Starting with a line like System.out.println("I am here: " + System.currentTimeMillis()); Position your cursor directly after the second quote sign and use CTRL-Del to delete words. Here is the progression: ( | = cursor ) System.out.println("System time: "| + System.currentTimeMillis()); System.out.println("System time: "|+ System.currentTimeMillis()); System.out.println("System time: "| System.currentTimeMillis()); System.out.println("System time: "|System.currentTimeMillis()); System.out.println("System time: "|.currentTimeMillis()); System.out.println("System time: "|currentTimeMillis()); System.out.println("System time: "|TimeMillis()); System.out.println("System time: "|Millis()); System.out.println("System time: "|()); System.out.println("System time: "| I expected that last CTRL-Del to only delete the pair of paranthesis, and leave me with compilable code, like: System.out.println("System time: "|);