Preferences - File I/O

The File I/O page of the Configure Preferences dialog box contains options which deal with the loading and saving of files:

Use this option to request that trailing Spaces and/or Tabs be removed from the ends of lines as a file is loaded from disk. See also the option titled Strip trailing blanks when saving a file.

Use this option to specify that the standard Windows File Open dialog box should be used by the File | Open command. Boxer's custom dialog provides many features that are lacking in the standard dialog. Some users may be more comfortable with the standard dialog, and may wish to select this option.

Use this option to select the font that will be used in Boxer's custom File | Open dialog.

This option can be used to configure the list of file filters which are available from within the File | Open dialog box. File Open filters make it easy to display a group of files: the name of the group can be selected from the drop-down list of file types in the File Open dialog box.

When the ellipsis (...) button is clicked, a popup editing window will appear which contains the currently defined filters:

A file filter definition consists of two parts: the filter name and the wildcard file specification. The filter name contains the text string which will appear in the drop-down list of file types in the File Open dialog box. The wildcard file specification is the expression which is used to match the class of files being defined by the filter.

The filter name is separated from the wildcard file specification with the vertical rule (|) character. When more than one wildcard expression is used, the semi-colon (;) is used to separate the expressions.

This option can be used to configure Boxer's list of preferred file extensions. The list of preferred file extensions is consulted whenever Boxer is asked to open a filename which lacks a file extension.

Before opening a file each extension in the list is added to the supplied filename to see if a file by that name already exists. If so, the file is opened using the extension from the list. If no matching files can be found, the file is opened using the name as originally supplied. In a case where multiple matches might be found, the first matching extension will be used.

When the ellipsis (...) button is clicked, a popup editing window will appear which contains the currently defined extensions:

The list can be edited by entering desired extensions into the list, one-per-line. The period (.) should not be included in the extension.

You may need to open a new file named TEST when TXT is a preferred extension, and the file TEST.TXT already exists. In this case, simply specify TEST., with the trailing period, in order to defeat the Preferred File Extension feature.

This option can be used to configure the list of header file extension pairs which are used by the Open Header File command.

When the ellipsis (...) button is clicked, a popup editing window will appear which contains the currently defined pairs:

Extension pairs are listed one-per-line, with the equal sign (=) being used to separate the extensions. In a case where a file extension has multiple mates, the mate which occurs first in the list will be given priority when attempting to locate the file to be opened.

This option can be used to configure the list of file extensions which is used by the Open File in Browser command to determine whether a file is eligible to be opened in an Internet browser.

When the ellipsis (...) button is clicked, a popup editing window will appear which contains the currently defined extensions:

Eligible file extensions are listed one per line. As the HTML standard changes, and as Internet browsers evolve, additional file types will likely become eligible for inclusion in the list.

Use this option to request that trailing Spaces and/or Tabs be removed from the ends of lines as a file is saved to disk. See also the option titled Strip trailing blanks when loading a file.

This option can be used to request that a Ctrl-Z character--also known as the end-of-file (EOF) character--be added to a file when saving. Some older programs may require that a file be terminated in this way, but very few modern software packages do.

When this option is active and a text selection is present, the Save command will perform the function of the Save Selection As command, saving the selection to a specified disk file rather than saving the file itself.

This option causes Boxer to perform the Save All command whenever focus shifts to another application.

Use this option to control the number of files which are displayed in the Recent Files list. Up to 24 files can be displayed in this list.

When using Boxer on screens with 800x600 resolution it will be necessary to set the number of recent files to 4 or fewer to prevent the File menu from exceeding the screen height.

Use this option to control whether or not files edited by Boxer are added to the Documents menu available from the Windows Start menu. The Documents menu is preferred by some users as a means to recall previously edited files.

Successful use of this technique requires that the file extension of the file being recalled is 'owned' by the application which last opened the file. This type of 'ownership' is achieved by the use of file associations. By its very nature, a text editor is likely to be called upon to edit many different file types (file extensions). It is probably not desirable for a text editor to own the file associations for all the file types it will be asked to edit. Therefore, using the Document menu to launch Boxer will be successful only for file types with which Boxer has been associated.

Use this option to request that files which are opened for editing within Boxer be 'locked' so that they cannot be read by other programs. Use of this option will prevent a file from being viewed passively by another program so long as the file is open within Boxer.

Use this option to request that files which are opened for editing within Boxer be 'locked' so that they cannot be written to by other programs. Use of this option will prevent a file from being modified by another program so long as the file is open within Boxer.

A file which is being edited within Boxer could be modified by another program or process. If this condition occurs it will be reported by Boxer as soon as Boxer regains focus, and an option will be provided to reload the modified file from disk. An option to disable this option appears on the Configure | Preferences | Messages option page.

This option can be used to prevent the various File I/O dialogs (Open, Save, etc.) from changing the record of the current directory due to any directory travel performed from within those dialogs. Ordinarily, the directory last visited within a dialog box is recorded so that it can be used when the dialog next becomes active. This option ensures that directory travel within a dialog box does not change the record of the current directory.