jEdit provides a rich set of commands for moving and copying text.
Commands are provided for moving chunks of text from buffers to
registers and vice-versa. A register is a holding
area for an arbitrary length of text, with a single-character name. Most
other programs can only transfer text to and from the system clipboard;
in jEdit, the system clipboard is just another register, with the
special name $.
jEdit offers the usual text transfer operations, that operate
on the $ register.
>
(shortcut: C+x) places the selected text in the
clipboard and removes it from the buffer.
>
(shortcut: C+c) places the selected text in the
clipboard and leaves it in the buffer.
>
(shortcut: C+v) inserts the clipboard contents in
place of the selection (or at the caret position, if there is no
selection).
The and commands replace the old clipboard contents with the selected text. There are two alternative commands which add the selection at the end of the existing clipboard contents, instead of replacing it.
>>
(shortcut: C+e C+u) appends the selected text to
the clipboard, then removes it from the buffer. After this command
has been invoked, the clipboard will consist of the former clipboard
contents, followed by a newline, followed by the selected
text.
>>
(shortcut: C+e C+a) is the same as except it does not remove the selection from
the buffer.
The quick copy feature is usually found in Unix text editors. Quick copy is disabled by default, but it can be enabled in the pane of the > dialog box.
The quick copy feature is accessed using the middle mouse
button. If you do not have a three-button mouse, then either
Alt-click (on Windows and Unix) or
Option-click (on MacOS X). The quick copy feature
enables the following behavior:
Clicking the middle mouse button in the text area
inserts the most recently selected text at the clicked
location. If you only have a two-button mouse, you can click
the left mouse button while holding down
Alt instead of middle-clicking.
Dragging with the middle mouse button creates a selection without moving the caret. As soon as the mouse button is released, the selected text is inserted at the caret position and the selection is deactivated. A message is shown in the status bar while text is being selected to remind you that this is not an ordinary selection.
Holding down Shift while clicking the
middle mouse button will duplicate text between the caret
and the clicked location.
Holding down Control while clicking
the middle mouse button on a bracket will insert all text in
that bracket's scope at the caret position.
The most recently selected text is stored in the
% register.
If jEdit is being run under Java 2 version 1.4 on Unix, you will be able to transfer text with other X Windows applications using the quick copy feature. On other platforms and Java versions, the contents of the quick copy register are only accessible from within jEdit.
These commands require more keystrokes than the two methods shown above, but they can operate on any register, allowing an arbitrary number of text chunks to be retained at a time.
Each command prompts for a single-character register name to
be entered after being invoked. Pressing ESCAPE
instead of specifying a register name cancels the operation.
Note that the content of registers other than the clipboard and quick copy register are automatically saved between jEdit sessions.
>>
(shortcut: C+r C+x )
stores the selected text in the specified register, removing it from
the buffer.key
>> (shortcut: C+r C+c
) stores the selected text in
the specified register, leaving it in the buffer.key
>> (shortcut: C+r C+u
) adds the selected text to
the existing contents of the specified register, and removes it from
the buffer.key
>> (shortcut: C+r C+a
) adds the selected text to
the existing contents of the specified register, without removing it
from the buffer.key
>> (shortcut: C+r C+v
) replaces the selection with
the contents of the specified register.key
The following three commands display dialog boxes instead of prompting for a register name.
>>
(shortcut: C+e C+v) displays a dialog box listing
the 20 most recently copied and pasted text strings.
>>
(shortcut: C+e C+y) is not really a register
command; it displays a dialog box listing the 20 most recently
deleted text strings.
>> displays a dialog box for viewing register contents, including the clipboard and the quick copy.