adjust Color" tool panel back?

Hmmm, I wonder if that window is hidden or off screen? Have you moved the pic window around to look under it?
Might try this...
Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions.
Then move these files to the Desktop for now...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.bookmarks.plist
Reboot & test.
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.

Text-selection mechanism all screwed up in KeyNote 6.2

Trying to select text with shift + arrowkeys, or shift + alt + arrowkeys, is all screwed up in KeyNote 6.2 (OS X). The text selection often jumps forward in an erratic manner (much too far ahead than usual, often skips entire words).
Trying to de-select text using the arrowkeys, also produces unexpected results. Sometimes the cursor even automagically skips ahead one character position.
Personally, this bugs the @@@@ out of me when trying to type text. And often I even loose important parts of my texts entirely.

Try this Keynote repair, ensure you complete all the tasks and in the order shown:
1 delete all the iWork applications if you have them, not just Keynote, using Appcleaner from Mac Update, its a freeware application
2 restart the Mac;   Apple menu > restart
3 immediately after the start chime, press the shift key until you see the Apple symbol.
         let it fully boot up, it will take longer as the OS is repairing the drive
4 when fully booted, go to Applications > Utilities > Disc Utility; click on the boot drive then First Aid tab and      click repair disc permissions
5 when complete, restart the Mac normally
6 install Keynote from the Mac App Store

How to implement text selection tool

Hello,
    I need to develop one plug-in. On click of menu, the cursor should change to text selection tool.
   On selection of text, I need to get coordinates of text.
How to do this. Please help me to solve this issue.
Thanks,
Shilp

Hello,
        Thanks for your response.
        I have implemented the function for AVToolRec as follows.
        AVToolRec AVRect;
        AVRect.size = sizeof(AVToolRec);
        AVRect.GetType = ASCallbackCreateProto(GetTypeProcType, &ToolGetType);
        AVRect.DoClick = ASCallbackCreateProto(DoClickProcType, &DoClick);
        AVRect.AdjustCursor = ASCallbackCreateProto(AdjustCursorProcType, &AdjustCursor);
        AVAppRegisterTool(&AVRect);
        ACCB1 ASBool ACCB2 AdjustCursor(AVTool tool, AVPageView pageView, Int16 x, Int16 y)
               AVSysSetCursor((AVCursor) LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_CROSS));           //Works fine for cross
   I want to develop the cursor as acrobat provides.. "Selection tool for text and images"
   I tried to change the cursor to IDC_BEAM, But it's not useful. Is it possible to create the cursor as acrobat provides and get coordinates for the text selection.
Please help me to solve this.
Regards,
Shilp

MouseChildren = False + Text Input = no text selection cursor

I need to be able to set mouseChildren to false and still see
the text selection cursor when rolling over the field. Everything
is currently working correctly except the text selection cursor has
changed to the regular pointer. Any ideas?

Hello,
Could you please open a new bug report on this over at bugbase.adobe.com? Please include sample media. Once the bug has been added would you mind posting back with the URL so that others affected can add their votes and comments?
Thanks,
Nimit

Wrong orientation of text selection cursor

I've OCR'ed a PDF document with page orienation "portrait" using Acrobat Pro XI with setting "exact image".
Unfortunately the text selection cursor has the wrong orientation, its orientation is "horizontal" but should be "vertical" as the text is written from left to right (German) in the document.
Any ideas how to change the cursor orientation?
Thanks.

I have got the same problem. Text ocr-ed with with setting "exact image", too - don't know if that matters. The problem might be indepedent from that.
The proble mist a real pain. It heavily disturbes text selection an marking.
Unfortunately I don't have a solution.

Rectangular text selection in Leopard

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for