EditPad’s main menu, all toolbars, and most context menus are fully configurable. You can move toolbars, hide them, add and remove items, and even change item captions.
EditPad’s interface is modular. All functionality other than the main editor is placed on side panels that you can rearrange and even drag off as floating windows.
Use the Custom Layouts item in the View menu to save and load your customizations.
You can switch between small, medium, and large toolbar icons by right-clicking any toolbar and selecting the Small Icons, Medium Icons, or Large Icons option. Toolbars increase their height and, if needed, wrap buttons across multiple rows to accommodate larger icons. The main menu always displays small icons next to menu items.
You can a different font face or font size for the menus by right-clicking the main menu or any toolbar and selecting Menu Font. Your chosen font is used by the main menu as well as all drop-down menus and all right-click menus. It is also used by toolbar buttons with text labels, such as the search option buttons.
Moving the menu and toolbars can be done directly by dragging them with the mouse. First, you need to make sure the toolbars aren’t locked. Right-click on the main menu or any toolbar and make sure Lock Toolbars is not ticked.
To start dragging a toolbar, click on the dotted line at the left-hand edge of the toolbar. While holding down the mouse button, move the mouse pointer to the location where you want to place the toolbar. The toolbar will automatically snap into place when the mouse pointer is at a position where you can dock the toolbar. If you release the mouse button, the toolbar will stay docked. If you don’t release the mouse button, the toolbar will continue to be dragged. If the mouse pointer is not at a position where you can dock the toolbar, the toolbar will float on top of EditPad’s window.
When a toolbar is floating, you can resize it like any window. If you double-click its caption, the toolbar will snap back to the place where it was docked last time.
You can dock the main menu and all toolbars at various positions. You can dock them at all 4 edges of EditPad’s window. If side panels are visible, you can also dock them below the caption or tab of the visible side panels. If tabs or side panels are visible that take up space between the edge of EditPad’s window and the main editor (the area where you edit your files), then you can also dock toolbars at any of the 4 edges of the editor that are not adjacent to the edges of EditPad’s window.
You can dock multiple toolbars at the same position and stack them horizontally or vertically or both ways. Simply drag one toolbar to the same position as another toolbar. The dragged toolbar will automatically stack itself with the other one. Exactly how it stacks itself depends on whether you move the mouse pointer near the top or bottom of the other toolbar, or over the blank space at the end of the toolbar.
If you find yourself accidentally moving toolbars around, right-click on the main menu or any toolbar and select Lock Toolbars. Then you will no longer be able to move docked toolbars around. Floating toolbars can still be moved. Select Lock Toolbars again if you want to be able to move the toolbars again.
By default, the main menu and the main toolbar are docked at the top. The search toolbar is docked at the bottom, or at the top of the search panel when the search panel is visible. Most side panels have their own toolbars that are docked below the tab or caption of the panel.
To show or hide the main menu or any toolbar, right-click on the main menu bar or any visible toolbar. The context menu will give you a list of all available toolbars. Click one to show or hide it. Toolbars that belong to side panels won’t be available unless the side panel is visible. Use the View menu to open the side panels.
The main menu and the main toolbar cannot both be hidden. If you hide one while the other is hidden, the other one will become visible again. All other toolbars can be shown or hidden independently.
The Tools toolbar is a special toolbar. You can show or hide it and move it around, but you cannot directly customize its contents like you can with the other toolbars. The Tools toolbar lists the tools that you have selected to appear on the Tools toolbar via Tools|Configure Tools.
In EditPad, the main menu is really just another toolbar. The only difference is that by default it contains menu items rather than buttons. But you can place buttons directly on the main menu, and you can place menu items on toolbars and even in context menus. There is no difference between menu items and toolbar buttons. Each command can be a menu item or a toolbar button, depending on whether you place it into a menu or onto a toolbar.
To edit any toolbar or menu, right-click on any toolbar or the main menu and select Customize. The Customization screen will pop up.
