• The Menu Bar holds the main menu.
• The Tool Bar provides quick access to frequently used commands.
• The Tab Bar allows you to quickly select a window.
• The Status Bar shows messages, current line/column, and the current mode for insert/overstrike, caps lock, num lock, and keystroke recording.

Multi-Edit uses a single component called a Command Set to configure Key/Command Mapping, Toolbars/Toolboxes, and Menus.

When you load a Command Set, you load all of the above-mentioned items for the Command Set. If you create a new Command Set, you will have to create Keys/Commands, Toolbars and Menus. Therefore, we suggest that you copy an existing Command Set and modify it to fit your needs rather than create your own completely from scratch.

You can select a Command Set by clicking on Tools | Customize | General and clicking the “…” button to the right of the “Command set:“ field (right side top).

This dialog box allows you to create, manage and select whole key/command mappings while keeping those command maps separate from each other. It is here that you can select some of the optional key mappings, such as the Brief keymap. Buttons along the side of the list box allow you to Edit, Insert, Delete or Copy the selections. You can also rearrange the list by moving them up and down in the menu list. The Search and Again buttons allow you to quickly find the list member you are looking for. When you press the Select button, Multi-Edit will enable the currently highlighted command mapping.

Select an item in the list and press the Edit or Insert button to display the Edit Command Set dialog box with the following fields:

• Description: A descriptive name for the Command Set (i.e., Brief Emulation mode).
• Filename: The actual filename of the command set. The .db extension is assumed. The file is searched for first in the Multi-Edit \Config subdirectory. If the file isn't found there then the file is copied from the Defaults directory to the Config directory and opened from Config directory. Note: the Config directory could be named differently depending upon how the network environment variables are specified.
• Init Macro: The macro to run when loading the command set, can be used to set global variables, etc.

No matter if you're adding a new key mapping entry, adding a toolbar entry, or modifying the menus, you will probably end up looking at the Command Mapping dialog box, which is located under Tools | Customize | General | Keys/Commands. This dialog contains all of the commands and their associated keys. Modifying or adding to the list of commands is the first step to creating or updating a toolbar or menu item.

Use Help | Command Map Report to generate a list of all defined commands for the selected command map. This report will generate a text file in a Multi-Edit window and will contain a list of each of the menu and toolbar layouts as well.

Tools | Customize | General | Keys / Commands allows you to change almost every key assignment in Multi-Edit. We have included several example keymaps to help you set up, modify and customize the key/command map to your liking. Because of the complexity of creating a new keymap, we suggest that you copy an existing keymap and modify it, rather than create your own completely from scratch.

To view the Command Mapping dialog, select Customize from the 'Tools' menu, click on 'General' in the tree on the left side, then press the ‘Keys/Commands’ button to display a standard Multi-Edit list box with a list of the current command mappings. Buttons along the side of the list box allow you to 'Edit', 'Insert', 'Delete' or 'Copy' the selections. You can also rearrange the list by moving them up and down in the menu list. The 'Search' and 'Again' buttons allow you to quickly find the command you are looking for.

Here you can see what keys are mapped to what commands.

To delete a key assignment or change a current key assignment to a different key:

1. Find the command entry that you want to change the key mapping for using the search feature in the dialog or by browsing through the list. Once you have found the entry, highlight it and press the 'Edit' button.
2. The Command Mapping dialog is shown, with many different fields. You will be primarily interested in the Primary Key and Secondary Key fields. Use the mouse to select the “…” button to the right of the Primary Key field, or use 'Tab' or 'Alt+Tab' to select the button and press 'Enter'.
3. The Press Key to Assign dialog appears. If you want to remove this key assignment (thus freeing the key up for something else you had in mind), press the 'Delete' button. Otherwise, press the new key(s) you want assigned to this command.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the secondary key field, if desired.
5. Press 'OK', 'Close', 'OK' in the successive dialog boxes.

To add an item to this dialog, move the highlight bar to where you want to insert the new entry and press the 'Insert' button. A new dialog will appear with many fields. See below for a description of these fields. Follow these steps to add a Command Map entry:

1. Type a title in the Name field.
2. Type the appropriate command line for this entry in the Command Line field. Command line formats will vary depending on the nature of the entry:
• For Multi-Edit macros, the proper format is [macro_file]^[macro_name] [parameters](/P1=xxx/P2=yyy/P3=zzz). See information on running macros for more information.
• For external programs, simply type the command line as it would be run from a DOS prompt or from a Windows run prompt:
c:\wscan\wscan.exe /SX /F1b2 (Run a Virus Scanner, with parameters)
• <FILE>.EXE (Run the compiled version of the current filename to test. Notice the command line uses Metacommands.)
• For easy access to external help files, use the following examples for differing options:
c:\bc45\bin\bcw (This will bring up the help file and show the table of contents)
c:\bc45\bin\bcw^ (This will bring up the help file and show the search dialog, allowing you to easily search for a topic)
c:\bc45\bin\bcw^command-line options (This will bring up the help file and search for the topic “command-line options” in the search list)
• To quickly load a commonly used text or source file into Multi-Edit, simply type the full path and filename of the file to be loaded.
3. Select the appropriate Type for the command map. Each type corresponds to each different command line type shown above. The Command type is used only for internal Multi-Edit commands, which are already all mapped for you in the default keymap.
4. Select a Primary and Secondary Key for the entry, if desired. If you only want this item accessible from the menus or from the toolbar but not from the keymap, enter nothing.
5. Click on the large and small buttons in the Buttons field to specify toolbar buttons for this command to use. You can select a button from the list given, or use your own. For more information on how to use your own custom buttons, see Using Custom Toolbar Buttons below.
6. For special options used when running external programs, including setting the Working Directory and Show Options, click the 'Program Setup' button.

Command Map Details:
The Keymap Dialog:

Each keymap line displays a command description or macro description, toolbar icons associated with the command (if one exists), button text and the Key Assignments for invoking that command or macro. Many of the lines have two Key Assignments. Multi-Edit allows you to assign a primary key and an alternate key to a command or macro. Only the first will show if a menu item is associated with the command.

The Edit button allows you to edit existing commands or macro descriptions, and change key assignments. Select an item in the list and press the ‘Edit’ or ‘Insert’ button to display the Command Mapping dialog box with the following fields for editing:
• Name: An informative phrase to help you remember the function of this command or macro.
• Command Line: The full command line, including any parameters of your program (or macro, command, etc.) to be executed, should be entered here. Before creating parameters for a macro, you must have a solid understanding of Multi-Edit's system macros or of the macros being used.
• Type: This option button instructs Multi-Edit how to interpret the command line given above. There are six different options:

1. Macro: This option defines the command as a Multi-Edit macro. If you pass parameters to the macro, you must use string parameters.
2. Program: Is used to map the command line to an external program. The full path must be designated in the command line.
3. Help file: This option will link the command line to a Windows help file.
4. Text file: This button links the command line to a frequently loaded text file name.
5. Command: This option must be selected for Multi-Edit to recognize that the command line refers to an internal Multi-Edit macro command.
6. Mode shift: The ability to use multi-keystroke assignments (for example, Ctrl+K J), has been added via Key Modes. To use key modes, you assign a key, like Ctrl+K to do a “Mode Shift” to, for example, mode 1. Then commands that you want to execute only after Ctrl+K has been pressed would be assigned to their respective keys, but the new “Mode” field would be set to one. The default editing mode is zero. When a key is pressed that causes a mode shift, the next key pressed will reset the mode back to zero, even if no command is found to execute. We will be enhancing this later to allow for the creation of “persistent” modes that do not automatically reset.

