Multi-caret editing

Place several cursors at once and edit in many places simultaneously — type, delete, and select at every caret together. This makes repetitive edits across a file quick and precise.

Working with multiple carets

• Add additional carets to create several insertion points at once.
• Anything you type, delete, or select is applied at every caret simultaneously.
• Multi-selection lets you operate on several separate selections together.

Multi-caret editing pairs naturally with selecting multiple occurrences of a term and changing them all in one pass.

Auto-pair & smart indentation also work at every caret: typing a bracket pairs it at each, Enter keeps each line's indentation, and a single Undo reverts the whole multi-caret edit.

Adding carets

The commands live in Edit ▸ Multiple Selections.

Action	Windows	macOS
Add Caret Above / Add Caret Below	Ctrl+Alt+Up / Ctrl+Alt+Down	⌥⌘↑ / ⌥⌘↓
Add Next Occurrence (of the selection or the word at the caret)	Ctrl+D	⌘D
Select All Occurrences	Ctrl+Shift+L	⇧⌘L
Add a caret with the mouse	Ctrl+click	⌘+click
Collapse to Single Caret	Esc	Esc

Carets added this way are independent: the arrow keys, Home, End and the word-movement keys move every caret at once, each on its own line, and holding Shift extends every selection.

Column (rectangular) selection

A column selection is a different thing: one rectangular block spanning several lines.

Action	Windows	macOS
Extend a column selection with the keyboard	Alt+Shift+arrow keys	⌥⇧+arrow keys
Draw a column selection with the mouse	Alt+drag	⌥+drag

Typing into a column selection writes on every line of the block, so an empty one looks like a caret on each line. It stays a block only while you extend it with the keys above: a plain movement key — an arrow, Home, End — ends the column selection and leaves a single caret. To move a caret on each line together, add the carets with Add Caret Above / Add Caret Below instead.

The Column Editor fills a column selection with text or a number sequence.