To move a menu item or button from one toolbar to another, left-click on the item, hold down the mouse button, and drag the item to its new location. If you want to move an item into a submenu, move it to the menu, wait for the menu to expand while holding down the mouse button, and then move the button you’re dragging to its location. To duplicate a menu item or button, hold down the Control key on the keyboard and then drag the item to its new location.
To remove a menu item or button, left-click the item and drag it to any position on the screen that is not an EditPad toolbar or menu. Then release the mouse pointer. Or, right-click the item and select Delete.
To add a separator line between menu items or toolbar buttons, first add the items that you want to separate to the menu or toolbar. Then right-click on the item that goes after the separator, and select Begin a Group.
If you want to bring back a menu item or button that you previously removed, click on the Commands tab in the Customization screen. The commands are organized into categories that correspond to the menus that contain those commands by default. The categories in the Customization screen and the items they contain never change.
Pay attention to similarly named commands in different categories. For example, you can find an Open command in the File category, the FTP Panel category, and the History Panel category. These are 3 unique commands. The File, Open command sits in the file menu and on the main toolbar by default. It shows a dialog box for opening files. The FTP Panel, Open command sits on the middle toolbar on the FTP panel. It opens the file that you have selected in the FTP panel. The File History, Open command sits on the toolbar at the top of the History Panel. It opens the file that you have selected in the History panel. You can technically place these 3 commands anywhere. But it’s probably not a good idea to use the Open items for the side panels anywhere but the proper side panel toolbar.
While customizing the toolbars and menus, an extra toolbar appears docked at the top edge of EditPad’s window, below the main menu and main toolbar if they’re still in their default positions. This toolbar has 6 drop-down menus (8 in EditPad Pro) that hold the items for EditPad’s most important context menus. Do not customize the toolbar itself. EditPad will automatically reset it. The purpose of this toolbar is to give you access to the context menus while customizing the toolbars and menus, so you can customize the context menus too. When you’re not customizing, the context menus appear in the following situations:
Before you can edit menu items and toolbar buttons, you need to be customizing the toolbars and menus. To do so, right-click any toolbar or menu and select Customize.
To change the caption of any menu item, right-click on the menu item. In the context menu, left-click on the Name item. Then type in the new name. Press Enter to confirm the change. If you don’t press Enter, the change won’t stick.
To change the Alt+letter access key shortcut of a menu item, edit its name. In the new name, change the position of the ampersand. The letter after the last ampersand in the name becomes the Alt+letter access key shortcut. Use two ampersands if you want to have a literal ampersand in the name.
If you place a command that has an icon associated with it on a toolbar, the toolbar button will only show the icon by default. If you find some of the icons confusingly similar, right-click on the button and select “image and text” or “text only (always)”. Then the button will show the command’s caption, with or without the image. Commands that don’t have an icon can also be placed on toolbars. They will show their caption. The default captions are intended for the menus. They’re probably longer than you want for toolbars. You can change the caption of a button by right-clicking it, left-clicking Name, typing in the new caption, and pressing Enter.
If you want to restore the default caption of an item or button, right-click it and select Reset.
If you create multiple toolbar buttons and/or menu items for the same command, editing the caption of one of its items or buttons only affects that item or button. By default, the various search options are listed with their full captions in the Search Options submenu of the Search menu. They also appear as buttons with one-word captions on the Search toolbar.
In the customization window, click on the Toolbars tab. This tab lists all available toolbars. Toolbars that belong to side panels won’t be available unless the side panel is visible. Use the View menu to open the side panels before customizing the toolbars. Tick or clear the checkbox next to a toolbar to show or hide it.
To add a toolbar, click the New button. The name you give the toolbar will appear in the context menu when you right-click any toolbar. The new toolbar will be blank initially. You can place buttons on it like you can on any other toolbar. Adding new toolbars can be useful if you want to have toolbar buttons in different places. If you have so many buttons on the main toolbar that it wraps into multiple lines, you may prefer to move some of the buttons onto additional toolbars and dock them left or right instead of having one fat toolbar at the top.
The default toolbars can be hidden but cannot be deleted. Only toolbars you’ve added yourself can be deleted.