• Primary Key: Enter the primary key assignment you wish to assign to this command or macro.
• Secondary Key: Enter the secondary key assignment you wish to assign to this command or macro. This field is optional.
• Buttons: This field shows the icons associated with the command (if any). This field is also optional. Two buttons are displayed: a large icon and a small one.
• Button Text: This field lists the text to be displayed on a button if there is no icon associated with it.
• Help Index: This field lists the help search string to use if help is requested for this command or icon. This does not refer to creating a command entry to access a help file. Help search strings are entered in the following format: [path][help file]^[search string]. If no path is specified, Multi-Edit will look in the Multi-Edit \HELP subdirectory. If no help file is specified, Multi-Edit will default to the default help file Me.chm. If no search string is specified, Multi-Edit will leave you in that help file's search dialog.

Examples:

c:\bc45\bin\bcw^

This will open the help file BCW.HLP and wait for you to enter a help search string for which to search.

CMac.chm^set_Multi-Edit_attr This will open the help file CMac.chm and look for a topic matching the search string 'SET_MULTI-EDIT_ATTR'.

’Program Setup’: This button will bring up the Program Setup dialog which is used to set options. These options control how the program specified in the Command Line is launched. The options in this dialog are similar in function to the ones in the Compiler/Program Setup dialog (see the Adding Compiler Support section in the Adding Language Support chapter of this manual). The Program Setup dialog is described below.

Menu/Toolbox Control • Disabled identifier: This field designates a global variable or macro used to instruct Multi-Edit when to disable this command if it exists in a menu. If it refers to a global variable, the variable name is entered here. If it refers to a macro, the macro name must be preceded by an equals sign, and the macro must be a string function with no parameters (C-style). The variable or macro must return a 1 (TRUE) if the menu selection is to be disabled. /LS=lang may also be used, where “lang” is the name of the language that the menu item is to be shown. For example, entering /LS=DELPHI would tell Multi-Edit that the menu item is only to be shown when a Delphi file is being edited.
• Checked identifier: This field works like the disabled identifier, except this variable or macro designates when to put a check mark in front of the menu selection. The Persistent Blocks menu selection under the Block menu uses this.
• Wcmd identifier: This field designates a global integer used to hold the WCMD Identifier when the command is called. This is useful only to those users who want to write their own macros and need to enable a function to identify what WCMD executed it.
• Mode: The key mode; means this key belongs in mode “n”. The initial mode command needs to be entered in order for this command to be executed.

Options: • Disable for minimized window: This command is dimmed if the current editing window is minimized.
• Reset mode: Check if this key should reset the key mode after being executed.
• Sticky mode: Reserved for future use.

The Program Setup dialog:

This dialog is accessed by pressing the ‘Program Setup’ button in the Command Mapping dialog above.

• Working Directory

1. Current: Uses the current Multi-Edit working directory as the working directory of the compiler.
2. Source file: Uses the path to the current source file as the working directory.
3. Program: Uses the path to the compiler as the working directory.
4. Specified: Allows you to specify the working directory.

• Executable Type: This drop-down list box is used to select the type of compiler executable that has been specified in the Command entry. This is used by Multi-Edit to determine how to start the compiler running. It is usually set to Auto Detect; however, if problems arise in compiling then try another setting.

• Show: Note that PIF settings (under Windows) take precedence over these settings.

1. Normal: The compiler execution window will appear in the default position and size.
2. Minimized: The compiler execution window will appear minimized.
3. Maximized: The compiler execution window will start full screen.

• Options:

1. Wait for program to finish: When running, the command line program will wait for it to finish before returning to Multi-Edit.
2. Run in background: Will start program and immediately return, processing errors after the program is finished.
3. No auto file save when program is run: When checked, will cause Multi-Edit not to do an auto save before running the program.

In order for Multi-Edit's MDI support to work correctly, the following global integers must be used to identify key Multi-Edit functions to the kernel. If a user wishes to change the macro Multi-Edit executes for these commands, he/she must ensure that the WCMD Identifier for that command is set to the appropriate global. The key functions and their corresponding globals are listed below:

WLIST_WCMD_ID    =  Window List
CLOSE_WCMD_ID    =  Close Window
MIN_WCMD_ID      =  Minimize Window
MAX_WCMD_ID      =  Maximize Window
RESTORE_WCMD_ID  =  Restore Window
MOVE_WCMD_ID     =  Move Window
SIZE_WCMD_ID     =  Size Window

If the command does not exist in the key/command map then it is not necessary to make one; the windows default will be used in such cases.

The menus in Multi-Edit are fully configurable. You can easily create, delete, or modify existing menus by using the following dialog boxes.

Open the Menus dialog by selecting Tools | Customize | General | Menus. A standard Multi-Edit list box with a list of existing menus is displayed. Buttons along the side of the list box allow you to Edit, Insert, Delete or Copy the selections. You can also rearrange the list by moving them up and down in the menu list. The Search and Again buttons allow you to quickly find the list member you are looking for.

Menus Dialog Fields: Main This refers to the Main Menu Bar items below the title bar of the Multi-Edit screen. All of the menus in the Main Menu Bar (i.e. File, Edit, Search, View, Text,…) is actually one big menu, the Main menu. Click on the down arrow to the right of the “Main:” field to select a menu to use as the main menu. (Initially, the only option is “Main”, referring to the menu named “Main” in the list below. If you create a new custom menu, you may select it to be the Main menu.)

Context This pop-up menu is shown when you right click in an editing window. Click on the down arrow to the right of the “Context:“ field to select a menu to use as the context menu. (Initially, the only option is “Context”, referring to the menu named “Context” in the list below. If you create a new custom menu, you may select it to be the Context menu.)

MDI This is a window specific menu shown when you click on the upper left icon of any editing window. Click on the down arrow to the right of the “MDI:“ field to select a menu to use as the MDI menu. (Initially, the only option is “MDI”, referring to the menu named “MDI” in the list below. If you create a new custom menu, you may select it to be the MDI menu.)
Adding and modifying items in a menu is a snap when you follow these steps:

1. Bring up the Menus dialog by selecting Tools | Customize | General | Menus.

2. Select the menu you want to modify and click ‘Edit’. A Edit Menu Set dialog will appear displaying the current layout of the selected menu. If you want to insert a menu item, position the highlight bar below where you want the new item to appear and press the ‘Insert’ button. If you want to modify an existing menu item, highlight that item and press the ‘Edit’ button. If you want to rearrange the menu items, you can use the ‘Move Up’/‘Move Down’ buttons to move existing menu items.

