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Last updated: 27 January 2005

These tips were mostly sent in by our users.

How to feed SQL batchfiles to MySQL as a Tool menu command

Using MySQL from Textpad.

Thanks to Textpad Support for the pointer : Run mysql from a .BAT file

Setup:

3. Write your sql file, but the first line must say which database to use.
(In another_trial.sql) 4. Run the Tool.

5. Result : Of course, thereafter, for any alterations to the table you will have to write a drop table or something before the CREATE command.

Putting data into MySQL tables from Textpad

[Section 14.6 of mySQL Manual gives options]

Configure for MySQL import in Textpad:Configure:Preferences:Tools:Add... Name the base name of your file same as the table you want to write to :

Example Session ;
1. Create a test table in mysql :
2. Create your input data in Textpad, and save (UNIX format) with same basename as the table (So in try_it.txt)
3. Run the Tool from Textpad : (At the prompt set database to test).
4. Check the table back in mysql :

This tip was contributed by: John Montgomery

How to Configure Ctags as a tool in TextPad.

Ctags can generate an index table and send it to TextPad's command results window. You can download Ctags from:
http://darren.hiebert.com/ctags/

In TextPad configure a DOS tool with the following setup:

Parameters: ctags -x -R grep '^$Sel>'

Regular Expression: ^[[:alnum:]_]+ +[a-z ]+([0-9]+) +([^ ]+)

File Register = 2
Line Register = 1

Set your initial folder to point to the top of your source code tree that you wish to search.

Note: for this to work, both ctags and grep must be in your path. We use the 'grep' available when you install the cygwin toolset. Availble from http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ (you could use MKS tools as well.) The beauty of the ctags tool is that it supports C, C++, PERL, Java, Fortran, and many more.

To operate, highlight the keyword you wish to search for, invoke the tool, and double click on the resulting line in the command results window.

This tip was contributed by: David Vanden Heuvel, Software Designer, Zucotto Systems, Inc.

How to utilize Ctags to jump to the definition of any identifier.

Notes:
1. The method assumes that the code and the ctags file are in the same directory. You will have to modify some things if this is not true.
2. I use POSIX regular expressions. If you don't, then preceed the open and close parentheses with back slashes.

C++ program to file the ctags file:

This tip was contributed by: Rich Herrick, Lockheed-Martin Federal Systems, Owego, NY

TextPad can be used as a great editor for VBScript code.

You can run your VBScript (*.vbs) file from within TextPad by by creating a new tool.

1. From the 'Configure' menu select 'Preferences'
2. Select the 'Tools' page then.....

Add 'Explorer.exe' with $File and $FileDir parameters.

OR

Add 'cmd' with $File and $FileDir parameters. Windows NT/2000 users. Win 9x users should use 'command'.

As long as you have Microsoft Windows Scripting Host (WSH) installed, you will be able to run your VBScript from within TextPad.

This tip was contributed by: Peter Gomis, Senior Developer, Skandia AFS IT - Global Systems Engineering Services, Shelton, CT

User defined tool settings to allow the user to commit changes to a CVS repository.

All examples assume that the DOS client is installed on your machine, and you've checked out the module you're working on. The WinCVS program includes the dos client programs. These definitions are not intended to replace the use of WinCVS or DOS CVS, just make it easier to commit changes from TextPad.

CVS Login

Do not capture the output of this command - this is an interactive command that prompts for your password

CVS Update

CVS Commit File

You will need to prompt for parameters here, and insert the log message between the quotes.

This tip was contributed by: Dave Weiner - Chief Technology Officer, WebMasters, Inc. - www.webmast.com

Automating the Installation Process

By following the steps described here, you can create a standard installation, which can be run on each workstation, without user interaction. This tip is only valid for TextPad versions up to and including version 4.5.

First, record a file containing your setup choices:

1. Open the self-extracting executable (e.g. TXPENG41.EXE) with a ZIP program, such as WinZip.
2. Extract all the files to a folder on your server, preserving the subfolder structure.
3. Click Start and Run setup, from the DISK1 subfolder, as follows:
   SETUP.EXE -r
4. Do a normal installation, selecting the options you require.
5. This will record your choices in a file called SETUP.ISS, in your Windows folder. Move SETUP.ISS to the DISK1 subfolder.

Next, configure TextPad to your requirements, as follows:

1. Run TEXTPAD.EXE
2. From the Help menu, choose 'Enter License Code'.
3. Enter your license code and click OK.
4. From the Configure menu, choose Preferences.
5. Make any changes on each page of the Preferences dialog box and click OK.
6. Exit from TextPad.

