When I select text with mouse and then press : to enter an ex…

…command, the selected text is replaced with the : character. How do I execute an ex command on a text selected using the mouse similar to the text selected using the visual mode?

This will happen if you have configured Vim to use select mode instead of Visual mode by setting the ‘selectmode’ option. Check the value of this option:

    :set selectmode?

This mode is known as selectmode and is similar to the visual mode. This option is also automatically set when you use the “behave mswin” command. Select mode looks like visual mode, but it is similar to the selection mode in MS-Windows.