jEdit has this too. alt-backslash and ctrl-backslash toggle multiple selection/insert and rectangular selection/insert. So you can select multiple blocks of text, then what you type will replace all of them at once.

Wow, that's pretty awesome. Can you do this without using the mouse?

Of course. jEdit uses standard shift+direction selection. And like most good text editors, you can map or remap any command to any key combination.

My blog is in a state of utmost disrepair, but if I ever clear its personal content and reboot it as a professional blog, a "hey everybody, jEdit" post will be pretty early on. I think it strikes a nice balance between vim/emacs-like power and GUI-app usability, and as one of the few high-quality Java desktop apps, it's cross-platform.

Please do!

email me your blog info (not in your profile) so i can suscribe for when you get around to it. [email protected]

It's personal right now, I mean to privately archive the old content and start fresh. Once I get around to rebooting it, I'll self-promote by posting something here once I write something people might be interested in. Thanks for your interest, though!

Except for mouse interaction (correct me if I'm wrong, GVim vets), Visual mode in Vim puts TextMate's block select to shame (docs: http://www.vim.org/htmldoc/visual.html) because it allows you to use Vim's other editing commands (replace, change, insert from beginning or end, etc.). Not to mention that you can select this block based on Vim motions. I guess this all adds up to Vim surpassing most other editors when it comes to selecting text, which is a given considering its focus on moving around code.

vim has it too, powerful indeed

select the block use v or ^v and navigate with hjkl, do commands like c,d

replace string in text selection -> v (or ^v) + hjkl + :s/old/new

comment a block of code (5 lines) with # -> 0 + ^v + 5j + I + # + Esc + j

as a plus, u don't need mouse ... fear the simplicity

Notepad++ does that too (back before I was a happy TextMate/OSX.. Notepad++ on Win gave a good experience)

Emacs: Rectangular selection. A complete superset of that functionality. Check out the C-x r --- key combos.

Inserting in a rectangle: C-x r t Deleting in a rectangle: C-x r d

and more...