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magnars
multiple-cursors.el
Emacs Lisp2013–2024
magnars / multiple-cursors.el

multiple-cursors.el

Multiple cursors for emacs.

20Distinct people
22Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
2.6KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Multiple cursors for emacs.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

And of course... https://github.com/magnars/multiple-cursors.el for emacs folks (I use it every day...)

dbpatterson used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 6:01:32 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year22 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2013-03-21 08:39:18 UTC to 2024-10-02 17:42:03 UTC.

012342013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments20132014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 1 submissions, 2 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC312

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
multiple-cursors.el Multiple cursors for Emacs. This is some pretty crazy functionality, so yes, there are kinks. Don't be afraid though, I've been using it since 2011 with great success and much merriment. Maintenance warning I use this package every day, and have been doing so for years. It just works. At least, it works for all my use cases. And if it breaks somehow, I fix it. However, it has become painfully clear to me that I don't have time to fix problems I don't have. It's been years since I could keep pace with the issues and pull requests. Whenever I try, I keep getting feedback that my fix isn't good enough by some standard I don't particularly care about. So, I have closed the issue tracker and the pull requests. I hope you can happily use this package, just like I do. If it doesn't work for you, then I'm sorry. Thankfully Emacs is infinitely malleable, you can probably fix it yourself. TLDR: I am still maintaining this package, but I am no longer crowdsourcing a list of issues. Installation I highly recommend installing multiple-cursors through package.el. It's available on MELPA, MELPA Stable and NonGNU ELPA (enabled by default from Emacs 28 onwards): M-x package-install multiple-cursors The package depends on the cl-lib package, so if you do not use package.el or have a recent Emacs, you would need to install that too: see GNU ELPA. Basic usage Start out with: (require 'multiple-cursors) Then you have to set up your keybindings - multiple-cursors doesn't presume to know how you'd like them laid out. Here are some examples: When you have an active region that spans multiple lines, the following will add a cursor to each line: (global-set-key (kbd "C-S-c C-S-c") 'mc/edit-lines) When you want to add multiple cursors not based on continuous lines, but based on keywords in the buffer, use: (global-set-key (kbd "C->") 'mc/mark-next-like-this) (global-set-key (kbd "C-<") 'mc/mark-previous-like-this) (global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-<") 'mc/mark-all-like-this) First mark the word, then add more cursors. To get out of multiple-cursors-mode, press <return> or C-g. The latter will first disable multiple regions before disabling multiple cursors. If you want to insert a newline in multiple-cursors-mode, use C-j. Video You can watch an intro to multiple-cursors at Emacs Rocks. Command overview Mark one more occurrence Command Description mc/mark-next-like-this Adds a cursor and region at the next part of the buffer forwards that matches the current region. mc/mark-next-like-this-word Adds a cursor and region at the next part of the buffer forwards that matches the current region, if no region is selected it selects the word at the point. mc/mark-next-like-this-symbol Adds a cursor and region at the next part of the buffer forwards that matches the current region, if no region is selected it selects the symbol at the point. mc/mark-next-word-like-this Like mc/mark-next-like-this but only for whole words. mc/mark-next-symbol-like-this Like mc/mark-next-like-this but only for whole symbols. mc/mark-previous-like-this Adds a cursor and region at the next part of the buffer backwards that matches the current region. mc/mark-previous-like-this-word Adds a cursor and region at the next part of the buffer backwards that matches the current region, if no region is selected it selects the word at the point. mc/mark-previous-like-this-symbol Adds a cursor and region at the next part of the buffer backwards that matches the current region, if no region is selected it selects the symbol at the point. mc/mark-previous-word-like-this Like mc/mark-previous-like-this but only for whole words. mc/mark-previous-symbol-like-this Like mc/mark-previous-like-this but only for whole symbols. mc/mark-more-like-this-extended Use arrow keys to quickly mark/skip next/previous occurrences. mc/add-cursor-on-click Bind to a mouse event to add cursors by clicking. See tips-section. mc/mark-pop Set a cursor at the current point and move to the next (different) position on the mark stack. This allows for fine grained control over the placement of cursors. Juggle around with the current cursors Command Description mc/unmark-next-like-this Remove the cursor furthest down in the buffer. mc/unmark-previous-like-this Remove the cursor furthest up in the buffer. mc/skip-to-next-like-this Remove the cursor furthest down, marking the next occurrence down. mc/skip-to-previous-like-this Remove the cursor furthest up, marking the next occurrence up. Mark many occurrences Command Description mc/edit-lines Adds one cursor to each line in the current region. mc/edit-beginnings-of-lines Adds a cursor at the start of each line in the current region. mc/edit-ends-of-lines Adds a cursor at the end of each line in the current region. mc/mark-all-like-this Marks all parts of the buffer that matches the current region. mc/mark-all-words-like-this Like mc/mark-all-like-this but only for whole words. mc/mark-all-symbols-like-this Like mc/mark-all-like-this but only for whole symbols. mc/mark-all-in-region Prompts for a string to match in the region, adding cursors to all of them. mc/mark-all-like-this-in-defun Marks all parts of the current defun that matches the current region. mc/mark-all-words-like-this-in-defun Like mc/mark-all-like-this-in-defun but only for whole words. mc/mark-all-symbols-like-this-in-defun Like mc/mark-all-like-this-in-defun but only for whole symbols. mc/mark-all-dwim Tries to be smart about marking everything you want. Can be pressed multiple times. Special Command Description set-rectangular-region-anchor Think of this one as set-mark except you're marking a rectangular region. mc/mark-sgml-tag-pair Mark the current opening and closing tag. mc/insert-numbers Insert increasing numbers for each cursor, top to bottom. mc/insert-letters Insert increasing letters for each cursor, top to bottom. mc/sort-regions Sort the ma
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

