Re: no scroll when selecting text?

[Peter Bloomfield <PeterBloomfield bellsouth net>]

Hi Russell!

On 11/02/2003 03:35:40 AM, Russell L. Harris wrote:
> Sometimes I need to select and cut a portion of a letter, so I  
> can paste the portion into another document which I am  
> composing in emacs.
> 
> The only way I have found to select text (other than to use  
> SELECT ALL from the EDIT menu) is drag the cursor, using the  
> mouse.  But, when I attempt to drag past the bottom of the  
> screen, the screen doesn't scroll as I drag.

But if you scroll the message manually after dragging past the  
bottom, you'll see that the text really was selected--you just  
have to guess how much of it was!

> A work-around is to use SELECT ALL, paste the entire letter,  
> then use emacs to edit out the unwanted material.

or guess!

> Is this a bug?

Yes--but it's one that the user community has decided to live  
with.  It's caused by packing the message headers, the text, and  
any inline attachments into box in a scrolled window, and the  
enclosing box prevents pointer movements in the content from  
being communicated upward to the scrolled window.  There should  
be some way to pass the events on...

The alternative is to have the content in its own scrolled window  
inside the scrolled window for the whole message, which makes the  
content scroll the way you'd expect.  However, whenever this has  
come up, the consensus has always been that presenting the  
message that way is ugly and a waste of screen space.  That could  
always be revisited...

> Is there a keyboard-only method for selecting text to cut?

shift+cursor_{left,right} selects one character at a time, and  
like dragging, continues to select, but without scrolling, after  
the cursor is off-screen.  The other shift+cursor combinations  
seem to be hijacked by someone.

HTH!

Peter