[...]
The HIG defines ctrl-<cursor key> to move the cursor without modifying the selection, but unfortunately Scintilla binds these to move by word :( If that was fixed it would work ok.
Isn't there a special case for text editing?
Not that I could find.
Any editors I've seen use
Ctrl+Arrow (if available) for word movement, and if you invoke File -> Open, type "tess test test" in the Location field, and try Ctrl+Arrow, it clears the selection, if any, or does word left/right, if none.
My quick survey of editors/ides showed that they used ctrl-arrow for move by word because they didn't support multiple selections so they didn't need move without changing selection.
[...]
Cheers Lex