WinVi

Table of Contents

Compatibility with Notepad
vi - File and Display Commands
vi - Positioning
vi - Editing Text
vi - Insert Mode
vi - Cursor Movements
ex - Commands
ex - Options
Search Dialog
Settings
Settings - Profile
Settings - File Type
Settings - Display
Settings - Edit
Settings - Files
Settings - Keyboard Macros
Settings - Shell
Settings - Colors
Settings - Fonts
Settings - Print
Settings - Language

Compatibility with Notepad

WinVi handles files of (nearly) unlimited size without consuming lots of memory. There are a few special characteristics in order to offer maximum compatibility with Windows Notepad:

• As a default preset, WinVi starts in input mode (this can be changed). Keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+C (^C) for copying a selected text are available. For selecting text, hold down the shift key while typing cursor movement keys (see table). You can also use the mouse if you are in insert mode. Drag the mouse over a part of the text with the left mouse button held down. You can select an entire word under the mouse cursor by double clicking the left button.
  
  

  Key	Function
  ^A	Select all
  ^C	Copy selected text into clipboard ("copy")
  ^X	Copy selected text into clipboard and remove ("cut")
  ^V	Insert text from clipboard ("paste")
  {Del}	Remove selected text or character at the current cursor position
  {Ins}	Switch between insert and replace mode
  ^{Home}, ^{End}	Move cursor to first / last text line
  {Home}, {End}	Move cursor to start / end of current line
  ^{<-}, ^{->}	Move cursor to previous / next start of word
  Arrow keys	Move cursor to adjacent character in left / right / up / down direction
  {Page ^}, {Page v}	Scroll back / forward one page of text

  
  With WinVi, ^{End} just positions to the start of the last line. For positioning to the end of the last line, release the control key and type the {End} button again.
• For moving the cursor by the left arrow key from a start of line to the end of the previous line and vice versa, enable the corresponding checkbox in Options - Settings - Edit by activating "Line wrapping horizontal cursor movements".
• If you rename WinVi32.exe to a file name starting with the letter N (upper or lower case), the remainder of the command line is treated as one filename. Names containing spaces do not have to be set in quotes.
• If the WinVi32.exe file name starts with an N, the option for printing is /p to preserve Notepad compatibility (otherwise -p).
• In the header and footer area, filename and page number can be printed in addition to "normal" Characters (see Settings - Print).
  
  

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vi - File and Display Commands

These commands are used in command mode (edit mode). From insert, replace, and ex command mode, you enter this mode by typing the {Esc} button.

Optional input is denoted as text in square brackets (can be left away), curly brackets indicate special keys. Sometimes, identifiers for designated input are set in angle brackets for highlighting. Alternative input are separated by a bar, as in |.

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vi - Positioning

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vi - Editing Text

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vi - Insert Mode

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vi - Cursor Movements

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ex - Commands

In WinVi, a list of available ex commands can be requested by typing the tab key after the initial colon. Generally, the tab key can be used to automatically complete the current argument on the ex command line. This is especially useful for expanding file names.

File commands have been discussed earlier and will not repeated here.

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ex - Options

Boolean values are changed with the command   :set <option>{Enter}   for activating and   :set no<option>{Enter}   for deactivating the specified flag, other options (denoted with  = ) expect numerical or string values. Many options can be abbreviated.

In WinVi, a list of available options is displayed when typing   :set{Space}{Tab}  .

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This dialog appears when typing {Alt+F3} or when choosing the corresponding toolbar button or menu entry. The search dialog contains the following fields:

• Search string
  Enter the string to search for. This is a regular expression pattern if the following checkbox is activated. Otherwise, the string is matched literally.
• regular expression search
  Activate this option to search a pattern which is built according to the regular expression rules. If deactivated, the search is carried out literally. If this option is combined with the hexadecimal flag, any \x prefix can be omitted in the search pattern. The dot (.) still matches an entire byte, not just a hexadecimal digit.
• hexadecimal
  The search string is interpreted as a sequence of hexadecimal numbers. Spaces can be inserted for separating hexadecimal codes of the bytes.
• match case
  The upper or lower case of letters will be observed when activated. This flag is prefilled according to the ignorecase option but can be changed to override this option.
• whole word
  The option corresponds to surrounding the search pattern by the regular expression elements \< and \>.
• wrap around EOF
  Search continues at the start/end of the buffer if no occurrence is found. This flag is prefilled according to the wrapscan option but can be changed to override this option.
• up / down
  Use this selection to choose a direction for searching.
• Find next
  Push the button to actually search. The next found occurrence of the search string is highlighted if the search is successful.
• Replace >>
  This button expands the dialog by replace options. It can be pushed after a successful search.
• Replace string
  This field is visible after pushing the "Replace >>" button. Specify a replacement string if you want to change the found text.
• Replace
  Push this button to replace the highlighted occurrence of the search string. This button is disabled if no text is selected.
• Replace All
  Push this button to replace all occurrences of the search string within the file.

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The contents of the tab sheets is described in the following sections. Outside of the tab sheets, there is a Profile selection dropdown box at the upper border of the dialog for file specific settings. When selecting a different profile, all settings are changed as previously saved for that profile. Creating and automatic selection of profiles is described in the next chapter. At the bottom of the dialog, there are selection controls for permanently saving the current settings and the usual buttons for Apply, OK and Cancel.

Settings - Profile

Profiles can be set up if different settings should be applied to files with different extensions or paths.
The settings of a particular profile are automatically loaded when a file with a corresponding path or extension is opened or when the path or name of the current file changes and relates to a different profile afterwards.
File name comparison is case insensitive. For yet unnamed files or files without a full path, the current working folder is used to select an appropriate profile.

If several profiles can be found for the current file, the best matching profile will be used. This search determines the first profile out of the following list:

1. first profile with empty extension field and a longest possible match of the path, if there is no other profile matching at least the same path length and at least one extension, otherwise
2. first profile matching the path as far as possible and matching one extension, otherwise
3. first profile with empty extension and matching the path as far as possible, otherwise
4. first profile with an empty path matching one extension, otherwise
5. first profile except "(default)" with empty path and extension fields, otherwise
6. the Default profile.

1. First, select a profile with the settings that are most in common with the new profile settings. This prevents exhausting adopting the same settings again. When creating your first profile, only the "(default)" profile is available. When selecting another profile, the relating settings are loaded immediately.
2. Push button "Create new profile..." in the profile tab sheet of the settings dialog and
3. enter a name for identifying the new profile, then push "OK".
4. Now you can enter paths and/or file name extensions into the two fields, which should be used to select the new profile. Multiple specifications should be separated by comma or semicolon.
5. The checkbox "Permanent setting as default for this dialog box" specifies if the bottom "Permanent setting" option is activated by default. This can also be set for the Default profile.
6. The current settings in the other tab sheets still contain the values of the previously loaded profile. You can change them now as desired.
7. Finally, the new settings are saved and applied by selecting "Permanent setting" and clicking the "OK" button.

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This dialog affects the procedure for opening a file. These options do not change the current operating mode.

• Standard newline character
  In the first group, the standard encoding of end-of-line indicators are defined. This setting determines how to handle the return/enter key in input/replace mode, on the other hand it defines which newline encodings will not be indicated with additional special symbols. If the current setting is not set to CR/LF, the status bar indicates the non-default newline handling with [Lf] or [Cr], depending on the type of text (after Ctrl+G or after reading or writing a file).
• Initial text / hexadecimal mode
  In the lower left corner, an automatic switch between text and hexadecimal view is selected for open operations of a file.
  Text or hexadecimal display for already loaded files can be selected in the toolbar or menu Options -> Hex edit mode in the main window.
• Initial character set
  In the top right corner, the automatic selection of code pages can be specified. This selection is also applied only when a file is being opened. ANSI is the usual setting for Windows files. The PC character set (also called OEM character set) uses different codes for several special characters and is mostly used in DOS programs. The third choice (EBCDIC) is rare, it is sometimes necessary for compatibility with related computer systems.
• Character mapping
  In the 32-bit version of WinVi, the bottom right corner of this tab sheet shows a codepage selection field for ANSI and PC character sets. These values should only be changed if working with foreign language files. With the default setting ("system"), the system default codepages are used, e. g. 1252 for western ANSI character encoding and 437 for the original American OEM character set.
  These codepage settings are used when switching between ANSI and DOS character sets. On the other hand, they are used for converting Unicode texts inserted from the clipboard.
  Please note that the actual representation depends on the font settings. It cannot be changed for all fonts.
  In the Windows registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nls\Codepage], the installed resources are listed, which can be used for the code page settings. If necessary, the needed files can be extracted from the CAB files of the system installation CD, copied into the system folder and entered into the registry.

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In this dialog, the visual appearance can be modified.

• ShowMatch (highlight matching parentheses)
  If a positioning command places the cursor on a parenthesis, a brace or a square bracket (i.e. (, ), {, }, [ or ]), the relating counterpart is highlighted for one second, if its position is within the visible part of the window. In insert mode, highlighting only appears after input of a closing parenthesis, brace or square bracket. This value can also be set with the command ":set [no]showmatch".
• Terse (short status messages)
  Some messages displayed in the status bar are show in a short form (e. g. after reading a file). This value can also be set with the command ":set [no]terse".
• Automatic activation on file drag & drop
  When dragging a file on the WinVi window (e. g. from the Windows Explorer) the WinVi window is automatically put into the front.
• Line numbers
  A line number is displayed in front of each line. The line numbers count from 1. This value can also be set with the command ":set [no]number".
• Refresh background bitmap
  When using a background picture for the main display, the picture may be misarranged after adding or deleting lines. If this setting is activated the following lines are refreshed in this case. This setting has no effect if no bitmap background is selected.
• Hexadecimal address representation (hexadecimal mode only)
  The addresses in hexadecimal mod (first column) are usually displayed as decimal numbers. With this setting, the numbers are hexadecimal.
• TabStop
  This value describes the distances between tab positions in text mode. The default value of 8 means, that each eight character positions from the first column another tab stop is set. When using a proportional font, the average character width is used. This value can also be set with the command ":set tabstop=N".
• Maximum scroll range
  For Positioning outside of the current window, this value specifies the maximum number of lines to scroll. If positioning would require more scrolling, the entire text area of the window is redrawn with the new target position centered in the middle. A value of 5 means that jumps to lines within the range of 5 lines before and behind the visible window are done by scrolling. Any movement outside of this area results in a direct jump. The value 0 has a special meaning, it replaces a number of the visible lines - 2. This value can also be set with the command ":set scroll=N".

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In this dialog, you can change settings for editing.

• Initial insert mode
  If the initial insert mode is activated, you can start typing text immediately after the start of WinVi. If deactivated, WinVi works in command mode when started. If this option is deactivated, WinVi also changes into command mode after file operations, e. g. when typing the save toolbar button.
• AutoWrite
  If this option is activated, a changed file buffer is automatically written when opening another file.
• AutoIndent
  When inserting new lines with 'O', 'o' or when typing the enter key in insert mode, the new line will get the same white space area as the line from which the inserting operation is initiated. The indentation is done with as much tab characters as possible, the remaining space is filled up with spaces. If tabstop is set to just one space, only spaces are used to indent.
• Line wrapping horizontal cursor movements
  If activated, the cursor right key jumps into the next line if it is already positioned at the last character of a line. Analogously, a left cursor movement from the first column positions to the last position of the preceding line. Additionally, the backspace key deletes the preceding newline character if typed in the first column in insert mode.
• Multi-line !/c/d/y operations on entire rows
  Multi-line shell, change, delete, or yank operations are extended to the entire lines if this option is activated. For example, as with a standard vi, the command dj delete two lines, the result is the same as with 2dd. If this option is deactivated, the command dj just removes the text between the current cursor position and the same column in the next line, while 2dd still removes two entire lines.
• Undo memory
  The entered value determines the maximum memory amount used for saving removed or replaced text areas for later undo. When reaching the specified memory amount, the oldest undo information is removed. Any older operation cannot be undone afterwards.
• ReadOnly as default
  If this option is activated, the file buffer is marked as read-only. This flag can be set even if the actual file is not marked as read-only. The file attribute remains unchanged. Note that the read-only flag can be bypassed with the command :w!. So, this flag does not provide real protection against overwriting a file. This value can also be set with the command ":set readonly".
• ShiftWidth: ... spaces
  In this field you can specify how many spaces are inserted or deleted with the commands << and >>.
• WrapScan (search across EOF)
  If this option is set, an unsuccessful forward search continues at the beginning of the file. Analogously, an unsuccessful backward search is continued at the bottom of the file. This value can also be set with the command ":set wrapscan".
• IgnoreCase (upper case same as lower case)
  This option activates case independent search operations. This also applies to national special characters (accented vowels etc.) as defined by the currently selected character set (ANSI / DOS / EBCDIC). This value can also be set with the command ":set ignorecase".
• Magic (regular expression matching)
  If magic is switched off, search patterns (regular expressions) handle the characters ., *, [, ] and ? literally. Use the \ character to enable the special meaning for regular expression search. With enabled magic option, these characters have the meaning as described in table Regular Expressions. The characters ^ and $ always have a special meaning, this is independent from the magic setting.

