1998, 1999, 2000 Alex Roberts and Evan Lawrence 2000 Eric Baudais (Documentation Author) Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You may obtain a copy of the GNU Free Documentation License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps. This is version 1.0 of the gedit manual. Gedit is a light-weight text editor. It has all the basic features you come to expect from a simple text editor, but gedit has a native graphic user interface (GUI). Gedit also has command line arguments available to users to quickly and easily view and edit files from a terminal. Overall, gedit is an easy to use text editor with utilizing the powerful capabilities of the GNOME desktop. Gedit has a verastile plug-in architecture to extend its capablilties. This allows you to perform functions you don't normally except from a text editor, such as piping the outputing of a shell command to the screen. The plug-in architecture also lets you email people, browse the internet, or produce a diff from gedit. Gedit provides a variety of ways to accomplish all your text editing needs. Gedit has the traditional menu, with all the commands, tools, and options. It also has a toolbar, where the commands you use most often will be found. You can also place the menu and the toolbar anywhere on the desktop you choose, for quick access. Gedit also has a menu in the text window. You need to click the right mouse button to access the menu. Inside you'll see the common editing commands you use the most. Gedit provides a menu, toolbar, and right click menu in order to give you the quickest and easiest access to gedit's commands. To run gedit, select gedit from the Applications submenu of the Main Menu, or type gedit on the command line. Gedit is a basic application of the GNOME desktop environment. This document describes version &version; of gedit. A text editor is an essential tool for your GNOME desktop. From writing a small document, editing a configuration file, or composing a webpage, gedit will fill your need. Starting gedit opens the Main window.

gedit Main Window

From here you see the menu bar which has all the options and tools for gedit. You also see the toolbar with all the basic commands you will probably use the most in gedit. If you right-click on the text window, under the toolbar, a pop-up menu will appear displaying some common editing and file commands. Gedit has plug-ins so you can send a quick email to a friend, lookup a webpage if you need help with your work, or produce a file that tells the difference between two other files, using the diff command. The shell output plugin inserts the output of any shell command into gedit. Gedit's plug-ins will let you insert the current time in your document, as it appears in date, insert the phrase Hello World in your current document, reverse the letters in the current document you're editing, or convert a decimal number to either a hexidecimal or octal number Decimal, hexidecimal, and octal numbers are number with a different base. A decimal number has a base of 10, these are numbers you see everyday, hexidecimal number has a base of 16, and octal numbers have a base of 8. So, a decimal number of 45 would be 2D in hexidecimal, and 55 in octal. and back again. Gedit can also be started from the command line, by typing gedit with the name of the file you want to edit. This will open a new Main Window of gedit with the file you typed in the command line. You can also open multiple files in gedit from the command line. You type gedit with each file's name, separated by a space, after the command gedit. So, to open the three files file1.txt, file2.txt, and file3.txt, you need to type gedit file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt in a terminal and gedit will open the three file listed above. This feature is very handy to quickly edit a configuration file or script while you are using your favorite shell. If you open a file using gedit from a X terminal and then kill the X terminal, the gedit you opened will also be killed. This happens because gedit is a child process of the X terminal, the parent process. In the Unix environment if you kill the parent process, all the child processes that are spawned by the parent process are killed. Killing all the children of the parent process is very useful in a Unix environment. It's really okay if you don't understand the above explanation. Just remember if you open gedit in a X terminal and kill the X terminal, gedit will also be killed. Gedit also has support for pipes when you use it in a console or X terminal. When you use a pipe with gedit, on the command line, Gedit is opened and the output of the other command that is piped to gedit is displayed as a text file in gedit's Main Window. For example if you want to display a listing of what files are in a specific directory using the ls command, you will type ls | gedit. The | (pipe) character varies from keyboard to keyboard, but it will, most often, be underneath the \ (backslash)character. Some common places to look for the pipe character is: to the right on the shift key on the right side of the keyboard, to the right of the ] (square bracket) key or above the enter key on the right side of the keyboard, or to the left of the backspace key on the right side of the keyboard. The output of ls, that is normally displayed on the console or X terminal, will be displayed in gedit as a new text file. This option is very useful for commands that display their output too fast or if you want to use the output in a text file. There are many plugins that come with gedit. They are meant to extend and enhance the abilities of gedit. The plugins are separate from the main program and thus supplement gedit while only adding the capabilities and size to gedit that you want.

