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SlickEdit® Tools Quick Start |
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I've installed the software... now what?
We understand that once you install a new piece of software, you just want to use it and see what it can do. This page will give you a quick walk-through of some of the major features of SlickEdit Tools with the least amount of reading. Once you see what's available, we're confident that you'll want to open the full documentation and learn more.
Features in SlickEdit Tools are organized into two "toolboxes": the Editing Toolbox and the Versioning Toolbox. Each toolbox is a separate product, and they may be purchased individually or together. The Help system includes documentation for both toolboxes.
In addition to a common Help system, the toolboxes share the SlickEdit Tools Assistant. The SlickEdit Tools Assistant is a tool window that helps you learn more about all of the features available in both toolboxes. Each feature is summarized, with links to Help, options, tool windows, and videos provided when available. The tool window is displayed and docked to the right side of the editor window by default.
Editing Toolbox
• Acronyms and Aliases
• Auto Code Doc Viewer
• Code Annotations
• Comment Wrapping
• Icon Extractor
• Quick Profiling
• Regex Evaluator
Versioning Toolbox
• Backup History
• CVS/SVN Source Control
• DIFFzilla®
• Find Version
• Line Version Info
• Version Graphs
• Version History
• Visualizations
Acronyms and Aliases
Acronyms are short string identifiers that expand to longer strings. There are several predefined acronyms, and you can view and edit the list by going to Tools > Options and navigating to SlickEdit > Editing Toolbox > Aliases and Acronyms in the option tree.
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To try this out, do the following: |
One of the predefined acronyms is stsb, which expands to System.Text.StringBuilder.
1. Open a source code file for editing.
2. Type stsb and press Ctrl+` (backtick). The expansion will happen automatically.
3. If you press Ctrl+` and an exact match cannot be found, then an Intellisense® list will appear with possible matches. |
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To create your own acronyms, do the following: |
1. While editing a source code file, select the text for which you want to define an acronym.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+` (backtick). (Or, select Define Acronym from the right-click context menu.)
3. The Add/Edit Code Acronym dialog is displayed. Enter the short acronym identifier, and click OK. |
Aliases are similar to acronyms, but expand to directories. There are several pre-defined acronyms and you can see and edit the list by going to Tools > Options and navigating to SlickEdit > Editing Toolbox > Aliases and Acronyms in the option tree.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Select the File > Open > File menu option (Ctrl+O) to show the Open File dialog.
2. Place the caret in the File name entry field, and type wd.
3. Press Ctrl+Space. The wd is replaced with C:\WINDOWS (or whatever your %WINDIR% environment variable is defined as).
4. Press Enter, and you are now in the Windows® directory. |
Auto Code Doc Viewer
The Auto Code Doc Viewer tool provides an easy way to turn your header comments into MSDN®-like documentation. The tool will extract all header comments, whether they are XMLdoc, line comments, or block comments, and will create fully linked HTML Help that can be browsed directly in Visual Studio as a tool window. All Help pages provide a link to jump directly to the source code, so it's easy to get from a Help page to the actual source code.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open the Quick Profiling sample project in your installation directory under \SampleProjects\QuickProfilingSample.
2. Open the Auto Code Doc Viewer tool window by choosing SlickEdit > Show Auto Code Doc Viewer.
3. The viewer window will appear as a tabbed document, populated with a link for the project.
4. By clicking on that link, you can drill down into the namespaces, classes, functions, etc. defined in that project.
5. You can also browse the classes, functions, properties, etc. by using the indexes at the top of the page. |
Code Annotations
Code Annotations provide a mechanism to store information about the code without actually modifying the code. Unlike code comments, Code Annotations are not stored in the source file, but in an external file. The information you record is associated with a specific location in the code and can be viewed while you work on a source file. Anything you can record in a code comment can be stored in a Code Annotation (notes, tasks, etc.), and annotations can be kept personal or shared with your team.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open the Code Annotations tool window by choosing SlickEdit > Show Code Annotations.
2. The window appears, by default, docked to the bottom of the editor.
3. Open a source file for editing and position the caret on a line of code where you want to leave a comment.
4. On the tool window, click the Create New Annotation button.
5. On the New Annotation dialog, select Comment from the first drop-down list.
6. In the second drop-down list, make sure Personal is selected.
7. Type any text in the Description field and click OK.
8. In the source file, the line is now highlighted and an annotation marker is placed in the left margin. (See the Note below about enabling enhanced text markers).