3. Selecting the ‘Insert’ or ‘Edit’ button will display the Edit Menu Item dialog. See the Edit Menu Item Dialog Fields section below for this dialog's field details.

4. To set or change the command map entry linked to this menu item, press the ”…“ button to the right of the “Command:“ field. The Command Mapping dialog will appear. Highlight the command you want to link to the menu item and press the ‘Select’ button. If no command-mapping item exists for this menu item, you may create one. See Modifying a Command Map for more information.

5. Press OK.

Edit Menu Item Dialog Fields: If you select a menu to edit (or press ‘Insert’), you will be presented with the Edit Menu Set list box that shows the menu items you have configured for this menu. At the top of this dialog is a “Menu Type:“ drop-down list box from which you can select Main, Context, MDI, or Other. Press ‘Edit’ or ‘Insert’ to display the Edit Menu Item dialog box with the following fields for editing:
• Menu Text: This is the text that will appear in the menu itself. The ampersand ”&” character precedes the hot key character for that menu item. An underline will be placed under that character, and it will then be accessible from the menu by pressing that character on the keyboard.
• Level: This option button field designates the level in the menus where this item should appear. If it is a main menu selection, Level One should be selected. If it is to be placed in a sub-menu under a main menu selection, Level Two should be selected, and so on. (In the image above, the Open menu selection is a level 2 selection, under File, which is a level 1 selection.)
• Command: Click the ”…“ button to the right of this field to be taken to the Command Mapping list box to select a command mapping for this menu item. This specifies what clicking on the menu item will do. The menu selection will also inherit the keys assigned to a command, if any, and the primary key will be displayed next to the menu item when the menus are displayed. A separator may also be selected as a command in order to group items in the menus. (A separator is the horizontal line you occasionally see between menu entries.)
• Context Sensitive Menu Additions: It is possible to add items to the context menu on a language sensitive basis (the Context menu is what you get when you right click inside an editing window). There are two ways to do this. First, if you create a menu with the exact name of the language being used (for example JAVA), then that menu will automatically be added to the context menu. Also, for more complex tasks, we have added a “Menu:“ field to the Language Setup dialog that allows you to specify a macro that is to be run whenever the Context menu is about to be popped up.

Many common editing tasks already have an icon associated with the command and a button set up in the toolbar for easy mouse access. By default, the Main Toolbar is positioned below the Main Menu. You can customize the toolbar to suit your editing needs by adding, removing, modifying, or creating buttons and commands.

All toolbars can be displayed along any window border, or you can even have them “float” in the Multi-Edit workspace or “roam” anywhere on the desktop.

While most of the toolbar configuration can be done from within the Edit Toolbox dialog, a right mouse click on a toolbar will display options for performing on the fly modifications.

When you go to Tools | Customize | General | Toolbars/boxes, a list box will appear containing all of the currently defined toolbars. Buttons along the side of the list box allow you to Edit, Insert, Delete or Copy the selections. You can also rearrange the list by moving them up and down in the menu list. The Search and Again buttons allow you to quickly find the list member you are looking for.

Main This is the main toolbar usually positioned at the top of the screen below the main menu bar.

Clipboard The Clipboard toolbar is an optional toolbar containing block operations. You may switch on the Clipboard toolbar by unchecking the “Hidden:“ checkbox in the Edit Toolbox dialog (see below). By default the Clipboard toolbar is hidden to allow for maximum editing space.

VCS The VCS toolbar is an optional toolbar containing Version Control System operations. You may switch on the VCS toolbar by unchecking the “Hidden:“ checkbox in the Edit Toolbox dialog (see below). By default the VCS toolbar is hidden to allow for maximum editing space.

Search The Search toolbar is an optional toolbar containing search operations including Find, Replace, Search Again, File Find, Find List 0, and File Replace. You may switch on the Search toolbar by unchecking the “Hidden:” checkbox in the Edit Toolbox dialog (see below). By default the Search toolbar is hidden to allow for maximum editing space.

HTML Tags; HTML Tags2; HTML Tools These toolbars are displayed at the bottom of the Multi-Edit screen when you are editing an HTML file.

File Compare This is the floating toolbar that appears when you perform a Classic Multi-Edit File Compare. (Multi-Edit now uses BCDiffer for file compare. Classic Multi-Edit File Compare is still available; click on Macro | Run and enter Fc /MFC=1, click on the 'OK' button, and the old style Multi-Edit FC Split Window dialog will appear.)

To add or modify items in the toolbars, follow these steps:

1. Bring up the Toolboxes dialog by selecting Tools | Customize | General | Toolbars/boxes.
2. Highlight the Toolbar you want to modify and press the 'Edit' button, or press the 'Insert' button to create your own custom toolbar.
3. Give your toolbar a name (if you're creating one), ensure its hidden/unhidden state is set correctly, and set the icon size and position as you desire.
4. To add items to the toolbar, press the ‘Insert’ button. The Command Mapping dialog will appear. Highlight the command you want to put into the toolbar and press the 'Select' button. You can also create your own command mapping items on the fly.

See the topic Modifying a Command Map for more information.

5. To replace one toolbar item with another, press the ‘Edit’ button. Again, the Command Mapping dialog will appear. Highlight and Select the item you want to put into your toolbar.
6. Use the 'Move Up/Move Down' buttons to organize/move items in the toolbar.

Edit Toolbox fields:

• Title: This text box contains the name of the toolbox you are editing.
• Hidden: If checked, then the toolbox will not be active. In order to use the Toolbox, this must be unchecked.
• Position: This drop-down list box allows you to configure where the Toolbox will appear in Multi-Edit. There are six options available: along one of the four Multi-Edit borders, floating, or roving. Floating Toolboxes can be positioned within the Multi-Edit window; Roving Toolboxes can be positioned anywhere on the Windows desktop. They may be sized with multiple rows and columns. If multiple toolbars are positioned in the same location, the order in which the toolbars will be displayed is based on the order in the Toolboxes dialog.
• Style: This list box lets you choose between large or small icons in your toolbox.
• Show On: This field designates a global variable or macro used to instruct Multi-Edit when to hide or show the toolbar. If it refers to a global variable, the variable name is entered here. If it refers to a macro, the macro name must be preceded by an equals sign ( = ), and the macro must be a string function with no parameters (C-style). The variable or macro must return 1 (TRUE) if the toolbar is to be hidden. /LS=lang may also be used, where “lang” is the name of the language that the toolbar is to be shown. For example, entering /LS=DELPHI would tell it that the toolbar is only to be shown when a Delphi file is being edited. The /LS= syntax has also been added to the “Disabled identifier” in the Command Mapping edit dialog.

