/jEdit/branches/concurrency/doc/FAQ/faq-use.xml
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- <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
- <sect1 id="usage">
- <title>Usage Questions</title>
- <!-- jEdit buffer-local properties: -->
- <!-- :indentSize=4:noTabs=false:tabSize=4: -->
- <!-- :xml.root=faq.xml: -->
- <!-- jEdit FAQ -->
- <!-- Copyright (C) 2003 John Gellene, Kris Kopicki -->
- <para>This section deals general usage of jEdit, including
- customisation.</para>
- <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
- <!--********************************************************* Abrevs -->
- <qandadiv id="text-abbrev">
- <title>Abbreviations</title>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="abbrevs-create-onfly">
- <para>How can I create abbreviations <quote>on the
- fly</quote> as I type?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Type the form of abbreviation you wish to use, then
- without pressing the <keycap>SPACE</keycap> key, press
- <keycombo action="simul">
- <keycap>CTRL</keycap>
- <keycap>;</keycap>
- </keycombo>. A dialog will appear for entering text that
- goes before and after the editing caret. For example, you
- can insert an opening HTML or XML tag before the cursor and
- its corresponding closing tag after the cursor. Use the
- mouse to select <guilabel>Add global</guilabel> or
- <guilabel>Add mode-specific</guilabel>. The first choice
- makes the abbreviation available for all documents; the
- second makes it available only in documents with the same
- editing mode as the current document. In this way, you can
- add abbreviations that operate only a particular class of
- documents, for example, Java source files or XML markup.
- Either way, the abbreviation will be stored for future
- use.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="abbrevs-expand-type">
- <para>How can I have abbreviations expanded automatically as
- I type?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Select
- <guimenu>Utilities</guimenu>><guimenuitem>Global
- Options</guimenuitem>, then select the
- <guimenuitem>Abbreviations</guimenuitem> option pane. You
- will see a checkbox option for <quote>Space bar expands
- abbrevs</quote>. Here you can also add, modify and delete
- abbreviations on a global basis or for individual editing
- modes.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- <!--********************************************************* Clippy -->
- <qandadiv id="text-clipboard">
- <title>Clipboard features</title>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="clip-multiple">
- <para>Can I copy selections from more than one location in a
- document (or more than one document) and paste the aggregate
- text in one operation?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>The <guimenuitem>Cut Append</guimenuitem> (<keycombo
- action="simul">
- <keycap>CTRL</keycap>
- <keycap>E</keycap>
- </keycombo> <keycombo action="simul">
- <keycap>CTRL</keycap>
- <keycap>U</keycap>
- </keycombo>) and <guimenuitem>Copy Append</guimenuitem>
- (<keycombo action="simul">
- <keycap>CTRL</keycap>
- <keycap>E</keycap>
- </keycombo> <keycombo action="simul">
- <keycap>CTRL</keycap>
- <keycap>A</keycap>
- </keycombo>) both add the selected text to the existing
- contents of the Clipboard. A single
- <guimenuitem>Paste</guimenuitem> (<keycombo action="simul">
- <keycap>CTRL</keycap>
- <keycap>V</keycap>
- </keycombo>) command will insert the aggregated text at
- the cursor or in place of an existing selection.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- <!--********************************************************* Attrib -->
- <qandadiv id="file-attributes">
- <title>File Attributes</title>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="file-owner-preserve">
- <para>Does jEdit preserve file ownership and permissions
- when it saves files?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>One reason this can be an issue is that by default,
- jEdit adopts the conservative approach of saving a file to a
- temporary name before renaming that file to the desired
- name. This procedure minimizes the risk of crashes causing
- loss of data, and works without reported problems on local
- file systems. However, when files are served remotely by
- FTP, Samba or other means, it may not be possible to
- preserve file attributes on the server because the newly
- created temporary file's owner may differ from the owner of
- the original file on the server.</para>
- <para>To avoid this problem, you can disable the two-step
- file saving routine. Select
- <guimenu>Utilities</guimenu>><guimenuitem>Global
- Options</guimenuitem>, then under <guimenuitem>Loading &
- Saving</guimenuitem>, clear the checkbox for
- <guimenuitem>Two-stage save</guimenuitem>.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="file-linesep-choice">
- <para>Why does jEdit ignore my choice for line separator
- characters when I save a file?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>When jEdit saves an existing file, it uses the line
- separator already used by the file. The line separator
- designated in the buffer options or elsewhere is used only
- for new files.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="file-autodetect-encoding">
- <para>Can jEdit auto-detect character encodings when it
- opens a file?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Only Unicode can be detected when a file is loaded.
