# The &kwrite; Handbook

Thad
McGinnis

    ctmcginnis@compuserve.com

Christoph
Cullmann

    cullmann@kde.org

Core Developer and Maintainer
Lauri
Watts
Reviewer

    lauri@kde.org

2000
2001
Thad McGinnis
&FDLNotice;
2001-06-13
2.00.00

&kwrite; is a text editor for &kde; 2.0

KDE
KWrite
text
editor

## Introduction

&kwrite; is more than a text editor for the &kde; Desktop. It is meant to be a programmer's editor, and could be considered as at least a partial alternative to more powerful editors. It may be best used in conjunction with &konqueror; for source file browsing for different languages. &kwrite; also works very well as a simple text editor. One of &kwrite;'s main features is the colorized syntax, customized for many different programming languages such as: C/C++, &Java;, Python, Perl, Bash, Modula 2, HTML, and Ada.

## Some Fundamentals

&kwrite; is very simple to use. Anyone that has used a text editor should have no problems.

### Drag and Drop

&kwrite; uses the &kde; Drag and Drop protocol. Files may be dragged and dropped onto &kwrite; from the Desktop, &konqueror; or some remote &FTP; site opened in one of &konqueror;'s windows.

### Command Line Options

Though &kwrite; may most often be started from the KDE program menu, or a desktop icon, it can also be opened at the command line prompt of a terminal window. There are a few useful options that are available when doing this.

#### Specify a File

By specifying the path and name of a particular file the user can have &kwrite; open (or create) that file immediately upon startup. This option might look something like the following:

    % kwrite /home/myhome/docs/myfile.txt

#### Specify a file on the internet

The above-mentioned method could even be used to open files on the internet (if the user has an active connection at the time.) An example of this might look like the following:

    % kwrite ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/Welcome.msg

#### Other Command Line Options

The following command line help options are available

``kwrite` `--help``

  This lists the most basic options available at the command line.

``kwrite` `--help-qt``

  This lists the options available for changing the way &kwrite; interacts with &Qt;.

``kwrite` `--help-kde``

  This lists the options available for changing the way &kwrite; interacts with KDE.

``kwrite` `--help-all``

  This lists all of the command line options.

``kwrite` `--author``

  Lists &kwrite;'s authors in the terminal window

``kwrite` `--version``

  Lists version information for &Qt;, KDE, and &kwrite;. Also available through ``kwrite` `-V``

### Key Bindings

Many of the key bindings (shortcuts) are configurable by way of the Settings menu. By default &kwrite; honors the following key bindings.

Insert | Toggle between Insert and Overwrite mode. When in insert mode the editor will add any typed characters to the text while pushing along any data to the right of the text cursor. Overwrite mode causes the entry of each character to eliminate the character immediately to the right of the text cursor.
Left Arrow | Move the cursor one character to the left
Right Arrow | Move the cursor one character to the right
Up Arrow | Move the cursor up one line
Down Arrow | Move the cursor down one line
Page Up | Move the cursor up one page
Page Down | Move the cursor down one page
Backspace | Delete the character to the left of the cursor
Home | Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
End | Move the cursor to the end of the line
Delete | Delete the character to the right of the cursor (or any selected text)
ShiftLeft Arrow | Mark text one character to the left
ShiftRight Arrow | Mark text one character to the right
F1 | Help
ShiftF1 | What's this?
CtrlF | Find
F3 | Find again
CtrlC | Copy the marked text to the clipboard.
CtrlM | Set a Bookmark
CtrlN | New document
CtrlP | Print
CtrlQ | Quit - close active copy of editor
CtrlR | Replace
CtrlS | Invokes the Save command.
CtrlV | Paste the clipboard text into line edit.
CtrlX | Delete the marked text and copy it to the clipboard.
CtrlZ | Undo
CtrlShiftZ | Redo

## The Menu Entries

### The File Menu

&Ctrl;N File New

  This starts a new Document in the editor. If there is a current document with unsaved changes the user is given a chance to save it.

