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Box select text when holding alt (or ctrl) #14904

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opened 2026-01-31 04:22:49 +00:00 by claunia · 1 comment
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:22:49 +00:00
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Originally created by @czarnoff on GitHub (Aug 19, 2021).

Description of the new feature/enhancement

Allow the user to box select text from the terminal when holding the key instead of the normal linear text selection. This would allow a user to easily filter out line numbers preceding text or allow one to copy select columns of data from a tabular data file.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

User clicks the left mouse button and starts dragging the mouse to select text on the screen across multiple rows. While still holding the left mouse button, the user holds down the left alt key. Or vise-versa. The selection changes to include only those characters within the box defined by the starting point of the drag and the mouse position. When the user releases the left mouse button, the characters in that box are copied to the clipboard, appending a newline between rows.

If the user starts at position 12x 5y and alt drags to 14x 20y, only the characters in column 12, 13, and 14 on lines 5 through 20 would be selected. In the clipboard memory, characters at 12, 13, and 14 would be mapped to 0, 1, 2. Character 3 on each line would be a newline.

Originally created by @czarnoff on GitHub (Aug 19, 2021). # Description of the new feature/enhancement Allow the user to box select text from the terminal when holding the <alt> key instead of the normal linear text selection. This would allow a user to easily filter out line numbers preceding text or allow one to copy select columns of data from a tabular data file. # Proposed technical implementation details (optional) User clicks the left mouse button and starts dragging the mouse to select text on the screen across multiple rows. While still holding the left mouse button, the user holds down the left alt key. Or vise-versa. The selection changes to include only those characters within the box defined by the starting point of the drag and the mouse position. When the user releases the left mouse button, the characters in that box are copied to the clipboard, appending a newline between rows. If the user starts at position 12x 5y and alt drags to 14x 20y, only the characters in column 12, 13, and 14 on lines 5 through 20 would be selected. In the clipboard memory, characters at 12, 13, and 14 would be mapped to 0, 1, 2. Character 3 on each line would be a newline.
claunia added the Issue-FeatureNeeds-TriageNeeds-Tag-Fix labels 2026-01-31 04:22:50 +00:00
claunia commented 2026-01-31 04:22:51 +00:00
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@czarnoff commented on GitHub (Aug 19, 2021):

It appears to already be a feature that I missed somhow.

@czarnoff commented on GitHub (Aug 19, 2021): It appears to already be a feature that I missed somhow.
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Reference: starred/terminal#14904
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