Editor Language Properties

Enterprise Architect enables you to specify syntax highlighting properties for all the programming languages that Enterprise Architect supports at installation. (You cannot currently set properties for any additional languages you include through an MDG Technology).

On the Code Editors page of the Options dialog, click on the [ ... ] (Browse) button next to the Syntax Highlighting Options field. The Editor Language Properties dialog displays. You can resize this dialog, if required.

General Features

The panel on the left of the dialog lists the languages for which you can set properties. The (Global) item at the top of the list enables you to set properties that apply to all programming languages; however, you can reset a global property to a different value for a specific language, on the page for that language. Resetting a global property for one language does not affect that property's value for the other languages.

Click on the required language in the list, to display the properties for that language. Those properties shown in bold indicate that this is the highest level at which this property can be defined (for most language options other than Global, this is effectively the only point at which the property is defined). Properties shown in normal font are generally the global properties that you can reset just for the current language.

Scroll through the property categories and individual properties for the language. You can collapse and expand categories as necessary, using the expansion box next to the category name ().

When you click on a property name, an explanation of that property displays in the panel at the bottom right of the dialog, as shown for Tabs Use Spaces in the screen example above.

Define Properties

To define a property, click on the value field following the property name. Depending on the type of property, either the field is enabled for direct editing or a drop-down arrow or Browse button displays (as described for the Tagged Values window) to enable you to select the values to define the property. Select or type in the required values.

The Toolbar icons enable you to:

• Save your changes to the properties
• Reset ALL properties fields to the default settings shipped with Enterprise Architect
• Reset the current style field to the default setting (not enabled for non-style fields).

Assign Keys to Macros

On the Editor Language Properties dialog, the Macros category enables you to assign [Ctrl]+[Alt] keystrokes to coding macros that you have created yourself in the Source Code Viewer. When you click on the Browse button in one of the Macro fields, the Open Macro dialog displays.

This dialog lists the existing macros and, if a key combination has been assigned to a macro, what that key combination is. These keys are [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[n] combinations.

Click on the name of the macro and on the Open button to assign the selected keys to the macro.