True column-mode (block-selection and editing) text editor solution?

geany

is an integrated development environment that provides good column editing support which is worth checking out (an example here)

Simply put, press down Alt+Shift instead of just Shift while making selections to invoke column mode. One important limitation is that the edits in column mode are (as yet) not undo-able.

To achieve the same with the mouse, hold down Ctrl while selecting. This actually works with most Scintilla-based editors (including SciTE and Geany).

To edit columns, I use vi / gvim. It takes a bit of learning to get used to vi, but in the end many people find this to be their preferred editor.

Specifically within vi you can use CTRL V to highlight columns in visual mode, then you can edit it as you would expect. I use this all the time for adding and removing comments, or indenting functions i.e. CTRL V (highlight a column) SHIFT I # ESC will comment out that entire column.

You do use the Eclipse editor. Alt+Shift+A should do what you need.

nedit

I use NEdit all the time.

To install it using the terminal, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install nedit

Old school (Motif) but has tabs and is lightweight and simple. Has context highlighting included for a number of coding languages, and more can be added. Pressing Ctrl while dragging with the mouse enables a block of text to be selected. Then you can copy/paste as usual. Couldn't do without this feature now.

Use a gEdit with gmate and plugins. You'll get the TextMate of Linux.

sudo apt-get install gedit gedit-plugins
cd ~/Downloads
git clone http://github.com/gmate/gmate.git
cd gmate
sh ./install.sh

With this "slight" modification gEdit really rocks.

This is possible in emacs, and it's easy if you use the cua-mode. C-return marks the upper left of the rectangle. Then move the cursor to highlight the rectangular region.

• Here's a video that shows how to do it: http://vimeo.com/1168225

• And see section "CUA rectangle support" here: http://www.cua.dk/cua.html

The emacs column mode features are really cool. They go far beyond just copy/paste of rectangular text. Check out the video for a demo of how to simultaneously edit all the lines in the column! Very handy!

If you don't want to watch the video (or can't) here are the bare basics:

CUA-mode's superior rectangle support is based on using a true visual representation of the selected rectangle. To start a rectangle, use [S-return] and extend it using the normal movement keys (up, down, left, right, home, end, C-home, C-end). Once the rectangle has the desired size, you can cut or copy it using C-x and C-c, and you can subsequently insert it - as a rectangle - using C-v. So the only new command you need to know to work with CUA-mode rectangles is S-return!

On Kubuntu 12.04 and emacs v24, [S-return] is CONTROL-RETURN (CTRL-ENTER) for me.

As already mentioned, Scite has this built-in (no plug-ins needed). It's very easy to use. And Scite is in the Ubuntu repos.

Rectangular blocks of text can be selected in SciTE by holding down the Alt key on Windows or the Ctrl key on GTK+ while dragging the mouse over the text.

Also Notepadqq can do this: they briefly present the feature in their page. Hold down Alt, then hold Ctrl or Shift, and select the "columns" you want by dragging (or also clicking, if you are holding Ctrl) with the mouse. Release the buttons when you are done selecting columns, and start editing by typing, using arrow keys, copy-paste (a mouse click will cancel the multi-selection).

The points you select don't need to form a real column, it's an arbitrary number of cursors active at same time. When you copy-paste, the text is pasted cursor-by-cursor if the number of copied and pasted ones matches, otherwise every target cursor gets a full copy of the input.

Little nuisances: you can't de-select single cursors while keeping the others, and you can't use the keyboard to select them (or at least, I don't know how to).

Paste this commands in terminal

sudo sed -i.backup -r '/^#\s?deb\s?(http|ftp|-src).*(partner|multiverse|universe)/s/^#\s?//g' /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -y vim-gnome vim-doc

vim yourfile

In vim use:

ctrl-v ....... to select in mode column
j ............ to down 

see:

 :help

KWrite, Kate and KDevelop also support this. It's a bit different in them in that column edit mode works not via modifier keys, but as a mode that you turn on and off. These three programs have different feature level but are based on the same editor component.

Yes, you can achieve it with the Gedit plugin multi edit. This blog post explains it.

1. Run sudo apt install gedit-plugin-multi-edit
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + C to enter Multi-Edit Mode. It will reflect in upper right corner.
3. Make the desired selection, and hit Enter. Boom!, it's gone now, then you can edit multiple rows but in column mode.

Bonus: Use Ctrl + E, when in Multi-Edit Mode and click at various points (which you want to edit at same time). this way you can edit multiple lines based on words.