9. The new annotation is listed in the tool window.
10. Use the tool window to add, edit, or remove annotations.
Note: Microsoft® Windows XP and Vista™ users can view enhanced annotation markers. To enable these, click Tools > Options, select SlickEdit > Editing Toolbox > Code Annotations in the option tree, then select the option Display enhanced text markers. |
Comment Wrapping
Comment Wrapping enhances the code editor to wrap comments automatically. Wrapping works with any type of multi-line comment: line comments, block comments, and XMLdoc and Javadoc™ comments. Now, when you need to remove two words from the first sentence of a 10-line comment block, all of the realignment of your block comment will be done for you, just like word wrap in a word processor.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open a source code file for editing.
2. Type /// on the line above a function header (''' for VB).
3. A skeleton XMLdoc comment will be created.
4. Position the caret inside the <summary> tag and start typing.
5. The text will start wrapping once the comment width is greater than 80 characters.
NOTE: This is the default behavior. There are many options available for defining how you want your comments to wrap. |
Icon Extractor
SlickEdit's Icon Extractor is designed to find quality icons and make it as easy as possible to apply them to your Windows® application.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open the Icon Extractor tool window by choosing SlickEdit > Show Icon Extractor. You may want to resize or dock this window.
2. Click the Open Image Source toolbar button.
3. Browse to C:\Windows\System32. Select and open the file shell32.dll. The icon window will be loaded with the 200+ icons that are embedded in that DLL.
4. Create a new windows application project by choosing File > New > Project.
5. Open the GUI editor for the main form. Put a button on the form and set the ImageAlign property to MiddleLeft.
5. Click the Refresh Designer Component Tree button on the Icon Extractor's toolbar. The tree will be populated with the components on the designer form.
6. Drag an icon from the icon window onto the button's node in the tree. That icon will be assigned to it both in the tree and in the designer. This works for any control that accepts a graphic or icon, including menus and toolbars. |
Quick Profiling
Quick Profiling provides extremely precise control over what code is being timed and how it is being timed. It allows the developer to time many cases that aren't possible with standard profilers, such as timing complex loops, recursive functions and the time between an object’s creation and disposal. Furthermore, with the Quick Profiling Report tool, the results of several runs may be compared to view the results of code changes and determine the effect of those changes.
Note: There is a known bug with the AMD Athalon™ 64 dual core machines and this timing technique. The Knowledge Base article on the hot fix can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896256.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open the Quick Profiling sample project in your installation directory under \SampleProjects\QuickProfilingSample.
2. Open MainForm.cs and look at the WebRequest function, which is called when the button in the Web Request Test panel is clicked. This function defines profile points (using Trace.WriteLine) after each function call for downloading a Web page.
3. Run the program. Type a Web site into the Web Page URL box and click the button beneath it. Do this for several Web sites.
4. Stop the program.
5. Open the Quick Profiling Report tool window by clicking SlickEdit > Show Quick Profiling Report. It will appear as a tabbed document.
6. Click the Open button on the toolbar and navigate to the \bin\Debug directory of the project.
7. Open the file Quick Profiling Test ???.qpd where ??? is the date and time.
8. The series tree is now populated and you will see an entry for each Web site you downloaded. Check the box next to each one. The data grid is then populated with the recorded timestamps for those series.
9. Change the Timestamp Type in the bottom left corner from Absolute to Relative timestamps.
10. Change View Type on the toolbar drop-down to Series Comparison Chart.
11. The X axis shows the events that took place during the download and the Y axis shows the times they happened.
12. You can hover over any point on the lines to get detailed information about that data point. |
Regex Evaluator
Regular expressions are used to express text patterns for searching. The Regex Evaluator provides the capability to interactively create, save, and re-use tests of regular expressions.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open the Regex Evaluator tool window by choosing SlickEdit > Show Regex Evaluator. You may want to resize or dock this window.
2. Enter the following in the lower text box of the Regex Evaluator:
\b[A-Z][a-z0-9]+\b
3. Type a sentence in the upper text box. The uppercase words will be highlighted.
4. Open a file for editing, or click the tab of an open file. Click the Active Doc button and the regular expression will be applied to the document.
