This page provides the latest online Help information for gbText. gbText is a freeware program which provides an extremely easy-to-use method of making batch changes within text files. Over 40 different file manipulations are provided.

Overview

Menu Options

Overview

The main windows contains the menus, toolbar, Actions frame, statubar, and textbox.

gbText provides over 40 actions which operate on the text that is contained within the textbox. All actions are accessed from the toolbar, whereas the menu provides mostly settings, help, and export features.

All actions in the toolbars use default paramemters to act on the content of the textbox. The Actions in the Action Frame require 1 or 2 values, which are displayed when the action is selected. Values entered by the user are kept in the Windows registry.

The first toolbar row consists of the following items:

Black graphic elements within an icon generally refer to actions which keep or insert textbox content. Red graphic elements refer to deletion of content.

• Open
  Opens a text file for editing
• Refresh
  Re-loads the current file
• New
  Clears the textbox
• Save
  Saves the contents of the textbox without confirmation
• Save As
  Saves the content of the textbox as a new file name
• Print
  Prints the content of the textbox
• Delete
  Deletes the selected text
• Copy
  Copys the selected text to the clipboard
• Paste
  Places the contents of the clipboard into the textbox at the insertion point
• Undo
  Restores the textbox to its content before the most recent Action
• Lower Case
  Forces all letters to lower case
• Upper Case
  Forces all letters to upper case
• Proper Case
  Capitalizes the first letter of each word
• Trim
  Removes leading and trailing spaces from each line of text
• Left Trim
  Removes leading spaces from each line of text
• Right Trim
  Removes trailing spaces from each line of text
• Word List
  Creates a list of all words and their frequency of use
• Hex View
  Views content of textbox in hexadecimal format
• Statistics
  Show frequency of use of characters
• Show Spaces
  Replaces spaces with the ^ character as a visual aide in determining existence of spaces
• Hide Spaces
  Replaces the ^ character with spaces - undoes the 'Show Spaces' action
• Email Author
  Calls up user's default email application with an email addresses to Gary Beene

The second row of the toolbar consists of the following:

Black graphic elements within an icon generally refer to actions which keep or insert textbox content. Red graphic elements refer to deletion of content.

• Insert 1 Column
  Inserts 1 spaces at the start of each line
• Insert 4 Columns
  Inserts 4 spaces at the start of each line
• Delete 1 Column
  Deletes 1 spaces from the start of each line
• Delete 4 Columns
  Deletes 4 spaces from the start of each line
• Double Space
  Puts two blank lines after each existing line
• Single Space
  Puts one blank line after each existing line
• Delete Blank Lines
  Deletes all blanks lines (null lines or lines with only spaces)
• Number
  Puts a 5 digit number at the start of each line (with a separating space)
• UnNumber
  Removes the number from each line (6 columns)
• Delete CRLF
  Removes all carriage return/line feed characters
• BackSpace
  Same as pressing the backspace key on the keyboard
• Delete Spaces
  Removes all spaces (replaces with Null)
• Delete TABs
  Replaces all TABs with a Null
• Expands TABs
  Replaces all TABs with 4 spaces
• Delete Duplicates
  Removes all duplicates, leaving only one copy of each line. The lines are sorted as part of the process.
• Keep Unique
  Keeps only lines which are unique. All duplicates are removed. The lines are sorted as part of the process.
• Sort
  Sorts the textbox lines in ascending order
• Reverse Lines
  Reverses display order of lines (bottom to top)
• Reverse Characters
  
• WordWrap
  Wrap all lines with a default width of 40 characters
• Columns
  Re-arranges text into 3 columns
• Show Action Frame
  Toggles display of Action Frame

• Clear Lines
  Replaces content of lines with spaces
• Clear Cols
  Replaces content of columns with spaces
• Delete Cols
  Removes specified columns, moving remaining columns to the left
• Delete Lines by #
  Removes specified lines, moving remaining lines upward
• Delete Lines text
  Removes all lines which contain the specified text string
• Expand TABs
  Replaces TABs with the specified number of spaces
• Keep Cols
  Deletes all but the specified columns
• Keep Lines by #
  Keeps the specified lines
• Keep Lines by text
  Keeps all lines which contain the specified text string
• Insert Text
  Inserts text string before specified columns
• Justify Left
  Left justifies text within specified columns
• Justify Right
  Right justifies text within specified columns
• Make Columns
  Creates specified number of columns
• Move Columns to Front
  Moves specifieid columns to the start of each line
• Random Text
  Creates random content using the specified rows/columns/type
• Replace Text
  Replaces all occurences of specified text with a specified text string
• Sort on Columns
  Sorts all lines using the specified columns as the sort key
• Truncate/Pad
  Delete all columns to the right of the specified width, or pads the lines as needed to reach the specified width
• WordWrap
  Wraps words to the specified width

Menu Options

The Export menu offers the following selections.

• Excel (words)
  Opens the local user's copy of Excel and puts each word of each line into a different cell on a common row within the worksheet.
• Excel (lines)(
  Opens the local user's copy of Excel and puts each line into a single cell within the worksheet.

The Options menu offers the following selections.

• Ruler
  Toggles display of a ruler just above the textbox.
• Ignore Case
  Ignores case when comparing text for sort, delete, and replace actions.
• Simple Word List
  The standard Word List provides a numbered list and frequency of use of all words. The Simple version lists only the words, suitable for copying and insertion into other applications.
• Confirm Action
  Requests user confirmation for several of the actions.
• Delete/Insert Columns at Cursor
  For the toolbar Delete/Insert columns options only, causes the action to take place at the insertion column in the text rather than at the beginning of each line.
• Default Settings
  Restores all default setting for gbText
• Clear MUR
  Clears the list of most recently opened files

The Help menu offers the following selections.

• Web Site
  Opens the default browser at Gary Beene's Freeware Information Center
• Online Help
  Opens the default browser at the gbText Online Help page.
• Online Updates
  Opens a dialog window from which the latest version of gbText can be downloaded.
• About
  Shows the revision level of the installed version of gbText

The PopUp menu offers the following selections.

• Load Sample Data
  Loads the file 'inputfile.txt' that is installed with gbText
• Print Form
  Prints an image of the textbox on the default printer
• Shuffle Lines
  Randomly repositions every line in the textbox
• Separate First Word
  Adds spaces to isolate the first word of each line for sorting or other manipulations
• Keep Selection
  Deletes all but the selected text
• Remove Formatting
  Removes all formatting (converts format to gbText default) which may have been pasted into the textbox
• Remove Empty/Blank Last Line
  Removes the last line in the textbox if it consists of only spaces or simply a Null
• Cut
  Cuts the selected text and places it on the clipboard
• Copy
  Copies the selected text to the clipboard
• Paste
  Pastes text from the clipboard to the insertion point in the textbox