plugin manager

When gedit starts, you will see in the Plugins menu a menu item for each of the installed plugins. You need to open the Manager… to choose which plugins you want to enable in gedit. The plugin manager lets you choose only the plugins you want to use. You will notice only the plugins you install will be shown in the Plugin menu. Click on which plugin you want to install, in the left window, and then press the Add button. This will install one plugin in gedit and put the plugin in the Plugin menu, so you can run the plugin. If you want to install all the plugins, just press the Add All button. To uninstall a plugin in gedit, click on the plugin you want to uninstall, in the right window, and press the Remove button. If you want to disable all the plugins, just press the Remove All button.

browse plugin

The browse plugin has a text window to enter the url of the webpage you want to visit. When you enter the url, gedit displays the webpage in the main window. If Lynx does not have the correct path, at the bottom of the dialog, you can change it by clicking the Change button.

change lynx path

You then need to enter the correct path for your system in the text window or click the Browse button to find lynx on your system. After you have all the correct fields filled in, press the OK to display the webpage.

diff plugin

The diff plugin has two ways to select the file you want to determine its difference. You can select the original file from the list of files you have opened in gedit. You can also enter the original file in the first text window (the one on the left). You then enter the revised file in the second text window (the one on the right) or by selecting the file from the list of opened files in gedit (on the right). The difference of the files will then be seen in the Main Window. Gedit runs the diff command on the two files you enter in the dialog. The output is then displayed in gedit's Main Window. If the first file entered is file1.txt and the second file entered is file2.txt, then the gedit will display the output of the command $diff file1.txt file2.txt.

email plugin

The email plugin lets you send the text file you are editing as the body of the email. The subject will automatically be the filename, but can be changed in the dialog. The From: text window will automatically have the email address provided by your system. You can also change it, if you wish the receiving party to send a reply to a different email address. You need to enter the receiver's email address in the To: text window. If the path to your sendmail compatible mailer A sendmail compatible mailer is a program that delivers your email to the correct server on the internet, so your email will reach its destination. The program uses SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to send your email. The distinction between a sendmail compatible mailer and a non-sendmail compatible mailer is the command line arguments. A sendmail compatible mailer will have the same command line arguments as sendmail, even if the way it handles everything else is completely different. is not displayed at the bottom of the dialog, you can change it by clicking the Change button.

change sendmail

You then need to enter the correct path of your sendmail compatible mailer, for your system, in the text window or click the Browse button to find the sendmail compatible mailer on your system. If you do not have a sendmail compatible mailer, you need one to use the email plugin. After you have all the correct fields filled in, press the OK to send the email or press the Cancel to not send the email. The insert time plugin puts the date and time into the document. It uses the date command and inserts the output into the text. The hello world plugin puts the text Hello World into the document. It is meant to be a template for all the other plugins. If you are interested in writing a plugin for gedit, take a look at the source code for the hello world plugin and contact the maintainers , so your work isn't duplicated.

shell output plugin

The shell output plugin executes the command in the directory that is displayed and puts the output in the Main Window.The shell output plugin is designed for inserting text resulting from the execution of a console based command. However, gedit will not stop you if you try to launch another application, such as gnumeric. So, should only execute commands displaying text on the console and commands which are not interactive. The shell you are using will stay the same for the shell output plugin. So, if you use bash as your shell, gedit will execute the command in bash. This lets you put output you would normally see in a console or terminal in the middle of the text file you are editing. To change the application settings, select Preferences… from the Settings menu. This opens the Preferences dialog. You can make gedit your default editor. The default editor will start when a document opens, you need to edit, by another application. To make gedit your default editor, enter export EDITOR='gedit' in the terminal. This will only change your system settings until you reboot again. To make the change permanent, edit your .bash_profile, if you are using bash. Add the line export EDITOR='gedit' to .bash_profile. If you are using another shell, you need to find out what file to change and change the environment variable $EDITOR to gedit.

