I've been using ST3 for the past few years, and I have a go-to keyboard sequence for a column mode equivalent: Select the entire block, press Ctrl+Shift+L to sp

I've been using ST3 for the past few years, and I have a go-to keyboard sequence for a column mode equivalent: Select the entire block, press Ctrl+Shift+L to split the selection into individual lines, press Home to create a cursor at the start of each line, and use the right arrow to navigate the cursor to the desired column. (You can also edit the end of each line by pressing End, move by entire words with Ctrl+Left or Right, and so on.)