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This dialog offers file specific settings.

• Start disk paging at occupation of ... KByte
  Starting at the specified file size, a swapping file is automatically generated in the directory for temporary files. This reduces the virtual memory consumption and usually makes the system much faster. The swapping files get a name of the form wvi*.tmp.
• Use system default temp folder
  Indicate the directory where to write the swapping intermediate files described above.
• Tags file list
  Specify the list of tag files here which are used to lookup identifier definitions. The files can be separated by comma or semicolon.
• Quit immediately if more files to edit
  When the main window is closed, WinVi normally checks the argument list (see ex command :args) if there are further files behind the current file. By activating this flag you can disable this check. If activated, a message box informs you of more files to edit if the current file is not the last one and you have to close the window again to really exit.
• Server tab expansion in domains/workgroups
  This list is used for listing host names if you try to tab-expand a UNC file name at the host portion of the file name. In many networks, there are domains or workgroups which can be reached only after waiting some time. You can reduce the waiting time after typing ":e \\{Tab}" by specifying the main host groups in this list which is always easily accessible. The default value is * which expands to all domains and workgroups where a particular host names should be searched in. The entries in this list can be separated by comma or semicolon. The wildcard characters * and ? can be used to filter part of domain/workgroup names.
• Lower-case file names
  This option allows filenames to be converted to lower-case characters for better readability if you are used to handling with Unix file names. Be careful when using this option with networked resources, especially with NFS. In many cases, these file systems distinguish between upper and lower case.

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In this dialog you can change the keyboard settings.

• Defined Macros
  This list shows the currently defined keyboard macros. It is empty if you did not yet define any keyboard shortcut. For changing or deleting an existing macro, first select the macro name before changing the properties in the right part of this tab sheet.
• Map
  This choice allows a conversion of any input key sequence to an "executable" character sequence.
• Abbreviation
  In contrast to a map entry, this choice is used to expand abbreviated words. The input key sequence is echoed while typing and will be replaced after finishing input of the abbreviation. To initiate abbreviation lookup, it is necessary to enter a special character or to finish input with {Esc}.
• Name
  The name entered in this field is not used for macro processing. It is just a convenient handle for the user to identify the macro in the selection list.
• Input key sequence
  Here, the input keys are described. Special keys like function or cursor keys can be denoted in readable form. Spaces can be interspersed for readability. To avoid misinterpretation, any characters (especially spaces) that are to match exactly, should be surrounded by single or double quotes.
• Key sequence to replace with
  This is the "target" key sequence, i.e. it is the key sequence WinVi operates with. This can be input text, mode change keys, cursor movement keys or menu choice keys. The same syntax rules as for the input key sequence apply.
• Insert / replace mode
  Macro replacement is done if WinVi was in insert mode (I-beam cursor) at the beginning of the input key sequence.
• Command mode
  Macro replacement is done if WinVi is was in command mode (block cursor) at the beginning of the input key sequence.
• Command line mode (ex commands)
  The macro replacement is done on the ex command line in the lower window area.
• Set
  Use this button to add the macro definition to the list.
• Delete
  This deletes the selected macro definition from the list.

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In this dialog you can change the settings for external shell commands.

