UltraEdit Power Tips

Often users have requested more in-depth information regarding specific features supported in our applications, and we now maintain an archive of detailed information regarding useful, time-saving functionality in UltraEdit growing arsenal of powerful products.

Table Of Contents

UltraEdit power tips

  • Keyboard shortcuts Maximize your speed and efficiency by utilizing UltraEdit’s keyboard shortcuts. We list the default shortcuts in this guide, but you are able to customize them to your liking.
  • Smart Templates UltraEdit includes Smart Templates, a way to automatically complete your code. Type the template text and UltraEdit will automatically suggest the template!
  • Vertical & Horizontal Split Window This is a convenient feature when you’re manually comparing files, when you want to copy/paste between multiple files, or when you simply want to divide up your edit space.
  • Tabbed Child Windows Declutter your edit space by using the tabbed child windows feature
  • Auto-Hide Child Windows When you’re deep in your code, the most important thing is editing space. The all new auto-hide child windows give you The all new auto-hide child windows allow you to maximize your editing space by hiding the child windows against the edge of the editor.
  • Quick Open UltraEdit and UEStudio provide multiple methods to quickly open files without using the standard Open File dialog. A favorite method among power users is the Quick Open in the File menu. The benefit of the quick open dialog is that it loads up very…
  • Column Markers The benefit of a column marker is that it can help you to format your text/code, or in some cases to make it easier to read in complex nested logic.
  • Customizing toolbars Did you know that you can not only change what is on UltraEdit’s toolbars, you can also change the icon used, as well as create your own custom toolbars and tools?
  • File tabs Understand how file tabs can be displayed, controlled and configured through the window docking system in UltraEdit/UEStudio.
  • Create user/project tools Execute DOS or Windows commands in UltraEdit or UEStudio
  • Temporary Files UltraEdit and UEStudio use temporary files… but what are temporary files? This power tip provides an explanation as well as some tips to get the most out of temp files.
  • Backup and Restore Settings One of the staples of UltraEdit (and UEStudio) is its highly configurable interface and features. However, what happens when you’re moving to a new system and you want to port your settings and customizations over along with UltraEdit?
  • Add a webpage to your toolbar Use UltraEdit’s powerful user tools to launch your favorite website from the click of a button on your toolbar
  • Integrate Yahoo!, Google, Wikipedia and more with UltraEdit This tutorial will show you how to access the information you need in your browser by simply highlighting your text in the edit window and clicking your toolbar button
  • Scripting tutorial An introduction to UltraEdit’s integrated scripting feature
  • Scripting Access to the Clipboard How to access the Clipboard using the integrated scripting engine
  • The List Lines Containing String option in Find The lists lines option can be a handy tool when searching because it presents all occurrences of the find string in a floating dialog box. You can use the dialog to navigate to each instance by double-clicking on one of the result lines…
  • Scripting access to output window How to access the output window using the integrated scripting engine
  • Writing a macro Steps to record and edit powerful macros to quickly and efficiently edit files
  • Using “copied” and “selected” variables for dynamic macros Use copied and selected text in macros to dramatically increase the power and flexibility of UltraEdit macros
  • Run a macro or script from the command line We are often asked if it is possible to run an UltraEdit macro or script on a file from the command line. The answer is yes – and it’s not only possible, it’s extremely simple!
  • Using find/replace UltraEdit and UEStudio have powerful find and replace functionality for searching and replacing text in one or more text files. Learn how to use this functionality in this power tip.
  • Multiline find and replace Search and replace text spanning several lines
  • Incremental search Incremental search is an inline, progressive search that allows you to find matched text as you type, much like Firefox’s search feature
  • Regular expressions This power tip covers UltraEdit’s legacy and Unix style regular expressions with several examples. Learn about simple string matching, character sets, ‘OR’ expressions, dealing with blank lines, and reformatting existing data, all with regular expressions
  • Tagged expressions “Tagging” the find data allows UltraEdit/UEStudio to re-use the data similar to variable during a replace. For example, If ^(h*o^) ^(f*s^) matches “hello folks”, ^2 ^1 would replace it with “folks hello”.
  • Perl regular expressions: Getting started An introduction to using Perl-style regular expressions for find and replace in UltraEdit and UEStudio
  • Perl regular expressions: Non-greedy regex If you’ve ever found yourself trying to build the perfect regular epression to match the least amount of data possible, then non-greedy Perl regex are what you need. Perl regular espressions are naturally ‘greedy’. Learn more, here.
  • Perl regular expressions: Digging deeper A deeper look at some of the advanced features of Perl regular expressions in UltraEdit and UEStudio
  • Perl regular expressions: Backreferences How to use Perl regex backreferences in Find and Replace in UltraEdit
  • Remove blank lines A question we often see is ‘I have a lot of blank lines in my file and I don’t want to go through and manually delete them. Is there an easier way to do this?’ YES. We cover how to do this with regular expressions for Perl and non-perl styles.