In order to add custom buttons to your Multi-Edit toolbars, you must have access to a resource editor—you cannot use Multi-Edit to edit your toolbar buttons. Such resource editors are included with many of the popular IDEs (especially for C) or are available separately. Whatever application you use to edit your bitmaps, it must be able to save to a .DLL file, which is from where Multi-Edit accesses the toolbar bitmaps.

Included with Multi-Edit is a USRBMP32.DLL file, where you can edit and add your user bitmaps. Use your resource editor to open USRBMP32.DLL and add your bitmaps. So that your bitmaps match the current Multi-Edit standard, large buttons are 25×25 pixels, and small buttons are 15×15 pixels. Use the resource editor to create or copy bitmap images into the USRBMP32.DLL file. Take note of the names of the resources you wish to incorporate in Multi-Edit (for example: USER_100).

Once you have your custom images within the USRBMP32.DLL, start up Multi-Edit and click on Tools| Customize | Keys/Commands to bring up the Command Mapping dialog. Highlight and click ‘Edit’ for the item for which you wish to use your custom button, and then press the large or small button in the Buttons field (whichever one you would like to set). You may then highlight and Select that bitmap for use by your command mapping.

The View menu allows you to select and display tabbed dialogs on the Tool and Navigation panes. A checkmark preceding a menu item indicates that that item is active and will be displayed in the appropriate Pane. Selecting the Tool or Navigation Pane menu item will display that pane with the corresponding (active) tabbed dialogs. Note that the first group of menu items below the Tool and Navigation Pane entries are related specifically to the Tool Pane while the items following the second separator are related to the Navigation Pane.

The menu items below the Tool and Navigation Pane entries under the View menu are used to create the selected dialogs, or, by default, toggle the focus between the dialog and the client area. A checkmark will be shown in the menu when the dialog has been created. The global variable, !ViewDlgToggle can be set in the Startup.cfg file that will change the behavior of the menu entries. When this global variable is set, instead of toggling the focus between the dialog and the client area, it will toggle the existence of the dialog.

The Tool Pane is a horizontal window at the bottom of the Multi-Edit screen that can display a number of tabbed dialogs. It can show tabs for Bookmarks, Find Results, Compiler Results, FTP Results, Collapse Mode, Paste Buffers, Preview Pane, and Background Task List.

The Tool Pane can be toggled on and off via View | Tool Pane. Also, on the Status Bar, the small window icon in the lower right corner can be clicked to toggle the display of the Tool Pane. When displayed, the Tool pane can also be minimized by clicking the minimize icon in the upper right corner of the Tool Pane. Use the Tool Pane maximize button to cause it to fill the specified percentage of the screen defined under Tools | Customize | Windowing | Tool Pane, – Maximized Size. When the Tool Pane has keyboard focus, use the Esc key to hide it and return to editing.

Multiple tabs can be displayed at one time and brought to the front by clicking on a tab. Close a tab by right clicking on the tab and selecting 'Close Tab'. You can also close a tab by going to the View menu and selecting the checked item you wish to close. Resize the window by pausing the mouse over its top edge until a double arrow cursor appears. Click and drag the edge of the Tool Pane to the desired size.

Below are the Tools pane entries:

The Navigation Pane is a window that can be shown on either the left or right side of the Multi-Edit screen and is used to show dialogs used for navigation of source files. The Navigation Pane is a resizable tabbed pane that allows for quick access to files using the Project Manager, tags using the Tag View, globals and macros using the System View, and Multi-Edit's HTML common code feature. In addition the FilePane, Window List Add-On, and TemplatePane Add-Ons will show in this pane if you opted to install them during Multi-Edit installation. The Navigation Pane can be docked on the right or left side of the editor, and the tabs can be positioned on the bottom or top. This is configurable via Tools | Customize | Windowing | Navigation Pane.

The Navigation Pane is displayed when any of the previously mentioned dialogs are executed or by selecting the Navigation Pane item in the View menu.

To delete a dialog contained on the Navigation Pane, right click on the dialog's tab and select 'Close Tab'.

Navigation pane entries:

The Status Bar is displayed at the bottom of the Multi-Edit screen.
From left to right, the Status Bar displays the following:

• Status Line: Displays messages as necessary.
• Cursor Position: Displays the current line and column position of the cursor in the current Editing Window. Click in this area to display the Goto Line/Column dialog box.
The number displayed within the ”[ ]” as shown in the Status Bar above indicates the “original line number” before any changes.
• Ins/Ovr: Displays the Insert/Overwrite mode. Pressing this button (or the Ins key) toggles between Insert mode (characters typed are inserted at the current cursor position) and Overwrite mode (typing replaces characters at the current cursor position).
• Caps: Displays the Caps Lock status. Pressing this button (or the Caps Lock key) toggles the keyboard Caps Lock status.
• Num: Displays the Num Lock status. Pressing this button (or the Num Lock key) toggles the keyboard Num Lock status.
• Rec: Will display in red text when a macro is being recorded. Press this button to record keystrokes; when completed, select Rec again to stop recording and save the macro.

Tool Pane Status: Pressing this button will toggle the Tool Pane display (minimize or restore).

Each window has a status area to the left of the horizontal scroll bar.
From left to right, the bar displays the following:

• Window Letter: Displays the window letter. The window letter may change as new windows are opened and existing windows are closed. –Hex will be appended if the window is being viewed in hex mode (Text | Hex mode). –Cmpr will be appended if you are currently doing a Classic Multi-Edit File Compare. (Multi-Edit now uses BCDiffer for file compare. Classic Multi-Edit File Compare is still available; click on Macro | Run and enter Fc /MFC=1, click on the 'OK' button, and the old style Multi-Edit FC Split Window dialog will appear.)
• Window Status: May display any of the following symbols:
– The file has been modified and not yet saved
– The file is loaded read-only
– The window is linked to another window

The Tab Bar, a tabular window selector, appears by default across the top of the Editing Window under the toolbars. The Tab Bar can be placed above or below the Editing Windows, or turned off. By default the Tab Bar uses “Button” tabs, but you can change this to regular tabs if you like.

Click on a tab in the Tab Bar to bring the selected Editing Window to the top. Right click on a tab in the Tab Bar to display a pop-up menu which includes several window functions (Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, Close, Hide, Previous, Next), as well as Extension Setup, Edit Templates, Language Setup, Ruler, and Customize windowing. Bitmaps on the tabs show whether the file has been modified (yellow pencil through the file folder), is read only (red circle/slash on the file folder), is minimized (compressed folder icon), or is hidden (grayed title if Show Hidden has been enabled).

- File has been modified and not yet saved
- File is read-only
- File window is minimized
- File not modified since last save

The Tab Bar is customizable via the Tools | Customize | Windowing | Tab Bar dialog.

