&Anders.Lund; &Anders.Lund.mail;Configuring &kate;Overviewconfiguresettingspreferences
&kate; offers several means of tweaking the application to behave as desired.
The most important ones are:
The Configuration DialogThe main configuration tool, allowing you to configure the &kate; application,
the editor component and the usage of plugins.The Settings MenuAllows you to change often used settings, and to
launch the configuration dialogs.The View MenuAllows you to split the current frame, as well as to
display the icons and line numbers pane for the currently edited
document.The embedded terminal is using the configuration defined in the
&systemsettings;, and may be configured by clicking the
right mouse button to display a context menu.The Main Configuration DialogThe &kate; configuration dialog displays a tree of topics on the
left, and a configuration page corresponding to the selected topic on
the right.The configuration is divided into two groups, namely
Application configuration
Editor component configurationThe &kate; Application ConfigurationThis group contains pages to configure the main &kate; applicationGeneralThis section contains a few global options for &kate;BehaviorWarn about files modified by foreign processesWhen enabled, &kate; will notify you about files modified
from outside the application whenever the main window receives input focus.
You will be able to deal with several modified files at once, you
can reload, save or discard changed files in groups.If not enabled, &kate; will prompt you for action when a externally
modified file receives focus within the application.Meta InformationKeep meta-information past sessionsWhen enabled, &kate; will store meta data such as bookmarks
and session configuration even when you close your documents. The data
will be used if the document is unchanged when reopened.Delete unused meta information afterSet the maximum number of days to keep meta information
for unopen files. This helps keeping the database of meta information
reasonably sized.Default text-editing componentSelect the text-editing component used by &kate;. By
default, it is configured to use the system default text-editing component as
configured in &systemsettings;.SessionsThis section contains options related to using sessions.Elements of SessionsInclude window configurationIf enabled, &kate; will save the window configuration
with each session.Behavior on Application StartupSelect how you want &kate; to behave at startup. This setting can be
overridden by specifying what to do on the command line.Start new sessionWith this option, &kate; will start a new, unnamed session
when you start it.Load last-used session&kate; will use the most recently opened session at
startup. This is good if you want to use the same session always or switch
rarely.Manually choose a session&kate; will display a small dialog that lets you choose
your preferred session, or load the default session if none have been saved.
This is the default behavior. Nice if you use a lot of different sessions
frequently.The changes to the session data (opened files and if enabled,
window configuration) will always be saved.Tree ViewBackground ShadingThis section allows you to enable or disable the background
shading visualization of your recent activity, and chose which colors to use if
enabled. See the section about The Document List for more about
this feature.Sort BySet how you want the document list sorted. This can be set
from the &RMB; menu in the document list as well.Show Full PathWhen enabled, in tree mode, top level folders will show up
with their full path rather than just the last folder name.PluginsThis page provides a list of installed plugins for the &kate;
application. Each plug-in is represented with its name and a short description.
You can check the checkbox with an item to enable the plug-in it represents.
If a plug-in provides configuration options, a section to access those
will appear as a child of this page.TerminalThis page is only displayed by the Terminal Tool View plugin, which is
enabled by default.Automatically synchronize the terminal with the current document when possibleThis will cause the built-in terminal to
cd into the directory of the active document when
launched and when a new document gets the focus. If not enabled, you
have to do all your navigation in the terminal on your own.
Set EDITOR environment variable to 'kate -b'This sets the EDITOR environment variable so programs
run in the built-in terminal that automatically open a file in an editor will open
them in &kate; instead of the default editor configured in your shell. You will
not be able to continue using the terminal until you have closed the file in &kate;,
so the calling program is aware you have finished editing the file.
&configuring-part-sections;
Configuring With Document Variables&kappname; variables is katepart's implementation of document variables, similar
to emacs and vi modelines. In katepart, the lines have the following format:
kate: VARIABLENAME VALUE; [ VARIABLENAME VALUE; ... ]
The lines can of course be in a comment, if the file is in a format with comments.
Variable names are single words (no whitespace), and anything up to the next
semicolon is the value. The semicolon is required.Here is an example variable line, forcing indentation settings for a C++,
java or javascript file:
// kate: replace-tabs on; indent-width 4; indent-mode cstyle;Only the first and last 10 lines are searched for variable lines.Additionally, document variables can be placed in a file called
.kateconfig in any directory, and the configured settings will
be applied as if the modelines were entered on every file in the directory and its
subdirectories, as far down as the
configured search depth.
