CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studiovisual-studio-2010
serhio
serhio

Reputation: 28586

Stopping mouse selection in Visual Studio

I don't know what key combination I did, but now each time I click somewhere in the page, Visual Studio selects the text between first and second mouse click.

I tried to escape from this "selection mode", but nothing helps, nor Escape, nor left clicks, nor Ctrl+Up/Down. I opened another VS window and there is all right - normal selection.

What is it, how to cancel it, what is it for?

I should probably restart Visual Studio. I remember that that happened some times ago in VS 2005. Very annoying VS "feature".

P.S. It disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, but I found similar problem described here. The guy says that "The only way to stop is to press escape or shift and an arrow key."

Upvotes: 20

Views: 21080

Answers (6)

R J
R J

Reputation: 515

Use the (insert) Key in the Key board.

Upvotes: 1

Eric Moon
Eric Moon

Reputation: 131

I have this issue when I VPN to a machine running VS. Here is the key combination I have found to get me out of this state. I do a ctrl-f to open the find window. I type some characters in the find textbox and I notice that the letters are all capital (even though I did not set the caps lock). I hit the caps lock key and test using the find text box to make sure my caps lock is not set (lowercase). Once the lowercase is set, the selecting text between mouse clicks behavior goes away. Don't know why, but this works for me.

Upvotes: 0

Daniel
Daniel

Reputation: 109

I figured out how to turn this issue on and off: Just press the ins (Insert) key; If you're using a full sized keyboard it will be to the right of backspace and above delete or if you're using a smaller keyboard it'll be the second option of zero key on the number pad to the right of the right arrow key.

Upvotes: 10

Nils Lande
Nils Lande

Reputation: 889

I have experienced the same problem (VS 2010). Here is what happens:

I start the debugger on a project whith Unmanaged debugging enabled. When I try use the key combination Ctrl+Shift+L to delete a line I get a dialog saying 'Changes are not allowed when unmanaged debugging is enabled'. The title of the dialog is 'Edit and Continue'. When the dialog is closed the editor gets stuck with this behavior:

  • Shift+Right-Click behavior: It selects the text between the cursor and the position of the mouse-click

  • Ctrl+Scroll behavior: If I try to scroll using the mouse wheel it will zoom in or out instead.

It behaves like the Shift and Ctrl keys are being held down.

I have found these key combinations that will get me out of this situation:

  • Shift + Arrow down

  • Ctrl + Arrow down

Until I discovered this I had to restart Visual Studio.

Upvotes: 1

Valery Letroye
Valery Letroye

Reputation: 1095

I have very often the same issue, just after stopping the debugger. No idea how it starts... But I found the key combination to stop it: Press "Alt Gr"+"Ctrl(right)"+"Shift(right)"

Upvotes: 19

Bmize729
Bmize729

Reputation: 1136

Click on tools and then options. Under environment select keyboard. Then there will be a window open up with options. The first drop down says something about mapping. Set that to default.

Brief, if this was previously selected, is an old DOS format and the key bindings will cause similar actions.

Upvotes: 1

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