Does anybody know of a non-manual method of highlighting syntax when pasted in InDesign?
I'm trying to show code of a project in an InDesign documentation but don't want to have to manually highlight the code, and preferably add numbered rows too.
Is there a plugin to achieve this?
This is the style in which I'd like to format the code.
Cheers
Not sure if you worked out an answer to this, but there's no magic button that will solve your problem.
However, InDesign does have a facility in each Paragraph style called GREP that can do what you're looking for.
This lets you write 'regex' or 'regular expressions' that are just rules for what to apply a given character style to. Yes, they look about as meaningful as Harry Potter incantations at first glance, but 2 or 3 simple regexes will get you a long way.
For instance:
(\<|<)!--\s*.*?\s*--(\>|>)
Will target HTML comments only.
(?<=").*?(?=")
This will target anything wrapped in straight double quotes.
(?<=\().*?(?=\))
This will target any text inside parentheses ().
There's an '#' symbol button in that GREP style next to where you type the regex - that gives you a drop-down menu that is almost like a 'Regex Wizard'. Try that too.
When you've got a regex that works, create a new character style for the text color and select it in the 'Apply Style' input.
Regexr.com has a tool that is good for testing this stuff. Paste your code sample in the bottom panel and your line of regex in the top. The bits that it targets will turn blue.
There is a searchable community panel on the left where people have probably already written expressions like the one you need.
I'm working out a JavaScript highlighter at the moment. It's a shame there's no communal 'Indesign style sharing library'.
Best of luck.
If had luck pasting syntax highlighted code into a Rich Text editor like Libre Office and then pasting it into Indesign. Just make sure whatever font your syntax highlighted code is in is also in InDesign because you'll get font missing errors when you pre-flight the book.
Related
I notice in VS2013 that if I highlight text with a view to making a change, the same text is highlighted elsewhere in the file. However, I can't seem to find the option to reflect the change in multiple places when I start typing.
Is this feature just for information only or can I actually do multiple replacements by typing the change once?
This is not supported out of the box.
But there is a nice plugin you can use to enable this, called MultiEditing.
H/T to Scott Hanselman :)
Also note that even in standard VS2013, you can edit multiple lines by "box-highlighting".
This is where you create a "box-selection" either by holding down Alt and dragging a box around the text, or by Alt+Shift+ArrowKeys. Then start typing and the same text will appear on multiple lines.
e.g. with the following text:
Some text to demonstrate
Some info to demonstrate
Some more to demonstrate
...if you Alt+drag a box-selection around all 3 occurrences of the word to, and then type which, it will look like this:
Some text which demonstrate
Some info which demonstrate
Some more which demonstrate
This also works with copy/paste - the pasted text gets applied to all lines within the box-selection.
It's pretty hard for me to describe here, so try it yourself!
Is there any way with TextMate to hide comments when editing code? Sometimes I want to see my code with the full comments and other times just want to see the code itself with all comments hidden. I was hoping there would be a way to toggle the display of comments, but haven't been able to find anything about this.
It is something you will need to edit on a language by language basis, but it is very doable. Inside of Bundles -> Bundle Editor -> Edit Languages you will find the language definition that TextMate uses to highlight that particular syntax. Inside of the syntax definition you will find foldingStartMarker and foldingStopMarker.
You can add comment syntax to those to allow the folding off comments themselves. It might be pretty tricky for single line comments, but multiline comments, that have both a clear and unique start and stop syntax, should work fine.
For PHP, for example, we are going to want to add \/\* to the start syntax, and \*\/ to the end syntax. You will need to reload the bundle for these changes to take effect (or restart TM).
Can anyone tell me if there's a quick way to format your code in Text Mate, similar to pressing ctrl K+D in Visual studio?
Thanks!
Edit by Damien_The_Unbeliever:
For those not familiar with Ctrl K+D, it doesn't just indent code - it reformats it using the generally established formatting conventions in the editor - it may replace spaces with tabs or vice-versa for the indentation, ensure code is consistently indented, move braces to separate lines, etc.
TextMate reindenting and reformatting varies a little depending on the language you're using.
You can generally use the Text menu, that depending wether you have an active selection or not it will show you different commands under it. For example, if you have selected a section of code, there will be a Indent Selection menu item. If you have no active selection, it will be Indent Line.
To have this working properly, be sure to select the current language, if it isn't assigned yet (like on unsaved documents). If you're working with HTML, it will simply indent the lines depending on what's above it. It will keep line breaks intact.
If you need something to break out tags on new lines and properly format the document, you should use the Tidy command that is found in the Bundles menu, under HTML (or simply by using the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+H. If you have a selection active at the moment that you use it, it will simply reindent that section. If instead you have no selection, it will properly reformat the whole document, including checking for tag validity and other errors.
The Bundles for other language have similar commands, like XML (still Tidy) and Javascript (that has a Reformat Document command).
As an ending note, I simply suggest to look into the Bundles menu; there are many little gems in it. ;)
Did you look in the menu bar? Under Text you have a couple of Reformat… entries that may fit your needs.
Beside these native features, some bundles — like the JavaScript one — have custom Reformat… commands : click on the little cog button at the bottom and explore your current language's bundle's content.
I have a specific language (its private, and closed source) that I'm writing code highlighting for in Notepad++. I've never done anything like this before... so, for the most part, I'm clueless.
There are a bunch of keywords, and I've figured out how to implement those, but the strings are denoted by square brackets ([ and ]) instead of normal quotes. How do I register those as strings in the XML file?
Another thing, the language relies heavily on recursion and nesting; is there some way to say "Level 1 of the square brackets is this color, level 2 is this color, etc..."?
There's a useful help page that explains how to use the GUI to define a custom language for Notepad++. As Alex K noted in a comment above, the option for setting string delimiters appears to be in the Delimiters boxes in the Operators tab. It doesn't look like it supports different colours for different levels of nesting, though.
Update for those who have been asking the same question:
(Temporary) Documentation for custom syntax highlighting is on: http://udl20.weebly.com/index.html
There is a link to this in Notepad++ but it doesn't stand out.
I had log4net files that I wanted to view in Notepad++. They contained lines like:
2015-06-03 16:38:10,751 [Compname][Thread:29][FATAL]
To highlight [FATAL] just the keyword list wasn't enough. I added this:
On tabpage "Folder & Default" > Folding in code style 1: >
Open: [
Close: ]
On tabpage "Keyword lists" > 1ste group > FATAL with some styling.
One of my application components produces some extremely hairy log files. They require a lot of poking and prodding before they produce useful information. I'm on the hunt for a text editor for windows that will let me enter text in either RegEx or Grep-style syntax, and automatically show/hide the relevant lines.
Does anyone know of a text editor that has this feature?
Thanks!
IVR Avenger
I know it's answered already, but http://glogg.bonnefon.org/ is the perfect answer for this. Couldn't live w/o it.
I would recommend Notepad++ as far as a good all-around Windows text editor is concerned - it is very extensible and includes just about every power feature you need to wade through data logs. If your log files are in a well-defined format, you can even use the built-in language editor to define a custom visual scheme for your logs - easier on the eyes.
-matt
GVim with for example, :g command. There are also plugins that allow entering search criteria, and they show relevant lines, and fold everything else.
Emacs, of course (occur), but I think pretty much every editor will do this.
Another option is SlickEdit using it's "Selective Display..." option
Although it wont show/hide based on a regex, Textpad will allow you to search and produce a hyperlinked result file with the lines that will allow you to click into the actual log. Consider the benefit: You can keep the filtered results up on your left monitor, and you can click into the full files and show them on your right monitor to see the context.
SPFLite is free and does just what you want. At least the IBM SPF and ISFP (used on IBM mainframes as part of the MVS operating system) that it emulates is just what you want.
From what I have tried, SPFLite will probably do the job. It can X (exclude) all lines from view, or eXclude lines with a given character or phrase (optionally starting in a certain column) from view. Or after eXcluding all lines, you can display, by Finding, characters or strings (optionally starting in a certain column). I think it also has a macro capability. The original does, and I think this Lite does as well. How robust I do not know. The original could create interactive screens and programs using the MVS TSO Command Language.
I found SPFLite at http://www.spflite.com/
I found that this interface is not so easy to use, but one gets used to about anything if necessary.