Document variables in .kateconfig use the same syntax as
in modelines.There are variables to support almost all configurations in katepart, and
additionally plugins can use variables, in which case it should be documented in
the plugin's documentation.How &kappname; uses VariablesWhen reading configuration, katepart looks in the following places
(in that order):
The global configuration.Optional session data.The "Filetype" configuration.Document variables in .kateconfig.Document variables in the document itself.Settings made during editing from menu or command line.
As you see, document variables are only overriden by changes made at runtime.
Whenever a document is saved, the document variables are reread, and will
overwrite changes made using menu items or the command line.Any variable not listed below is stored in the document and can be queried
by other objects such as plugins, which can use them for their own purpose.
For example, the variable indent mode uses document variables for its
configuration.The variables listed here documents &kappname; version 3.7. More variables
may be added in the future. There are 3 possible types of values for variables,
with the following valid expressions:
BOOL - on|off|true|false|1|0INTEGER - any integer numberSTRING - anything elseAvailable Variablesauto-bracketsBOOLSet auto insertion of brackets on or off.auto-center-linesINTSet the number of autocenter lines.auto-insert-doxygenBOOLTurn insertion of the leading asterisk in doxygen comments on or
off. This has no effect unless you use the C-style auto-indenter. background-colorSTRINGSet the document background color. The value must be something
that can be evaluated to a valid color, for example #ff0000.
backspace-indentsBOOLEnable or disable unindenting when &Backspace; is pressed.block-selectionBOOLTurn block selection
on or off.bom | byte-order-markerBOOLEnable/disable the byte order marker when saving files in unicode format
(utf8, utf16, utf32).Since: Kate 3.4 (KDE 4.4)bracket-highlight-colorSTRINGSet the color for the bracket highlight. The value must be
something that can be evaluated to a valid color, for example #ff0000.
current-line-colorSTRINGSet the color for the current line. The value must be
something that can be evaluated to a valid color, for example #ff0000default-dictionarySTRINGSets the default dictionary used for spell checking.Since: Kate 3.4 (KDE 4.4)dynamic-word-wrapBOOLTurns dynamic word wrap on or
off.eol | end-of-lineSTRINGSet the end of line mode. Valid settings are
unix, mac and dosfolding-markersBOOLSet the display of
folding markers
on or off.
font-sizeINTSet the point size of the document font.fontSTRINGSet the font of the document. The value should be a valid font
name, for example courier.hl | syntaxSTRINGSet the syntax highlighting. Valid strings are all the names available
in the menus. For instance, for C++ simply write C++.icon-bar-colorSTRINGSet the icon bar color. The value must be something that can
be evaluated to a valid color, for example #ff0000.icon-borderBOOLSet the display of the icon border on or off.indent-modeSTRINGSet the auto-indentation mode. The options none,
normal, cstyle, haskell,
lilypond, lisp, python,
ruby and xml are recognized. See the section
for details.indent-widthINTSet the indentation width.keep-extra-spacesBOOLSet whether to keep extra spaces when calculating indentation width.line-numbersBOOLSet the display of line numbers on or off.mixed-indentBOOLSet mixed indentation ala Emacs on or off.Note: Deprecated since Kate 3 in KDE4. This variable is ignored, set replace-tabs on; instead for the future.overwrite-modeBOOLSet overwrite mode on or off.persistent-selectionBOOLSet persistent selection
on or off.remove-trailing-spaceBOOLSet dynamic end of line cleanup on or off.replace-tabs-saveBOOLSet tab to space conversion on save on or off.replace-tabsBOOLSet dynamic tab to space conversion on or off.replace-trailing-space-saveBOOLSet end of line cleanup on save on or off.schemeSTRINGSet the color scheme. The string must be the name of a color
scheme that exists in your configuration to have any effect.selection-colorSTRINGSet the selection color. The value must be something that can
be evaluated to a valid color, for example #ff0000.show-tabsBOOLSet the visual tab character on or off.smart-homeBOOLSet smart home navigation
on or off.space-indentBOOLSet indentation with spaces on or off.Note: Deprecated since Kate 3 in KDE4. Mixed indentation is the default behavior.
Set replace-tabs on; to achieve space-only indentation.tab-indentsBOOLSet 	 key indentation on or off.tab-widthINTSet the tab character display width.undo-stepsINTSet the number of undo steps to remember.Note: Deprecated since Kate 3 in KDE4. This variable is ignored. The maximal count of undo steps is unlimited.word-wrap-columnINTSet the static word wrap
width. word-wrap-marker-colorSTRINGSet the word wrap marker color. The value must be something
that can be evaluated to a valid color, for example #ff0000.word-wrapBOOLSet static word wrapping on or off.wrap-cursorBOOLSet cursor wrapping on or off.