20.2 General

The General preferences page includes the following settings:

Table 20-1 Preferences: General

Setting

Description

Searches all the preferences and shortens the tree view, depending upon what you type in the edit box.

Always run in background

Enables operations to run in the background without disturbing you.

Keep next/previous part dialog open

Keeps the editor and view dialog boxes open when an activation key is released. Normally, the dialog box closes as soon as the key combination is released.

Show heap status

Places a field in Designer’s bottom right corner and displays the amount of memory being used of total memory available.

Open mode: Double click

Opens a project when you double-click it.

Single click: Select on hover

Selects the setting when the cursor hovers there.

Single click: Open when using arrow keys

Opens the setting when you select it.

Additionally, the following preferences categories appear as General sub-pages:

20.2.1 Appearance

Figure 20-1 Preferences: General > Appearance

Table 20-2 Preferences: General > Appearance

Setting

Description

Current Presentation

Allows you to choose between Designer 4.0 presentation, the current presentation, or the Eclipse 2.1 style presentation.

Override presentation settings

Alters how the tabs and views appear in the workbench

Editor tab positions

Positions tabs on the Modeler, Novell XML Editor, or Text Editor at the top or bottom.

View tab positions

Positions view tabs (for example, the Project view tab) at the top or bottom of views.

Perspective switcher positions

Positions the Perspective Switcher at the left, top left, or top right of the workbench.

Show text on the perspective bar

Determines whether text (for example, Designer) displays next to the icons in the Perspective Switcher.

Current theme

The general theme (colors and fonts) that Designer uses. Choices are Default (current), reduced pallette, and R 3.5 theme.

Show traditional style tabs

Displays square Windows-style tabs. The alternative is rounded tabs.

Enable animations

Animates views (for example, Fast Views) and editors that you minimize, maximize, or restore. Reinforces tasks in Designer.

Colors and Fonts

To change a color:

  1. Under General, expand Appearances.

  2. Select Colors and Fonts.

  3. Expand an option (for example, Basic).

  4. Select an item (for example, Active hyperlink text color).

  5. Click the color button.

  6. Select a color from the Color palette, then click OK.

To change a font:

  1. Under General, expand Appearances.

  2. Select Colors and Fonts.

  3. Expand an option (for example, Basic).

  4. Select an item (for example, Banner Font).

  5. Click Change.

  6. Select a font, style, and size, then click OK.

20.2.2 Capabilities

Currently, this section relates to Eclipse functionality. Designer functionality will be implemented later.

Prompt When Enabling Capabilities

Eclipse lets you turn off capabilities. However, Eclipse sometimes detects that you need the capability, depending on how you use the product, and automatically turns the capability on again. You can select Prompt when Enabling Capabilities to receive a message when this happens. This feature doesn’t apply to Designer 4.0.

20.2.3 Compare/Patch

This Eclipse functionality customizes the behavior of the comparison editor. When you select to compare or synchronize two or more resources in the Workbench, one or more comparison editors usually open.

Table 20-3 Preferences: General > Compare/Patch General Tab Settings

Setting

Description

Open structure compare automatically

Makes visible an additional information area that shows differences in the underlying structure of the resources being compared. This information might not be available for all comparisons. The default is On.

Show additional compare information in the status line

Causes the status line to display additional context information about the comparison. The default is Off.

Ignore white space

Causes the comparison to ignore differences that are white space characters (for example, spaces and tabs). Also causes differences in line terminators (LF versus CRLF) to be ignored. The default is Off.

Automatically save dirty editors before patching

Controls whether any unsaved changes are automatically saved before a patch is applied. The default is Off.

For information about settings on the Text Compare tab, refer to the Eclipse documentation.

20.2.4 Content Types

Table 20-4 Preferences: General > Content Types

Pane

Description

Content types

The type of content (for example, HTML or XML) that a file contains.

File associations

The file extension that is associated with a content type. For example, .xml is associated with a file that contains XML content. To add a file association:

  1. Select a content type.

  2. Click Add.

  3. Define a new file type, then click OK.

20.2.5 Editors

Table 20-5 Preferences: General > Editors

Setting

Description

Size of recently opened files list

The number of files to add to the file menu of recently opened files, which you can easily reopen.

Show multiple editor tabs

Displays tabs for all opened projects. If you deselect this option, only one editor tab displays, and an abbreviated name displays on the tab.

Restore Editor state on startup

Displays the editor in the same state as it was when last closed, as opposed to using default settings.

Prompt to save on close even if still open elsewhere

Saves the file on close even if the same file is open in another editor.

Close editors automatically

Automatically closes the first-opened editor when you open additional editors. This option prevents displaying too many editors and cluttering the workbench.

Number of opened editors before closing

Determines how many editors can be open. For example, if you specify two and then open a third project, the first-opened project automatically closes.