- For other encodings, you must specify the encoding when the
- file is loaded if you do not wish to use the default
- encoding for your operating system.</para>
- <para>There are a few features that can help you navigate
- through encoding issues. You can select the encoding you
- wish to use from <guisubmenu> Encoding</guisubmenu> in the
- <guimenu>Commands</guimenu> menu of the File System Browser.
- You can also designate a default encoding in the
- <guimenuitem>Loading & Saving</guimenuitem> pane of the
- Global Options dialog; if you do not, jEdit adopts your
- operating system's default encoding as its own default. You
- can change the encoding used to save an individual file by
- selecting
- <guimenu>Utilities</guimenu>><guimenuitem>Buffer
- Options</guimenuitem> and changing the current buffer's
- properties. Finally, jEdit keeps track of the encodings used
- in the files named in the
- <guimenu>File</guimenu>><guimenuitem>Recent
- Files</guimenuitem> drop-down list.</para>
- <para>These features allow you to minimize the attention
- given to character encodings, but you must still pay some
- attention if you do not want to use default settings.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="file-euro-char">
- <para>I'm using the iso-8859-1 character encoding. How do I
- type and save the Euro sign (<quote></quote>)?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>You need to use instead the iso-8859-15 character set,
- which is a modification of iso-8859-1 that includes the Euro
- sign and some Finnish and French characters. The Euro sign
- represents character value 0xA4 in this 8-bit set. To open a
- file manually using this encoding, select
- <guimenu>File</guimenu>><guimenuitem>Open...
- </guimenuitem>, and select
- <guimenuitem>ISO8859_15</guimenuitem> from <guimenu>
- Commands</guimenu>><guisubmenu>Enconding</guisubmenu>
- before opening the file.</para>
- <para>There is a startup script in the
- <quote>Downloads</quote> area of <ulink
- url="http://community.jedit.org">jEdit Community</ulink>
- named <filename>euro.bsh</filename> that can be used as a
- startup script to help simplify the insertion of the Euro
- symbol if your keyboard currently lacks a dedicated
- key.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- <!--********************************************************** Files -->
- <qandadiv id="file-manage">
- <title>File Management</title>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="open-dnd">
- <para>How can I open files in jEdit using drag and
- drop?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Try installing the Drag and Drop plugin using the
- Plugin Manager feature. It works with most (but not all)
- combinations of operating systems and current Java runtime
- environments.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="add-favorites">
- <para>How do I add and remove directories to the list of
- <quote>favorites</quote> in jEdit's File System
- Browser?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>To add a directory to the list of favorites, navigate
- so that the directory is at the top of the tree displayed in
- the File System Browser window, click the
- <guimenuitem>Favorites</guimenuitem> button, and select
- <guimenuitem>Add to favorites</guimenuitem> from the
- resulting menu. To delete a directory from the favorites
- list, use the same menu to go to the favorites list.
- Right-click on the directory to be deleted and select
- <guimenuitem>Delete</guimenuitem>. This operation will
- delete the directory from the list of favorites but will
- have no effect on the directory itself.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="associate-files">
- <para>How do I associate particular file types with jEdit so
- I can open them by double clicking their icons in Windows
- Explorer?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>You associate the file extension with
- <userinput><replaceable><jEdit installation
- directory></replaceable>\jedit.bat</userinput>.