Now, extract TextPad's settings from the registry:

1. Click Start and run REGEDIT.EXE
2. Using the Export command on the File menu, export the following key to HKCU.REG:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareHeliosTextPad 4
3. Export the following key to HKLM.REG:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareHeliosTextPad 4
4. Start TextPad and open HKCU.REG and HKLM.REG.
5. Create a new document and copy all of HKLM.REG into it.
6. Append all of HKCU.REG to the new document, except its first line ('REGEDIT4').
7. Save it as 'TEXTPAD.REG', in the DISK2 subfolder.

Finally, install TextPad on each workstation, by clicking on start and running setup from the DISK1 subfolder on the server as follows:

SETUP.EXE -s

Tip to Run Java Programs With an Automatically Closing MSDOS Window.

To add a Tool menu option to do this, follow the steps below:

1. Choose the Textpad menu option 'Configure Preferences'.
2. Click on 'Tools' in the left hand list of the 'Preferences' window.
3. Click on the 'Add' button and select 'Program...'.
4. In the 'File name' text area, type: c:windowscommand.com and press return.
5. Slowly double click on the 'Command' text and change it to: Quick Run Java Application
6. Click on the 'OK' button.
7. Choose the Textpad menu option 'Configure Preferences'.
8. Double click on 'Tools' in the left hand list of the 'Preferences' window.
9. Click on the 'Quick Run Java Application' text in the left hand list of the 'Preferences' window.
10. In the parameters field, type: /C java.exe $BaseName
11. Uncheck the 'Capture output' checkbox.
12. Click on the 'OK' button.

(alternate step)
11. Check both the 'Capture output' and 'Suppress output until complete' checkboxes.

This tip was contributed by: Jim Burton

Using with MS Visual Sourcesafe 5:

To run the commands from a DOS prompt, you would type: The equivalent commands can be added to the TextPad Tools menu as follows:

1. From the Configure menu, choose Preferences.
2. Select 'Tools' on the Preferences dialog box.
3. Click Add and select Program.
4. Browse for SS.EXE with the Select File dialog box, and click Open.
5. Click Apply.
6. Click the '+' next to Tools, and select 'SS'.
7. Change the Menu Text to Check In.
8. Set the Parameters to checkin $FileName
9. Set the Initial Folder to $FileDir.
10. Clear all the check boxes, except Capture Output (optional).
11. Click Apply.

Document Publishing with WS_FTP:

This tip was contributed by: Christopher Locke, Entropy Gradient Reversals, All Noise - All the Time, http://www.rageboy.com/

(David J. Evans adds: 'I've only managed to get this to work by modifying the remote path to exclude the leading / .... assuming that the path is a subdirectory from the home directory then the / should not be needed. The error messages from WS_FTP are particularly unhelpful !')

Document Publishing with WS_FTP alternative settings:

This tip was contributed by: Feng Wu feng@systechusa.com, Systech Solutions Inc., Glendale, CA, USA.

@-Files:

Print All:

1. From the Configure menu, choose Preferences.
2. Select 'Keyboard' on the Preferences dialog box.
3. From the Categories list, choose File.
4. From the Commands list, choose FilePrintAll
5. Type the shortcut in the box.
6. Click Assign.
7. Click Close.

Browse Equivalent Page on Web:

This tip was contributed by: Christopher Locke, Entropy Gradient Reversals, All Noise - All the Time, http://www.rageboy.com/

Search & Replace; Converting META NAME Elements

Some times you need to transform each META NAME line into another form. In following example, we take the header information from a Microsoft Knowledge Base article and convert it to XML. Note the conversion is not complete, but it is a start. Be sure to correct 'dangling' content. The regular expression cannot convert elements in which the content is split across lines.

FIND:
^[^']+'([^']*)'[^']*'([^']*)'*.*
REPLACE:
<1>2</1><BR>

CHANGES:

<TITLE>Q10022 - OFF97: EPS File Is Not Printed or Is Printed Incorrectly Under Windows NT</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV='CONTENT-Type' />
<META HTTP-EQUIV='PICS-Label'http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html' l gen true comment 'RSACi North America Server' by 'Inet@microsoft.com' for 'http://support.microsoft.com' on '1998.02.17T12:28-0800' r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))' />
<META NAME='ms.locale' />
<META NAME='Category' />
<META NAME='Premium' />
<META NAME='KBArea' />
<META NAME='KBID' />
<META NAME='KBTitle' />
<META NAME='Description' />
<META NAME='Product' />
<META NAME='KBCreate' />
<META NAME='KBModify' />
<META NAME='EditDate' />
<META NAME='Question' />
<META NAME='Versions' />
<META NAME='Component' />
<META NAME='Technology' />
<META NAME='Links' />
<META NAME='Keywords' />
<META NAME='Platform' />
<META NAME='Hardware' />
<META NAME='SolutionType' />
<META NAME='IssueType' />
<META NAME='BoilerPlate' />
<META NAME='ProducedView' />
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>
<META NAME='QUERYWORDS'>