  • Configure FTP Set up and configure FTP accounts to edit files from an FTP server
  • Configure FTP backup Save a local copy of your files when you transfer them to FTP directories
  • Encrypt and Decrypt Text Files Use UltraEdit to encrypt and decrypt your text files
  • Link to remote directories Sync local directories with remote (FTP/SFTP) directories
  • Using the SSH/Telnet console A tutorial for UltraEdit/UEStudio’s SSH/Telnet feature
  • Compare Modified File Against Source File How to compare the modified file against the source file on disk.
  • Column Based Find and Replace Need to restrict your search/replace to a specific column range? The column based search does just that…
  • Compare Highlighted Text UltraCompare is included with UltraEdit and UEStudio. This is a guide on how to compare portions of a file with highlighted text compare.
  • Adding a wordfile Adding a wordfile for syntax highlighting in UltraEdit v15.00 and greater
  • Adding a wordfile (in v14.20 and earlier) Add a language definition to your wordfile for use with UltraEdit and UEStudio’s powerful syntax highlighting
  • Syntax highlighting and code folding Explanation of highlighting and folding definitions in the UltraEdit/UEStudio wordfile
  • Filtering the Explorer View How to filter the Explorer view in UltraEdit and UEStudio
  • Group Files and Folders with Projects How to group your files and folders using Projects
  • Adding or removing file extensions for syntax highlighting How to configure syntax highlighting to highlight different file types automatically
  • Project Settings Advanced Project Features – Using the UltraEdit/UEStudio project settings dialog
  • Scripting Techniques Scripting techniques for UltraEdit/UEStudio.
  • Perl-style regular expressions for function strings Using Perl-Style regexes to identify functions in your syntax-highlighted files and populate the function list
  • Autocorrect keywords in UltraEdit/UEStudio How to enable and disable autocorrect keywords with syntax highlighting
  • Insert Menu Commands UltraEdit includes several special insert functions under the Insert menu. You can use these functions to insert a file into the active file, insert a string into the file at every specified increment, sample colors from anywhere on your screen, and more.
  • Creating Search Favorites UltraEdit includes a Search and Replace Favorites feature that allows you to manage frequently used Find and Replace strings. Create, name, and edit your Search and Replace Favorites…
  • Customizing HTML toolbar commands The purpose of this power tip is to teach you how to customize the existing HTML tags and create your own HTML tags.
  • Combine multiple text files into a single file Have you ever needed to combine multiple files into a single destination (output) file? You can use a combination of a script and tool to create a single file from multiple files.
  • Sum Column/Selection in Column Mode This power tip demonstrates how to calculate the sum from a column of numeric data.
  • Column mode Here we walk through one of UltraEdit’s most powerful, yet easy to use features, Column Mode (sometimes referred to as block mode. Learn all about how you can edit columns of data in seconds, and explore everything column mode, here.
  • Sort This power tip shows you how to use UltraEdit text editor to sort entire files, selections, or CSV files by field.
  • Working with CSV files Use UltraEdit’s built-in handling for character-separated value files
  • Word wrap and tab settings for different file types UltraEdit and UEStudio allow you to customize the word wrap and tab settings for any type of file. This power tip walks you through the steps to configure these customizations
  • Version backups Set UltraEdit/UEStudio to automatically save version backups of your text and source files
  • Configure spell checker How to set the highly-configurable options for UltraEdit’s integrated spell checker
  • Special functions UltraEdit includes several special functions under the File menu. You can use these functions to insert a file into the current file, delete the active file, send the file through email, or insert a string into the file at every specified increment
  • HTML preview Edit and preview your rendered HTML code in the edit window
  • Compare files/folders UEStudio/UltraEdit natively support integration with UltraCompare Pro. Comparing files/folders from within UltraEdit has never been easier. Learn how to use the feature, here.
  • File change polling Monitor log files and more using UltraEdit’s file change polling feature
  • Vertically split the edit window Splitting the edit window in UltraEdit/UEStudio
  • Large file text editor UltraEdit can be used to open, edit, compare, and save large text files (even over 4+ GB!) We explain and break down configuration settings, here.
  • Multiple configuration environments of Ultraedit/UEstudio How to set up your separate environments for UltraEdit/UEStudio
  • Java compiler Create a custom user tool to compile Java code, using the command line, from within UltraEdit
  • Configure UltraEdit with javascript lint How to check your JavaScript source code for common mistakes without actually running the script or opening the web page
  • Character properties at your fingertips Access the properties of a character with the click of a button
  • Ctags Set up and configure Ctags for use in UltraEdit
  • Visual SourceSafe integration Create a customized user tool to check out files from Visual SourceSafe
  • Working with Unicode in UltraEdit/UEStudio A brief overview of Unicode, the differences of UTF-8 and UTF-16, and how to view, edit, and convert UTF-16 and UTF-8 text files in UltraEdit and UEStudio.
