Text Editing Features

This section describes some of the more common text editing tools and features in Stylus Studio.

Simple Text Editing

Select the text you want to edit and then do any of the following:

  • Click the right mouse button to display a pop-up menu of edit commands.
  • Click the appropriate button in the Stylus Studio tool bar.
  • Press the standard control keys to copy, cut, paste, undo, or redo.

You can select a portion of text and move it to a new location by dragging it. You can drag text from one document to another. You can drag text from documents outside Stylus Studio to a document in Stylus Studio.

Code Folding

Code folding is the ability to collapse three or more lines of code in XML-based editors. For example, this code segment:

<author>
               
            <first-name>Joe</first-name>
               
            <last-name>Bob</last-name>
               
            <award>Trenton Literary Review Honorable Mention</award>
               
</author>
               

            

when collapsed, appears as this:

<author>
               

            

Code folding allows you to simplify the visual presentation of XML-based code; folding does not affect the underlying code.

In editors in which code folding is supported, Stylus Studio displays a tree control in the gutter to the left of editing canvas; this is the same area of the editor used to display line numbers, debugging symbols, and back mapping symbols. By default, all code is displayed.

What You Can Fold

In XML-based editors, you can fold

  • Internal DTD
  • Comments
  • CDATA
  • XML elements

In the XQuery Source editor, you can fold

  • Comments
  • Expressions delimited by curly braces ( { and } )
  • XML elements
How to Fold Code
To fold a segment of code, click the [+] symbol associated with that code.
To unfold a segment of code, click the [-] symbol associated with that code.

When you fold code, Stylus Studio displays a boxed ellipsis symbol at the end of the line of code you have folded, as shown here:

Figure 120. Example of Folded Code

If you place the pointer in the ellipsis symbol, Stylus Studio displays a tool tip that shows you the collapsed code. The amount of code that appears in the tool tip depends on the area on your desktop you have given the Stylus Studio application.

Tip

 

You can unfold a folded segment by double-clicking the tool tip.

Sense:X

As you type, Sense:X prompts you with the possible tags that you can insert at a given location based on the XML Schema associated with the document you are editing. As soon as you type a tag's open bracket, Stylus Studio displays a scrollable list of the elements that are allowed at that location of the document. Double-click the tag you want. For example, suppose you have an XML Schema where the book element can contain author or title elements. If you add a book element, the Sense:X list displays only the author and title tags.

Indent

Indent XML tags to show the hierarchy relationships. Click Indent XML Tags . Stylus Studio indents all text in the active XML document window.

Note

 

After you click the Indent XML Tags button, you cannot automatically undo or redo any changes you have been making. After you make more changes, you can press Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y to automatically undo and redo those changes until you click Indent XML tags again.

Line Wrap

Stylus Studio automatically wraps lines whose length exceeds 16k characters. You can also turn on line wrap manually, by selecting Edit > Wrap Lines from the Stylus Studio menu or by clicking the wrap lines button on the tool bar( ).

When line wrapping is on, Stylus Studio wraps lines to fit in the available window; the place at which the line wraps moves as the width of the window changes. Green arrows, as shown in Figure 121, indentify lines that have wrapped.

Figure 121. Green Arrows Identify Lines That Have Wrapped

Spell Checking

By default, Stylus Studio spell checks text as you type using an internal spell checker. Words the spell checker believes are misspelled (or repeated) are underlined with a squiggly line, as shown in Figure 122.

Figure 122. Typographical Errors Are Highlighted by the Spell Checker

For more information, see Using the Spell Checker.

Font

You can change the font of the text display in Stylus Studio. This change affects only the Stylus Studio display. Beyond personal preference, you might choose to change the font for localization purposes - the available fonts are the fonts that can display the characters in your XML file. For example, in a Japanese file, only two or three font names appear. Click Font Change to display a list of fonts.

Comments

Select the text that you want to be a comment. In the Stylus Studio tool bar, click Comment/Uncomment Selection . To remove comment tags, select the commented text, and click Comment/Uncomment Selection.

Tip

 

To select an entire line, click the gray area to the left of the line you want to select.

Bookmarks

You can set bookmarks in the XML display. Bookmarks allow you to jump to important lines in your file. See Using Bookmarks.

Search

Search for and replace text you specify. Click Find or Replace in the tool bar. You can also enable Find by pressing Ctrl + F.

When you enable Find, Stylus Studio displays the word in which the cursor is located - whether the cursor is within the word or immediately adjacent to it - in the Find what field of the Find dialog box. Similarly, any text you have selected - whole, partial, or multiple words - is displayed in the Find what field.

Tip

 

You can scroll through a list of the other words you have searched for by pressing the down arrow when the Find what field is active.

 
Free Stylus Studio XML Training: