How to handle templater scripts eating selection

[scwunch]

I was writing a templater script to modify text — but only selected text — in the active file. I noticed that, no matter what I did, it just eats up my selection and doesn't give it back. At first I was confused, but then I realized that Templater actually always eats my selection — no matter what function is called — and doesn't give it back. I could manually bring it back with a tR += previouslySelectedText or editor.replaceSelection(previouslySelectedText) or something like that, but then my cursor is back to caret mode rather than selection mode.

I ended up "solving" this problem with this snippet of code:

const editor = app.workspace.activeLeaf.view.editor;
let selection = editor.getSelection();
let cAnchor = editor.getCursor('anchor');
let cHead = editor.getCursor('head');
setTimeout(() => editor.setSelection(cAnchor, cHead), 0);
editor.replaceSelection(selection);

I don't know why setTimeout(... 0) works, but it does. I'm curious also if there are other better workarounds.

[FelipeRearden]

Hello @scwunch !!!

My deepest thank you for sharing this Snippet. I was struggling with a workflow related to text selection for almost a year and your snippet save my Obsidian life. 💙💙💙

[scwunch]

Why thank you for the appreciations @FelipeRearden ; I'm glad that this snippet was able to make your life easier 😄