Basic Operation

## Using the Mouse

Mouse-based editing is what NEdit is all about, and learning to use the more advanced features like secondary selections and primary selection dragging will be well worth your while.

If you don't have time to learn everything, you can get by adequately with just the left mouse button: Clicking the left button moves the cursor. Dragging with the left button makes a selection. Holding the shift key while clicking extends the existing selection, or begins a selection between the cursor and the mouse. Double or triple clicking selects a whole word or a whole line.

This section will make more sense if you also read the section called, "Selecting Text", which explains the terminology of selections, that is, what is meant by primary, secondary, rectangular, etc.

### Button and Modifier Key Summary

General meaning of mouse buttons and modifier keys:

#### Buttons

          Button 1 (left)    Cursor position and primary selection

          Button 2 (middle)  Secondary selections, and dragging and
                             copying the primary selection

          Button 3 (right)   Quick-access programmable menu and pan
                             scrolling

#### Modifier keys

          Shift   On primary selections, (left mouse button):
                     Extends selection to the mouse pointer
                  On secondary and copy operations, (middle):
                     Toggles between move and copy

          Ctrl    Makes selection rectangular or insertion
                  columnar

          Alt*    (on release) Exchange primary and secondary
                  selections.

### Left Mouse Button

The left mouse button is used to position the cursor and to make primary selections.

        Click         Moves the cursor

        Double Click  Selects a whole word

        Triple Click  Selects a whole line

        Quad Click    Selects the whole file

        Shift Click   Adjusts (extends or shrinks) the
                      selection, or if there is no existing
                      selection, begins a new selection
                      between the cursor and the mouse.

        Ctrl+Shift+   Adjusts (extends or shrinks) the
        Click         selection rectangularly.

        Drag          Selects text between where the mouse
                      was pressed and where it was released.

        Ctrl+Drag     Selects rectangle between where the
                      mouse was pressed and where it was
                      released.

### Right Mouse Button

The right mouse button posts a programmable menu for frequently used commands.

        Click/Drag    Pops up the background menu (programmed
                      from Preferences -> Default Settings ->
                      Customize Menus -> Window Background).

        Ctrl+Drag     Pan scrolling.  Scrolls the window
                      both vertically and horizontally, as if
                      you had grabbed it with your mouse.

### Middle Mouse Button

The middle mouse button is for making secondary selections, and copying and dragging the primary selection.

        Click         Copies the primary selection to the
                      clicked position.

        Shift+Click   Moves the primary selection to the
                      clicked position, deleting it from its
                      original position.

        Drag          1) Outside of the primary selection:
                          Begins a secondary selection.
                      2) Inside of the primary selection:
                          Moves the selection by dragging.

        Ctrl+Drag     1) Outside of the primary selection:
                          Begins a rectangular secondary
                          selection.
                      2) Inside of the primary selection:
                          Drags the selection in overlay
                          mode (see below).

When the mouse button is released after creating a secondary selection:

        No Modifiers  If there is a primary selection,
                      replaces it with the secondary
                      selection.  Otherwise, inserts the
                      secondary selection at the cursor
                      position.

        Shift         Move the secondary selection, deleting
                      it from its original position.  If
                      there is a primary selection, the move
                      will replace the primary selection
                      with the secondary selection.
                      Otherwise, moves the secondary
                      selection to to the cursor position.

        Alt*          Exchange the primary and secondary
                      selections.

While moving the primary selection by dragging with the middle mouse button:

        Shift         Leaves a copy of the original
                      selection in place rather than
                      removing it or blanking the area.

        Ctrl          Changes from insert mode to overlay
                      mode (see below).

        Escape        Cancels drag in progress.

Overlay Mode: Normally, dragging moves text by removing it from the selected position at the start of the drag, and inserting it at a new position relative to to the mouse. When you drag a block of text over existing characters, the existing characters are displaced to the end of the selection. In overlay mode, characters which are occluded by blocks of text being dragged are simply removed. When dragging non-rectangular selections, overlay mode also converts the selection to rectangular form, allowing it to be dragged outside of the bounds of the existing text.

Mouse buttons 4 and 5 are usually represented by a mouse wheel nowadays. They are used to scroll up or down in the text window.

* The Alt key may be labeled Meta or Compose-Character on some keyboards. Some window managers, including default configurations of mwm, bind combinations of the Alt key and mouse buttons to window manager operations. In NEdit, Alt is only used on button release, so regardless of the window manager bindings for Alt-modified mouse buttons, you can still do the corresponding NEdit operation by using the Alt key AFTER the initial mouse press, so that Alt is held while you release the mouse button. If you find this difficult or annoying, you can re-configure most window managers to skip this binding, or you can re-configure NEdit to use a different key combination.