&Ctrl;O File 0pen...

  This command opens a file. It does this by means of a dialog box which allows the user to navigate the file system. The dialog operates like a small file manager. Clicking on directories displayed in the central window directs the dialog to enter that directory - displaying its contents. There is an entry/dropdown box which can be used to type in directly the location and name of the file or by clicking the arrow at the side choose from a dropdown list of recently used locations. Below this is a filter which similarly may have data entered directly or chosen from a dropdown list of recent filter types. The filter facility lets only files that meet its specifications be displayed in the central window. If the filter contained text such as `*.txt` then only files with the `txt` extension would be visible in the selection window. Below the filter is a status bar giving information about the number of files and subdirectories within the current directory.

  The toolbar, which is located at the top of the dialog, has left and right arrow buttons that let the user move back and forth through previously selected directories as well as an up arrow button for moving up the directory tree. The button with the little house takes the user to his or her home directory and the one with the two arrows curved in on each other updates the view of the current directory. The flag button lets the user set a new bookmark at the current directory or go to one that was previously set.

  The last button on the toolbar allows you to create a new directory, and even change some basic settings for the dialog box, and finally there is dropdown box with a list of some commonly frequented directories.

File Open Recent

  This is a shortcut to open recently saved documents. Clicking on this item opens a list to the side of the menu with several of the most recently saved files. Clicking on a specific file will open it in &kwrite; - if the file still resides at the same location.

&Ctrl;S File Save

  This saves the current document. If there has already been a save of the document then this will overwrite the previously saved file without asking for the user's consent. If it is the first save of a new document the save as dialog (described below) will be invoked.

File Save As...

  This allows a document to be saved with a new file name. This is done by means of the file dialog box described above in the Open section of this help file.

&Ctrl;P File Print...

  Opens a simple print dialog allowing the user to specify what, where, and how to print

File New View

  This creates a new view of the current document, &ie;, a new instance of &kwrite; (as explained in the previous entry) but containing the same document.

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

  This will close the editor window, if you have more than one instance of &kwrite; running, through the New View or New Window menu items, those instances will not be closed.

### The Edit Menu

CtrlZ Edit Undo

  This is used to eliminate or reverse the most recent user action or operation. Just what constitutes such an action may be better understood by referring to the Group Undos portion of this help file.

CtrlShiftZ Edit Redo

  This will reverse the most recent change (if any) made using Undo

Edit Undo/Redo History

  This will call a display box showing a list of the most recent actions on the left and another list of actions which have been 'undone' on the right. There are also three buttons at the right of the box labeled Undo, Redo, and Close. Clicking on the Undo button will cause the action at the top of the Undo list to be reversed which will place that particular action at the top of the Redo list. Likewise, clicking on the Redo button will reinstate the reversed action and move it back to the top of the Undo list. Clicking on an item below the top item in either list will select all the items from the top down to that point. A subsequent click on the corresponding button will cause all the selected actions to be undone or redone accordingly. This would be particularly useful when the user knows precisely the point to which she or he would like to proceed - making it unnecessary to go through a series of single undo or redo actions.

CtrlX Edit Cut

  This command deletes the current selection and places it on the clipboard. The clipboard is a feature of KDE that works invisibly to provide a way to transfer data between applications.

CtrlC Edit Copy

  This copies the currently selected text to the clipboard so that it may be pasted elsewhere. The clipboard is a feature of KDE that works invisibly to provide a way to transfer data between applications.

CtrlV Edit Paste

  This will insert the contents of the clipboard at the cursor position. The clipboard is feature of KDE that works invisibly to provide a way to transfer data between applications.

CtrlA Edit Select All

  This will select the entire document. This could be very useful for copying the entire file to another application.

Edit Invert Selection

  This selects any unselected text while unselecting any selected text - effectively reversing the current state of selection.

