Tips and Tricks

The following tips and tricks give some helpful ideas for increasing your productivity.


Editing   |   Navigation


Editing source

Content assist Content assist provides you with a list of suggested completions for partially entered strings. In the Safe X3 Editor press Ctrl+Space or use Edit > Content Assist.
Content assist in Javadoc comments Content assist is also available in Javadoc comments.
Content assist in Safe X3 Console Content assist is also available in Safe X3 Console view.
Toggle between inserting and replacing content assist When content assist is invoked on an existing identifier, it can either replace the identifier with the chosen completion or do an insert. The default behavior (overwrite or insert) is defined in the Opens the content assist preference page SAFE X3 Studio > Editor > Code Assistance preference page.
You can temporarily toggle the behavior while inside the content assist selection dialog by pressing and holding the Ctrl key while selecting the completion.
Create your own templates To create your own templates, go to the Opens the editor templates preference page SAFE X3 Studio > Editor > Templates preference page and press the New button to create a template.
Find the matching bracket To find a matching bracket set the caret after an opening or a closing bracket and press Ctrl+Shift+P or select Navigate > Go To > Matching Bracket. You can also double click after an opening or a closing bracket - this selects the text between the two brackets.
Smart Javadoc Type #** and press Enter. This automatically adds a Javadoc comment stub containing the standard @param tags.
Comment and uncomment mutliple lines You can comment mutiple lines explicitly with Source > Comment and uncomment them with Source > Uncomment.
Comments can be toggled with Source > Toggle Comment or with Ctrl+Shift+/ shortcut.
Smart Typing and how to control it The Safe X3 Editor's Smart Typing features ease your daily work. You can configure them on the Opens the typing preference page SAFE X3 Studio > Editor > Typing preference page.
Refresh read-only files content Read-only files content can be refreshed by pressing Shift+F6 or clicking Refresh file context menu in editor. This feature could be usefull for trace files.
Method prototype Put mouse cursor on method name to make a tooltip appear, containing method prototype with parameters types and sending modes.
Editor tooltip show folder name Put mouse cursor on file names (on editor tabs) to make a tooltip appear, containing folder name. Directory is also display for local files.

Code navigation and reading

Open selection in Safe X3 Editor There are two ways how you can open an element from a reference in the Safe X3 Editor.
  • Select the reference in the code and press F3 (Navigate > Open Declaration)
  • Hold Ctrl, move the mouse pointer over the reference, and click the hyperlink
The hyperlink style navigation can be configured on the Opens the hyperlinking preference page General > Editors > Text Editors > Hyperlinking preference page.
In-place outlines Press Ctrl+O (Navigate > Quick Outline) to pop up an in-place outline of the current source file.
Initially folded regions You can specify which regions are folded by default when an editor is opened. Have a look at the Opens the folding preference page Safe X3 Studio > Editor > Folding preference page to customize this.
Go to next / previous method To quickly navigate to the next or previous method or field, use
Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow (Navigate > Go To > Previous Member) or Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow (Navigate > Go To > Next Member)
Control your navigation between annotations Use the Next / Previous Annotation toolbar buttons or Navigate > Next Annotation (Ctrl+.) and Navigate > Previous Annotation (Ctrl+,) to navigate between annotations in a Safe X3 source file.
Reminders in your Safe X3 code When you tag a comment in Safe X3 source code with "TODO" the Safe X3 compiler automatically creates a corresponding task as a reminder. Opening the task navigates you back to the "TODO" in the code. Use the Opens the todo page Safe X3 Studio > Compiler > Task Tags preference page to configure any other special tags (like "FIXME") that you'd like to track in the task list.
Make hovers sticky You can open the text from a hover in a scrollable window by pressing F2 (Edit > Show Tooltip Description) or by moving your mouse pointer into the hover. You can select and copy content from this window, invoke actions, or follow links.