One of the most powerful aspects about the way EditPad Lite and Pro work with preferences is that many settings can be made for each specific file type that you regularly edit or view with EditPad. For example: you may want to use word wrapping at the window border for plain text files, but no word wrapping for source code. Once you make the correct settings for each file type, you won’t have to change them each time you open a file.
When you open or save a file, EditPad compares its name against the file mask for each known file type and applies the settings made for that file type. If the file name doesn’t match any file type, the settings for “Unspecified file type” are used.
EditPad also uses the list of file types to build the “Files of type” drop-down list at the bottom of the file selection windows for opening and saving files. The filters in the Explorer Panel, the FTP Panel, the Open Folder command, and the Find on Disk command also allow you to select files based on their file types.
To configure file types, select Configure File Types in the Options menu. The file type configuration dialog appears. The dialog is divided into two parts. At the left-hand, you’ll see a list of currently defined file types. At the right-hand are four tabs that hold the settings for the file type that’s currently selected in the list at the left.
To change a file type’s settings, simply click on it in the list and make the changes you want. Hold down the Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple file types. Any changes you make are applied to all selected file types. To create a new file type, click the New button below the list and set the options as you want them. To clone or duplicate a file type, hold down the Control key on the keyboard while clicking the New button.
To delete a file type, click on it and click the Delete button. Before deleting a file type you don’t use, consider if you should simply untick “show in file type selection lists” to hide the file type without disabling it.
The order of the file types matters. The order you give them in the configuration screen is the order they’ll have in any drop-down list showing the available file types. If a file matches the file mask of more than one file type, then EditPad uses the bottommost file type in the list with a matching mask for that file. Place file types with more specific file masks below those with more general file masks. The “unspecified file type” file type is the most general one, and always sits at the top of the list. The other file types defined in EditPad’s default setting have no overlap in their file masks, so their order doesn’t matter. They’re ordered alphabetically by default. If you edit the file masks of the predefined file types or add your own file types, you may have to reorder them if the file masks of two file types can match a single file.
You can save individual file type configurations into a file that you can share with other people. To save a file type, click on it in the list and click the Export button below the list. If you select multiple file types, all of them are exported. To load a file type configuration file you’ve received from somebody, click the Import button. The loaded file type will be added to the list.
For each file type, you can specify seven sets of options: