keyboard column selection in Sublime Text 2 on Ubuntu 12.04 with Cinnamon doesn't work

Question

According to the documentation for Linux column select uses the following commands:

Linux

Ctrl+Alt+Up
Ctrl+Alt+Down

but on Ubuntu 12.04 with Cinnamon (not tested on Unity) this triggers the window switching operation (part of Cinnamon).

Anyone have a good fix for this (other than using the mouse...)

Thanks,

Answer 1

Think that documentation is wrong. Just did a quick look into the Default (Linux).sublime-keymaps (which you can access from Preferences -> Key Bindings - Default but that's besides the point), and it looks to be alt+shift+(up/down). I was going to recommend rebinding the keys (thus the reason I was looking) but this may also solve your problem. =) Not tested, just based on the keymapping file. If that doesn't work, let me know.

Answer 2

I am used to using Ctrl+Alt+Up and Ctrl+Alt+Down as shortcuts for this operation. To make it work in Linux, you have to do two steps. First, need to disable system wide shortcuts by typing:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-down  "[]"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-up "[]"

Logout and login afterward. Source: https://gist.github.com/michfield/5614949

Second step is to edit the Sublime Text configuration file, and change accordingly. I assume that everybody know how to do that. Just in case, add this in Preferences / Key Bindings - User

// change column select defaults - on Linux it was Shift+Alt+Up/Down
{ "keys": ["ctrl+alt+up"], "command": "select_lines", "args": {"forward": false} },
{ "keys": ["ctrl+alt+down"], "command": "select_lines", "args": {"forward": true} }

Tested on Mint 15 Cinnamon (RC), based on Ubuntu Raring.

Answer 3

with mouse:

Shift + Right Button + (Drag up or down)

Answer 4

For me the problem was different I normally use Ctrl + Shift + up/down

but then it stop working I really did not know why, my solution was to copy the default setting from Preferences-->Key Bindings - Default to Preferences-->Key Bindings - User

{ "keys": ["alt+shift+up"], "command": "select_lines", "args": {"forward": false} },
{ "keys": ["alt+shift+down"], "command": "select_lines", "args": {"forward": true} },

Using sublime Text 3 Build 3083 in Ubuntu 14.04

Answer 5

If you want to know why, enter the Sublime 3 console:

cntl+`  # or View --> Show Console

Enter:

sublime.log_commands(True)
sublime.log_input(True)

Enter the naughty key combo and it'll show you the reason, typically a package installed will have a conflict. You can change it in that package key-bindings, or if you add new bindings to User key-map it'll override everything. (They are in Preferences-->Key Bindings.)

EDIT: Using sublime Text 3 Build 3126 in Ubuntu 16.04