Here you can set the following options:

• Style: The Tab Bar can be placed at the top or bottom of the screen, or turned off.
• Multiline: When checked, tabs that will not fit on one line will be displayed on additional lines. Otherwise, the Tab Bar will remain one line, and right and left arrow buttons on the Tab Bar can be pressed to cycle through the lines. The Tab Bar will look like this:
• Show hidden: Show hidden windows on the tab bar.
• Show minimized: Show minimized windows on the tab bar.
• Show Icons: Show the bitmaps on the tabs to the left of each filename.
• Proper Case filenames: File names can be displayed in Proper Case, which saves space but does not reflect true file name case.
• “Button” style tabs: Uncheck to display standard tabs instead of button style tabs.

Tab fonts, font colors, and tab colors can be customized as well:
• Tab Font: Displays a Window Tab Bar Font Select dialog box from which you can choose a font to be used in the Tab Bar and Tools Pane. You can select a smaller font if you want to fit more tabs on a line and save space, or you can select a larger font to make them easier to read. This selection will not affect the display of fonts on tabs in dialog boxes.
The following buttons allow you to select a color to be used on tabs on the Tab Bar, Tool Pane, and dialog boxes with tabs. To enable your color selection, check the box to the left of the button. Uncheck the box and the default color will be used.
• Tab: Choose the background color to be used on unselected tabs.
• Text: Choose the text color to be used on unselected tabs.
• Sel. Tab: Choose the background color to be used on the currently selected tab.
• Sel. Text: Choose the text color to be used on the currently selected tab.

Several dialog boxes in Multi-Edit appear as standard Multi-Edit list boxes, such as the one below. Select an item from the list and choose from the buttons on the right.

• Edit: Press the ‘Edit’ button to modify the selection in the list box.
• Insert: Press the ‘Insert’ button to create a new item in the list.
• Delete: Press the ‘Delete’ button to delete the highlighted item in the list.
• Copy: Press the ‘Copy’ button to copy the highlighted item in the list and create a new item with identical properties.
• Move Up: Press the ‘Move Up’ button to move the highlighted item in the list up one line.
• Move Dn: Press the ‘Move Dn’ button to move the highlighted item in the list down one line.
• Search: Press the ‘Search’ button to search the list for a particular item.
• Again: Press the ‘Again’ button to repeat the last search on the list.
• Print: Press the ‘Print’ button to print the list.
• Select: Press the ‘Select’ button to select the highlighted item in the list.
• Close: Press the ‘Close’ button to close the List Box.

When you use the mouse to select a block the status bar will display information about the text being marked. This information is dependent on the style of block used.

• Columnar blocking: The number of lines and columns are displayed.
• Stream Blocking: The number of characters blocked is displayed.
• Line Blocking: The number of lines blocked is displayed.

Marking A Block With The Mouse Double clicking with the left button on a word in a window will cause that word to be marked as a columnar block. Triple clicking will cause the whole line to be marked.

To mark a stream block, position the cursor at the desired starting point. While holding down the left mouse button, move the mouse cursor to the desired ending point and release the left mouse button.

If you move the text cursor to the desired starting position, then move the mouse cursor to the desired ending point and press the 'Shift' left mouse button, a block will be marked from the starting position to the ending point. Now, leaving that block marked, you can extend it by pointing farther in the text, and pressing 'Shift' left mouse button.

Additionally, while marking a block with the mouse, you can hit the right mouse button (while still holding down the left button), and the block mode will change. Repeatedly clicking the right mouse button will cycle through the line, column, and stream marking modes.

Whenever you use the mouse to mark a block, a cursor will be displayed next to the mouse cursor indicating the type of block being marked.

Moving and Copying Blocks With The Mouse If you click and hold the left mouse button on any position inside a marked block, you can drag the mouse cursor to the position you want to move the block. You will notice a small icon displayed next to the mouse cursor, indicating that a block move operation is occurring. When you release the mouse button, the block will be moved to that position.

To copy a marked block to another location without removing it from the first location, hold the 'Alt' key down while keeping the left mouse button pressed. Move the mouse cursor to the desired position and release both buttons. The block will then be copied to that position.

The right mouse button has a special feature in Multi-Edit. During normal editing, you can click the right mouse button to access a special menu called the “Context” menu. The menu contents may depend on what the filename extension is, and where in the code the mouse cursor is when clicked. For example, if you are editing a HTML file, and you right click inside the window, submenus “HTML Tags” and “HTML Tools” will be added to the top of the context menu that pops up. In addition, if you right click inside a <style> block, “Edit Style Block” will be added to the top of the context menu. If you have TopStyle Lite installed, and checked the box for TopStyle Support when you installed Multi-Edit, then this option will start TopStyle Lite.

Right Clicking In Any Editing Window Click the right mouse button (or press the Esc key) within an Editing Window to pop up the Context Menu. The Context Menu is fully configurable under Tools | Customize | Menus, including the addition of language-specific entries. By default, the Context Menu contains the following choices taken from various other menus.

Context Menu • Cut: This choice cuts the currently marked block and places it in the Multi-Edit paste buffer.
• Copy: This selection copies the current marked block to the Multi-Edit paste buffer.
• Paste: This choice pastes the contents of the Multi-Edit paste buffer to the current cursor position.
• Find tag under cursor: This Multi-Tags operation searches for a tag with the same name as the text under the cursor.
• Open file under cursor: If the text cursor is sitting on a filename, you can open that file with this command. This is especially useful for opening up files listed in #INCLUDE statements.
• Extension-Specific help: Multi-Edit has the ability to access help files on an extension-specific basis. For example, all files with a .C extension can have *.chm help files associated with it. The Extension Specific Help selection will search for a help topic with the same name as the text under the cursor. If a matching topic is not found, the HTML Help Search Dialog will remain open, showing topics that most closely match the search string. If an extension does not have a Default Help File specified, this feature will search for a matching topic in the Multi-Edit help file (Me.chm). For additional information about the Default Help File, see the Filename Extension Specific Customization section.
• Customize this file's settings: Choose from Extension setup, Edit templates, Language setup.
• Edit this menu: This selection allows you to add, remove, or modify entries in the right mouse button menu.

Right Clicking On A Toolbar/Toolbox A right mouse click on a toolbar or toolbox displays a pop-up menu with the following options:

• Left vertical, Right vertical, Top horizontal, Bottom horizontal, Floating, Roving: Only one of these items may be selected at a time. They allow you to change the location of your toolbar/box “on the fly.” Toolbar/box positions may be along any border, “floating” in the Multi-Edit workspace, or “roving” on the Windows desktop.
• Big icon, Small icon: Controls whether the buttons displayed in the toolbar/box are large or small icons.
• Hide toolbox: If you do not want your toolbox to appear in the Multi-Edit workspace, select this item. The toolbox selected will be hidden from view. To make it reappear, uncheck the Hidden check box in the Edit Toolbox dialog (Tools | Customize | General | Toolbars/boxes, select the toolbox and click ‘Edit’).
• Edit toolbox: Brings up the Edit Toolbox dialog for that toolbar/box. From it, you may add, remove, or edit buttons in the toolbar.
• Toolbox Manager: Brings up the Toolbox Manager.

