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Luís de Sousa
Asked: 2019-05-09 23:02:49 +0800 CST

GEdit multi-line edit on Ubuntu 18.04

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The multi-line edit mode in GEdit is not working on Ubuntu 18.04. It can be activated with the combination Ctrl+Shift+C, but presently it has no consequence. The basic sanity check shows the plug-in to be installed:

$ apt search gedit-plugin-multi-edit
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
gedit-plugin-multi-edit/bionic,now 3.28.1-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
  Multi Edit plugin for gedit

What could be wrong here? Is there any other way to activate this plug-in?

plugins gedit 18.04

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Multi-line editing does work in gedit in Ubuntu 18.04.

    This answer is based on an answer I posted earlier about column mode editing in gedit and is with Ubuntu 18.04.

    • sudo apt install gedit-plugin-multi-edit installs the necessary plugin.

    • Open gedit > Preferences > Plugins and enable Multi Edit.

    • Then, when the need arises to use Multi Edit, activate it from Tools. The mode will be reflected near the top right corner of the window.

    Activate Multi Edit via Tools

    • If you use the Adwaita GTK3 theme and hover the mouse pointer over the words Multi Edit Mode, you'll get an explanatory pop-up. (I couldn't get this popup to appear with Ambiance or Radiance GTK3 themes.)

    Explanatory popup

    • In the following image, I want to convert three instances of "true" to "false". I click at the end of the first instance of "true" as shown in the image and press Control+E. A brief message "Added edit point …" appears in the same row as Multi Edit Mode.

    I click similarly for the other two instances of "true" pressing Control+E each time.

    marking multiple edit points

    • Once I'm done, simply press Backspace to remove the last instance of "true". The other two instances will be simultaneously removed.

    • I then type "false" and it appears in all the three spots.

    enter image description here

    Turn off Multi Edit Mode from Tools once you're done.

    In 19.04, the informative popup appears with Yaru as well. Ambiance still doesn't show it.

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