Web Design HTML Editor

Customizing WebDesign's Editor and Document Modes

WebDesign's text editor provides many different features and settings to help you code faster, produce more efficient code and locate errors quickly. Syntax coloring helps you quickly locates specific tags, function declarations, attributes or even errors in your document such as missing quotes. Line numbers provide an easy way to track down errors especially when working with PHP documents. Auto indent options allow you to write cleaner code without a lot of effort on your part and Smart Auto Indenting takes this one step further. There are many more options that you can explore and test on your own. They are described in more detail below.

Before going any further it is important to know how WebDesign works. WebDesign contains a set of built in document modes which include regular Text, HTML, XHTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, ASP, XML, and VBScript. These document modes contain default settings that make working with the languages much easier. For example each document mode has it's own Syntax file which defines how text is colored in your document so you can easily spot any potential coding errors. Other settings, like Smart Indenting Braces is enabled for PHP documents so that when you create a function like the following;

function "Hello_World" {

   print "Hello World"

}

it is properly indented for you removing the need for those extra keystrokes each time. These document modes are basically presets for each kind of language and can be completely customizable, from the editor settings to the instructions for customizing the syntax coloring (the technotes in the User Manual provide more details on creating Syntax Keyword Files for WebDesign).

WebDesign recognizes a document as a certain language, and sets the document mode accordingly based on the extension of the files you open. For example a file with the extensions .html will open under the Document Mode HTML and a file with the extensions .php will open under the Document Mode PHP. How WebDesign recognizes files and assigns the Document Mode is also completely customizable. The following screen shot depicts the process of modifying the available document mode and describes what each option does. You customize the Document Modes from the 'Doc Modes' tab in the Preferences.

Edit Document Modes

Customize the built in Document Modes by going to the 'Edit Modes' tab on the Preferences.

WebDesign lets you easily switch between Document Modes write from within the Editor. So for example if you are working with a document that was recognized as a PHP file but is contains mostly HTML code, you can switch to the HTML Document Mode by using the Document Modes menu in the editor window as show below;

Select Document Mode

Change the Document Mode from WebDesign's editor.

If you have to quickly change a single setting, or even a bunch of settings for WebDesign's editor for the current document you can open the Document Settings dialog from under the Edit Menu. From here you have access to all the settings that can be customized for the current document.

Edit Document Settings
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