Right Clicking On the Tab Bar Right click on a tab in the Tab Bar to display a pop-up menu which includes several window functions (Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, Close, Hide, Previous, Next), Extension setup, Edit templates, Language setup, Ruler, and Customize windowing.

Right Clicking On the Tool/Navigation Pane Close a tab on the Tool Pane or Navigation Pane by right clicking on the tab and selecting “Close tab”. In addition to this option, each tab may have options specific to its function.

The “drag and drop” feature is available in Multi-Edit. From Windows Explorer, you can open a file by selecting the file you want to open with the mouse and dragging it to the Multi-Edit screen. This is a fast and convenient method of opening files. When using the drag and drop feature, Multi-Edit opens a new window for each file loaded.

Scrolling in Editing Windows works with the Microsoft Intellimouse. The wheel will scroll editing windows and list boxes up or down one line at a time. Hold down the Ctrl key to scroll one page at a time.

Multi-Edit 2008 supports the standard wheel messages that have been built into Windows. Intellimouse support in Multi-Edit may work with other wheeled mice, but only the Intellimouse has been tested.

The colors Multi-Edit uses in editing windows are user configurable and can be saved as a color template. Color templates are used to define colors such as reserved words, changed text, and search highlight text. Each color setting includes a foreground (text) and background color definition. Some color settings also allow for the foreground (text) to be italic and/or bold.

Follow the instructions below to create or modify a color template.
1. Select Tools | Customize | General and click on the 'Colors' button to display the Colors Setup dialog box.
2. Select the screen display item whose color you want to change. FG (foreground, text) and BG (background) will appear in the Color Chart corresponding to that item's current colors.
3. The Color Chart contains numerous foreground and background colors to choose from. Select a color with the mouse pointer and click the left mouse button to set the foreground (FG) color to the color currently under the mouse cursor. Click the right mouse button to set the background (BG) color.

If you set a color to be both the foreground (FG) color and the background (BG) color, then BF will display in that color square.

Colors Dialog

Color Templates There are numerous color templates predefined for you. Try them all out and see which one you like. If you find one that's close to what you want, you may change the name and click ‘Save’ to save it as a new template. Then you may modify your new template making changes to foreground and background colors for various items as you please. When you are finished click ‘Save’ to save the modifications to your new template. You may also remove a color template by selecting it and clicking ‘Remove’. The color template showing in this field will become the new default color template when you click OK to exit the Color Setup dialog.

Color Fields The list box below the color templates field contains examples of the different types of text that exist within Multi-Edit editing windows and how they currently look on your monitor. The top section contains “Editing” selections that will always be colored when in Multi-Edit. The second section represents “Syntax Highlighting” selections that will only be colored when the Syntax Highlighting | On check box is marked. If this check box is not marked, all code will appear as normal text. The next section, “File Compare”, shows the colors that will be used when you perform a Classic Multi-Edit File Compare. The final section shows the “Tag Highlighting” colors.

Syntax Highlighting:

• On: When checked, Multi-Edit's context sensitive syntax highlighting is enabled. If unchecked, keywords, strings, comments, etc. will appear as normal text.
• Override Current Line: When checked, syntax highlighting will override the current line color, if one exists. Otherwise, the current line color will take precedence over syntax highlighting.
• Basic Colors: This section shows the entire default foreground and background colors to choose from in Multi-Edit.
• Custom Colors: Any custom colors that you define appear here. You can select these colors exactly the same way as a basic color. Use the ‘Define’ and ‘Remove’ buttons to define new custom colors or remove existing custom colors.
• Control: Multi-Edit allows you to set some special options when defining your window colors for certain fields:
• Off: Allows you to set a standard Editing item to off (disabled). For example, you can turn off the vertical dashed line that indicates the right margin by checking this box for Right Margin Marker. Note this button is not accessible for “Syntax Highlighting” options, “File Compare” options, or “Tag Highlighting” options. For those you may instead uncheck the Use Color and Use Font boxes if you wish to disable them.
• Use Color: For a “Syntax Highlighting” item or “Tag Highlighting” item you may uncheck this box to use the normal text color instead.
• Use Font: For a “Syntax Highlighting” item or “Tag Highlighting” item you may uncheck this box to use the normal text color instead.
• Font Style: These are additional syntax highlighting options available for all text items:
• Bold: The text for the selected item will appear in bold.
• Italic: The text for the selected item will appear in italics.

Define The Define button is used to create a new color not shown in the Basic Colors Palette. It brings up the Custom Color dialog. When you've selected the color you want, click ‘Add to Custom Colors’ and your new color will be added to the Custom Colors palate.

Remove The Remove button is used to ‘delete’ custom defined colors which are no longer desired in the Custom Colors palette. Select the custom color you wish to remove and click ‘Remove’.

You can change the default editing font, font size, and font style in Multi-Edit. Note that changing the font only affects how the files are displayed, and in some cases, how characters are entered. Multi-Edit does not save the font with a file. You cannot have different fonts within the same file.

To change the default editing font, go to Tools | Customize | Editing. The Default Editing Fonts section is at the bottom of this dialog. You may select to use either ANSI or OEM font.

To make changes to any of the font settings, press the ”…“ button. For Ansi this bring up a Windows/ANSI Font Select dialog. For Oem this brings up a DOS/OEM Font Select window. These dialogs contain the following fields:

Font Select a font from the list of fonts available. Only fixed-width fonts will appear, so you will probably notice that there are not as many fonts in this list as you have installed in Windows. Proportionally spaced fonts vary in character width and cannot be used. As you change the font, the example box will change to reflect how the new font will appear.

Font Style There are four font styles: regular, italic, bold, and bold italic.

Size Select a font size from the list given. Larger numbers correspond to larger text, as shown in the example box.

Script The style of the font (i.e., Western or OEM/DOS).

You can specify a particular editing font for a particular filename extension. Go to Tools | Customize | General | Filename Extensions, select a filename extension and click ‘Edit’. In the resulting Edit Filename Extension Setup dialog, click the ”…“ button in the “Font” section (right side, half way down). In the resulting Extension Font Select dialog you may select a new font, font size, and font style. Only fixed-width fonts will be listed. Proportionally spaced fonts vary in character width and cannot be used. As you change the font, the example box will change to reflect how the new font will appear. Click ‘Default’ to return to the default font.

As you may know, there are two “categories” of fonts under Windows: ANSI and OEM. OEM fonts are fonts that use the older DOS ASCII character set, while ANSI fonts use the newer ANSI (Windows standard) character set. While using the ANSI character set is fine when you're only dealing with Windows, if the files you're editing have to be compatible within DOS as well as Windows, it is necessary to use the ASCII character set. This is especially true when you are using the DOS compilers and using high ASCII value characters (characters above ASCII 127 - like special International characters or line drawing characters).