&Ctrl;G Find Go to line

  This opens the goto line dialog box which is used to have the cursor jump to a particular line (specified by number) in the document. The line number may be entered directly into the text box or graphically by clicking on the up or down arrow spin controls at the side of the text box. The little up arrow will increase the line number and the down arrow decrease it. There is also a slide control to the right of the text box which allows the user to move the goto point in the document in an analog manner.

CtrlF Edit Find

  This opens the find dialog which is used to specify the Text to Find in the document. There is small text box for entering the search pattern which also doubles as a dropdown box. Clicking on the dropdown arrow at the side of the box makes available other recent search patterns. Other parameters are included to make the search more efficient. Selecting Case Sensitive will limit finds to entries that match the case (upper or lower) of each of the characters in the search pattern. Find Backwards directs the search to proceed in an upwardly direction. The Selected Text option keeps the search within currently selected text. Checking Whole Words Only prevents the search from stopping on words that contain the searched for pattern. The Search from Cursor option begins the search from the current position of the cursor within the document rather than from the beginning.

F3 Edit Find Next

  This repeats the last find operation, if any, without calling the find dialog box.

&Shift;F3 Edit Find Previous

  This repeats the last find operation, if any, without calling the find dialog box, and searching backwards instead of forwards through the document.

CtrlR Edit Replace

  This command opens the replace dialog box. The replace dialog is almost identical to the above-mentioned find dialog. In addition to the features in the find dialog it contains a Replace With: text entry/dropdown box. Using this dialog the user can specify both the text to be found and text with which to replace it. The additional Prompt On Replace option allows the user to have &kwrite; ask for confirmation before each replacement.

&Ctrl;M Edit Editing Command

### The Bookmarks Menu

&Ctrl;B Bookmarks Toggle Bookmark

Bookmarks Clear Markers

  This command will remove all the markers from the docucument as well as the list of markers which is appended at the bottom of this menu item.

At the bottom of this menu, a list of markers appears if any markers are available for this window.

### The Tools Menu

Tools Spelling...

  This initiates the spell checking program - a program designed to help the user catch and correct any spelling errors. Clicking on this entry will start the checker and bring up the speller dialog box through which the user can control the process. There are three text boxes lined up vertically in the center of the dialog with their corresponding labels just to the left. Starting at the top they are:

  Misspelled Word:

    Here, the spell checker indicates the word currently under consideration. This happens when the checker encounters a word not in its dictionary - a file containing a list of correctly spelled words against which it compares each word in the editor.

  Replacement:

    If the checker has any similar words in its dictionary the first one will be listed here. The user can accept the suggestion, type in his or her own correction, or choose a different suggestion from the next box.

  Suggestions:

    The checker may list here a number of possible replacements for the word under consideration. Clicking on any one of the suggestions will cause that word to be entered in the Replacement: box, above.

  On the right side of the dialog box are 6 buttons that allow the user to control the spell check process. They are:

  Replace

    This button has the checker replace the word under consideration in the document with the word in the Replacement: box.

  Replace All

    This button causes the checker to replace not only the current Misspelled Word: but to automatically make the same substitution for any other occurences of this Misspelled Word: in the document.

  Ignore

    Activating this button will have the checker move on without making any changes.

  Ignore All

    This button tells the checker to do nothing with the current Misspelled Word: and to pass over any other instances of the same word.

    This only applies to the current spell check run. If the checker is run again later it will stop on this same word.

  Add

    Pressing this button adds the word in the Misspelled Word: box to the checker's dictionary. This means that in the future the checker will always consider this word to be correctly spelled.

  Stop

    This button stops the spell check process.

  Located horizontally along the bottom of the spell check dialog is a progress bar. As the checking process proceeds the bar will fill from left to right providing a graphical representation of how far along in the document the process has reached. In addition, the progress is displayed numerically in the center of the progress bar.

  A numerical display of the spell check process is simultaneously displayed in the status bar of the editor. The status bar is the horizontal strip at the bottom of the editor just outside of the text entry area.

