SecureCRT® Word Selection and Word Delimiters

"Word selection" sounds simple, but like most things related to terminal emulation, there are a few details to consider and choices to make. In this tip, we explain word selection, the SecureCRT default settings, and how to change the delimiter characters. Then, we show how to add delimiter characters to match the ones used in the PuTTY terminal emulator.

You can select a word within a SecureCRT shell session just the way you do in other Windows applications – place the mouse pointer anywhere in the word and then double-click. What is selected depends on the definition of a "word" by its boundaries or delimiters.

By default, SecureCRT uses all non-alphanumeric characters (except underscore, "_") as delimiters when selecting a word. This includes punctuation such as .,!?()", but also $#@/\. However, you might, for example, want some of the second character set to be inside the word so that you can select currency amounts, pathnames, e-mail addresses, and the like.

To change your word delimiters, follow these steps:

1. In the Session Options dialog, go to the Terminal category.
2. Select the Set word delimiter characters option.
3. Enter your desired characters in the entry box.

The PuTTY emulator application uses a different default set than SecureCRT. To switch to the PuTTY set, enter these characters in the delimiter characters box:

` ~!@#$%^&*()+=:;>,\[]{}|'

Note: A "space" character is present between the ` and the ~ characters.