There are several ways to move around code editors:
- Mouse and cursor motion keys
- Bookmarks
- The Go To Line command
- The Navigate Backward and Navigate Forward buttons
Navigating with the mouse and keyboard
The most common way to navigate text is with the mouse and cursor motion keys:
- Click a location with the mouse.
- Use the arrow keys to move one character at a time, or the arrow keys in combination with the Ctrl key to move one word at a time.
- Use the scroll bars or scroll wheel on the mouse to move through the text.
- Use the Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown keys.
- Use Alt+PageUp and Alt+PageDown to move the insertion point to the top or bottom of the window, respectively.
- Use Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down to scroll the view without moving the insertion point.
The keystrokes most commonly used to navigate around a document are:
Keystroke | Description |
Up |
Moves the cursor up one line. |
Down |
Moves the cursor down one line. |
Left |
Moves the cursor left one character. |
Right |
Moves the cursor right one character. |
Home | Moves the cursor to the first character on the line. Pressing Home a second time moves the cursor to the first column. |
End | Moves the cursor to the end of the line. |
PageUp | Moves the cursor up one page. |
PageDown | Moves the cursor down one page. |
Ctrl+Left |
Moves the cursor left one word. |
Ctrl+Right | Moves the cursor right one word. |
Ctrl+Up |
Moves the cursor to the previous function. |
Ctrl+Down | Moves the cursor to the next function. |
Ctrl+Home | Moves the cursor to the start of the document. |
Ctrl+End | Moves the cursor to the end of the document. |
Alt+Up | Scrolls the document up by one line. |
Alt+Down | Scrolls the document down by one line. |
Go to line
To move the cursor to a particular line number, do one of the following:
- From the Edit menu, click Advanced then Go To Line.
- Enter the line number to move the cursor to.
—or—
- Type Ctrl+G, Ctrl+L.
- Enter the line number to move the cursor to.
Selecting Text
Selecting text with the keyboard
You can select text using the keyboard by using Shift with the navigation keys.
- Hold Shift key down while using the cursor motion keys.
Selecting text with the mouse
- Move mouse cursor to the point in the document that you want to start selecting.
- Hold down left mouse button and drag mouse to mark selection.
- Release left mouse button to end selection.
Matching delimiters
The editor can find the matching partner for delimiter characters such as (), [], {}, <>.
To match a delimiter
- Move cursor to the left of the delimiter character to be matched.
- Select Edit | Advanced | Match Delimiter menu item or use Ctrl+] keys.
To select a delimited range
- Move cursor to the left of the delimiter character to be matched.
- Use Ctrl+Shift+] keys.