Editor options

Links to the Eclipse Text Editor preference page, where you can specify tab behavior and other options that affect the ABL Editor (and all other text editors running in the Eclipse environment).

Two Eclipse settings affect tab behavior:

• Displayed tab width sets the number of spaces between tab stops. Note that in all cases, pressing TAB moves the cursor a variable number of spaces to the next tab stop; this number depends on the starting position of the cursor relative to the tab stops.
• Insert spaces for tabs determines whether white space inserted before a tab stop consists of individual space characters or a single tab character.

Replace content when tab is pressed in overwrite mode

When Insert spaces for tabs is selected in Eclipse Text Editor preferences, determines whether pressing TAB in overwrite mode replaces (with spaces) existing characters between the starting cursor position and the next tab stop. If this option is turned off, the tab spacing is inserted, leaving existing characters unchanged. (When Insert spaces for tabs is not selected, pressing TAB always inserts tab spacing, whether in insert mode or in overwrite mode.)

Enable smart indent of new lines

Determines whether the ABL Editor automatically indents lines as you type for improved readability.

Enable auto indent on paste

Determines whether code copied and then pasted into the ABL Editor is indented for improved readability.

Enable tabular formatting

Determines whether the Correct indentation command aligns.

Tabular formatting helps you format code in columns. For example, the following shows code before tabular formatting:

DEFINE VARIABLE aChar1 AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE aaChar22 AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE aaaChar333 AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.

After tabular formatting, the code is much easier to scan:

DEFINE VARIABLE aChar1     AS   CHARACTER NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE aaChar22   AS   CHARACTER NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE aaaChar333 AS   CHARACTER NO-UNDO.

Enable &OUT formatting

Determines whether &OUT statements are indented in WebSpeed CGI Wrapper files.

Expand keywords

Automatically expands abbreviated keywords in the current file to their fully spelled equivalents as you type.

Case keywords

Determines whether the ABL Editor immediately applies keyword casing when you type a space following a full or abbreviated keyword.

No action

Retains the original keyword casing for the existing ABL statements in the current file and applies uppercase to keywords in the newly added statements.

Upper

Applies uppercase to keywords in the existing ABL statements in the current file and to keywords in the newly added statements.

Lower

Applies lowercase to keywords in the existing ABL statements in the current file and to keywords in the newly added statements.

Apply keyword casing on save

Determines whether the ABL Editor applies keyword casing when you save the file.

Expand database tables and fields

Determines whether the ABL Editor expands a database table or field name as you type. For example, when selected, the Editor expands "Cust" to "Customer".

Automatically prefix fields and tables with database name

Enable smart home and end keys

Determines where the Home and End keys reposition the cursor. When enabled, the Home key moves the cursor to the first non-white-space character of the current line. Pressing it again moves the cursor to the very beginning of the line. The End key moves the cursor to the first white-space character at the end of the current line. Pressing it again moves the cursor to the very last character of the line.

Apply

Saves your changes to the current workspace configuration.

Restore Defaults

Resets the preferences to the Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge defaults.