You also may or may not know that when running Windows, Windows “performs” an OEM to ANSI translation when you enter characters. This translation “converts” your OEM character into a comparable character in the ANSI character set. For example, let’s say you want to enter an ASCII 164 character (the ñ character) into your file using an older (pre-OEM Translate) version of Multi-Edit. So you hold down the 'ALT' key and use the numeric keypad to type out 164. The Windows keyboard driver takes that ASCII 164 and “turns” it into an ANSI 241 (also an ñ character) (in actuality, the keyboard driver simply returns 241). If you then save your file and use a DOS program to edit it, you'll see that your ñ character is now a ± character. Obviously, any problem where the character you type isn't the character you get is serious.

In Multi-Edit, this can be remedied by selecting the OEM radio button under Tools | Customize | Editing. This does two things: First, it enables the font you have selected as your default OEM font. And second, it activates the OEM Translate feature that takes the ANSI character that Windows has just converted, and uses an ANSI to OEM function to convert the character back to an ASCII character. Thus, your ñ character will be present both within Windows (under an OEM font) and DOS. You can also enable this feature by selecting OEM font for a specific extension and enabling OEM translation for that extension.

Obviously, when using this feature, OEM fonts will be used to view your files. When not using it, ANSI fonts will be used to view your files. It would not be useful to use a font based on a different set than the one the file was created in.

If you are going to be using this feature in Multi-Edit, you'll need to be familiar with which of your fonts are truly OEM and which are truly ANSI. Even though fonts have a flag, which identifies them as OEM or ANSI, some font designers will purposefully set the flag to ANSI to keep the font from showing up in certain font lists in Windows. It is for this reason that all the available fonts show up in the OEM font list while only the ones with the ANSI flag set show up in the ANSI lists. This allows you to select an OEM font whose flag has been set to ANSI for one reason or another. But you'll certainly run into problems if you select a true ANSI font as your OEM font.

You can set the OEM / ANSI option to be the default for an entire session (all files loaded in a session), or you can specify a particular extension to use OEM fonts and another extension to use ANSI fonts, or you can specify a specific file to use the OEM font at load-time by checking the OEM Mode box in the File | Open dialog.

This explanation of OEM and ANSI character sets is not meant to be exhaustive—there is more to the issue of OEM and ANSI character sets than this. However, this is a fairly accurate description of what happens when you develop for DOS while using Windows. This feature was included in Multi-Edit to provide flexibility, not to confuse anyone. If you don't understand what's presented here (as it is difficult to explain in written terms without several more pages), more information about the differences between OEM and ANSI is available. The November, 1995 issue of “Windows Developer Journal” contains an article titled Understanding NT, which does an excellent job of describing the differences between OEM and ANSI characters sets, explaining Code Pages, and showing the next evolution in character sets—Unicode (a true two-byte character set). Also, you can always drop a line to our tech support department for an explanation if you don't know how to use this feature.

Almost everything in Multi-Edit is filename extension driven. File by file configuration, based on the file name extension of the file, is one of the keys to the power of Multi-Edit. For example, you can have completely different configurations for .C files as opposed to .ASM files. Multi-Edit utilizes the loaded filename's extension to identify the programming language being used and other things like where to place the tab settings.

To view the Filename Extension Setup dialog, select Customize from the Tools Menu and select General on the left side tree, then press the ‘Filename Extensions’ button to display a standard Multi-Edit list box with a list of existing Filename extensions.

The dialog includes the following:

Create “Edit with Multi-Edit” shell extension

The Edit with Multi-Edit shell extension is grouped with the Include and Exclude.
• Include: If selected, the option to Edit with Multi-Edit will only show up in the right click context menus of those file types you enter their extensions for in the box to the right of Include.
• Exclude: If selected, the option to Edit with Multi-Edit will show up in the right click context menus of ALL file types excepting the ones whose extensions you’ve listed in the box to the right of Exclude.

Default file open extension(s) The “Default file open extension(s)” allows a user to open an existing file without entering the filename extension. When a user types in a filename without an extension in the Name field of the Edit New File dialog, Multi-Edit will take the entered filename and append each of these extensions in this list to the filename and check to see if a file by that name exists in the selected directory. If such a file exists, that file will be loaded. If no matching file is found using these “Default file open extension(s)“ then it will open a new window with the name of the file with no extension and use the DEFAULT extension setting for the window. Separate multiple extensions with semicolons.

Buttons along the side of the list box allow you to Edit, Insert, Delete or Copy the selections. The 'Search' and 'Again' buttons allow you to quickly find the list member you are looking for. You can also rearrange the list by moving them up and down in the menu list. (The order in this list determines the order presented in the drop-down list for the “Mask:“ field in the Open File dialog.) Press the ‘Insert’ button to add a new file extension, or select a file extension in the list and press the ‘Edit’ button. This gives you the Edit Filename Extension Setup dialog.

To view the Edit Filename Extension Setup dialog, go to Tools | Customize | General | Filename Extensions, select a filename extension and click ‘Edit’. The Edit Filename Extension Setup dialog has the following fields for editing:

Extension(s)

This field will allow you to enter as many extensions as you wish with the following rules:
• A space, comma, or semicolon must separate each extension.
• Do not include the period before the extension.

Example:
C CPP H HPP

This would make the extensions .C, .CPP, .H and .HPP all have the same extension specific options.

Edit Mode

• Text: In this mode, the line number shows its position relative to the entire document, and not relative to any individual page.
• Document: Use this mode if you have page breaks in a document and want to display whichever page you are viewing. Line numbers reflect the relative position on each page.

Indent Style

• Off: With this style, pressing 'ENTER' positions the cursor on the new line at the currently defined indent level. The indent level is set through the use of the Indent and Undent commands that are set up in the Command Map by default.

• Auto: With the Auto style, the cursor position on the new line is where the first letter of the first word was on the previous line.
• Smart: This will indent according to the language type configured for this file extension.

Options

• Word Wrap: This will cause text to wrap to the next line upon reaching the right margin. Even when text is inserted in the middle of a line, text at the line's end will be dynamically wrapped.
• Auto-Template Expansion: This will cause language-specific templates to be detected and expanded upon hitting the space bar. If this checkbox is not checked, then template expansion must be forced by invoking the Build Template command. See the section on Templates in the Language Features section in the Working in Multi-Edit chapter for information on how to customize templates.
• Line numbers: Check to turn on display of line numbers in the editing window.