  Two more buttons are located below the progress bar. They are:

  Help

    This invokes the KDE help system starting at the &kwrite; help pages (this document).

  Cancel

    This button cancels the spell check process.

  Tools Indent

    This increases the paragraph's indentation by one step. The size of the step depends on the indentation settings.

  Tools Unindent

    This reduces the paragraph's indentation by one step. The size of the step depends on the indentation settings.

  Tools Clean Indentation

    Not yet implemented

  Tools Comment

    This adds one space to the beginning of the line where the text cursor is located or to the beginning of any selected lines.

  Tools Uncomment

    This removes one space (if any exist) from the beginning of the line where the text cursor is located or from the beginning of any selected lines.

&Ctrl;I Tools Indent

&Ctrl;U Tools Unindent

Tools Clean Indentation

&Ctrl;# Tools Comment

&Ctrl;&Shift;# Tools Uncomment

### The Settings Menu

Settings Show Toolbar

  When checked, this displays a movable toolbar containing buttons used to initiate frequently used commands. When unchecked the toolbar is hidden.

Settings Show Statusbar

  When checked, this displays a small bar at the bottom of the editor containing information about the status of the current document. When unchecked the statusbar is hidden.

Settings Show Path

  When selected, this displays in the title bar the path (its location in the file system) of the current document. When unchecked the path is hidden.

Settings Configure Key Bindings

  This command opens a dialog box whereby the key bindings may be changed. A display window at the top of the dialog box shows the list of commands (actions) that can have keyboard shortcuts. Below the display are three radio buttons. The user may choose between No Key, Default Key, and Custom Key. (Note that a set of radio buttons only allows the selection of one of the offered items - in the way that buttons on a car radio only offer the selection of one preset station. Also, the Default Key selection is only available for those commands that actually have a 'default' shortcut.) Selecting the Custom Key option activates the three check boxes and key button at the bottom of the dialog. The user may then select a key combination for the command in question by means of the check boxes and key button. For example, with the About KDE command selected in the display window, the user could select Ctrl and Alt, click on the key button, and then press the K key on the keyboard. This would mean that anytime he or she held down the Ctrl and Alt buttons and pressed K (while using &kwrite;) the About KDE display box would be called.

Settings Configure Toolbars

  This will open the dialog whereby the toolbar configuration may be changed. The user can choose which shortcut buttons should appear on the toolbar. A display window on the left lists the commands available to placed on the toolbar. A display on the right lists those commands already on the toolbar. A set of four arrow buttons between the two displays manipulates the selections. The right pointing arrow places any command selected in the left pane onto the right pane, i.e., it is added to the toolbar. The left arrow does just the opposite, removing any action selected in the right window from the toolbar. The up and down pointing arrows change the position of an action selected in the right window which changes the position of its button in the toolbar.

Settings Configure Editor

  This menu item opens a dialog whereby several different settings may be adjusted.

F6 Settings Show Icon Border

  Toggle the display of a border on the left of the editing window, where bookmarks are displayed next to the line they apply to.

F4 Settings Vertical Selection

  This is used to turn on or off the vertical selection feature. Vertical selection allows text to be selected by column as well as by row. In other words with this feature the user is able to select text contained in only particular contiguous columns and rows. In affect the user can select a rectangular area of text anywhere in the document.

Settings Highlight Mode

  This allows the user to choose the style of color highlighting which the editor uses to display the text. The styles are selected by programming language. The font/color information is not stored with the document.

Settings End of Line

  This opens a sub-menu from which the user can select the type of end of line code for &kwrite; to use, i.e., the accepted standard used by Unix, &Mac; or MSDOS/&Windows; systems.

### The Help Menu

F1 Help Contents

  This invokes the KDE help system starting at the &kwrite; help pages (this document).

ShiftF1 Help What's This?

  This changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. Clicking on items within &kwrite; with this arrow will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.

Help Report Bug

  This calls a dialog box to help the user help the KDE team to track down and solve any problems(bugs) in the program. The dialog attempts to do this by means of email using the information given by the user.