3 sources
I don't know how much faster navigating a buffer can be than doing it in emacs or vim, both of which can switch buffers with the press of a single key and do fuzzy-matching of buffer/file names with a keystroke or two. They can also navigate by moving or clicking around tree-structured directory trees, through menus, and many other ways. Again, it would be nice if people offered specifics when they described something another editor could do that emacs or vim allegedly couldn't. How exactly do you navigate a buffer in Sublime that's allegedly "much quicker"? Can you give an example (including exactly which keys you press and exactly what it does in response)? Or can you at least show a video demonstrating this navigation? As for multiple cursors, both vim and emacs have had them for years.[1][2][3][4][5] [1] - https://github.com/terry
Read the rest
In Big things to expect from Emacs 25
Well, I can copy the divs over, then run ":'<'>s/<\/\?div>//g". Or, if the divs were aligned nicely, I'd copy the divs except for the opening tags via block selection, then on the result of pasting, I'd run ":'<'>s/.\{6\}$//". The difference with the multiple-cursors way and the Vim way is that, the above regexps can be used, without modification, on ranges of variable amounts of lines, whereas, the multiple-cursor way is not as flexible to get adapted to handle variable amount of lines as far as I can imagine. Vim poses a way to edit text; Sublime, Emacs and other modeless editors pose another. One enables neat tricks via a very nuanced and powerful editing language, that is Vim verbs, text objects et cetera, and the rest do not provide such mechanism, in favour of simplicity and ease of use (it is easier to start typing in Emacs than
Read the rest
Vim, whereas it is easier to do editing in Vim than Emacs, but only for the knowledgeable user). Do not get me wrong, I am not thinking multiple-cursor-editing is useless; in fact, I use it quite a lot in Emacs[1], and I like how it indeed helps me do my multi-line editing with instant feedback. My argument is that such editing has little to offer to a user that has spent a month-or-so to master Vim. [1]: https://github.com/magnars/multiple-cursors.el
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