  • Search and delete lines found UEStudio and UltraEdit provide a way for you to search and delete found lines from your files. This short tutorial provides the steps for searching for and deleting lines by writing a simple script.
  • Using Bookmarks UltraEdit and UEStudio provide a way for you to mark, access, and preview your favorite lines via bookmarks. We’ll look at how to create, edit, and configure bookmarks in the bookmark viewer.
  • Using the CSS style builder UltraEdit and UEStudio both include a CSS style builder for you to easily configure and insert CSS styles into the active document. This power tip will show you how to use the style builder.
  • Parsing XML files and editing XML files Parsing XML can be a time-consuming task. UltraEdit’s XML manager allows you to navigate through the XML tree, search, move nodes up and down, copy or cut nodes, and even duplicate with ease. Explore all of the XML manager’s features here.
  • SSH/Telnet Session Logging Log the input and output to/from the server in your SSH/Telnet sessions
  • Edit, develop, debug, and run SAS programs This user-submitted power tip describes how to use UltraEdit as a SAS editor, as well as how to run and debug SAS programs from the editor itself
  • Tabs to Spaces – Ignore tabs and spaces in string and comments Ever had to convert the tab characters to spaces, but wanted to leave the tabs in strings and comments untouched? In previous versions, the convert tabs to spaces feature didn’t distinguish between tabs as whitespace/formatting vs. tabs in…
  • Setting File Associations in UltraEdit/UEStudio A file association is used by Windows Explorer to determine which application will open the file when it is double-clicked (or opened) in Explorer. In the interest of speed, many UltraEdit/UEStudio users want to associate specific file types with…
  • Windows Explorer Integration We know that many UltraEdit/UEStudio users don’t operate solely from within the editor; rather, they are frequently working in Windows Explorer before going to the editor. As such, they want (and need) a quick and easy way to open files from within…
  • Line Change Indicator Ever wanted to see what changes you’ve made since your last save, or have you ever wanted to know what lines you’ve changed during an edit session? As of UltraEdit v16.00, you can do just that with the line change indicator…
  • Comment and Uncomment Selected Text How many times per day do you comment out a block of code? Do you ever get tired of manually typing your open and close comments? As of v16.00, simply highlight your code, click a button, and move on. It’s that easy…
  • Hide, Show, and Delete Found Lines in UltraEdit/UEStudio In this power tip, we’ll take a look at how to filter lines containing a specific string in UltraEdit and UEStudio using the Find dialog.
  • Read Only Status Indicator Have you ever opened a file, tried incessantly to modify it, then realized it was read only? As of v16.00, UltraEdit includes an enhanced read only status indicator. For read only files, the file tab will display a lock icon. Additionally, you can…
  • Regular Expression Builder Regular Expressions are essentially patterns, rather than literal strings, that are used to compare/match text in Find/Replace operations. As an example, the * character in a Perl regular expression matches the preceding character or expression zero or..
  • XML Manager: In-line editing of XML files The XML Manager allows you to navigate through complex XML data. But, what happens when you want to make a quick edit to your XML tags/data…. UltraEdit v16.00 extends the XML Manager with inline editing, giving you a faster and more elegant method…
  • UltraEdit v16.00 Scripting Enhancements One of UltraEdit’s trademark features is the ability to automate tasks through scripting. V16.00 extends the power of scripting further with includes, active document index, and more!
  • Parse Source Code with the Function List The function list displays all the functions in the active file/project. Double clicking on a function name in the list repositions the file to the desired function. Also, as you navigate through a file, the function selected in the list changes to indica
  • Brace Matching Brace matching is an often-used feature; it is indispensable for navigating through your code. Brace matching simply allows you to position your cursor next to an open (or close) brace and highlight the corresponding brace.
  • Code Folding Code folding is indispensable for managing complex/nested code structures. Code folding allows you to collapse (hide) a section of code. The collapsible sections are based on the structure of the file/language
  • Shared FTP accounts Do you use multiple UltraEdit products – UltraEdit, UEStudio, or UltraCompare? Ever get sick of managing your FTP account information in each application? Now you can stop worrying about porting your FTP account settings! Simply configure it once and share you
  • Auto-load macro with project Many UltraEdit/UEStudio users rely heavily on projects – and why not, projects are extremely helpful in managing related files and folder. Projects not only allow you to group/manage your files and folders, but projects also contain other items that…
  • Copy and paste syntax highlighting as RTF or HTML How to copy source code as HTML or RTF and preserve the code highlighting
  • The status bar in UltraEdit and UEStudio Did you know that the status bar in UltraEdit and UEStudio provides a wealth of information in a convenient, unobtrusive way? The status bar displays properties of the active file and also provides a way to access and modify some of these properties.
  • Multi-caret editing Multi-caret editing in UltraEdit
  • Split large files If you need to split a very large file into smaller chunks, you can do this via scripting. One of our power users, Mofi, has written a script that does the job perfectly. We walk through each step, here.