- This can be done from the <guimenuitem>File Types</guimenuitem>
- tab in the Windows Explorer's <guimenuitem>Tools</guimenuitem>
- -> <guimenuitem>Folder options...</guimenuitem> menu.</para>
- <para>The EXE-installer for Windows includes a
- custom context menu handler. It will provide menu items for
- using jEdit any time you right-click on a file icon in
- Windows Explorer. This feature does
- not interfere with any existing file associations.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="open-restrict-dir">
- <para>Can I restrict jEdit to opening and saving files in a
- single directory without changing file permissions?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>The easiest way to get this kind of behavior is to use
- macros that open the Virtual File Browser to a specific,
- fixed directory, and then change the default keyboard
- shortcuts for opening and saving files to run these
- macros.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="filename-uc-to-lc">
- <para>On Windows, how can I change the name of my file from
- <filename>myfile.txt</filename> to
- <filename>MyFile.txt</filename>?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>The Windows native file system deals with file names
- in a case-insensitive manner, so
- <filename>myfile.txt</filename> and
- <filename>MyFile.txt</filename> refer to the same file. As a
- result, the jEdit file browser treats both spellings
- identically and does not make a name change. Using our
- example, the easiest workaround is to rename the file in two
- steps: first to <filename>_myfile.txt</filename>, then to
- <filename>MyFile.txt</filename>.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- <!--*********************************************************** Text -->
- <qandadiv id="text-format">
- <title>Formatting text</title>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="text-indent">
- <para>How do I indent or unindent selections of text?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Using jEdit's default configuration, you can indent a
- selection of text by pressing <keycombo action="simul">
- <keycap>ALT</keycap>
- <keycap>RIGHT</keycap>
- </keycombo>. Unindent a selection by pressing <keycombo
- action="simul">
- <keycap>ALT</keycap>
- <keycap>LEFT</keycap>
- </keycombo>.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="text-line-numbers">
- <para>Is there a way to automatically view line numbers when
- a buffer is opened?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para><guimenuitem>Select Utilities>Global
- Options</guimenuitem>, and in the
- <guimenuitem>Gutter</guimenuitem> option pane select the
- <guimenuitem>Line Numbering</guimenuitem> check box.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="smart-quote">
- <para>Does jEdit know smart quotes? In .tex files I would
- like to use <userinput>``</userinput> or
- <userinput>''</userinput> instead of
- <userinput>"</userinput>.</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>While jEdit can display any character provided by a
- supported encoding set and enter any character supported by
- a keyboard driver, it does not have the ability to insert
- <quote>smart quote</quote> pairs automatically as some word
- processors do. This would require a BeanShell macro to
- modify quoted text.</para>
- <para>The Accents and CharacterMap plugins can also help you
- type international characters.</para>
- <para>You also have the option of using a TeX macro (or, in
- LaTeX, a pair of environment tags) to have the standard
- double quotation mark <userinput>"</userinput> transformed
- into the appropriate opening or closing smart quotes without
- the need to keep track of when quoted text opens or
- closes.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="text-softwrap">
- <para>Does jEdit have a <quote>soft</quote> wrap text
- mode?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>jEdit's 4.3's soft wrap mode, and especially its wrap
- to margin=0, is one of its many features that just works
- better than it does in most other editing environments. Soft
- Wrap with margin=0 was unavailable in jEdit 4.2, but users
- of 4.1 will remember it well. When you set SOFT WRAP with a
- margin=0, you don't need to use the horizontal scroller
- anymore. It's just as simple as that.</para>
- <para>jEdit wrap capability can be activated for a specific
- buffer, specific editing modes, or for all documents by
- default. In prior versions, both the text wrap feature and
- the <guimenuitem>Edit>Text>Format
- Paragraph</guimenuitem> command insert <quote>hard</quote>
- end of line characters. This <quote>hard wrap</quote>
- feature remains available as an option for buffers and
- editing modes.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="text-display-spaces">
- <para>The display of spaces as a character in the editor is
