Bugs in text selection across blocks using shift+up/down

[qualquertipo]

Edit by @sambouwer:
The original issue below was resolved, but the following issues are persistent in Anytype for Windows 0.24.0:

• Text in blocks cannot be selected with Shift + Down if the cursor is not at the very beginning of the block
• Only after first using Shift + Up to select the block above you can use Shift + Down to select the active block and blocks underneath it.

Original post:

Selection seems to always stop whenever there are nested blocks.

For example, if I have the cursor in the top block here:

And I press SHIFT+DOWN to select the blocks below, it stops here:

Interestingly, starting the selection on a child block allows selecting more blocks below it, even outside the original parent (which seems useful btw).

[Flip]

This seems to be fixed in the current releases.

[qualquertipo]

Hm weird. I just tried it out and now SHIFT + doesn’t even select the blocks below (regardless if nested or not).

It’s not consistent either. From 10 attempts, twice it worked (in different Pages). Weird…

I removed the Solved for now while we troubleshoot this!

Edit: I have the newest version installed btw. Windows

[sambouwer]

Hi @qualquertipo could you please record a video/screencap of the issue? I cannot reproduce this on Anytype for Windows 0.24.0. I’ve tried the steps below with an Page object with only Text blocks, and also with two Text blocks nested under another Text block like you have in your example:

[qualquertipo]

Will do.

Did you try with multiline blocks?

[sambouwer]

Nope, I will try that too!

Edit: multiline (with Shift + Return) works fine for me.

[qualquertipo]

I placed the cursor before the bold “Test”, held SHIFT and kept pressing DOWN. The selection stops there.

(What’s the easiest way to capture/post video like you did? I’m on Windows)

[sambouwer]

I used a tool from the Microsoft Store as it allows you to record only a single window:

Get Screen Recorder & Screenshots from the Microsoft Store

Could you include how you typed the text?

[qualquertipo]

I typed Test then copy pasted it a few times. But I just tested typing a few lines directly and the same happens…

Here’s a GIF of it (first I create the text, then I attempt to SHIFT+DOWN to select blocks):

[sambouwer]

Thanks for the recording! I’m trying to reproduce:

Only singe words (“Test”), each in a new block. Tested but not recorded: Nesting blocks have no impact on the behavior that I tested below.

• When placing the cursor at the beginning of the block, I can use Shift + Up and Shift + Down to start selecting multiple blocks
  
• When placing the cursor in the middle or the end of the text, I can only use Shift + Up to start multiple blocks (upwards). I can only use Shift + Down to start selecting the text within the active block, but not outside of the block.
  
  • Once I moved upwards, I can also keep holding Shift and use Down to start selecting downwards
    

[qualquertipo]

Ok, I think you narrowed it down then.

Selecting across blocks works only if the cursor is at the beginning of the block. Also, it depends on how the cursor got there! It seems it the selection doesn’t work when placing it with mouse/pointer, but it does when moving the cursor in using keyboard (coming from a different block).

Anyway, I guess the original bug is solved. Should we create a new bug report for the inconsistent behaviour selecting across blocks?

PS: not directly related, but I also have this FR on selection/blocks:

Ability to select/edit *partial* text across multiple blocks/paragraphs

I want to be able to select and edit text that partially spans two or more blocks. In the example below, I’d like to be able to select the text from “HERE” to “THERE”. Using either mouse or keyboard (SHIFT+DOWN/UP). [image] If I try doing it currently, as soon as the selection spans more than one block, all the involved blocks are fully selected. [image] I’d also expect (most) edit operations to work as much as possible as one would expect from a traditional text editor (whenever possible…

[sambouwer]

I’m not sure whether it would be better to repurpose this topic to address the other issues, too, or mark this one solved and continue in another one.

Maybe we make the topic title a bit more generic and keep using this topic to address text selection issues?

[qualquertipo]

Agree to repurpose it. However I don’t seem to be able to edit my own post… Maybe because it’s old.

[sambouwer]

I can’t seem to reproduce the issue you mention with the difference between the functionality when using the mouse to place the cursor vs using the keyboard to place the cursor. For me the behavior is all the same (although not as we want )

[sambouwer]

The two issues described in the OP remain in Anytype for Windows 0.27.0

[Razor]

Fixed

[sambouwer]

Seems to be fixed indeed in 0.28.0.

@qualquertipo I think you are having issues with accessing your Anytype installation with 0.28.0, but for when that is resolved: could you check whether this is resolved for you, too?

For now, I will mark the topic as Solved and set a timer to close it in two weeks.

[qualquertipo]

Hey @sambouwer , I now have access to desktop.

Yes, issue seems fixed. Couldn’t reproduce it.

Hopefully the below will be implemented though:

Ability to select/edit *partial* text across multiple blocks/paragraphs

+1, selecting text across blocks is really useful, not a priority for me but I’d love to see it on the roadmap.