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<title>Bluefish manual chapter 2: Using Bluefish features</title>
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<meta name="AUTHOR" content="Jim Batis">
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<h1>Chapter 2: Using Bluefish features</h1>
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<p>In the first chapter, we covered the basic concepts of using Bluefish.
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Though many of the possibilities and usages this program has, not all of
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them were mentioned, whereas those mentioned weren't thoroughly
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explained. Most importantly, you haven't learnt how to configure the
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program yet (apart from a few basic stuff that GTK+ itself allows you).</p>
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<p>The purpose of this chapter is to cover all features of Bluefish in
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detail, so that you can take full advantage of them. We will explain how you
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can configure Bluefish (like window appearance, syntax highlighting, fonts,
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etc.), how to use external programs and view your documents, the thumbnails,
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and many more features.</p>
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<a name=preferences><h2>The Preferences window</h2></a>
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Most of the program's settings can be adjusted through the Preferences
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window. To call this window:
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<li>Select <code>Options->Preferences</code>.</li>
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<table border="0" cellspacing="2">
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<td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><img src="../images/button_config.gif"
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alt="Configuration"> </td>
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<td align="LEFT" valign="CENTER">Press the 'Configure' button of
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the main toolbar.</td>
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<p>A window should pop up, with five tabs at the bottom and two buttons.
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<code>Save & Close</code> saves any changes you have made and saves them
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to disk. These settings will be re-loaded in the future sessions. In case
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you've changed your mind about the changes you made, press
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<code>Cancel</code> and the previous settings will be restored.</p>
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<a name=editor_preferences><h3>Editor Preferences</h3></a>
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<p align="CENTER"><img src="../images/config_editor.png" width="425" height=
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"524" border="0" alt="Editor tab"></p>
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<p>In this textbox, you can set the font of the text editing area. Though
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you can try to write the font manually, it is preferable to click on
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<code>Font...</code> button. A window pops up in which you can set the font,
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its style and size. At the bottom, you can preview the font you have
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selected. The 'Filter' tab will help you select the font you want,
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by selecting the features it should have. 'Font Information' shows
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the info for the selected font. To set the font, press <code>Ok</code>. If
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you press <code>Apply</code>, the font is set, but this dialog doesn't
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disappear, so that you can re-adjust the font selected. Press
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<code>Cancel</code> if you've changed your mind about selecting a
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<div class="note"><b>TIP:</b> Most users prefer to select fixed-width
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fonts. As you will see, fixed width fonts are better for any code editors,
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including HTML. It will help you organise your documents better and is
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highly advised if you're using <PRE> tag, as you can see how the
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text will actually appear. <i>Adobe courier</i> is often available and is
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strongly suggested for usage.</div>
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<p>This adjusts the width that Tab characters will have. This is measured in
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compare with empty space characters. So, if you've set it to value 4,
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for example, in a fixed-width font, it will look like there were 4 space
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<p>The default tab width is 4.</p>
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<p>You will usually want to use this feature together with 'Line
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Wrap'. If this is checked, then the word typed will be wrapped to the
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next line if the text reaches the right border of the text editing area
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(without a line feed character placed).</p>
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<p>If this is checked, then when the text typed reaches the right border of
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the text editing area, it continues to the next line (without a line feed
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<div class="note"><b>NOTICE:</b> A bug in the Gtk Text widget disables the
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horizontal scrollbar, so disabling word and line wrap will make editing a
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bit uncomfortable. Just try it out and you will see :-)</div>
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<p>If you have this feature checked and not 'Word Wrap', then the
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words may be broken in two lines, whereas if 'Word Wrap' is checked
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the letters stay all together.</p>
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<h4>Autoindent Code</h4>
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<p>If checked, the cursor is positioned in the same column after pressing
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Return as it is in the upper line. If disabled, a Return will always jump to
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the first column of the new line.</p>
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<h4>Highlight by default</h4>
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<p>If checked, when an action, like opening a file is done, the text is
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hightlighted automaticly, thus you don't need to select
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<code>View->Highlight Syntax</code> yourself. If, however, you uncheck
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it, then the text won't be highlighted unless you ask for it.</p>
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<h4>Update syntax highlighting continuous</h4>
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<p>If checked, the syntax will be automaticly highlighted as you type the
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<h4>Update full widget instead of the current line</h4>
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<p>Normally, when text is highlighted in the text editing area, only the
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line in which the cursor is placed will be highlighted and not the whole
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text. When pasting multiple lines some lines will not ne highlighted
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correctly. You could use F5 (default shortcut for <code>View->refresh
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highlighting</code>) to refresh. If however you want to check and highlight
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the whole text each time you edit the document, then check this option.