• Path and file name of shell
  This is the command interpreter executing external commands. Usually, this field contains COMMAND.COM for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me, maybe preceded with the path. For Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, the command interpreter is CMD.EXE.
• Format of shell command
  This field describes the call of a single command. %0 is used for command interpreter described above. %1 is replaced by the actual shell command to execute. The standard value is %0 /c %1 . When using another shell (e. g. Cygwin bash), this field should be adjusted accordingly, e. g. %0 -c "%1" .
• Expand tab key with forward slash for directories
  It might be necessary to use forward slashes instead of backslashes when using particular command interpreters (e. g. Cygwin bash). Activate this option if WinVi should use forward slashes for external commands.
• URL for help file
  Enter the URL of this help file in this field. This value is handed to the browser when typing the help key (F1). A local file starts with the prefix file:// , external HTTP-URLs are beginning with http://. Any occurrences of %EXEPATH or %LANG are replaced by the path of WinVi or the current language used respectively. A trailing # delimits the anchor name reference within the file, which is automatically appended by WinVi.

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In this dialog you can change the colors used for the text presentation in the main window.

• Edit area
  Here you can specify how the main area of the editor appears.
• Selected area
  These colors are used to display the selected area. They are also used for selections resulting from the c command (see vi - Editing Text).
• Matched parenthesis
  If the ShowMatch option is activated (see Settings - Display), relating parentheses are highlighted. The colors for this purpose are set here.
• End of line
  The special characters for indicating non-standard line end codes as well as the tilde used for indicating the end of file are show in this color.
• Basic colors
  In this section the basic colors can be chosen which are available without dithering even with very low color resolution.
• User defined
  In this subdialog, any available color can be mixed.
• Background bitmap
  You can select a bitmap file to be used as the background for non-selected areas in the main window (see also "Refresh background bitmap" in Settings - Display).
• System color
  For the main area and for selected text the system color specifies the colors defined in the display section of the control panel.

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In this dialog you can choose the fonts used for text display in the main window area.

• Text Mode
  This font is used for normal text display when hexadecimal mode is switched off. Besides fonts with constant character widths you can also select proportional fonts. However, the more complex calculations for positioning require additional resources resulting in slower display.
  Some fonts (e. g. Courier New, Lucida Console or Arial) allow the selection of several national character set layouts. If you do not use the default value here, it may be a good idea to also change the codepage settings (see Settings - File Type).
• Hexadecimal Mode
  Here, you specify the font face used in hexadecimal mode. Generally, proportional fonts are also available here but they are not recommended because of the irregular alignment.

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This dialog contains all settings for printing.

• Border Distances
  Specify the distances between paper edges and the printed area here.
• Border Area - Header text
  Here you can enter a title text printed in top of the first line of each page. There are a few character sequences that are replaced:

  &n	This is replaced by the name of the current file.
  &p	The serial number of the current printing page is inserted here.
  &&	Two ampersands are printed as one literal ampersand in the header or footer line.

• Border Area - Footer text
  This text is printed at the bottom of each printing page. You can use the same special character sequences as in the border area.
• Border lines
  If activated, a thin black line is drawn around the printed area.
• Boxed header / footer
  This flag activated printing of a thin black line around the header and footer text lines.
• Print line numbers
  Each text line of the file is preceded by a line serial number. In long lines split on several printing lines only one number is printed in front of the first printed line.
• Paper Format - Use default
  This selection activates the predefined default orientation of the paper.
• Paper Format - Portrait
  This selection activates the portrait orientation, i.e. the top line is positioned at a short paper edge.
• Paper Format - Landscape
  This selection activates the landscape orientation, i.e. the top line is positioned at a long paper edge.
• Paper Format - Double column
  When choosing this point, the text is printed in two columns with a long paper edge in top of the first print line. When activating the Separator line a thin separator line is printed between the two text columns.
• Font
  Select the printing font here. This font is also used for printing the header and footer areas.

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Select the language used for menus, dialog boxes, and other messages in the status bar.
The 32-bit version of WinVi sometimes shows messages provided by the system. These messages are not translated.

• Automatic selection
  With this selection, the system settings are used. That is the language chosen in the Regional Settings area of the Control Panel. However, English is used as the default if the system language is not available.

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