This section deals with creating, opening, closing and changing the properties of files using jEdit.
1. File Management | |
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Q:. | How can I open files in jEdit using drag and drop? |
A:. | 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. |
Q:. | How do I add and remove directories to the list of "favorites" in jEdit's File System Browser? |
A:. | 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 More button (or right-click anywhere in the browser window), and select Add to favorites 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 Delete. This operation will delete the directory from the list of favorites but will have no effect on the directory itself. |
Q:. | How do I associate particular file types with jEdit so I can open them by double clicking their icons in Windows Explorer? |
A:. | If you are using jEditLauncher, you associate the file extension with [full path]\jedit.exe "%1". The jEditLauncher package 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 or a Windows file menu. This feature does not interfere with any existing file assocations. |
Q:. | Can I restrict jEdit to opening and saving files in a single directory without changing file permissions? |
A:. | 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. |
Q:. | On Windows, how can I change the name of my file from myfile.txt to MyFile.txt? |
A:. | The Windows native file system deals with file names in a case-insensitive manner, so myfile.txt and MyFile.txt 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 _myfile.txt, then to MyFile.txt. |
Q:. | Can I recursively delete a directory's files in jEdit's File Browser? |
A:. | No. The feature is being planned for inclusion in a future jEdit version. The fastest way to do this in the current jEdit version is to use the Console plugin and a native command. |
2. File Attributes | |
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Q:. | Why does the screen display continue to mark a file as "dirty" after I undo all changes made to the buffer? |
A:. | This is a problem in jEdit 3.2.2 that has been fixed in version 4.0. You should upgrade. |
Q:. | Does jEdit preserve file ownership and permissions when it saves files? |
A:. | 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. To avoid this problem, you can disable the two-step file saving routine. Select Utilities>Global Options, then under Loading & Saving, clear the checkbox for Two-stage save. |
Q:. | Why does jEdit ignore my choice for line separator characters when I save a file? |
A:. | 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. |
Q:. | Can jEdit auto-detect character encodings when it opens a file? |
A:. | 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. There are a few features that can help you navigate through encoding issues. By selecting File>Open With Encoding, you can open a file with a specified encoding. You can also designate a default encoding in the Loading & Saving pane of the Global Options dialog; if you do not, jEdit adopts your operating's system default encoding as its own default. You can change the encoding used to save an individual file by selecting Utilities>Buffer Options and changing the current buffer's properties. Finally, jEdit keeps track of the encodings used in the files named in the File>Recent Files drop-down list. 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. |
Q:. | I'm using the iso-8859-1 character encoding. How do I type and save the Euro sign ("€")? |
A:. | 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 File>Open With Encoding, and select ISO8859_15. There is a startup script in the "Downloads" area of jEdit Community named euro.bsh that can be used as a startup script to help simplfy the insertion of the Euro symbol if your keyboard currently lacks a dedicated key. |