This section deals with indenting and other formatting of text, abbreviations and the clipboard and related features.
1. Formatting text | |
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Q:. | How do I indent or unindent selections of text? |
A:. | Using jEdit's default configuration, you can indent a selection of text by pressing ALT+RIGHT. Unindent a selection by pressing ALT+LEFT. |
Q:. | Is there a way to automatically view line numbers when a buffer is opened? |
A:. | Select Utilities>Global Options, and in the Gutter option pane select the Line Numbering check box. |
Q:. | With JDK 1.3 and Lucida Console font I have problems displaying syntax highlighting text. Sometimes the fonts become italicized or bold without any reason. |
A:. | The Lucida Console font does not come in a bold style. Various platforms and native applications will render the bold style by overprinting, but this appears not to work correctly in your installation. Unfortunately, there is nothing jEdit can do about this, and the best thing to do is to select another font. |
Q:. | Does jEdit know smart quotes? In .tex files I would like to use `` or '' instead of ". |
A:. | 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 "smart quote" pairs automatically as some word processors do. This would require a BeanShell macro to modify quoted text. 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 " transformed into the appropriate opening or closing smart quotes without the need to keep track of when quoted text opens or closes. |
Q:. | Does jEdit have a "soft" wrap text mode? |
A:. | Beginning with version 4.0pre4, jEdit has soft wrap capability which 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 Edit>Textgt;Format Paragraph command insert "hard" end of line characters. This "hard wrap" feature remains available as an option for bufers and editing modes. |
Q:. | The display of spaces as a character in the editor is annoying. How can I disable those small square boxes? |
A:. | This is controlled by the WhiteSpace plugin. To change your settings to disable display of whitespace characters, select Utilities>Global Options, then select Plugin options>WhiteSpace. You can separately configure the display of spaces, tabs, and other whitespace characters. |
Q:. | Does jEdit support i18n? |
A:. | 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 File>Open With Encoding command. 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. |
2. Printing text | |
Q:. | What can I do to improve printing performance? |
A:. | Prior to release of version 1.4 of the Java Development Kit (JDK), printing has been one of the weak areas of the Java platform. If you are using JDK version 1.3, here are a few suggestions on improving pritning performance. One simple way to improve printing is to use the InfoViewer plugin to display and print a text file in your favorite Web browser. You can also write a macro that saves a buffer and then passes the buffer's file name (using the method buffer.getPath()) to an external print utility. The file prettyprint.bat in the Downloads section of jEdit Community is an example of this approach using a Windows batch file and Ghostscript. You can then change the CTRL+P keyboard shortcut to point to your printing macro. |
3. Abbreviations | |
Q:. | How can I create abbreviations "on the fly" as I type? |
A:. | Type the form of abbreviation you wish to use, then without pressing the SPACE key, press CTRL+;. 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 Add global or Add mode-specific. 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. |
Q:. | How can I have abbreviations expanded automatically as I type? |
A:. | Select Utilities>Global Options, then select the Abbreviations option pane. You will see an checkbox option for "Space bar expands abbrevs". Here you can also add, modify and delete abbreviations on a global basis or for individual editing modes. |
4. Clipboard features | |
Q:. | 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? |
A:. | The Cut Append (CTRL+E CTRL+U) and Copy Append (CTRL+E CTRL+A) both add the selected text to the existing contents of the Clipboard. A single Paste (CTRL+V) command will insert the aggregated text at the cursor or in place of an existing selection. |