Create Clip from Text File uses this to automatically associate the clips that it adds with the appropriate syntax coloring scheme for each file.Click on the Preferences button on the main toolbar to access the preferences screen. On the Syntax page, you can associate syntax coloring schemes with file masks. The Create Clip from Text File uses this to automatically associate the clips that it adds with the appropriate syntax coloring scheme for each file.
The grid shows all syntax coloring schemes available to AceText in the first column. The second column shows the file mask associated with each scheme. By default, AceText uses the file mask stored in the scheme itself. You can directly edit all the file masks in the second column. Doing so does not modify the syntax coloring schemes. It only changes the list of file masks in AceText.
Several of the syntax coloring schemes included with AceText have the same file masks. To make AceText use a particular scheme for a particular file type, make sure to remove any duplicate file masks. For example, the schemes for the various SQL dialects all include *.sql in their file mask. You should remove *.sql from all the SQL schemes except the one that you prefer. Schemes that don’t have file masks can still be assigned to clips. They just won’t be assigned automatically by the Create Clip from Text File command.
While you edit the file mask of a particular syntax coloring scheme you see a preview of that syntax coloring scheme. Each syntax coloring scheme contains one example. This preview can help you differentiate between multiple syntax coloring schemes for the same file formats. You can edit the example to see how the scheme applies its colors to other text. Your changes are lost as soon as you edit the file masks of another scheme.
In a file mask, the asterisk (*) represents any number (including none) of any character, similar to .* in a regular expression. The question mark (?) represents one single character, similar . in a regular expression. The file mask *.txt tells AceText to use the scheme for any file with a .txt extension.
File masks also support a simple character class notation, which matches one character from a list or a range of characters. The file mask *.ext[1-9] matches any file with an extension from .ext1 to .ext9. File masks are not limited to the *.ext format. You can make them match specific file names too. Oracle*.sql, for example, matches any file that has a name beginning with “Oracle” and ending with a .sql extension.
You can delimit multiple file masks with any mixture of semicolons and commas. Only one file mask needs to match for the scheme to be selected for a file. The provided scheme for C and C++ has *.c;*.cpp;*.h;*.hpp; as its default file mask to select all C and C++ header and source files.
A file mask is only considered to match the file name if it matches the whole file name. The mask *.txt matches joe.txt, but not joe.txt.doc since the latter does not end in txt. You could use the mask *.txt* to match both.
Click the Download Syntax Coloring Schemes button to download syntax coloring schemes contributed by other users of AceText and other Just Great Software products such as EditPad that use the syntax coloring schemes.
If you would like to create your own syntax coloring schemes, download and install the syntax coloring scheme editor.
AceText’s Live Spell Check only works if you have previously downloaded and installed Just Great Software spell checker dictionaries. Click the Download Spell Checker Dictionaries button to download some or all of the spell check dictionaries free of charge.
Click the Customize Editor Palette button to customize the color palette used by the AceText Editor. This affects the editor for the body text of the clip as well as the edit boxes for the label, AceType abbreviation, and URL. This includes the actual colors used by the syntax coloring schemes and by clips with emphasis.
Click the Customize Search Palette button to customize the color palette used by the Search and Replace boxes. This includes the syntax colors for regular expressions and replacement strings.