5. Click the Save button on the toolbar. Give it a name of "Uppercase words". You can now access this regular expression from the My Library tab. |
Backup History
Backup History creates a file containing just the differences between each saved version of a particular file. This provides a convenient way to access previous versions of a file even if it has not been checked into source control.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open the Backup History tool window by choosing SlickEdit > Show Backup History. You may want to resize or dock this window.
2. Open a source code file for editing and save it.
3. A new entry will be added in the Backup History window.
4. Make some change to the source code.
5. Select the entry in the Backup History window that you created in Step 3.
6. You can revert to that version by right-clicking and selecting Revert to selected backup. |
CVS/SVN Source Control
CVS/SVN Source Control is a lightweight integration of CVS and Subversion, providing source control commands directly in Solution Explorer. This feature behaves in much the same way as other integrated source control providers, such as Source Safe and Team System.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Close any open projects or solutions.
2. Click Tools > Options, then select Source Control > SlickEdit CVS/SVN in the option tree.
3. Specify the paths for cvs.exe and/or svn.exe in the SVN Path and CVS Path fields, respectively.
4. Open a project or solution that contains items under CVS or SVN source control. Small “overlay” icons are used to represent the source control status of the files in your project, similar to other Visual Studio source control systems.
5. Right-click on an item in Solution Explorer, such as a file, project, or solution name. The context menu will show the available source control commands.
Note: Use caution when specifying paths to CVS and SVN. If you use the Cygwin environment, and use CVS or SVN from Cygwin to check out working copies, you should also use that executable when configuring the Option paths. Many users also install the Tortoise CVS client, and that also provides a cvs.exe. However, the Cygwin CVS client may not be able to read the working copies checked out by the Tortoise-shipped cvs.exe. |
DIFFzilla®
DIFFzilla provides powerful differencing capabilities that let you compare files or directories and view the differences side-by-side. You can make edits, merge changes, and save modified files easily within the results windows. As edits are made, the diff view is updated as you type, so you don't have to re-run the comparison.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Open DIFFzilla by choosing SlickEdit > Show Diff.
2. Open a source code file in Visual Studio and make some edits to it.
3. Right-click in the editor window, or right-click on the file's title tab, and select the Diff with Disk File command from the context menu.
4. DIFFzilla will appear, showing all of the differences.
NOTE: DIFFzilla can diff any file or edit buffer, and can even diff directories. |
Find Version
Find Version allows you to find check-ins matching specific criteria, across all versions of one or more files. The results are displayed hierarchically and may be used to drill down for further information. Answer questions such as "What has user 'X' checked in over the last two weeks?" or "Which versions are labeled 'Y'?".
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Ensure the source control provider is configured correctly. See Source Control Provider Setup for instructions.
2. Open a file from source control.
3. Open the Find Version tool window by clicking SlickEdit > Find Version.
4. In the Look in field, select Current Document.
5. Click Change to change the Version criteria.
6. Use the Version Criteria dialog to specify information you want to see, then click OK.
7. On the tool window, specify any Find Options, then click Find All.
8. The Find Version Results tool window opens automatically, displaying the results in a hierarchical view where files with matching versions are at the top level, version matches are on the second level and version comments are on the third level. |
Line Version Info
Line Version Info allows you to see the last check-in that affected the current line that you are editing. Details include the version number, the date the check-in was made, who made it, and what comment was attached to that check-in.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Ensure the source control provider is configured correctly. See Source Control Provider Setup for instructions.
2. Open a file from source control.
3. Place the caret on a line in the source file.
4. Right-click and select Versioning Toolbox > Line Version Info from the context menu.
5. The Line Version Info dialog appears automatically, showing the details.
6. Click the arrow on the Diff button to diff against the previous version, the local disk file, or if the file is open for editing, the editor contents of that file. |
Version Graphs
Version Graphs visually illustrate several different aspects of the files in a source control repository. They are designed to quickly reveal trends or qualities of the version history that are not easily apparent from looking at a flat list of versions. The graphs also allow you to create custom date markers that can be turned on and off in the graphs. These markers provide the sense of a timeline when looking at a file’s history, and can help reveal trends that relate to important events in the life of a file or project.
The following graphs are available: Check In Activity, Check In Distribution, Check In Frequency and User Contribution.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Ensure the source control provider is configured correctly. See Source Control Provider Setup for instructions.