Preferences dialog with General tab

Appearance This section contains: Show Statusbar — This option determines whether the status bar at the bottom of the Main Window is shown or hidden. The status bar gives you a brief description of the various menu items or messages about what gedit is currently doing. Set toolbar according to system settings — This option displays the toolbar with the system settings for GNOME. You can change the system settings for the toolbar in the Control Center. To change the system settings for GNOME, start the Control Centerby selecting GNOME Control Center from the Settings submenu of the Main Menu. Then select the Applications submenu from the User Interface menu. Set toolbar to Icons only — This option displays the toolbar with just the icons. There is no text under each icon to tell you what it does. The option overrides whatever you have selected for the toolbar behavior in the Control Center. Set toolbar to Icons with text — This option displays the toolbar with the explanatory text under each icon. The option overrides whatever you have selected for the toolbar behavior in the Control Center. Editor Behavior This section contains: Enable Auto-indent — This option turns on the auto-indent ability in gedit. Auto-indent automatically indents the text at the same place in the line as the text in the previous line. Auto-indent is very useful when you are writing configuration files, scripts, code, etc… If you want to write paragraphs of text, the auto-indent function can be a hassle.

Preferences dialog with Documents tab

MDI (Multiple Document Interface) This section contains: Mode: — This option specifies the way gedit displays the Main Window and how it opens new documents. The option determines the user interface you like to use for the Main Window There are 4 types of modes gedit can use. They are the notebook, toplevel, modal, and default modes. The notebook style looks strikingly similar to the Preferences… dialog. The most notable thing about this style is the tabs at the top of the Main Window. The highlighted tab is the document you are currently viewing. To change the document to another open document, just click on the cooresponding tab. In the notebook style you cannot view multiple documents at the same time. Only the current document can be seen. The toplevel style opens a new occurance of gedit for each document opened. The windows are stacked one on top of another, so they completely overlap. From this position, you can move the multiple gedit windows around to your liking. This lets you see more than one document, or different positions in the same document. The modal style will only open one occurance of gedit, no matter how many documents you open. You have to use the Documents menu to change between different documents. The default style is the same style as the modal style. This is a change from previous versions of gedit. The modal style is a very plain style for gedit. Notebook Tab Position: — This option changes the place the tabs for the notebook style are located. Undo This section contains: Set limit on undo levels to: — This option sets the number of times you can undo a mistake. So, if you set the limit to 5 undo levels, then you can only use the undo button five times. If you make a lot of mistakes, like me, you might want to set this level higher than the default of 5 undo levels. Users with low memory, under 16 MB, should set the number of undo levels lower because gedit stores each command into memory to the undo level limit. So, if you set the undo level limit to 50, then gedit will store up to 50 commands in your main memory.

Preferences dialog with Fonts/Colors tab

Fonts This section contains: Default Font — This option changes the font used in gedit. Colors This section contains: Background: — This option lets you choose the background color in gedit. This is the background color of the Main Window. Foreground: — This option lets you choose the foreground color in gedit. This is the background color of the Main Window.

Fonts/Colors dialog with Printing tab

Printing This section contains: Add header — This option adds a header to each page you print in gedit. As of gedit version 0.8.0, you cannot configure the header. Enable word wrapping — This option turns on wordwrap. Wordwrap automatically puts the text you typed on the next line, if you exceed the page's width you select in the Paper tab of the Preferences dialog. So, you do not have to explicitly press the return key for each line you wanted printed. Print line numbers every: — This option prints the line number of the file. You also have to select how often you want to line numbers printed. The default is to print the line number every five lines. Portrait — This option selects to print the page using the portrait style. The portrait style has the text printed across the smallest side of the paper. Landscape — This option selects to print the page using the portrait style. The portrait style has the text printed across the largest side of the paper.

