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\section1 Version 2.0 (Beta)

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Qt Creator provides integrated tools for both application designers

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and developers to create applications for multiple desktop and mobile device

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platforms.

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For application designers, Qt Creator provides two integrated
visual editors, \QD and \QMLD, that you can use to design and develop
application user interfaces.

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For application developers,
Qt Creator provides a cross-platform, complete integrated development

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environment (IDE) that is available for Linux,
Mac OS X and Windows operating systems. For more information, see
\l{Operating Systems and Supported Platforms}.
\note Please report bugs and suggestions to the
You can also join the Qt Creator mailing list. To subscribe,
send a message with the word \e subscribe to
\l{mailto:qt-creator-request@trolltech.com}
{qt-creator-request@trolltech.com}. For more information about Qt mailing
lists, visit \l{http://lists.trolltech.com}{http://lists.trolltech.com}.
\raw HTML
<img border="0" style="float:right;" src="images/qtcreator-screenshots.png" />
\o \l{Operating Systems and Supported Platforms}
\o \l{Quick Tour}

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\o \l{Getting Started}
\list

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\o \l{Creating a Qt C++ Application}
\o \l{Creating a Qt Quick Application}

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\endlist
\o \l{Using the Editor}
\list
\o \l{Finding and Replacing}
\o \l{Refactoring}
\o \l{Searching With the Locator}
\endlist
\o \l{Managing Projects}
\list
\o \l{Creating a Project}
\o \l{Setting Up a qmake Project}
\o \l{Setting Up a CMake Project}
\o \l{Setting Up a Generic Project}
\o \l{Setting Up Development Environment for Maemo}
\o \l{Setting Up Development Environment for Symbian}

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\o \l{Building and Running Applications}
\list
\o \l{Building for Multiple Targets}
\o \l{Specifying Build Settings}
\o \l{Specifying Run Settings}
\o \l{Specifying Editor Settings}
\o \l{Specifying Dependencies}
\endlist

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\o \l{Developing Qt Quick Applications}

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\o \l{Using the Maemo Emulator}
\list
\o \l {Debugging Qt Applications}

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\list
\o \l{Debugging the Example Application}
\o \l{Interacting with the Debugger}
\o \l{Setting Up Debugger}
\o \l{Using Debugging Helpers}
\endlist
\o \l{Debugging Qt Quick Applications}
\list
\o \l{Using the QML Inspector}
\endlist
\endlist

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\o \l{Adding Qt Designer Plugins}
\o \l{Tips and Tricks}
\o \l{Keyboard Shortcuts}
\o \l{Known Issues}
\o \l{Glossary}
\o \l{Acknowledgements}
\page creator-overview.html
\nextpage creator-os-supported-platforms.html
\title Introducing Qt Creator

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Qt Creator provides you with tools to design and develop user interfaces and
complex applications for multiple desktop and mobile

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platforms.

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\section1 Designing User Interfaces
Qt Creator provides two integrated visual editors, \QD and \QMLD.
\QD is a tool for designing and building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) from
Qt widgets. You can compose and customize your widgets or dialogs and test
them using different styles and resolutions.
Widgets and forms created with \QD are integrated seamlessly with programmed code,
using the Qt signals and slots mechanism, that lets you easily assign behavior to
graphical elements. All properties set in \QD can be changed dynamically within the code.
Furthermore, features like widget promotion and custom plugins allow you to use your
own widgets with \QD.
UIs that use widgets are clearly structured and enforce a platform look and feel,
which makes them useful for traditional applications. However, they are static, and
do not fully make use of the large high-resolution screens, touch input, and significant
graphics power that are becoming common in portable consumer devices, such as mobile
phones, media players, set-top boxes, and netbooks.

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\QMLD allows you to easily develop animations by using a declarative programming

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language called \l {http://qt.nokia.com/doc/4.7-snapshot/declarativeui.html}{QML}.
In QML, a user interface is specified as a tree of objects with properties.
You use a visual editor to create items, screens, and applications, as well as define changes

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in their state. \QMLD generates the necessary code for you.
\note The visual \QMLD editor is provided as an experimental plugin that you must
enable to be able to edit QML files in the \gui Design mode. Enabling the
visual editor can negatively affect the overall stability of Qt Creator.

