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How to: Set General Editor Options

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The Text Editor page of the Options dialog box lets you change the default behavior of the editor for one development language or for all development languages. For more information, see General, All Languages, Text Editor, Options Dialog Box.

Note

The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, click Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Working with Settings.

Displaying General Editor Options

To display options for one development language

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

  2. Expand the Text Editor node, and then expand the subnode for your development language.

  3. Click General.

To display options for all development languages

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

  2. Expand the Text Editor node, and then expand the All Languages subnode.

  3. Click General.

    A shaded check box is displayed when a Text editor option has been selected for some languages, but not for others.

    Note

    Selecting or clearing an option here resets that option for all development languages.

Statement Completion

The steps that follow can be applied when the option named is enabled for your development language.

To automatically list members in IntelliSense

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node foryour development language.

  2. Under Statement Completion, select Auto list members.

    IntelliSense displays lists of available members, properties, values, and methods as you type in the editor. Choose any item to insert code. For more information, see List Members.

    Note

    Selecting this option enables the Hide advanced members option.

To hide advanced members from IntelliSense (when available)

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Statement Completion, select Hide advanced members.

    This option shortens statement completion lists by displaying only those items that are most commonly used. Other items are filtered from the list.

To display parameter information for code as you type

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Statement Completion, select Parameter information.

    The complete syntax for the current declaration or procedure is displayed just under the insertion point in the editor, with all of its available parameters. The next parameter you can assign is displayed in bold. For more information, see Parameter Info.

Settings

The procedures that follow can be applied when the option named is enabled for your development language.

To position comments beside your code

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Settings, select Enable virtual space.

    When this option is selected and Word wrap is cleared, you can click anywhere beyond the end of a line in the Code Editor and type.

To enable or disable word wrap

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Settings, select Word wrap.

    Any portion of a line that extends horizontally beyond the viewable editor area is automatically moved to the next line.

    Note

    Selecting this option enables the Show visual glyphs for word wrap option. Virtual Space is turned off while Word Wrap is on.

To display line-end markers (when available)

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Settings, select Show visual glyphs for word wrap.

    A return-arrow indicator is displayed where a long line wraps onto a second line. These reminder arrows are not added to your code, and do not print.

To enable or disable copying and cutting blank lines

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the All Languages node, or the node for your preferred development language.

  2. Under Settings, select Apply Cut or Copy commands to blank lines when there is no selection.

    When this option is selected and you perform copy or cut operations while your cursor is on a blank line, the blank line is copied or cut. If you then paste, a new blank line is inserted.

    When this option is cleared, the Cut command removes blank lines. However, the data on the Clipboard is preserved. Therefore, if you then use the Paste command, the content most recently copied onto the Clipboard is pasted. If nothing has been copied previously, nothing is pasted.

    When a line is not blank and nothing is selected, the entire line is copied or cut. If you then paste, the entire line and its endline character are pasted.

    Note

    To help distinguish indented lines from lines that are entirely blank, point to Advanced on the Edit menu and then click View White Space. This displays indicators for spaces, tabs, and line ends.

Display

The procedures that follow can be applied when the option named is enabled for your development language.

To display line numbers in the Code Editor

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Display, select Line numbers.

    A line number appears next to each line of code. These line numbers are not added to your code, but you can choose to print the numbers. For more information, see How to: Print Code in the Editor.

To enable clickable URLs

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Display, select Enable single-click URL navigation.

    This option causes the pointer to become a pointing hand as it passes over a URL in the editor. You can click the URL to display the indicated page in your Web browser.

To enable the Navigation bar (when available)

  1. In the Options dialog box, expand Text Editor, and then click the General node for your development language.

  2. Under Display, select Navigation bar.

    This option displays the Navigation bar at the top of the Code Editor. Its Objects and Procedures drop-down lists allow you to choose a particular object in your code, select from its procedures, and insert an instance of the selected procedure.

See Also

Reference

General, All Languages, Text Editor, Options Dialog Box

Other Resources

Setting Editor Options