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Chapter 5  Writing Code and Web Content



Using Inline Tools to Enter Code

You have a number of tools to help you easily insert new code and to edit existing code as you type. Each of these tools supports a distinct language element, such as tags, objects, and functions.

Tag Insight

This interactive feature can be used to write new code and to edit existing code. Open the Options > Settings > Editor > Tag Insight pane to configure it.

Note To insert a tag using Tag Insight:
  1. Type a start bracket (<), scroll the drop-down list and press Enter to insert a tag.
  2. Press the spacebar to open a drop-down list of attributes and press Enter to insert a selection.
  3. Press the spacebar again to select from a list of known values for the attribute.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all elements are entered.
  5. Press Esc to close a list.
Note To edit a tag:
  1. Place the cursor to the left of a tag end bracket (>) and press the spacebar.
  2. Select from the drop-down attribute lists as needed.
  3. Press Esc to close a list.
Tip If you just want to see the attributes and values associated with a tag, place the cursor inside the tag and press F2 to open a Tag Tip. Press Esc to close the tip.

Function Insight

Function Insight lets you insert function argument syntax as you type. Open Options > Settings > Editor > Function Insight to enable this features and to view the function list.

When you type a function name followed by a left parentheses, a drop-down list of recognized arguments displays. Select an argument from the list and press Enter to insert it. Separate arguments by commas. Press the spacebar after an argument to add an argument as needed. Add a closing parenthesis to complete the function call.

To customize Function Insight

The entries in the functions list are determined by the Expression Builder function library. See Customizing the Development Environment in the online Help References for information on how to modify the Expression Builder definition file to change the list of functions.

Tag Completion

When this feature is turned on, the end tag is automatically inserted for the start tag that you type. Open Options > Settings > Editor > Tag Completion to set the options.

Auto Completion

Auto Completion completes a code block by inserting the appropriate code when the opening code fragment (the trigger string) is typed.

To enable this feature, open Options > Settings > Editor > Auto Completion. You can also add your own code blocks and set a cursor position option in this pane.

Code Templates

The Code Templates feature provides a shortcut for entering static text blocks. Open Options > Settings > Editor > Code Templates to add and change these shortcuts and provide descriptive text for them. As with Auto Completion, this feature is intended for user-defined strings.

To use a Code Template, enter the keyword for the shortcut (for example, dt4) and press Ctrl+J. The abbreviation expands to the full phrase, in this case, <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">.

Extended characters

To enter special characters and Latin-1 extended characters, you can either type the ASCII code or select the character from the list available in View > Extended Characters.

If you need to change the character to its entity name, select Options > Settings > Editor > Automatically convert extended characters.


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