IntelliJ Column Selection using Cursor Keys

Question

Is it possible to some how setup IntelliJ IDEA so that I can column select with the cursor keys similarly to how I might in Notepad++, Visual Studio, or FlashDevelop.

For instance when I'm typing code I almost always do my navigation solely through use of the keyboard. In the IDEs mentioned previously I can quickly select blocks of code by holding Shift + Alt then tapping ↑ to extend my cursor across the lines above. I can then hold Shift + Alt + Ctrl and tap ← or → to quickly jump across words and select the chunk of text I want.

In IntelliJ IDEA I have to constantly enable and disable Column Selection Mode using the Shift + Alt + Insert and even then it doesn't quite function as it does in the other IDEs or Text Editors.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can do column editing using the Edit | Column Selection Mode.

The shortcut to turn it on/off is Alt+Shift+Insert. You navigate with arrow keys to select blocks of text.