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Unfortunately updating the whole widget is slow in the GTK text widget due
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to a scrolling bug.</p>
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<h4>Automatic link management</h4>
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<p>If you enable this option Bluefish will update any links when using
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'move to' or 'save as' functionality. Only links found
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between double quotes (i.e. "link") are scanned and updated.</p>
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<h4>Allow multiple instances of the same file</h4>
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<p>If you enable this option Bluefish will let you open a file several
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times. This is useful for having 2 different versions in the editor and
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checking layout-changes.</p>
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<a name=html_preferences><h3>HTML Preferences</h3></a>
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<p align="CENTER"><img src="../images/config_html.png" width="425" height=
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"524" border="0" alt="HTML tab"></p>
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<h4>Insert closing...</h4>
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<p>As you know, all HTML tags usually have to be ended with a </tag>
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comment. For example <i><B>Bold text</B></i>. However some tags
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can be (and usually are) used without an ending tag. Two of them are
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<LI> and <P>, which don't really need an ending tag.
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However, if you want to strictly follow the HTML syntax rules, you might
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want to insert them.</p>
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<p>If the boxes are checked, then the ending tags are inserted for
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<LI> and <P>, else they are omitted.</p>
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<h4>Insert lowercase HTML tags</h4>
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<p>By default, when a tag is inserted by Bluefish, it is in uppercase (this
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is a common designer's technique in order to distinguish tags from
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normal text). However, in case you want the tags to be in lowercase, check
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<p>Note that WML needs the tags to be lowercased, so you should check this,
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should you want to use WML.</p>
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<h4>Allow the use of CSS</h4>
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<p>This enables the support for CSS (Cascading Style-Sheets). CSS can be
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inserted internal or as external documents.</p>
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<h4>Allow deprecated Tags</h4>
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<p>This allows the use of deprecated HTML-Tags. Actually the W3 reccomends
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using CSS to format your documents, not the old Tags (e.g. <font> or
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<h4>Use XHTML Syntax</h4>
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<p>This makes Bluefish insert all tags according to the XHTML
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1.0-Specification.</p>
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<h4>Use an XML-Starting-Line</h4>
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<p>Inserts a XML-Line in the Head of the Document (usually a standard
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SGML-Line is inserted).</p>
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<h4>Allow the Ruby-Tags included in XHTML 1.0</h4>
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<p>"Ruby-Tags" are tags introduced in XHTML 1.0 that are used esp.
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in japanese files to insert information thats helps in pronouncing.</p>
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<h4>Allow new Tags of HTML 4</h4>
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<p>When clicked, the Tags of HTML 4 instead of those in HTML 3.2 are used
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(where applicable).</p>
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<h4>Allow the Use of Frames</h4>
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<p>Turns on Frame-support in Bluefish when selected.</p>
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<h4>Require an DOCTYPE on first line of document</h4>
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<p>Inserts a DOCTYPE-line in newly created documents.</p>
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<h4>Set the DTD-URL in the DOCTYPE-line</h4>
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<p>Inserts the DTD-URL into the DOCTYPE-Line.</p>
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<h4>Allow the use of Internet Explorer proprietary Tags</h4>
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<h4>Allow the use of Netscape proprietary Tags</h4>
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<h4>Default charset</h4>
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<p>This does not have any functionality yet.</p>
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<h3>Main GUI options</h3>
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<p align="CENTER"><img src="../images/config_gui.png" width="425" height=
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"524" border="0" alt="GUI tab"></p>
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<h4>Notebook tab font</h4>
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<p>This works exactly as in the <a href="#set-font">Editor tab</a>, only
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that it sets the font of the tabs in the editing area (i.e. the tabs that
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contain the names of the files opened). It is advised that you keep it to a
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small simple font.</p>
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<h4>Font is a fontset</h4>
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<p>Select this if your selected font is a fontset, i.e. it has a number of
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different charsets and is therefor suitable for drawing international
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<h4>Notebook position</h4>
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<p>By default, the tabs are in top of the text area. If, however, you find
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them more comfortable in another position, you can set them at the
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<i>bottom, right and left</i> of the text area.</p>
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<p>To select another position, press the button on the right and a list of
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the positions will appear, from which you can select the prefered position.
