Introduction
Opening files
Lite XL comes with a file browser by default. You can open, rename, move and delete files with it. Right-clicking on a file or folder will show more options.
Other than that, you can also open files with Ctrl+P. This opens a fuzzy finder with a list of project files.
Commands
Most of Lite XL's functionalities are implemented as commands and exposed by the command palette. The command palette is bound to Ctrl+Shift+P by default and is used to enter commands and execute them.
The command palette supports fuzzy matching, so you don't need to enter
the full name of the command. For instance, to create a new file, you can
type new doc and the correct command Core: New Doc will show up as the first choice.
You can press Up or Down to select other commands.
If a command is bound to a key shortcut, it will be shown on the right.
Keyboard shortcuts
All keyboard shortcuts are handled by the core.keymap module.
A key binding maps a "stroke" (e.g. Ctrl+Q) to one or more commands (e.g. core:quit).
When the shortcut is pressed Lite XL will iterate each command
assigned to that key and run the predicate function for that command —
if the predicate passes it stops iterating and runs the command.
A new mapping can be added by your user module as follows:
A list of default mappings can be viewed [here][mapping].
Multiple selections (multiple cursors)
Lite XL supports multiple cursors to edit multiple lines at once. You insert more cursors by Ctrl+Left Button. To insert cursors upwards or downwards, use Ctrl+Shift+Up or Ctrl+Shift+Down.
Find and replace
To find a certain word, you can use Ctrl+F. This will open a prompt where you can find text in the document. After entering the text, you can press enter to find the first match. The matched text will be selected. To find the next match, press F3
By default, Lite XL uses case-insensitive search.
Input such as Test will match either Test or test.
To toggle case-sensitive search, press Ctrl+I.
Lite XL also supports searching with regular expressions. This feature can be enabled by pressing Ctrl+Shift+I. This mode can be used in conjunction with case-sensitive search.
To find and replace text, press Ctrl+R. Lite XL will prompt you for text to replace and the replacement text. Afterwards, it will replace all occurrences of the text.
Project search
Finding text across multiple files can be useful. To do this in Lite XL, press Ctrl+Shift+F. You can then enter the text to find and press enter. Lite XL will open a new tab to display all the search results. To open the file containing the match, you can click the entries.
Project search also supports case-sensitive search
and regular expressions with the same keyboard shortcuts.
project-search:fuzzy-find allows you to search the project for similar words.
Lite XL does not support find and replace text across a project.
Line endings
Some application may require a specific type of line ending.
To change the line ending of a file, you can use the command doc:toggle-line-ending
or press the rightmost entry on the StatusView.
This should toggle between LF and CRLF which corresponds to Unix and Windows style line endings.
Indentation
Lite XL should automatically detect the indentation of the current file and apply it when pressing Tab. However, you can change the indentation size by left-clicking the 4th entry on the right of the StatusView. You can also change the type of the indentation by right-clicking the entry. The settings will not apply to existing text.
Projects
Lite XL centers around the concept of projects — a project contains your code and project-specific configuration. A project contains at least one project directory. Project directories are where your code is stored.
To use open a directory as a project, the directory name can be passed as a command-line argument
or the directory can be dragged onto either the executable or a running instance.
Once loaded, the project can be changed using the command core:change-project-folder.
The command will close all the documents currently opened and switch to the new project.
If you want to open a project in a new window, the command core:open-project-folder
will open a new editor window with the selected project.
Projects may contain multiple directories.
To add a directory to the current project, you can use the command core:add-directory.
Once the directory is added to the project, you can browse its file on the file browser
and fuzzy finder.
Lite XL will automatically save opened files and directories and restore them when you restart the editor.