Help About KWrite

  This will display version and author information

Help About KDE

  This displays the KDE version and other basic information.

## Configure &kwrite;

Selecting Settings Configure Editor from the menu brings up the Configure Editor dialog box. This dialog can be used to alter a number of different settings. The settings available for change vary according to which category the user chooses from a vertical list on the left side of the dialog. By means of three buttons along the bottom of the box the user can control the process.

She or he may invoke the Help system, accept the current settings and close the dialog by means of the OK button, or Cancel the process. The categories Colors, Fonts Indent, Select, Edit, Spelling and Highlighting are detailed below.

### Colors

This section provides access to two different color settings, described below. Each of these settings may be changed by clicking on its corresponding button. These are special wide buttons that are the color of the current setting. Clicking on one of the buttons calls a special color dialog box used to change the setting.

The color dialog box provides a convenient and graphical way to select a color. In the upper left of the box is a rectangular display of a spectrum of colors. To the immediate right of this, is vertical bar displaying a range of intensity from the most dark at the bottom to the most light at the top. The user may select and adjust a color by clicking in these two boxes. Clicking in the rectangular display selects a particular mix of red, green, and blue colors and in the vertical bar selects a level of intensity (value). The various color attributes are displayed in numerical form in small text boxes located directly below the spectral rectangle and the user can see them change as the color is adjusted. These attributes include the mix of the basic color components (red, green, and blue) as well as hue and saturation levels. Alternatively the user can enter figures directly in these boxes. There is also a square at the bottom center of the dialog box which displays the color which is under consideration at any time. To the right of this display is another text box labeled HTML: This shows the user the color code that would be used to specify the particular displayed color in HTML code which is widely used for web pages.

In addition to the above, the color dialog allows the capture of any color currently displayed on the desktop or in another program. Clicking on the button with the dropper icon (located on the right side of the dialog box,) changes the shape of the mouse cursor to a set of crosshairs. Clicking again will pick up the color attributes of whatever color is displayed under the cross hairs.

Furthermore the user has the option of adding any color to a personal palette of Custom Colors by clicking on the wide button labeled Add to Custom Colors (which is located directly above the display square.) This adds the current color to the custom color palette. This palette and any other available palettes can be displayed using the drop down selection box located directly above the palette display at the top right of the dialog box. Besides the custom colors, the user can access a number of pre-prepared palettes.

Background

  Here the user can specify a color for the general background of &kwrite;.

Selected

  This allows the user to select a color to be used for indicating selected (or highlighted) portions of the document.

### Fonts

Here you can choose the default font for &kwrite;. You can choose from any font available on your system, and set a default size and encoding. A sample text displays at the bottom of the dialog, so you can see the effect of your choices.

### Indent

Auto Indent

  This causes new lines to begin with the same indentation level as the previous line.

Indent With Spaces

  This replaces tabs with the number of spaces selected in the Tab Width window in the Edit section of the preferences dialog.

Backspace Key Indents

  This allows the backspace key to be used to indent.

Tab Key Indents

  This allows the tab key to be used to indent.

Keep Extra Spaces

  Indentations of more than the selected number of spaces will not be shortened.

### Select

Persistent Selections

  This prevents key input or cursor movement by way of the arrow keys from causing the elimination of text selection.

  (Note: If the Overwrite Selections option is activated then any typed character input or paste operation will replace the selected text.)

Overwrite Selections

  Any keyed character input or paste operation will replace the selected text.

Mouse Autocopy

  Any text selected with the mouse will be automatically copied to the clipboard.

X11-like Single Selection

  Not implemented yet.

Vertical Selections

  This activates the Vertical Selection option.

Toggle Old

  Not yet implemented

### Edit

Word Wrap

  Word wrap is a feature that causes the editor to automatically start a new line of text and move (wrap) the cursor to the beginning of that new line. &kwrite; will automatically start a new line of text when the current line reaches the length specified by the Wrap Words At: option.