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Note that you can also change the position with the Up and Down cursors.</p>
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<h4>Initial width & height</h4>
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<p>These two variables set the width and height of the main window.</p>
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<p>To adjust the width & height to your preferences, you can either
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write the new values or use the up/down button at the right, which will
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increase and decrease the value by 5. Furthermore, if you press the Up and
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Down cursors, the value will also be increased or decreased by 5.</p>
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<p>The default values are 600 for width and 400 for height.</p>
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<h4>File list initial size</h4>
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<p>Here you can set the minimum size of the file-list in the left. Standard
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is 150. You can manually change the width of the filelist when working.</p>
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<h4>Items in open recent menu</h4>
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<p>The number of the last opened files that will appear under File ->
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<h4>Items in directory history</h4>
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<p>The number of the last used directories that will appear above the
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<h4>Filter file browser default</h4>
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<p>When selected the file-filter function of the file-browser is enabled by
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<h4>Backup file before saving</h4>
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<p>When selected, backup files are created upon file-save.</p>
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<h4>Backup file suffix</h4>
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<p>This suffix is appended to the filename when creating backup-files. It is
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set to ´~´ by default.</p>
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<a name=files_images><h3>Files and images</h3></a>
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<p align="CENTER"><img src="../images/config_img.png" width="676" height="558" alt="image dialog tab"></p>
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<h4>Thumbnail type</h4>
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<h4>Thumbnail extension string</h4>
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<h4>Allow multiple instances of the same file</h4>
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<p>If enabled you can open the same file multiple times. This
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can lead to unexpected results. If disabled (default) bluefish
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will switch to the already opened document when you open a
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file multiple times.</p>
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<h4>Backup file before saving</h4>
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<h4>Backup file suffix</h4>
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<h4>Backup file by copy instead of rename</h4>
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<p>usually bluefish renames the original file, and opens the
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original filename as a new file. if you're working with links
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this doesn't work (the link then is broken). Choose this option if
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you're working with links.</p>
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<h4>Backup failure action</h4>
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<p>'ask', 'save' or 'abort'. If the backup fails (you have for
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example bo write permissions in the directory, but you do have them
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on the file itself), still continue, abort the save or ask at the very
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<h4>Open commandline files in already running bluefish</h4>
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<p>If you select this option (default) you can add 'bluefish %s'
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as default program to filemanagers like gmc, and every file will
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be opened in the same bluefish window.</p>
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<h4>File filters</h4>
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<a name=external><h3>External</h3></a>
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<p align="CENTER"><img src="../images/config_external.png" alt=
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<h4>Browser command</h4>
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<p>This refers to the <code>View->View in Netscape</code> function. With
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this function, you can view your document in Netscape, so as to preview how
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it looks like so far.</p>
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<p>Normally, you don't have to change this, but in case the default
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setting doesn't work, you can write the command and parameters, just
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like if you were calling the program from bash. The only thing you must note
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is to put <code>%s</code> at the place where the filename would normally be
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placed (Bluefish will replace that with the filename automaticly).</p>
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<p>The default setting is: <code>netscape -remote OpenUrl\(%s\)</code></p>
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<h4>Weblint command</h4>
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<p>The commandline with which weblint is invoked. Weblint is a html
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<h4>ispell command</h4>
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<p>The commandline with which ispell is invoked. ispell is a spell-checking
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<h4>default language</h4>
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<p>The default language for ispell to check against.</p>
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<h4>Accept compound words, Specify additional characters that might form a
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word, Personal dictionary, Input encoding</h4>
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<p>These are special switches for ispell to change its behaviour. For
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further information look at ispells manpage.</p>
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