To set the COBOL Editor as the default editor for COBOL file types, click . When you make this association, you can double-click a file to open it in the COBOL Editor.
To customize the COBOL Editor to suit your preference, choose . For more information about setting preferences for the COBOL Editor, see Setting COBOL Editor preferences.
You can control several aspects of the appearance of files in the editor by using the editor presentation toolbar:
Toggle Block Selection
Mode enables block selection of text. Enabling block selection
changes the editor font to a fixed-width font.
Show Whitespace Characters displays
a small dot for white-space characters and a paragraph mark for end-of-line
markers.
Toggle Mark
Occurrences highlights all occurrences of the selected
element in the editor.
Toggle Hex Editing displays
the currently selected text element in hexadecimal characters at the
bottom of the editor page. The hexadecimal text can be modified.
Show
Source of Selected Element Only displays only the current
highlighted range of code.
indicates that tooling is enabled.
All COBOL Editor functions are enabled.
indicates that tooling is disabled.
These functions can be disabled by user preference, because a file
is unavailable, or because of an invalid file extension. Tooling is
not available for copybooks (that is, files with a .cpy extension).
The following COBOL Editor functions are unavailable when tooling
is disabled: hover information, Refactor actions, Open Declaration,
Open Perform Hierarchy.
indicates
that tooling is out of sync because of a syntax error in the file.
This warning is displayed when syntax errors are introduced into an
open file. This warning icon is subject to change frequently as you
edit a file. The following COBOL Editor functions are unavailable
or have limited function: hover information data might be out of sync;
Refactor actions are unavailable; Open Declaration might work, but
the location you jump to might be out-of-sync; Open Perform Hierarchy
is unavailable.
indicates that
tooling is still initializing or failed to initialize because of a
syntax error. This error occurs when a file that contains syntax errors
is opened. The following COBOL Editor functions are unavailable: hover
information, Refactor actions, Open Declaration, Open Perform Hierarchy.