UEStudio power tips

UltraEdit Mac/Linux Powertips

  • FTP through Nautilus Did you know that you can access remote FTP files in UltraEdit for Linux with a variety of server connection protocols? Using Nautilus, the default file manager for the popular GNOME desktop, you can access files via FTP, SFTP, Windows shares, or even…
  • Primary Select Using Linux’s primary select feature in UltraEdit for Linux
  • Custom terminal Set up a user tool to interact with the command line and specify a custom terminal for output
  • Custom file browser UltraEdit for Linux allows you to right-click any file or folder in your Project (from the File View) and browse it on the file system. But did you know that you can configure which file browser is launched from UltraEdit?
  • Scripting tutorial An introduction to the integrated scripting feature in UltraEdit for Linux
  • Writing a macro Steps to record and edit powerful macros to quickly and efficiently edit files in UltraEdit text editor for Linux
  • Vertical and horizontal split window editing A convenient feature in UltraEdit for Mac/Linux when you’re manually comparing files, when you want to copy/paste between multiple files, or when you simply want to divide up your edit space.
  • Find and Replace A guide to the powerful features and options available under the “Search” menu.
  • Find in Selected Text Find and Replace is a cornerstone feature for UltraEdit, so it is of course integral to UltraEdit for Linux. The Linux version offers the same features as in the Windows version, as well as additional features. One specific feature that was improved…
  • Using bookmarks Provides a way for you to mark and quickly access lines of interest in your files via bookmarks. To add a bookmark, make sure the cursor is positioned on the line you’d like to bookmark. Press CTRL + F2….
  • Adding a wordfile Add a language definition to your wordfile for use with UltraEdit’s powerful syntax highlighting
  • Projects In UltraEdit for Linux, projects are a convenient, time-saving, feature that allow you to group and manage associated files. Additionally, Projects are integrated throughout the framework of UltraEdit making it easier to perform other actions on your…
  • Search Favorites UltraEdit for Linux includes a Search and Replace Favorites feature that allows you to manage frequently used Find and Replace strings. Create, name, and edit your Search and Replace Favorites…
  • Column mode How to use column and block selection mode in UltraEdit for Linux
  • Templates How to create text editing templates in UltraEdit for Linux
  • Keyboard shortcuts A quick reference guide to UltraEdit’s (Linux) default keyboard shortcuts
  • How to use the UltraEdit for Linux tar package This guide shows you how to download and use the tar.gz package of UltraEdit
  • UltraEdit for Linux v1.20: Scripting enhancements One of UEx’s trademark features is the ability to automate tasks through scripting; v1.2 extends the power of scripting further with includes.
  • UltraEdit for Linux Command Line Support UltraEdit for Linux has many convenient command line options and flags for calling UEx from a console/terminal as part of a script, or simply for convenience.
  • Advanced file sorting Sort files in UEx with a powerful array of options and settings, including optional sort keys
  • UltraEdit on FreeBSD Run UltraEdit text editor for Linux on FreeBSD

