Using an External Editor in GUIBuilder

The default behavior for GUIBuilder is to allow editing in the "Edit Code" window. To use an external text editor, do the following:

  1. Before starting GUIBuilder, ensure that the "editor=" line in the gb.ini file points to the specified external editor.

  2. When GUIBuilder is started and a code block is specified, the Invoke External Editor tool button and External Editor in the View menu are enabled.

  3. Operating either the tool button or the menu item will cause GUIBuilder to disable the "Edit Code" window, write the current code block to a temporary file, and invoke the editor to edit the block of code in the temporary file.

  4. Save this temporary file in ASCII format. LF or CR/LF line terminators are supported.

  5. When you exit the external editor, GUIBuilder inserts the modified code block into the .gbf file.

Because .gbf files are in ASCII format, they can be edited with any editor at any time, but it is highly recommended that they only be edited one block at a time through GUIBuilder. Although .gbf files include BBx source code, they are not source files and they have their own format. If the formatting of a GUIBuilder file is lost or damaged, it may become totally unusable or lead to unpredictable results.