Thursday, July 1, 2010

How To Configure UltraEdit Toolbar?

UltraEdit/UEStudio allows any command available from the menus to be available on the toolbar.  It also allows multiple user toolbars to be configured.  If you right click on the toolbar a context menu will appear with the following options:

  • Basic
  • Advanced
  • Manage Toolbar Configurations
  • Customize Toolbar
  • Large Buttons


The Advanced option should be selected initially and this will provide all the standard toolbars.  If Basic is selected, a subset of the default toolbars will be displayed for use.  If desired, users may press ALT+F8 to present a context menu similar to that described above.  This is a single switch Profile menu which will allow users to change menus and toolbars at the same time (i.e. switch to "Basic" or "Advanced" for both menus and toolbars in a single operation).



If Manage Toolbar Configurations is selected the Toolbar Configurations dialog is presented.  If a name is entered in the New Name field then the currently active toolbar(s) would be saved under this configuration name.  The user may then right click on the toolbar and select Customize and modify the toolbar(s) for this configuration as described below.

If Customize Toolbar is selected the Toolbars Configuration dialog is presented and users may customize the currently active toolbars as described below.

The Large Buttons item may be used to toggle the size of buttons in the active toolbars.

Toolbar Configuration Dialog

The Toolbar Configuration dialog consists of two panes labeled Toolbars and Commands along with a checkbox for Large Buttons and text entry fields for New Toolbar and  Ext. Bmp.  Also included in the dialog are up/down and right/left arrows.  These items and their functionality are all described below:

Toolbars/Commands Configuration Panes

The toolbars which have been specified are displayed in the Toolbars pane with the items currently assigned to them in an Explorer interface.  Clicking on the "-" to the left of a toolbar name will collapse that toolbar and clicking on the "+" will expand the toolbar to display the items included in it.  If an item is selected in a toolbar, pressing the up/down arrow will move the item accordingly in the toolbar list.  It is not possible to use the up/down arrows to move an item from one toolbar to another adjacent toolbar.

The Commands pane displays all the functions currently available for use in the toolbars.  To move an item from the Commands pane to the Toolbars pane, click on the desired Commands item and press the left arrow in the center of the dialog to add the selected item.  Selected toolbar items will be added directly below the currently selected item in the Toolbars pane.  If there is no selection in the Toolbars pane, the item will be added at the top of the first toolbar listed.  Once items are added they may be repositioned within a toolbar as desired using the up/down arrows.

New Toolbars

To create a new toolbar, type the toolbar name (i.e. "Test1") in the New Toolbar field and press the left arrow button to the right of the New Toolbar field.  This will add a new, empty toolbar to the bottom of the Toolbars list.  Toolbars may be removed by selecting them and pressing the right arrow button in the center of the dialog.

Ext. Bmp

If desired, new bitmaps may be associated with toolbar items (such as User Tools) so that this is displayed in the toolbar.  To do so, select the toolbar item in the Commands pane and add it to the appropriate toolbar as described above.  Select the item in the Toolbars pane and specify the path to the desired bitmap in the  Ext. Bmp field.  If you know exactly where this is located you may directly specify this and press Return to assign this bitmap to the selected toolbar item.  If you're not sure where this is located, you may press the "..." button to browse to the desired bitmap and then press Return to assign this bitmap to the selected toolbar item.

Large Buttons

Selecting the Large Buttons checkbox will set ALL toolbars to use large buttons.

The data for the configurable toolbars is stored in the % APPDATA% directory by default under IDM Comp\UltraEdit in the uedit32.tbr file.  (For UEStudio this would be under the UEStudio directory rather than the UltraEdit directory).

When a toolbar is modified, its name is stored in the menu list followed by the date, e.g. "Advanced Saved [03.09.06]".  Backups or saved versions of toolbars may be selected by simply right-clicking on a toolbar and selecting the desired copy.