Selecting text in RichLog without holding shift

[Joost-2025]

Hi,
I could not find a way to select text in a RichLog without holding shift. This is of course the intended behaviour, but I would instead like to not hold shift for selecting text as I'm trying to emulate a native-shell feeling. I noticed that the TextArea widget has the behaviour I'm looking for, but I believe is unsuitable for my application for other reasons.

Perhaps someone knows a way to set up the widget to allow for text selection without holding shift.

[TomJGooding]

Textual supports text selection for most widgets, but I'm afraid not the RichLog and there really isn't any workaround AFAIK.

https://textual.textualize.io/FAQ/#how-can-i-select-and-copy-text-in-a-textual-app

[Joost-2025]

Thank you, apologies for the delayed response.

A follow-up question which I hope you are able to answer is whether selecting text and scrolling the RichLog is possible? To demonstrate, take the following snippet. Holding shift and selecting text, but then scrolling with the mousewheel to reveal (and select) more doesn't work any more. I was thinking overriding some default actions may help but I hope you could provide better insights.

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.widgets import RichLog

TEXT = """\
Lorem ipsum dolor sit \n amet. Et reiciendis architecto \n nam libero reprehenderit et quaerat
veritatis \n non sequi molestias! Quo \n quod velit ea eaque omnis est nulla minus. \n Ex molestiae
suscipit aut \n doloremque tempora sit debitis rerum non \n illum porro aut aperiam dolor. Et
molestiae sunt cum veritatis quae id \n recusandae autem. \n Eos impedit voluptatum est
reprehenderit \n aliquid et voluptas quisquam est iusto voluptas ut \n natus iure? Ea repellendus
quaerat et voluptatem ipsam \n non quis quae est quia quae? \n Eos quia repellat aut sapiente
tempore sit \n impedit consectetur est repellat \n temporibus vel praesentium \n quos aut nihil quia. Ex
dolorem debitis cum minima \n magni eum possimus voluptatem \n et consequatur sequi rem quia possimus
est delectus galisum. Eos autem \n placeat vel veniam nostrum hic \n ducimus voluptas et nemo rerum.
Ut voluptatum eaque sed \n excepturi ipsa et nesciunt molestiae ut amet laborum
"""


class RichLogApp(App):
    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield RichLog()

    def on_ready(self) -> None:
        text_log = self.query_one(RichLog)
        text_log.write(TEXT)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = RichLogApp()
    app.run()

[TomJGooding]

No, sorry. Holding Shift is disabling the application's mouse grabbing.

[Joost-2025]

Ah that makes sense as it's the modifier key