Selecting Text

Most commands and operations in Atlantis are performed on so called selected text. In Atlantis you can select (mark) any fragment of text within a document window. The selected text is displayed in inverse colors. For example, if the unselected text is displayed with black font color on white background, the same text is displayed with white font color on black background when selected:

Atlantis offers various ways for selecting text using the keyboard and mouse.

Selecting Text With the Keyboard

You are probably familiar with the Atlantis hot keys that are used to move the caret within the active document. When using those hot keys, you could also hold the Shift key pressed. In this way not only the caret would be moved to a new location in your document but also a portion of your document enclosed between the previous caret position and a new one, would be included to the selection.

Let's take an example:

Let's suppose that our document contains a single sentence "Selecting Text...":

As indicated above, the caret is located before the first character of this sentence.
Now let's press the Right Arrow key to move the caret to the next character:

The caret is between the first and second character.

Now let's place the caret at the beginning of the document where it initially was:

Now let's hold the Shift key pressed, then press the Right Arrow key again:

The caret is actually between the first and second character (though you cannot see it) but the text between the initial caret position and the new one has became selected.

We can press the Right Arrow again to expand the selection to the right (note that the Shift key should be still held pressed):

You can use the Shift key in combination with other hot keys that move the caret. For example, the Ctrl+Right Arrow moves the caret one word right. But the Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow keys expand the selection one word right.

Also you can use the following hot keys to select text:

1. Ctrl+K, T selects the word closest to the current caret position.
2. Ctrl+K, L selects the current line.
3. Ctrl+K, E selects the sentence closest to the current caret position.
4. Ctrl+K, P selects the current paragraph.
5. Ctrl+K, G selects the current page.
6. Ctrl+A selects the whole active document.

Selecting Text With the Mouse

The following is the classical technique for selecting text with the mouse:

1. Press the left mouse button at the beginning of the text fragment that you want to select but do not release the mouse button.
2. Drag the mouse cursor to the end of the fragment that you want to select.
3. Release the left mouse button when the selection is complete.

Atlantis also offers many additional ways to make a selection in your document with the mouse:

1. You can select a word by double-clicking it.
2. You can select a line of text by aiming your mouse pointer at it from the left margin and clicking the left mouse button.
3. You can select a sentence by holding down the Ctrl key and giving the sentence a left click.
4. You can select a paragraph by double-clicking its left margin, or triple-clicking any word of that paragraph.
5. You can select a whole document by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking its left margin.
6. You can select a whole document by triple-clicking its left margin.
7. You can select several whole sentences with the mouse. Hold down the Ctrl key, aim your mouse pointer at the start of your intended selection, press your left mouse button, then move the mouse pointer over the text you want to select.
   Release mouse button and Ctrl key when your selection is complete.
8. You can select several whole paragraphs with the mouse. Double-click the first paragraph left margin but do not release the left mouse button after the second click. Move the mouse pointer over the text you want to select.
   Release the mouse button when your selection is complete.
9. You can select several whole paragraphs with the mouse. Triple-click inside the first paragraph but do not release the left mouse button after the third click. Move the mouse pointer over the text you want to select.
   Release the mouse button when your selection is complete.
10. You can select a large fragment of document. Place the text cursor at the start of your intended selection. Hold down the Shift key, position your mouse cursor at the end of the selection, then click with your left button.

With the mouse you can also select several non-consecutive fragments in your document (a so called multiple selection) and column blocks.

Tips

See also...