TO:

<TITLE>Q10022 - OFF97: EPS File Is Not Printed or Is Printed Incorrectly Under Windows NT</TITLE>
<CONTENT-Type>text/html; charset=iso-8859-1</CONTENT-Type>
<PICS-Label>(PICS-1.1 'http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html' l gen true comment 'RSACi North America Server' by 'Inet@microsoft.com' for 'http://support.microsoft.com' on '1998.02.17T12:28-0800' r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))</PICS-Label>
<ms.locale>EN-US</ms.locale>
<Category>Support; KB Article</Category>
<Premium>Support</Premium>
<KBArea>Support; KB; word97</KBArea>
<KBID>Q10022</KBID>
<KBTitle>OFF97: EPS File Is Not Printed or Is Printed Incorrectly Under Windows NT</KBTitle>
<Description>When you print an Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file, the file may fail to</Description>
print or may be printed incorrectly.' />
<Product>word97</Product>
<KBCreate>April 6, 1984</KBCreate>
<KBModify>April 28, 1999</KBModify>
<EditDate>January 22, 1999</EditDate>
<Question></Question>
<Versions>WINDOWS:97; winnt:4.0</Versions>
<Component></Component>
<Technology></Technology>
<Links></Links>
<Keywords>kbprint offwin offprint</Keywords>
<Platform>WINDOWS winnt</Platform>
<Hardware></Hardware>
<SolutionType>kbfix</SolutionType>
<IssueType>kbbug</IssueType>
<BoilerPlate></BoilerPlate>
<ProducedView></ProducedView>
<QUERYWORDS>EPS</QUERYWORDS>
<QUERYWORDS>filter</QUERYWORDS>
<QUERYWORDS>print</QUERYWORDS>
<QUERYWORDS>garbled</QUERYWORDS>
<QUERYWORDS>does</QUERYWORDS>
<QUERYWORDS>not</QUERYWORDS>
<QUERYWORDS>is</QUERYWORDS>
<QUERYWORDS>printed</QUERYWORDS>

This tip was contributed by: Anthony Missico, Jr., Independent Consultant, Missico Information Systems, www.missico.com

Extra tip for 'How can I make Notepad use TextPad instead of WordPad for big files?'

Users of TextPad v4.x who have read the Help Menu/FAQ and executed the tip under 'How can I make Notepad use TextPad instead of Wordpad for big files', will now find that TextPad is called to open Windows Write files (files with .wri extension) and may find this unwieldy due to them being binary files and TextPad will therefore show them in HEX format.

If you would STILL PREFER for WORDPAD to open Windows Write files giving 'plain text' presentation, this can be achieved by:

In Windows Explorer:

1. Go to C:Program FilesAccessories and select WordPad.exe. Copy + Paste to make 'Copy of WordPad.exe' and RENAME to WordPad1.exe.
2. On the View menu Folder OptionsFile Types, select Write Document and EDIT, revise program used to perform Open, Print & Printto Actions from WordPad.exe to WordPad1.exe each case.
3. Go to C:WindowsStart MenuAccessoriesWordPad.exe link and on the Edit menu Properties revise the 'Target' from WordPad.exe to WordPad1.exe.

This I have found to be the best all-round combination of Windows and TextPad v4.x

This tip was contributed by: Dave Rudd, AMIEE

How to use the thumb buttons on Microsoft's IntelliMouse Explorer:

The small and large thumb buttons on this mouse generate the same messages as using Alt+Right arrow and Alt+Left arrow respectively. Hence, you can assign them to, for example, TextPad's Page Up/Down commands as follows:

1. From the Configure menu, choose Preferences.
2. Select 'Keyboard'.
3. In the list of Categories, choose 'Cursor'.
4. In the list of commands, choose 'PageUp'.
5. In the shortcut box, hold down the Alt key and press the right arrow key.
6. Click Assign.
7. In the list of commands, choose 'PageDown'.
8. In the shortcut box, hold down the Alt key and press the left arrow key.
9. Click Assign.
10. Click OK

How to Compile Java Applications that have environment variables set:

If you have the following information in your c:autoexec.bat

1. In TextPad select the Configure menu click on Preferences.
2. Select the Tools page.
   
3. Click on the Add button and select 'Dos Command'.
4. Paste the following line into the box:
5. Click OK.

In the Settings for this, you should setup the following information:

This tip was contributed by: Garth Fielding

TextPad and LaTeX

The main goal while editing LaTeX source is of course to make the edit-compile-view-edit cycle as quick as possible.