UltraCompare power tips

  • Compare text snippets A tutorial showing you how to compare text snippets without having to save your snippets into a file. Diff your snippets, merge your changes, save the result as a separate file, then clear out the snippets (and their temp files…)
  • Compare .zip, .rar., and .jar Archives A guide on utilizing UltraCompare’s archive compare feature. UltraCompare is included with UltraEdit and UEStudio. Free full-feature 30 day trial.
  • Compare large files Compare huge files with UltraCompare. It’s included with UltraEdit and UEStudio. Here, we walk through configurations to compare large files.
  • Increase your virtual memory Large file comparisons may require your system to use virtual memory. This tutorial shows you how to configure Windows to increase the amount of virtual memory on your system.
  • Visually inspect HTML code How to use UltraCompare Professional’s integrated browser view to visually compare and inspect HTML code
  • Version Control Comparison UltraCompare v6.40 includes major improvements to the command line support that allow greater flexibility when integrating with other applications. If you’re using version control in a team development environment, then UltraCompare v6.40 is exactly…
  • Compare directories using FTP/SFTP Configure FTP/SFTP accounts in UltraCompare Professional to backup or sync FTP directories and compare local and remote folders.
  • Block and line mode merge Merge differences and save them between 2 or 3 files at the click of a button
  • Sync files and folders with Folder Synchronization Folder Synchronization is a powerful feature in UltraCompare which allows you to sync files between local, remote, network, and even FTP folders.
  • Recursive compare Use recursive compare to evaluate subdirectories’ content for differences
  • Find and eliminate duplicate files Unnecessary and unwanted duplicate files can eat up valuable system disk space. This power tip will show you how to quickly and safely eliminate unwanted duplicate files from your system with the powerful Find Duplicates feature in UltraCompare
  • Compare Word documents Compare multiple Microsoft Word documents – Identify and merge differences between Word documents.
  • Command line tips Tips for running UltraCompare from a DOS command prompt
  • Command line quick difference check Run a quick difference check between two files to quickly see if they’re the same or different
  • Ignore/compare column range Set parameters to ignore or compare up to 4 unique columns of data.
  • Filtering files in folder mode Filtering files in UltraCompare while in folder mode
  • Customizing the time/date format for folder comparison Many UltraCompare users in different regions of the world have different standard formats for dates and timestamps. UltraCompare provides the ability to customize the date and timestamp for your folder comparisons
  • Editing files in UltraCompare How to use the integrated text editing capabilites within UltraCompare
  • UltraCompare shell integration Tips for integrating UltraCompare into the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer
  • Export/save text compare output How to export and save diff output from UltraCompare. UltraCompare is included with UltraEdit and UEStudio. Free full-feature 30 day trial.
  • Web Compare If you work with web files, you are probably accustomed to downloading the file via FTP or viewing the source, saving the text, then doing a compare. We’re sure you’ll agree, this process is clunky and mechanical….
  • Manually Sync Your Compare Manually sync your compare lines
  • Reload previously active sessions When you’re doing complex file and folder compare operations, it doesn’t take long to open quite a few tabs. What happens when you close UC to move on to another task or to go home for the day- lose the session? Not with Reload active sessions…
  • Session Manager If you’ve compared the same set of files/folders more than once… You need sessions. Sessions allow you to save compare options for a common set of files or folders which you can quickly recall anytime you open UltraCompare. Not only can you save…
  • Workspace Manager The Workspace Manager is all about convenience, so the Explorer view allows you to drag/drop files and folders for quick and easy compare operations. Simply select the folder (or file) in the Explorer view and drag it to the compare frame.
  • Bookmark Favorite Files/Folders in UltraCompare How to use Favorite in UltraCompare to bookmark your commonly used files/folders.
  • FTP in Workspace Manager You can access your accounts through the Explorer tab of the Workspace Manager in UltraCompare
  • Share FTP Accounts with UltraEdit/UEStudio Set up UltraEdit/UEStudio to share FTP accounts with UltraCompare
  • FTP Folder Compare with CRC Have you wanted to do a quick folder compare – between a local directory and remote directory – without downloading the files first? No problem… As of v7.20, UltraCompare now supports an FTP CRC compare method. With the CRC compare feature…
  • Mark and hide files and folders in folder compare Have you ever wanted to hide files/folders that aren’t relevant for your immediate compare needs? We have… While UltraCompare offers many compare filters and ignore options, sometimes you just need more control…

UltraFinder power tips