Fonts/Colors dialog with Paper tab

This section contains: Paper: — This option selects the type of paper you will use to print the document. The width and height boxes will change automatically for the correct paper size. Width: — This option selects the width of the paper you will use to print the document. To the right of the width box is another box you can use to change the units the paper is measured in for the width and height boxes. Height: — This option selects the height of the paper you will use to print the document. To the right of the height box is the units the height of the paper is measured in. Set System Paper Size — This option sets the paper size in the width and height boxes to the system paper size. The system paper size is determined by the number in the environment variable $PAPERCONF or in the file paperconf. In gedit there are three different type of menus. The menu bar contains all the commands, options, and plug-ins. The toolbar contains selected commands the user uses the most. The right click menu in the text window, contains the commands that are useful while editing a file. Only the menu bar is described in this section because it is so large. The toolbar and right click menu are talked about in other sections of gedit's manual. The menu bar can be moved around the desktop. When you click on the far left side of the menu bar, on the raised dotted portion, you can drag Dragging refers to the action in which you click on an object, with your mouse, and move the mouse pointer without releasing the previously clicked button. You can then release the mouse button and the object you were moving with the mouse will stay on the desktop where you released the mouse button. This action is generally called drag and drop. the menu bar with your mouse and move it anywhere on your desktop. The menu bar can also snap into place on all four sides of the Main Window, if you place your mouse close to the edge of the Main Window. The menu bar's default position is located at the top of the Main Window and contains the following menus: File The menu contains: New — This item opens a new file. F3 Open… — This item brings up the Open File… dialog. From there you can open an existing file. Ctl-S Save — This item saves the current file, if the file was previously saved, or brings up the Save As&hellip dialog to save the file. Save All — This item saves all the files that are open in gedit. Save As… — This item brings up the Save As… dialog to save the selected file in gedit. You should use this command if you want to save the file under a different name. Revert — This item discards all changes you made to your unsaved file and opens the original file in the Main Window. 1. — This part of the File menu shows the four most recent files you opened with gedit. When you click on one of the files displayed, that specific file is opened. Print —

Print Document dialog

This item brings up the Print Document dialog. The Print Document dialog is divided into two parts: the Select printer section and the Print Range section. The Select printer section lets you specify whether the file will be printed to a printer or printed to a pre-press A pre-press file is one that a professional printing company can take and produce brochures, flyers, letterheads, etc. The file formats which are referred to are PS (Postscript) and PDF (Portable Document Format). file format. The button for the Printer and File options are on the left side of the dialog. If you choose to print the file to a printer, you need to verify the printing command is correct, in the text window to the right of the Printer button. If you choose to print the file to a pre-press file, you need to enter the name of the file, in the text window to the right of the File button. The default file name is output.ps. You also can choose the type of pre-press file format from the pull down menu Name:. The Print Range section lets you specify what parts of the file you wish to print. When the All button is pressed the whole file will be printed. If you want to specify certain pages, of the file, to be printed, you need to press the Pages button and enter the starting and ending page number. If you only want a certain selection of the file, which you have highlighted, to be printed, you need to press the Selection button. There are three buttons at the bottom of the Print Document dialog. The Print button will print the document using the options in the Print Document dialog. The Preview button exits the Print Document dialog and brings up the Print Preview dialog. The Print Preview dialog lets you preview the document before you print it. Print Preview —

Print Preview Document dialog

The Print Preview dialog lets you preview the document before you print it. Ctl-W Close — This item closes the current document in gedit. If the item isn't saved, gedit will ask you if you want to save the file or discard the changes you made to the file. Close All — This item closes all the documents in gedit. If any files aren't saved, gedit will ask you if you want to save the file or discard the changes you made to the file. Ctl-Q Exit — This item exits gedit. If any files aren't saved, gedit will ask you if you want to save the file or discard the changes you made to it. Edit The menu contains: Ctl-Z Undo — This item returns the document to its previous state before each command is executed or word is typed; it essentially takes back each command or typed word in the order they were performed. You can only take back a certain number of commands. The option is configured in the Preferences… dialog. Ctl-R Redo — This item returns the document to its state before the Undo command was executed. It's the opposite of Undo. Ctl-X Cut — This item puts the highlighted text, in the text window, in a buffer and then deletes the text that is highlighted from the file. The Paste command takes the text out of the buffer and inserts it in the file you are editing. Ctl-C Copy — This item puts the highlighted text, in the text window, in a buffer, but does not delete the text that is highlighted. The Paste command takes the text out of the buffer and inserts it in the file you are editing. Ctl-V Paste — This item takes any text in the buffer and inserts it into the document. The Cut and Copy commands are the only way to put text into the buffer. Select All — This item highlights all the text in the current file you are editing. F6 Find —