- annoying. How can I disable those small square boxes?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>This is controlled by the WhiteSpace plugin. To change
- your settings to disable display of whitespace characters,
- select <guimenuitem>Utilities>Global
- Options</guimenuitem>, then select <guimenuitem>Plugin
- options>WhiteSpace</guimenuitem>. You can separately
- configure the display of spaces, tabs, and other whitespace
- characters.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="text-i18n">
- <para>Does jEdit support i18n?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>When editing text documents, jEdit supports any
- available encoding scheme, and can open files with a
- specified encoding other than the default encoding of your
- operating system using the
- <guimenu>Commands</guimenu>><guisubmenu>Encoding
- </guisubmenu> from the File System Browser.</para>
- <para>With respect to menu labels, message strings and other
- GUI elements, the jEdit project team currently does not have
- the resources to maintain multiple property sets in
- languages other than English, particularly since the
- development effort is continuing at a rapid pace. There has
- not been great demand for this in any event. This may be
- because jEdit is primarily a tool for programmers, and the
- use of English as a common first or second language is
- widespread in the global programming community. This
- decision may be reconsidered when the application has
- further matured and if more individuals express a
- willingness to be involved in translation work.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- <!--********************************************************* Source -->
- <qandadiv id="source-compile">
- <title>Compiling source code</title>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="compile-java">
- <para>How do I compile my Java source in JEdit?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>There are a number of plugins that you can use to
- compile Java source code. You can run a Java compiler on the
- command line in the <quote>System</quote> shell of the
- <application>Console</application> plugin. If you are using
- the JCompiler plugin, you will have a
- <quote>JCompiler</quote> shell in the
- <application>Console</application> plugin, and you can run
- the <userinput>compile</userinput> command for the current
- file, or the <userinput>compilepkg</userinput> command on
- all of the current directory's source code files. You can
- also use the <quote>Ant</quote> commandos from the
- <application>Console</application> plugin or the
- <application>AntFarm</application> plugin to run complex
- builds on a project of source code files, using a
- <filename>build.xml</filename> file to specify build
- commands and dependencies.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="source-new-editmode">
- <para>How do I create a new edit mode?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Take a look at the <quote>Writing Edit Modes</quote>
- section of the User's Guide. Basically, you have to write an
- XML file containing data on the mode's file extensions and
- buffer and syntax highlighting properties, then add
- information about the new mode file to a second XML file
- containing a catalog of modes.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="source-docbook">
- <para>Does jEdit support DocBook tags?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>The application contains editing modes for both SGML
- and XML. Using jEdit abbreviations, you can quickly insert
- commonly-typed tags with a couple of keystroke. There are a
- number of abbreviations in the XML and SGML modes that
- create pairs of DocBook tags on the fly.</para>
- <para>You can get validation, tree-browsing, auto-complete,
- and auto-closing tags with the XML plugin, a very advanced
- XML editing tool.</para>
- <para>With whe XInsert or Template plugin you can create
- multi-layered DocBook elements.</para>
- <para>There are other macros targeting DocBook available
- from the <ulink url="http://community.jedit.org">jEdit
- Community</ulink> web site that you can use or adapt for
- your own purposes.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- <!--******************************************************* Settings -->
- <qandadiv id="emacs-tricks">
- <title>Tips for Emacs users</title>
- <para>For more emacs help, check out <ulink
- url="http://www.clapper.org/software/jedit/">this site</ulink> for
- more emacs macros.</para>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="settings-emacstab">
- <para>Can I have an emacs style tab key (tab anywhere in a
- line re-indents it)?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Yes. You can do this by rebinding the
- <keycode>tab</keycode> key to <command>Indent Selected
- Lines</command> in the <guimenuitem>Global
