The K Desktop Environment

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8. General Preferences

This dialog consist of five pages. A page is activated by selecting the corresponding entry in the tree list. The settings that have been chosen will only become valid after the "OK" or "Apply" buttons have been pressed. Only the settings managed by the active page are then changed. The factory default settings are restored by using "Default" button. Note: You must activate "OK" or "Apply" after "Default" to actually use the default values. Pressing "Cancel" will close the dialog box without updating the the settings.

8.1 Layout

This page contains layout options for the editor window.

Default line size

The number of bytes that are displayed in a horizontal line in the editor. Both the primary and secondary view (if visible) will display this number of bytes. The value is automatically used when a mode is selected from the View menu.

Column size

The number of bytes that are grouped together in the primary view. Normal values are 1, 2 and 4. In "text only" mode, this value is always the same as the line size.

Both Default line size and Column size can use different values for all four view modes. The values are assigned to the mode displayed by the selector above the entries.

Line size is fixed

When this option is disabled, the editor will automatically resize the displayed data so that no horizontal scrollbar is required (except for a very narrow editor). This combined with a maximized window (and possible a small font) enables KHexEdit to display large amounts of data.

Lock column at end of line

When this option is enabled, a column of data will always be displayed as a whole. When disabled (this option will only have effect when the Column size is larger than 1 and Line size is fixed is disabled) a part of the column will be displayed at the end of the line once there is space to display it, while the rest of the column is moved to the next line.

Left separator width

Sets the width of the vertical separator between the offset area and the primary view.

Right separator width

Sets the width of the vertical separator between the primary and secondary view.

Separator margin width

Sets the width between the nearest character and the separator edge.

Edge margin width

Sets the width between the nearest character and the edge of the editor window.

Column separation is equal to one character

When selected each column is separated by the width a single character would have used. If not, the value in Column separation is used.

Column separation

See above.

8.2 Cursor

The cursor setting is only valid for the editor area. It does not control how the cursor behaves or looks like in dialogs etc.

Blinking

If Do not blink is selected, then the cursor will not blink in the editor, otherwise it will blink with the rate assigned in the Blink interval field.

Shape

The Always use block option will when selected, make the cursor always use a rectangular block shape, both in insert and overwrite modes. If the Use thick cursor in insert mode option is selected, then the insert shape cursor will be thicker (and more visible) than what is normally is. The option has no effect if the Always use block option is selected.

Cursor behavior when editor looses focus

Controls how the cursor is displayed when the user moves the mouse to another window.

Stop blinking. Stop blinking but remain visible.

Hide. Make the cursor invisible.

Do nothing. Ignore focus changes.

8.3 Colors

The editor area of KHexEdit can be tuned to use almost any color combination available. It possible to select between to main color modes. Either a personal selection or a strict usage of the system colors as selected in the Control Center. There are one exception to this scheme. The standard selection color (foreground and background) will always be used. It can not be chosen individually.

Use system colors

Sets the main color mode. If selected, the system colors will be used. Otherwise the colors as defined by the dialog selection.

Text background

The background color of all text in the editor when a document is active. The color is used in every area of the editor.

Inactive background

The background (workspace) color used when there is no document active in the editor.

Even column text

Text color for even numbered columns (0, 2, 4 etc.) in the primary view area.

Odd column text

Text color for odd numbered columns (1, 3, 5 etc.) in the primary view area.

Offset text

Text color for data (offset values) in the offset area.

Secondary text

Text color for printable characters in the secondary view area. Note: If the editor is in "Text Only" mode, then the primary view will display text data. The secondary view is then hidden, thus the value of the Odd column text is used for printable text.

Marked background

Background color for data that has been marked. You can not mark data directly (then it is selected data), but indirectly when searching for a pattern etc.

Marked text

Text color for marked data.

Cursor text

Color used to print the character when the cursor shape covers the actual character in the editor as is the case for a block shaped cursor.

Cursor background

The cursor color itself.

Separator

Color for the separators that form the borders between offset area, primary view and secondary view. Note: It is possible to hide the separators. See Layout preferences.

Non printable text

Text color for text that can not be printed on screen. This color is only used on specific characters in the secondary view or in the primary view when the editor is in "Text only" state.

8.4 Font

8.5 Files

This page manages some options for file management.

Open documents on startup.

This option allows one or more documents to be opened automatically when KHexEdit is started. One can choose between:

  • None. Do not open any file on startup.
  • Most recent file. Open the most recent file of the previous session.
  • All recent files. Open all recent files of the previous session.
Note that files specified by command line arguments are not affected by this option.

Jump to previous cursor position on startup

When selected, the cursor position is saved on exit and restored when a file is automatically opened (by the option above).

Open document with write protection enabled

When this option is selected, every document that is opened will have the write protect property enabled by default.

Keep cursor position after reloading document

When a document is reloaded the cursor will remain at the same offset if this option is selected. Otherwise the cursor will be reset to the beginning of the document.

Make a backup when saving document

Every time a document is saved the original document is preserved if this option is selected. The original filename is appended by a "~" (standard emacs behavior).

Don't save "Recent" document list on exit

Each time KHexEdit is terminated, the list of the five most recent opened files is written to disk. If this option is selected, then an empty list is written to disk instead. Note that no file can be automatically opened on startup if this option is enabled.

Clear "Recent" document list now

By activating this button, the list of recent files is removed. The "Open Recent" menu in the "File" menu will be emptied by this option. However, note that every open document will remain open. The document list (see Document list) is not altered.

8.6 Miscellaneous

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