Find dialog

This item brings up the Find dialog. You enter the string you want to search for in the Search For: text window. You can either start your search at the beginning of you file, pressing the beginning of the document button, or start it where the cursor is located in the Main Window, using the cursor position button. You can also specify if you want gedit to search for the string with the case how you entered it or have gedit ignore the case of the search string. Shift-F6 Find Again — This item searches for the string you previously entered in the Find dialog. F7 Replace —

Replace dialog

This item brings up the Replace dialog. This allows you to search for a string and replace it with another string. You enter the string you want to search for in the Search For: text window. You then enter the string, you want to replace the string you searched for, in the Replace with: text window. You can either start your search at the beginning of your file, pressing the beginning of the document button, or start it where the cursor is located in the Main Window, using the cursor position button. You can also specify if you want gedit to search for the string with the case how you entered it or have gedit ignore the case of the search string. When you have the string you want to search for and the string you want to replace it with entered, click on the Find button, at the bottom of the Replace dialog, to find the correct string you are wanting to replace. Then, click the Replace button to replace the highlighted string with the string in the Replace with: text window. If, instead, you want to replace all occurances of the string in the Search for: text window, click the Replace All button. Goto Line —

Goto Line dialog

This item brings up the Goto Line dialog. You enter the line number you want to move the cursor, in the Main Window, to. Click the Okay button and your cursor is put at the line number you specified, starting at the beginning of the file. If the line number you specified exceeded the maximum number of lines in the file, your cursor will be placed on the last line of the file. View The menu contains: Add View — This item opens another window to the current file you are editing. If you edit the file in one view, the other views of the same file are updated and your changes are seen across all views of the same file. Remove View — This item closes a window to the file you are editing. You cannot remove a view, if there is only one view open. You need to have more than one view open to close a view. Settings The menu contains: Show Status Bar — This item controls whether you see the status bar or not. The status bar gives you a brief description of the various menu items or messages about what gedit is currently doing. Preferences… — This item brings up the Preferences… dialog. Files The menu contains all the files currently opened in gedit. If you click on one of the files, the Main Window shows the file you clicked on so you can edit it. Help This menu contains: Help — shows this manual. About — shows basic information about gedit, such as the author's name, current developers, and the application version number. The right click menu is accessed by clicking the right mouse button in the Main Window of gedit. This menu contains: Ctl-X Cut — This item puts the highlighted text, in the text window, in a buffer and then deletes the text that is highlighted from the file. The Paste command takes the text out of the buffer and inserts it in the file you are editing. Ctl-C Copy — This item puts the highlighted text, in the text window, in a buffer, but does not delete the text that is highlighted. The Paste command takes the text out of the buffer and inserts it in the file you are editing. Ctl-V Paste — This item takes any text in the buffer and inserts it into the document. The Cut and Copy commands are the only way to put text into the buffer. Select All — This item highlights all the text in the current file you are editing. Ctl-S Save — This item saves a file, if it is an existing file, or brings up the Save As… dialog to save the new file. Ctl-W Close — This item closes the current document in gedit. If the item isn't saved, gedit will ask you if you want to save the file or discard the changes you made to the file. Print — This item brings up the Print Document dialog. See the Print Document dialog to find out more about the Print command in gedit. At this point gedit does not have syntax highlighting. The current text widget that gedit uses is not suitable for this feature. I want syntax highlighting. When will it be included? Currently, the GTK+ Text widget isn't suitable for syntax highlighting to be implemented reliably. We might add syntax highlighting when we migrate to the new text widget. On the other hand, gedit intends to be a simple text editor. If you are looking for syntax highlighting, we strongly recommend you use a full featured text editor like VIM, emacs, or elvis. gedit was written by Alex Roberts (bse@error.fsnet.co.uk) and Evan Lawrence. gedit is currently being maintained by Chema Celorio (chema@celorio.com) and Jason Leach (leach@wam.umd.edu). The artwork for gedit was done by Steve Hall (steve_hall@mindspring.com). To find more information about gedit, please visit the gedit web page at http://gedit.sourceforge.net. Please send all comments and suggestions to the gedit mailing list (gedit-list@sourceforge.org). Send all bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line.) If you are using GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use Bug Report Tool (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports. This manual was written by Eric Baudais (baudais@okstate.edu). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also add your comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

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