- Options</guimenuitem>.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="settings-emacsctrle">
- <para>How do I map Ctrl-E to go to the end of the
- line?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>jEdit has it set up as a 2-key shortcut. In order to
- make Ctrl-E a one-key shortcut again, you first have to
- redefine all of the Ctrl-E prefix shortcuts to mean
- something else.</para>
- <para><literal>jedit_keys.props</literal> shows you all of
- the current keyboard bindings. As you can see, Ctrl-e is
- used for many things in jEdit. If you want to redefine it to
- be a single-key shortcut, first thing you need to do is
- decide on another Ctrl-key to use as a prefix, to redefine
- jEdit's fold features. I recommend using Ctrl-Q as the
- prefix, and if you want to use Ctrl-Q to quit, you have to
- hit Ctrl-Q twice. Cut and paste the below shortcuts into
- your own properties file.</para>
- <programlisting>
- # emacs end of line
- end.shortcut2=C+e
- # Ctrl-Q twice to quit
- exit.shortcut=C+q C+q
- # C+q is our new C+e prefix
- #{{{ C+q C+X
- # Unused: f, h, q, y
- copy-append.shortcut=C+q C+a
- search-in-open-buffers.shortcut=C+q C+b
- range-comment.shortcut=C+q C+c
- search-in-directory.shortcut=C+q C+d
- replace-and-find-next.shortcut=C+q C+g
- ignore-case.shortcut=C+q C+i
- scroll-to-current-line.shortcut=C+q C+j
- line-comment.shortcut=C+q C+k
- select-line-range.shortcut=C+q C+l
- add-marker.shortcut=C+q C+m
- center-caret.shortcut=C+q C+n
- open-path.shortcut=C+q C+o
- vertical-paste.shortcut=C+q C+p
- replace-in-selection.shortcut=C+q C+r
- save-all.shortcut=C+q C+s
- toggle-line-numbers.shortcut=C+q C+t
- cut-append.shortcut=C+q C+u
- paste-previous.shortcut=C+q C+v
- close-all.shortcut=C+q C+w
- regexp.shortcut=C+q C+x
- paste-deleted.shortcut=C+q C+y
- redo.shortcut=C+q C+z
- #}}}
- #{{{ C+q C+non-alpha
- left-docking-area.shortcut=C+q C+LEFT
- top-docking-area.shortcut=C+q C+UP
- right-docking-area.shortcut=C+q C+RIGHT
- bottom-docking-area.shortcut=C+q C+DOWN
- prev-marker.shortcut=C+q C+COMMA
- next-marker.shortcut=C+q C+PERIOD
- prev-bracket.shortcut=C+q C+OPEN_BRACKET
- next-bracket.shortcut=C+q C+CLOSE_BRACKET
- close-docking-area.shortcut=C+q C+BACK_QUOTE
- #}}}
- #{{{ C+q X
- # Unused: b e g h j k m o q t y z
- add-explicit-fold.shortcut=C+q a
- collapse-all-folds.shortcut=C+q c
- delete-paragraph.shortcut=C+q d
- format-paragraph.shortcut=C+q f
- find-previous.shortcut=C+q g
- invert-selection.shortcut=C+q i
- select-line.shortcut=C+q l
- narrow-to-fold.shortcut=C+q n n
- narrow-to-selection.shortcut=C+q n s
- select-paragraph.shortcut=C+q p
- remove-trailing-ws.shortcut=C+q r
- select-fold.shortcut=C+q s
- insert-literal.shortcut=C+q v
- select-word.shortcut=C+q w
- parent-fold.shortcut=C+q u
- expand-all-folds.shortcut=C+q x
- #}}}
- </programlisting>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="emacs-ctrl-k">
- <para>What about ctrl-K?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Check out <literal>macros/Emacs_Ctrl_K.bsh</literal>.
- Bind it to Ctrl-k from the shortcuts option pane.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- <qandadiv id="customize-other">
- <title>Other Settings and Options</title>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="settings-change-font">
- <para>How can I change the font used for menu labels and
- other elements of jEdit's user interface?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Select
- <guimenu>Utilities</guimenu>><guimenuitem>Global
- Options</guimenuitem>, then the
- <guimenuitem>Appearance</guimenuitem> option pane. When you
- select the <quote>Metal</quote> look and feel you can also
- select the fonts used for various displayed items.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="settings-add-classpath">
- <para>I want to add a directory to the classpath. I did this
- in the standalone BeanShell with ease by using the
- <classname>addClassPath(String)</classname> method. but this
- doesn't work in a macro. How could I manage the classpath in
- jEdit?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>The implementation of BeanShell used in jEdit does not
- use BeanShell's class loader. The script method contained in
- loadJarClasses.bsh (found in the Downloads section of <ulink
- url="http://community.jedit.org">jEdit Community</ulink>)
- should work if you know the path to a specific class file or
- class archive.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- <qandaentry>
- <question id="settings-unlisted">
- <para>Are there any hidden features?</para>
- </question>
- <answer>
- <para>Yes. You can access them by binding a shortcut to the
- action in question. You will find a complete list of
- available commands under the
- <guimenuitem>Shortcuts</guimenuitem> area in the
- <guimenuitem>Global Options</guimenuitem>.</para>
- </answer>
- </qandaentry>
- </qandadiv>
- </qandaset>
- </sect1>