New projects created with Project|New Project are always unmanaged projects. The blank project that EditPad Pro starts up with is also unmanaged. If you used EditPad Pro 6 in the past, projects in EditPad Pro 6 were always unmanaged.
In EditPad Pro, an unmanaged project means that you won’t be explicitly managing which files are part of the project and which aren’t. The project simply consists of the files that you have open in the project. Opening a file automatically adds it to the project, and closing a file automatically removes it from the project.
Unmanaged projects are a great way to keep groups of files that you are working with, without requiring any extra effort from you. Simply save the project once to give it a file name. From then on, EditPad Pro automatically updates the project. The project will always open the set of files you had open in it last time.
A managed project means that EditPad Pro expects you to manage which files are part of the project, and which aren’t. A managed project can contain three kinds of files: open files are part of the project and are in EditPad; closed files are part of the project, but are not open in EditPad; outside files are not part of the project, but are open under the project’s tab in EditPad. If you close a managed project and then open it again, the “open files” are opened again, the “closed files” are not opened but remain part of the project, and the outside files are gone (they may still exist as separate files, but the project won’t remember them). Open files and outside files have their own tabs under the project’s tab. Closed files do not have tabs until you open them again.
In the Files Panel, all files in unmanaged projects, and open files in managed projects are listed using a plain font. Outside files in managed projects are listed in italics. Closed files in managed projects are listed with a dimmed font. Closed files may not be listed at all if you turned off the option to show closed files in the Files Panel. Double-clicking a closed file opens it.
Managed projects take a bit more effort. It’s worth it for projects that consists of large sets of files because a managed project doesn’t force you to open all the files that it contains. You can quickly access closed files from the Files Panel and you can even search through closed files without opening them (as long as the project is open). Managed projects are also great for preventing accidental changes. The list of files in the project remains the same, unless you explicitly add files to the project or remove files from the project.
When you use File|Open with a managed project or drag-and-drop a file onto a managed project, the file is opened in the project as an outside file. They disappear from the project when you close them. Use Project|Add to Project instead to open a file and make it part of a managed project. Or if the file is already open as an outside file, use Project|Add Active File or Project|Add Outside Files to make it part of the project.
To turn an unmanaged project into a managed one, select the Managed Project item in the Project menu or click the corresponding toolbar button. The icon on the project’s tab changes from the red unmanaged project icon to the blue managed project icon. All files that were open in the unmanaged project become part of the managed project as open files.
You can turn a managed project back into an unmanaged one by selecting the Managed Project item in the Project menu again. If the managed project consisted of open files only, all that happens is that the icon on the project’s tab changes from blue to red to indicate the project is unmanaged. If the managed project contained closed files and/or outside files, EditPad Pro will ask what you want to do with those files.
Unmanaged projects cannot contain closed files. If you try to turn a managed project that contains closed files into an unmanaged project, you need to choose what to do with the closed files. If you select to open them, the closed files will be opened and remain part of the unmanaged project as open files. If you select to remove them, the closed files are removed from the project. They will remain as individual files on your hard disk.
Unmanaged projects cannot have outside files. If you try to turn a managed project that has outside files into an unmanaged project, you need to choose what to do with the outside files. If you select to keep them open, the outside files remain open and will be added to the unmanaged project as open files. If you select to close them, the outside files are closed and removed from the project. They will remain as individual files on your hard disk.
The project menu offers several commands that you can use to handle open files, closed files, and outside files in managed projects:
Add to Project: Select files from disk to be opened and added to the project as open files.
Add to Project Unopened: Select files from disk to be added to the project as closed files.
Add Active File: If the active file is an outside file, add it to the project as an open file.
Add Outside Files: If the project has one or more outside files, add all of them to the project as open files.
Open Closed Files: If the project contains one or more closed files, open them all.
Remove From Project: Close the active file and remove it from the project.
Remove Closed Files: If the project contains one or more closed files, remove them all from the project.
Close Outside Files: If the project has one or more outside files, close them all and remove them from the project.
Close All Files: Close all files in the project. If the project has outside files, those are removed from the project. Open files remain part of the project as closed files.