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Cursor & Selections

If you want to know which block(s) the user is currently editing, you can do so using cursor positions and selections.

Cursor Positions

BlockNote keeps track of the text cursor position in the editor and exposes functions that let you retrieve it or change it.

Text Cursor

The text cursor is the blinking vertical line you see when typing in the editor. BlockNote uses TextCursorPosition objects to give you information about the block it's in as well as those around it:

typescript
type TextCursorPosition = {
  block: Block;
  prevBlock: Block | undefined;
  nextBlock: Block | undefined;
}

block: The block currently containing the text cursor. If the cursor is in a nested block, this is the block at the deepest possible nesting level.

prevBlock: The previous block at the same nesting level. Undefined if the block containing the text cursor is the first child of its parent, or the first block in the editor.

nextBlock: The next block at the same nesting level. Undefined if the block containing the text cursor is the last child of its parent, or the last block in the editor.

Getting Text Cursor Position

You can get a snapshot of the current text cursor position using the following call:

typescript
// Definition
class BlockNoteEditor {
...
  public getTextCursorPosition(): TextCursorPosition;
...
}

// Usage
const textCursorPosition = editor.getTextCursorPosition();

returns: A snapshot of the current text cursor position.

Setting Text Cursor Position

You can set the text cursor position to the start or end of an existing block using the following call:

typescript
// Definition
class BlockNoteEditor {
...
  public setTextCursorPosition(
    targetBlock: BlockIdentifier, 
    placement: "start" | "end" = "start"
  ): void;
...
}

// Usage
editor.setTextCursorPosition(targetBlock, placement);

targetBlock: The identifier of an existing block that the text cursor should be moved to.

placement: Whether the text cursor should be placed at the start or end of the block.

Throws an error if the target block could not be found.

Demo