To achieve this, we have to set up all the involved tools. TextPad (to launch the TeX compiler and the DVI viewer), the TeX compiler (so that we can jump directly to a reported error with typing 'e') and the DVI viewer (so that double clicking in the document will jump to this paragraph in TextPad).

I illustrate the necessary settings with the TeX distribution MiKTeX because that is the one I have. This should work with other distributions as well. You just have to find the right place for the settings.

Working with LaTeX

As TextPad is not specially designed for LaTeX, we have to work in a certain way to get all the advantages of our settings.

First you have to decide what you normally do in LaTeX. Do you have a main file that includes several other files? Or do you have single-file LaTeX 'projects'.

I describe here how to set up TextPad for working with a main file that includes other files. If you work with single files, you have to change the settings accordingly.

The reason for this is, that we can give the current file or the current workspace name to our tool. If we do the first, we have to switch to the main file of our project to invoke the TeX compiler. Awkward if you have several files open.

So the working principle is to create a TextPad workspace for each LaTeX project that has the same basename as the main file of the LaTeX project. By that we can be in any file of the project and always compile the main file. Another solution would be to use always the same name for the main file (like main.tex).

As I have the german TextPad the translations of edit-field labels are more of a general guideline :-)

TextPad

Switch off 'Allow Multiple Instances'! Otherwise jumping from the DVI viewer to TextPad will open a new instance of TextPad which will then not work because the workspace is not present.

Create 2 new tools:

TeX compiler as a DOS command:

Saving all files would be a good idea, don't capture the output (!) and close the window after execution if you want.

--src inserts source specials that allow inverse search.

For single-file LaTeX projects just replace the workspace by the file (so use $FileName and $FileDir instead of $WspBaseName.tex and $WspDir).

The DVI viewer as a program:

Insert your favorite DVI viewer instead of yap.

-1 tells yap to reuse an open instance
-s tells yap to make a forward search. This even works for files that are not the main file. yap will open at the location of the cursor in the current file.

For single file LaTeX projects use $BaseName and $FileDir instead of $WspBaseName and $WspDir.

DVI-Viewer (yap)

Under 'View', 'Options...', 'Inverse Search', 'Command line' insert

This will invoke TextPad when you double click in a document you view.

TeX

If TeX encounters an error, it prompts you on the screen and you can press 'e' to edit the file. Which editor is invoked is set in the INI file of MiKTeX and other TeX distributions should have a similar setting somewhere.

Create a new file (mymiktex.ini) and put

in it. Then call

Then typing 'e' will invoke Textpad instead of notepad.

Umlauts and accents

There is no need for a macro that replaces all the Umlauts or accented characters to the TeX representation (ä -> 'a) if you use the inputenc-package

in the preambel of your LaTeX file. Then you may use all characters that you can type in, I think. I only tried it with the german Umlauts and the accents ´,` and ^.

Example

This is it! Everything is set up so use TextPad as follows:

1. Create a new TeX-file, e.g. 'FirstTest.tex'.
2. Save a new workspace. This gets the name 'FirstTest.tws' anyway, so you don't even have to retype the name.
3. Edit your file 'FirstTest.tex'.
4. Run the texify tool to create the DVI file.
5. If there are errors, you can correct them by typing 'e'.
6. Run the yap tool to view the result. yap will jump to the paragraph the cursor is currently in.
7. Double clicking somewhere in yap will jump to the corresponding paragraph in TextPad.

This tip was contributed by: Jens Hollmann. 12 October 2001.

Regular expression for the free Pascal compiler:

1. Expression = ^([^(]+)(([0-9]+),([0-9]+)
2. File Register = 1
3. Line Register = 2
4. Column Register = 3

This tip was contributed by: Carl Eric Codere. 15 December 2003.

Regular expression for CCSC's PICC C-Compiler for Microchip PICs:

1. Expression = ^[^']+'([^']+)[^0-9]+([0-9]+)(([0-9]+)
2. File Register = 1
3. Line Register = 2
4. Column Register = 3
   http://www.ccsinfo.com

This tip was contributed by: Miki Grof-Tisza. 9 January 2005.