<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
type="guide" style="task 2column"
id="gedit-plugins-snippets">
<info>
<link type="guide" xref="gedit-plugin-guide#gedit-default-plugins"/>
<revision pkgversion="3.8" date="2013-02-24" status="review"/>
<revision pkgversion="3.8" date="2013-03-22" status="review"/>
<credit type="author">
<name>Jim Campbell</name>
<email>jcampbell@gnome.org</email>
</credit>
<credit type="author">
<name>Sindhu S</name>
<email>sindhus@live.in</email>
</credit>
<include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
<desc>Use snippets to quickly insert often-used pieces of text.</desc>
</info>
<title>Snippets</title>
<p><app>Snippets</app> provide a convenient way of inserting repetitive
portions of code into your files. For example, an HTML snippet for the
<code><![CDATA[<img>]]></code> tag would insert the opening and closing
portions of the tag, as well as fixed places where you can enter image
attributes. This can make writing code easier and faster.</p>
<section id="enable-snippets">
<title>Enable Snippets Plugin</title>
<p>To enable the <gui>Snippets</gui> plugin:</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Select <guiseq><gui style="menu">gedit</gui>
<gui style="menuitem">Preferences</gui>
<gui style="tab">Plugins</gui></guiseq>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Select <gui style="menuitem">Snippets</gui> to enable the
plugin.</p>
</item>
</steps>
</section>
<section id="browse-snippets">
<title>Browse Snippets</title>
<p>To browse available snippets:</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Select <guiseq><gui style="menu">Tools</gui>
<gui style="menuitem">Manage Snippets</gui></guiseq>.</p>
<note style="important">
<p>Make sure the syntax is set appropriately. The status bar at the
bottom of the <app>gedit</app> window will show the current language
setting. This language setting is what allows gedit to insert the
proper snippets. <app>Gedit</app> will normally detect the language or
syntax of the file that you're using, but sometimes you may need to
set it.</p>
<figure>
<desc>In this example, the language is set to HTML.</desc>
<media type="image" mime="image/png"
src="figures/gedit-html-snippet.png"></media>
</figure>
</note>
</item>
<item>
<p>Browse the snippets that are available for your language or
syntax.</p>
</item>
</steps>
</section>
<section id="using-snippets">
<title>Using Snippets</title>
<p>To insert a snippet into your current document:</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Type the desired snippet name anywhere in your current document.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Press <key>Tab</key> to insert the snippet associated with the input
term.</p>
</item>
</steps>
</section>
<section id="example-insert-snippet">
<title>Snippet Example Usage</title>
<p>For example, if you have set the syntax to <em>HTML</em>, type
<code>head </code>, and press the <key>Tab</key> key. The text would have
auto completed into a snippet as:</p>
<code>
<![CDATA[<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>]]>
</code>
</section>
<section id="adding-snippets">
<title>Adding Snippets</title>
<p>You can add new Snippets that work either globally (that is, they are
language agnostic) or only in a particular syntax.</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Select <guiseq style="menu"><gui style="menuitem">Tools</gui>
<gui style="menuitem">Manage Snippets</gui></guiseq>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>From the <gui>Manage Snippets</gui> sidebar select the desired syntax
and click on the "+" button to list existing snippets for the selected
syntax.</p>
<note style="tip">
<p>To add a snippet that works globally (that is, when no particular
syntax or language has been set for the document), select
<gui>Global</gui> from the <gui>Manage Snippets</gui> sidebar.</p>
</note>
</item>
<item>
<p>To add a new snippet, click on the "plus" icon in the
<gui>Manage Snippets</gui> sidebar.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Input a name for the new snippet. The name of the snippet can be
different from the snippet you want to add.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Under the <gui style="group">Activation</gui> section, you must
input a term for the <gui style="input">Tab trigger:</gui> textarea.
You will be using this term to insert your snippet.</p>
<note style="tip">
<p>If you wish to insert a snippet with a keyboard shortcut, then
click your mouse pointer on <gui style="input">Shortcut key:</gui>
textarea and press the desired combination of keys. Once you have
pressed and released the keys, the keyboard shortcut will be set.</p>
</note>
</item>
<item>
<p>Under the textarea for <gui style="input">Edit:</gui>, input the
desired text for the snippet. You may use <code>${n}</code> to indicate
variables, where <em>n</em> is replaced with a number that
represents the numerical order of variables included.</p>
</item>
</steps>
</section>
<section id="example-add-snippet">
<title>New Snippet Example</title>
<p>Consider you have created a snippet with the term <var>greetings</var>
in <gui style="input">Tab trigger:</gui>. The
<gui style="input">Edit:</gui> textarea contains:</p>
<code>
<![CDATA[<greetings>Hello ${1:wonderful}${2:amazing} world!
</greetings>]]>
</code>
<p>You can insert this snippet by typing <var>greetings</var> in the
document and pressing the <key>Tab</key> key. The following text snippet
will be inserted:</p>
<code>
<![CDATA[<greetings>Hello wonderfulamazing world!</greetings>]]>
</code>
<p>The words "wonderful" and "amazing" can be retained or deleted depending
on your choice of usage. To do so, press <key>Tab</key> to choose between
"wonderful" and "amazing" and press <key>Del</key> to delete the least
preferred option.</p>
</section>
<!--TODO: <section id="modifying-snippets">
<title>Modifying Existing Snippets</title>
</section>-->
</page>