Tab settings mode

• Use tab and margin settings: Mark this if you want to use the tab settings entered in the Tab Spacing and Right Margin fields.
o Tab spacing: Allows you to change the default tab spacing.
o Right margin: Allows you to specify the column number at which you want words to start wrapping to the next line (see Word Wrap above).
• Use format line: Check this option to use the Format Line for this extension. Click ‘Edit’ to define a custom Format Line for this extension. The Format Line can be changed if you want unevenly spaced tab stops. The following table shows keystrokes available when editing this:

• Expand to spaces: When pressing a tab, spaces are entered to fill the space. This overrides the default set in Tools | Customize | Editing.
• Language: Allows you to select the language type you wish to use. Click the ”…“ button to the right of this field to select a language. See Language Specific Customization below for more information.
• Template: Allows you to specify a template set to use with this extension. Click the ”…“ button to the right of this field to select a template set. See Templates in the Language Features section of the Working in Multi-Edit chapter for more information.
• Colors: Allows you to set up extension specific window colors. Click the ”…“ button to the right of this field to bring up the Color Setup dialog. Select a color template from the Color Templates field and click OK.
• Font: You may set up a specific font for each extension set up, if you wish. If one is set up for a particular extension, it will appear in this field. To the right of the field is a ”…“ button, press it to select a specific font for this extension. The OEM three-state checkbox in this dialog serves an important function dealing with OEM Translation. When the box is checked, OEM translation is turned on. When unchecked, OEM translation is not active. When in the gray state, Multi-Edit uses the default OEM translation setting under Tools | Customize | Editing – Default Editing Fonts. This three state checkbox is provided to let you turn on OEM translation for a font that is not listed as an OEM font.

File Type This control allows you to set the default line terminator for the file extension. DOS files typically use a carriage return and a line feed to mark the end of the line. UNIX, however, uses only line feeds to mark the end of lines. Mac files only use a carriage return to mark the end of the line. Binary files have no line terminators—they are continuous streams of data. Multi-Edit uses this file type to determine both where to break lines when loading a file and which characters to insert when the 'ENTER' key is pressed during normal editing.

• Auto Detect: This option will enable the Multi-Edit automatic file type detection feature. When loading a file of the specified extension, Multi-Edit will attempt to determine the file's type. You should use caution when using this feature with files that mix “file types.” In other words, the file detection feature may not work correctly for files that terminate some lines with a CR and LF and terminate others with only a CR.
• MSDOS text: This option will load the file as a DOS file. A carriage return/line feed character combination is the line terminator for this file type.
• UNIX text: This selection will load the file as a UNIX file. A line feed is the only line terminator for this file type.
• Mac: Selecting Mac file type will load the file as a Macintosh file. Mac files only use a carriage return to mark the end of the line.
• Binary: Binary files have no line terminators and are displayed as a continuous stream of data. This option is for files that you want loaded as fixed length records, such as Binary data files. Even .EXE files can be “patched”. All characters, tabs, line terminators, etc. are editable and are given no special interpretation.

Record Length If you selected the Binary file type, you need to enter a value here. For example, if you want to view your binary file as 20 byte records, set the Binary Record Length of that extension to 20. Each line in the binary file will have a length of 20 characters. No line terminators will be placed at the end of each 'line'; the characters will be simply wrapped at that point. If Record Length is left at 0, then a default length of 16 is used. We recommend a value of 78 or less so you can see the entire file on the screen without needing to scroll horizontally.

Post-load macro Enter the name of a macro that you want to run immediately after loading a file with this extension. This field is optional.

Pre-save macro Enter the name of a macro that is to run immediately prior to saving a file with this extension. This field is optional.

Default Help file Allows you to name an extension-specific help file, providing context sensitive help for that extension. For example, if you want to use the file BCW.HLP for context sensitive help on all your .C and .CPP files, you might put C:\BC45\BIN\BCW.HLP in this field. You can separate multiple help files by a semicolon. In order to ease entry, you may use metacommands to obtain help files from the Help Manager. For Multi-Edit's CMac Macro Language file extensions (.S .SH), a help file is supplied to all users, and this field contains <~!Cmac_Hlp>, which means it uses the global string variable !Cmac_Hlp to find the help file.

Add-On templates Allows entry of additional templates such as a Windows API template. Enter the name of the templates separated by semicolons.

Default directory Allows you to name a directory or group of directories where the program first looks when a file is loaded. This option is handy if you don't want to always type in the directory when loading a file with this extension. A semicolon must separate multiple directories. You may also use metacommands, which are explained in the chapter on Metacommands.

Property Strings Allows the user to specify optional settings for this extension. See Property Strings in the Adding Language Support chapter of this manual.

Compiler/Program Setup Allows you to specify and customize compiler setups for the extension you have selected. See Adding Compiler Support in the Adding Language Support chapter of this manual.

Multi-Edit allows for each language to have a Properties Setup dialog which supports options specific to that language (for example, how to expand curly braces for if constructs in C-style languages). To view a language's Properties Setup dialog, go to Tools | Customize | General | Languages, select a language and click ‘Edit’. In the resulting Language Setup dialog, click the ‘Formatting/Config’ button (lower right). If one is available you will get a Properties Setup dialog specific to that language. If nothing happens, check the “Config:“ field in the Macros section of that Language Setup dialog; if that field is empty, then there is no specific Properties Setup dialog for that language.

A language's Properties Setup dialog may include any of the following:

Indent style: This field is used to specify which indent style will be used when expanding templates and doing smart indenting when the 'Enter' key is selected.

Eol comment adjust column: This field is used to specify the column that end of line comments will start in when the “Auto adjust eol comments” option is checked.

Continuation line indents: This field is used to specify the number of indents that will be used for continuation lines.

Options

• Match language structure highlight: When this option is checked, any language construct that can be entirely shown on the screen will be highlighted when the “Match Language Structure” menu or associated key is selected when the cursor is positioned on a supported construct.
• Parenthesis closure highlight: When this option is checked, typing a closing parenthesis ‘)’ will cause the text between it and the opening parenthesis ‘(‘ to be highlighted.
• Brace closure highlight: When this option is checked, typing a closing curly brace ‘}’ will cause the text between it and the opening curly brace ‘{‘ to be highlighted.
• Bracket closure highlight: When this option is checked, typing a closing square bracket ']' will cause the text between it and the opening square bracket '[' to be highlighted.
• Auto adjust brace closure: When this option is checked, typing a closing curly brace ‘}’ will cause it to be adjusted so that it will line up with the opening curly brace ‘}’.
• Auto adjust eol comment: When this option is checked, entering an end of line comment will cause it to be adjusted to start in the column specified in the “Eol comment adjust column” field, or two columns after the end of the current line, whichever is greater.
• Outdent after “break”: Checking this option will cause the cursor to be outdented after a break statement when the 'Enter' key is selected.
• Insert * on <ENTER> in block comment: Checking this option will cause a * character to be inserted at the beginning of the line when the 'Enter' key is hit while the cursor is in a block comment.
• Auto insert eol comment: Checking this option will cause the 'Enter' key to start a new end of line comment on the following line when the cursor is on a line ending with an end of line comment. Hitting 'Enter' again will remove the new end of line comment if it is blank.