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I've been a long time user of Textpad since about the time it first came out and have registered a long time ago, since then, I have changed my original Email addy because I was getting too much spam through the service I was using.

This is my first time using these forums.

There are two features I would find extremely useful in Textpad.

1) The ability to change a file to "read only" or to remove "read only" from within Textpad.

2) To be able to select specific columns and delete them.

An example of #2 would be this:

I sometimes do up a "dir > list.txt" file and when you do this, you get the dates and a bunch of other information which you may not want.

What I'd like to be able to do is to select and delete the columns which comtain the information I want to get rid of instead of have to go line by line. The replace feature is somewhat usefull here, but not as quick as "Column Select" would be.

What about Block Select Mode AND Read Only from the Configure menu?
Also great help on it by selecting Help Topics from the Help menu.

Dragonslore wrote:1) The ability to change a file to "read only" or to remove "read only" from within Textpad.
2) To be able to select specific columns and delete them.

s_reynisson wrote:What about Block Select Mode from the Configure menu?

***LOL***

And to think, I've been using Textpad for a long time and never even tried that feature!

But Column selct would be greatly appreciated as you wouldn't have to drag the cursor down the length of the page to do it, just swipe the mouse sideways across the columns you want to get rid of.

Block Select may be useful, but if you've got 1000+ lines in a file, it'd be a lot easier to just use Column Select.

That's what I do all the time, "just swipe the mouse sideways across the columns you want to get rid of" on the first line and then I press Shift-Ctrl-End.
See http://textpad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4190

Dragonslore wrote:But Column selct would be greatly appreciated as you wouldn't have to drag the cursor down the length of the page to do it, just swipe the mouse sideways across the columns you want to get rid of.

Thanks!

Although it'd be much easier if there was a right click context menu option instead of using Shift-Ctrl-End.

Using my regular keyboard at home, Shift-Ctrl-End would be fairly easy to do, but when using my laptop, it's not as easy both because of the small keyboard size and the fact that I've got really big hands which makes it more difficult to use key combos on a laptop.

Textpad has a lot of really good features which I truely enjoy.

But the abilty to change a file to read only or the other way around would be very useful as I'm in the habit of editing hosts files a lot and other file types which I keep as read only.

What about ... Read Only from the Configure menu?

There are four problems with the Read Only command:
1. There's no indication in the user interface that a document is read only.
2. While the Read Only command will remove the readonly attribute from the file on disk, it will not change the attribute back. In other words, if I make a file Read Only in TextPad, the attribute of the file on disk isn't set to read only.
3. If I use the Read Only command to remove the read only attribute, when I go to save the file, TextPad forces me to go through the Save As dialog, instead of just saving the (no longer read only) file.
4. I can't make changes to a read only file in the editor, even if my intent is to save it with a different file name.

So for changes, I'd like the following to make TextPad faster on read only files.
1. An indication in the user interface that a file is read only (something like the changed file * on the file tab--"R" or "Read only").
2. Using the Read Only command will not only clear the read only file attribute, but using it again will set the read only file attribute.
3. Do not prompt for a file name when saving files that have had the read only attribute cleared (maybe a configuration option?).
4. Allow changes to a read only file, but don't allow it to be saved with the same file name without confirmation from the user that this is what he/she wants to do (a prompt asking the user to confirm that he/she wants to overwrite the read only file). (maybe a configuration option?).

Thanks,
John B.

Couldn't you create a pair of tools using the ATTRIB command for ReadOnly ON and ReadOnly OFF?

johnbweb wrote: There are four problems with the Read Only command:
1. There's no indication in the user interface that a document is read only.

Hm. In my Textpad there is a good indicator for the readonly state of the file. In the statusbar field with "Read" in it.

In my Textpad there is a good indicator for the readonly state of the file. In the statusbar field with "Read" in it.

Thank you MudGuard. That takes care of request #1.

Couldn't you create a pair of tools using the ATTRIB command for ReadOnly ON and ReadOnly OFF?

Well Bob, yes I suppose I could. But the Read Only menu command already executes ATTRIB -r. My thought is that the same command should work both ways, so that setting the document to Read Only in TextPad should execute ATTRIB +r.

Interesting: clearing the read only attribute at the DOS prompt for a file in TextPad displays "Read-only attribute cleared for <filename>" in the status bar (and disables "Read" in the status bar). However, setting the read only attribute at the DOS prompt enables "Read" in the status bar, but does not display any other message. I suspect most people expect toggles (read only on/off) to be symmetrical (well, at least I do ).

Thanks,
John B.