Using the buildin Tools

Tools for the Side Panel Area

Procedure Browser
This tool displays a list of all procedures and macros declared in the current source code. By double-clicking on an entry in that list, the cursor automatically jumps to that procedure.

Macros will be marked in the list by a "+" sign before the name.

You can also place special comment marks in your code, that will be displayed in the list too. They look like this: ";- <description>". The ; starts a comment, the ‘-‘ that follows it immediately defines such a mark.

The description will be shown in the Procedure list, and clicking on it will jump to the line of this mark. Such a comment mark can be distinguished from a Procedure by the "> " that is displayed before it in the procedure list.

The list of procedures can be sorted, and it can display the procedure/macro arguments in the list. For these options, see Configuring the IDE.

Explorer
The Explorer tool displays an explorer, from which you can select files and open them quickly with a double-click. Text files will be loaded into the edit area and binary files will be displayed in the internal File Viewer.

Variable Viewer
The variable viewer can display variables, Arrays, Linked Lists, Constants, Structures and Interfaces defined in your source code, or any currently opened file. You can configure what exactly it should display in the preferences.
Note: The displaying of variables is somewhat limited for now. It can only detect variables that were explicitly declared by Define, Global, Shared, Protected or Static.

Code Templates
The templates tool allows you to manage a list of small code parts, that you can quickly insert into your source code with a double-click. It allows you to manage the codes in different directories, and put a comment to each code. This tool is perfect to manage small, often used code parts.

Color Picker
The color picker helps you to find the perfect color value for whatever task you need. You can select a color from the area at the bottom and then modify its brightness with the slider above. The two little arrow buttons can be use to reset either selection to the center.

Additionally you can select the color with the sliders on the top. Note that modifying the sliders does not change the selection in the color area, but the other way around it works.

The "Insert Color" button inserts the color value as hex into the source code (i.e. "$FF00FF"). The "Insert RGB" button inserts it in the form of the Rgb() function. (i.e. "RGB(255, 0, 255)"). The "Decimal values" button determines whether the values next to the sliders on top are displayed as hex or decimal.

The "Save color" button saves the color in the history next to the field showing the current color. The color will be added at the top-left field, and all others are moved by one spot. Clicking on any of these saved color values sets them as the current color again.

AsciiTable
The Ascii table tool displays a table showing all the Ascii characters, together with their index in decimal and hex, as well as the corresponding html notation. By double-clicking on any line, this character will be inserted into the source code. With the buttons on the bottom, you can select which column of the table to insert on a double-click.

Other buildin tools

Structure Viewer
The structure viewer allows you to view all the Structures, Interfaces and constants, that are predefined in PureBasic. Double-clicking on a Structure or Interface shows the declaration. On top of the list you can select a filter to display only entries that start with a given character.

The "Back" button navigates back through the viewed entries.
"Insert name" inserts just the name of the selected entry.
"Insert copy" inserts a copy of the declaration of that entry.
"Insert" lets you enter a variable name and then inserts a definition of that variable and the selected entry and all elements of it.

File Viewer
The internal file viewer allows you do display certain types of files. Text files, images and web pages (windows only). Any unknown file type will be displayed in a hex-viewer. The "Open" button opens a new file, the "X button" closes it and the arrows can be used to navigate through the open files.
Also any binary file that you attempt to open from the Explorer tool, or by double-clicking on an IncludeBinary keyword will be displayed in this file viewer.

Other entries in the Tools menu

Visual Designer
The PureBasic Visual Designer can be used to design the user interface for you application. It is not a tool of the IDE, but a separate program. It also has its own help file. See the "VisualDesigner.chm" file in your PureBasic directory for more information.

Smart Update
This tool is also a separate program. It can be used to log on to the PureBasic homepage and check for updates. It will only download those files that have changed, which saves download time. This tool is also quite useful to repair damaged PureBasic installations, because it can detect corrupted or missing files and re-download them.

The IDE will be closed when you run this tool.