Wrap Words At:

  If the Word Wrap option is selected this entry determines the length (in characters) at which the editor will automatically start a new line.

Replace Tabs By Spaces

  &kwrite; will replace any tabs with the number of spaces indicated in the Tab Width: entry.

Tab Width

  If the Replace Tabs By Spaces option is selected this entry determines the number of spaces with which the editor will automatically replace tabs.

Remove Trailing Spaces

  &kwrite; will automatically eliminate extra spaces at the ends of lines of text.

Auto Brackets

  When the user types a left bracket ([, (, or {) &kwrite; automatically enters the right bracket (}, ), or ]) to the right of the cursor.

Group Undos

  Groups of similar actions are to be considered a single Undo step by &kwrite;. In other words, a series of regular character keystrokes (words or expressions) would be considered one step and therefore be removed by a single undo operation. If the series of character entries were interrupted by a non-character entry operation (such as a backspace), invoking undo would only remove the entries made since that operation. The next undo would then reverse that operation and so on.

  When this option is not selected &kwrite; considers each keystroke to be a single step. So if the user (with this option active) were to type several words or even sentences without having to make corrections or cut or paste or some other non-character entry operation then a click of the undo button would eliminate all that had been typed since the last non-entry operation. A second click would eliminate that operation and a third any operation or series of entries that occurred before the operation and so on. When not selected three clicks of the undo button would only remove the last three letters typed, or the last three operations.

Show Tabs

  The editor will display a symbol to indicate the presence of a tab in the text.

Smart Home

  Not yet implemented

Page Up/Down Moves Cursor

  This option changes the behavior of the cursor when the user presses the Page Up or Page Down key. If unselected the text cursor will maintain its relative position within the visible text in &kwrite; as new text becomes visible as a result of the operation. So if the cursor is in the middle of the visible text when the operation occurs it will remain there (except when one reaches the beginning or end.) With this option selected, the first key press will cause the cursor to move to either the top or bottom of the visible text as a new page of text is displayed.

Wrap Cursor

  When this option is chosen, moving the cursor with the arrow keys off the end of a line (to the right) causes it to jump down to the beginning of the next line. Likewise when the cursor is moved past the beginning of a line (to the left) it jumps up to the end of the preceding line. When this option is not selected, moving the cursor right past the end of a line merely causes it to continue horizontally in the same line and trying to move it left past the beginning does nothing.

  When this option is chosen, clicking with the mouse past the end of a line of text will place the insert cursor at the end of the text, and not in the place you clicked. This avoids accidentally adding an empty space in the middle of text, and is the default behavior of most editors.

Undo steps:

  Here the user may specify the number of steps &kwrite; will retain in memory for purposes of undoing entries and actions. This means that the higher the number of steps set the more memory &kwrite; will use for this. Setting this entry to 10 would mean that the user would be be able reverse the last ten operations, i.e.i>, click the undo button 10 times and obtain results.

Encoding

  This sets the character encoding for your file.

### Spelling

A spell checker is a program designed to help the user catch and correct any spelling errors. This section of the preferences dialog allows certain important settings to be adjusted in this regard.

Create root/affix combinations not in dictionary

  Selecting this option allows the spell checker to register as 'correct' combinations of root words with suffixes or prefixes even if the particular combination is not listed in its dictionary data base of words.

Consider run-together words as spelling errors

  Selecting this will cause the spell checker to register as 'misspelled' two or more correctly spelled words that are 'run-together', i.e., that do not have spaces separating them.

Dictionary:

  Depending on the user's installation one or more different language spelling dictionaries may be available. This drop down box allows the user to choose which language the spell checker should use.

Encoding:

  There are different coding systems used to associate particular codes with particular characters and symbols. If the user knows which code he or she is using this drop down box allows this code to be specified so that the spell checker can do its job correctly.

Client:

  Since &kwrite; does not contain its own spell checker, an external one must be chosen. This is where the user may specify which spell check program to use.