2. Open a file from source control.
3. Click SlickEdit > Version Graphs.
4. In the Version Graphs interface, select the type of graph to view from the Graph drop-down list, and the graph is displayed.
5. Click the Change Criteria button on the toolbar to specify the versions to be included, branch information, or authors.
6. Click the Configure Dates button on the toolbar to set up the dates you want drawn on the graph.
7. For line graphs, use the mouse to hover over a point on the line to view a tooltip showing details about that point.
8. Use the Zoom buttons on the toolbar to zoom in, zoom out, or restore the original view.
9. Click the Save or Print button on the toolbar to save or print the graph.
10. To change the colors used in the graphs, click Tools > Options, then select SlickEdit > Versioning Toolbox > Visualizations in the option tree. Select the scheme to use from the Graph color scheme drop-down list. |
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To add a new color scheme, do the following: |
1. Click the Configure color schemes button on the Options page.
2. Click Import Color Scheme on the Color Scheme Editor.
3. Browse to find and open a supported color scheme (*.csf, *.ase, or *.aco).
4.The new scheme now shows in the Color schemes list on the Color Scheme Editor. Click OK.
5.Be sure to specify the newly added scheme in the Graph color scheme drop-down list on the Options page if you wish to use it. |
Version History
Version History lets you quickly see a tree representation of a file’s full version history, including check-in comments, date, author, branches and labels. The view may be filtered to see specific aspects of the file’s history, and versions may be viewed or diffed to see specific changes.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Ensure the source control provider is configured correctly. See Source Control Provider Setup for instructions.
2. Open a file from source control.
3. Select SlickEdit > Version History.
4. The Version History dialog opens, showing a hierarchical representation of the file’s history; information about the local file such as file name, local version number, and all available labels and branches; and information about the currently selected version in the version tree including check-in comments and labels.
5. Click Change next to Version criteria to specify the version information you want to see.
6. Click the arrow on the Diff button to diff the version selected in the tree against the previous version, the local disk file, or if the file is open for editing, the editor contents of that file.
7. Click the View button to open the selected version in the editor. |
Visualizations
When reading code, two questions often come to mind: "How old is this?" and "Who wrote this?". Through the use of color mappings, you can instantly see the age or author of each segment of code, side-by-side with that file's content. Five visualizations are available:
• Fixed Date – View changes made relative to specific dates in time. These dates could correspond to release cycles or other meaningful periods in the project history.
• Floating Date - Color the code to show its age relative to today, highlighting code that is some number of days old.
• Label – Color the code based on labels in the source control system, allowing you to correlate changes to releases or other labels.
• Relative Age - See the relative age of each line of code in a source file, displaying the age as a range of colors from oldest to newest.
• User - See which user wrote which lines of code in a source file.
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To try this out, do the following: |
1. Ensure the source control provider is configured correctly. See Source Control Provider Setup for instructions.
2. Open a file from source control.
3. Click SlickEdit > Visualizations.
4. The Version Visualizer opens in a separate window. (See the note below about opening the visualization in the editor.) Select the visualization you want to see from the drop-down.
5. The Version Visualizer updates to show a list of the mapped items.
6. To configure the visualization scheme, such as what users to show or to change the applied colors, click the Configure Visualization Schemes button on the Version Visualizer.
7. The Scheme Builder is displayed. Customize the visualization scheme according to your preferences.
8. Use the arrow buttons on the Version Visualizer toolbar to navigate through the items.
9. If the items in the list represent versions, you can diff them by using the Diff toolbar buttons.
Note: By default, visualizations are shown in a separate window, but Microsoft Windows XP and Vista users can view them directly in the editor by clicking Tools > Options, selecting SlickEdit > Versioning Toolbox > Visualizations in the option tree, then specifying Show results directly in the editor. |
Source Control Provider Setup
Several of the features in the Versioning Toolbox make use of your source control system. Before these features can be used, you must configure the Versioning Toolbox to use that source control system. The menu items for these features are disabled until the source control provider is configured.
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To configure the source control system, do the following: |
1. Click Tools > Options, then select SlickEdit > Versioning Toolbox > Source Control Providers in the option tree.
2. Specify the source control system you're using in the Active provider drop-down list.
3. Click the tab for the specified provider and enter the requested information.
4. Click OK. The Versioning Toolbox features are now ready for use. |
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