When all editors are dirty or pinned

Prompts you to save unsaved components in the project that is about to automatically close, or to open an additional editor.

File Associations

Enables you to associate editors (whether they are internally installed in the Designer, or an external application) with file types (extensions) so that you can edit files.

To find out which editor is associated with a file type, select the file type. For example, a .docgen file type is associated with Style editor, but a .scriptpolicy file type is associated with Policy Builder.

To associate an additional editor with a file type:

  1. Select the file type.

  2. In the Associated editors pane, click Add.

  3. Select an additional editor, then click OK twice.

To add a file type:

  1. In the File types pane, click Add.

  2. Type the extension (for example, .doc) for the file type, then click OK.

  3. In the Associated editors pane, click Add.

  4. Select an editor for that file type, then click OK twice.

Hex Editor

Enables you to configure Designer’s hex editor environment, including font, font style, and colors. You can also associate, or disassociate, the hex editor from Designer’s registered file extensions, and enable hex editor logging.

Structured Text Editors

For information on structured text editors, refer to the Eclipse documenation.

Text Editors

Table 20-6 Preferences: General > Text Editors

Setting

Description

Undo history size

Determines the size of the undo history. The default is 200 changes.

Displayed tab width

Specifies the number of characters or spaces in a tab character. The default is 4. The maximum is 16.

Insert spaces for tabs

Inserts the number of spaces specified in Displayed Tab Width, instead of a tab character, when you press the tab key in the text editor.

Highlight current line

Highlights the current line.

Show print margin

Displays the print margin on the right side of the text document. A vertical line identifies the margin.

Show line numbers

Numbers each line in the editor.

Show range indicator

Displays a range indicator.

Show whitespace characters

Displays white space characters so you can see them in the text editor.

Enable drag and drop of text

Allows you to drag and drop text within the text editor.

Warn before editing a derived file

Notifies you if you attempt to edit a file generated or maintained by the system. Your changes might be overwritten.

Smart caret positioning at the line start and end

Enables the Home and End commands to move to the first and last non-whitespace character on a line.

Show affordance in hover on how to make it sticky

Enables the hover over text to grab the text and place it in the clipboard.

Appearance color options

Lets you configure the display settings for the text editor. Select a particular appearance characteristic from the list to view and change the display settings for that characteristic.

For additional information on text editors, see the Eclipse documentation.

20.2.6 Keys

Enables you to view a table of all of the keyboard mappings, change those mappings, and add new mappings.

20.2.7 Network Connections

Enables you to configure a manual proxy configuration if you use a proxy server to access the Internet. The default is a direct connection to the internet.

20.2.8 Perspectives

Table 20-7 Preferences: General > Perspectives

Setting

Description

Open a new perspective

In the same window: Places a new icon in the Perspective Switcher, so that you can toggle between perspectives in the same window.

In a new window: Opens a new perspective in a different window. You can toggle between perspective windows by selecting icons on the taskbar.

Open a new view

Within the perspective: Opens the view so that it is contiguous to the Modeler.

As fast view: Opens the view and places a Fast View in the bottom left corner of the perspective.

Open the associated perspective when creating a new project

Determines how and when you switch to an associated editor when you open a perspective.

Available perspectives

Designer is the default perspective. Other available perspectives are Eclipse Debug and Resource.

20.2.9 Startup and Shutdown

Table 20-8 Preferences: General > Startup and Shutdown

Setting

Description

Prompt for workspace on startup

Prompts you for a workspace folder. You can have multiple workspace folders and can specify a folder on startup.

Refresh workspace on startup

Synchronizes the workspace with resources (for example, myfile.xml) on disk.

Confirm exit when closing last window

Displays an Exit Designer? prompt when you exit Designer.

Plug-ins activated on startup

Lists plug-ins that are automatically loaded and registered.

20.2.10 Web Browser

Table 20-9 Preferences: General > Web Browser

Setting

Description

Use internal Web browser

Enables you to use an internal Web browser.

Use external Web browser

Enables you to add and use an external browser (for example, Netscape*). If you enable this option, you must also enable Use External Browser in the Help section (also found in Preferences).

External Web browsers

Lists browsers.

To add a browser:

  1. Click New.

  2. Name the new browser.

  3. Scroll to and select an executable (for example, netscp6.exe).

  4. Specify a parameter, then click OK.

20.2.11 Welcome

Table 20-10 Preferences: General > Welcome

Setting

Description

Home: Home Page Theme

Enables you to select the theme that appears when you click Help > Welcome.

Home: Root Pages

Adds tabs (for example, Overview) on the Welcome properties page. You add functionality by customizing these tabs.

For information about the Overview and What’s New tabs, refer to the Eclipse documentation.