PowerShell ISE: Jump to Column Feature

If you’re a developer, or even just a frequent user of a text editor, you’re probably familiar with the “Jump to Line” feature of most text editing software. The Microsoft Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Editor (ISE) offers such a feature, which is commonly mapped to the CTRL + G keyboard shortcut. One of the features that is sometimes lacking from such editors is a “Jump to Column” feature. Text files are essentially just grids of information, each “cell” containing a single character. There are other keyboard shortcuts that aid in navigating longitudinally, such as CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT, however it’s nice to be able to specify a column as you gain familiar with your code structure.

To that end, I’ve put together a simple PowerShell-based ISE add-on, which enables a CTRL + K keyboard shortcut that exposes the “Jump to Column” capability. Feel free to add this to your PowerShell ISE profile script, so it loads every time you launch the ISE.