Question

I need to repeatedly copy text from a fixed size rectangular region and I’d like to be able to save the shape of that rectangular region in a register so I don’t have to keep re-creating the same size.

1. cua-set-rectangle-mark (<C-return>)

2. Move point to create a region 8×16 (note: this is the step I want to remove)

3. piture-clear-rectangle (C-c C-k)

4. Move point to new location.

5. picture-yank-rectangle (C-c C-y)

I’d like to replace steps 1 and 2 with a single ‘paste rectangular region from register’ command. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply use a keyboard macro for this?

E.g.:-

C-x C-(   [start recording kbd macro]
steps 1-2
C-x C-)   [end recording kbd macro]

Then

C-x e     [execute kbd macro]