## Highlighting

The Configure Highlighting dialog consists of two pages, Defaults and Highlighting Modes. The user can select which page to view by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of the dialog

Items available on the Defaults page are as follows:

Default Item Styles

  The user can configure the default appearance for particular items. This would allow a programmer to more easily identify different items (types of entries) in his or her code.

  Item

    This drop down list offers a variety of items that the user might want to highlight. They include Normal for text does not fit in any of the other categories, Comment, String, Keyword and many more. Not all of these entries will need to be configured for every language and so may be selected as needed. The options in the rest of this section apply to the entry selected in this box.

  Normal

    This allows the user to choose the item's normal (unselected) color. This is done by means of a color selection dialog box, a further explanation of which may be found in the Colors section of Configure KWrite.

  Bold

    This option determines whether or not the item should be displayed in bold text.

  Italic

    This option determines whether or not the item should be displayed in italic text.

  Selected

    This allows the user to choose the item's color when selected. This is done by means of a color selection dialog box, a further explanation of which may be found in the Colors section of Configure KWrite.

Items on the Highlight Modes tab allow the user to define more specific highlighting depending on the language style.

One need not set every available option, items not configured specifically will use the default configuration specified on the previous (Defaults tab.

Config Select

  This group of options is used to customize the highlighting styles for each programming language type. Any changes you made in other areas of this dialog apply only to this type.

  Highlight

    This is used to choose the language type to configure

  Item

    This is to choose the syntax item to configure. Remember this only configures this item for this language.

  As an example, if the user wished to configure the appearance of comments while writing C++, she or he could choose C++ in the Highlight drop down list, and then choose Comment in the Item drop down list. To have comments look the same across all languages, the user would need to configure this in the Defaults page of this dialog box while leaving comments unconfigured within the more specific Highlight Modes page.

Item Style

  Here the user can configure the general appearance of the above selected item. Checking the Default checkbox causes the default style as configured on the previous tab to be set, or the appearance can be configured directly. The available options are the same as on the Defaults tab: Normal, Selected, Bold and Italic.

Highlight Auto Select

  &kwrite; can apply syntax highlighting automatically, depending on the file extension or mime-type of the opened file. The defaults are fairly comprehensive, but users that regularly edit files with non-standard extensions can add them here. Wildcards are allowed in the File Extensions text box. For example, the default entry for the C++ language is `*.cpp;*.cc;*.C;*.h`. Opening a file called `foo.h` would automatically apply the C++ style to it.

Item Font

  Here the user can choose the font for the selected item.

  The default style can be applied by checking the Default checkbox or the user can choose a specific font Family, Size and Charset. The available options are the same as those on the Defaults tab.

## Credits and Licenses

&kwrite; Copyright 2001 by the &kate; team.

Based on the original &kwrite;, which was Copyright 2000 by Jochen Wilhelmy digisnap@cs.tu-berlin.de

Contributions:

- Christoph Cullmann cullmann@kde.org

- Michael Bartl michael.bartl1@chello.at

- Phlip phlip_cpp@my-deja.com

- Anders Lund anders@alweb.dk

- Matt Newell newellm@proaxis.com

- Joseph Wenninger jowenn@bigfoot.com

- Jochen Wilhely digisnap@cs.tu-berlin.de

- Michael Koch koch@kde.org

- Christian Gebauer gebauer@bigfoot.com

- Simon Hausmann hausmann@kde.org

- Glen Parker glenebob@nwlink.com

- Scott Manson sdmanson@altel.net

- John Firebaugh jfire@uclink.berkeley.edu

Original documentation by Thad McGinnis ctmcginnis@compuserve.com

This version of the &kwrite; Handbook is based on the original by Cristian Tibirna tibirna@kde.org

Converted to docbook/proofreading by Lauri Watts lauri@kde.org

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

&kwrite; is packaged as part of the kdebase package. For more information on installing and compiling KDE please see www.kde.org.

&documentation.index;