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You can edit the code in the code editor to add transitions from one state to another,
and interaction to specify user actions that change the states. You
can use Qt or JavaScript to implement the application logic.

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\section1 Coding Applications

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As an IDE, Qt Creator differs from a text editor in that it knows how to build and run
applications. It understands the code as code, not just as plain text. This allows
it to:
\list

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\o Enable you to write well formatted code
\o Anticipate what you are going to write and complete the code
\o Display inline error and warning messages
\o Enable you to semantically navigate to classes, functions, and symbols
\o Provide you with context-sensitive help on classes, functions, and symbols
\o Rename symbols in an intelligent way, so that other symbols with the same name

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that belong to other scopes are not renamed
\o Show you the locations in code where a function is declared or called
\endlist
\section1 Why Do You Need Projects?
To be able to build and run applications, Qt Creator needs the same
information as a compiler would need. This information is specified in the
project build and run settings.
Creating a project allows you to:
\list

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\o Group files together
\o Add custom build steps
\o Include forms and resource files
\o Specify settings for running applications
\endlist
You can either create a project from scratch or import an existing
project. Qt Creator generates all the necessary files, depending on the type of
project you create. For example, if you choose to create a graphical user

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interface (GUI) application, Qt Creator generates an empty .ui file
that you can modify with the integrated \QD.

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If you choose to create a Qt Quick application, Qt Creator generates a .qml file

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that you can modify with the \QMLD visual editor and the code editor.
*/
/*!
\contentspage index.html
\previouspage creator-overview.html
\page creator-os-supported-platforms.html
\nextpage creator-quick-tour.html
\title Operating Systems and Supported Platforms
\section1 Operating Systems
Qt Creator is available in binary packages for the following operating
systems:
\list
\o Windows XP Service Pack 2
\o Windows Vista
\o (K)Ubuntu Linux 7.04 (32-bit and 64-bit) or later, with the following:
\list
\o g++
\o make
\o libglib2.0-dev
\o libSM-dev
\o libxrender-dev
\o libfontconfig1-dev
\o libxext-dev
\o libfreetype6-dev
\o libx11-dev
\o libxcursor-dev
\o libxfixes-dev
\o libxft-dev
\o libxi-dev
\o libxrandr-dev
\o If you are using QtOpenGL, libgl-dev and libglu-dev

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\o Mac OS 10.5 or later with the following:
\list
\o Xcode tools for your Mac OS X version available from your Mac
OS X installation DVDs or at \l http://developer.apple.com.
\endlist
\endlist

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\omit ## Are the Xcode tools still needed separately? \endomit
\section1 Build Environment
To build Qt Creator itself from the source, you need:
\list

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\o Qt 4.7 or later
\o On Windows, MinGW 4.4 or Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
\endlist

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\section1 Supported Mobile Device Platforms
You can develop applications for the following mobile device
platforms:
\list
\o Symbian
\o Maemo and Maemo Application Development and Debugging Environment (MADDE)
\endlist
The following table summarizes operating system support for building
applications for mobile device platforms.

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\o {1,3} Operating system
\o {3,1} Platform

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\o Maemo

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\o Yes

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\o Yes
\endtable
*/
/*!
\contentspage index.html
\previouspage creator-os-supported-platforms.html

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\nextpage creator-getting-started.html
The figure below shows some of the components of Qt Creator in

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\gui{Edit} mode.
Qt Creator has been localized into several languages. If the system language
is one of the supported languages, it is automatically selected. To change
the language, select \gui {Tools > Options > Environment} and select a language
in the \gui Language field. The change takes effect after you restart Qt Creator.
The mode selector allows you to quickly switch between tasks such as

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editing project and source files, designing application UIs,
configuring how projects are built and
executed, and debugging your applications. To change modes, click the
icons, or use the \l{keyboard-shortcuts}{corresponding keyboard shortcut}.
\o \gui Welcome mode for opening recent sessions and projects.
\o \gui{\l{Using the Editor}{Edit}} mode for editing project and source files.

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\o \gui{\l{Developing Application UI}{Design}} mode for designing and developing
application user interfaces.
\o \gui{\l{Debugging}{Debug}} mode for inspecting the state of your program while
debugging.
\o \gui{\l{Managing Projects}{Projects}} mode for configuring project building and
execution.

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\o \gui{\l{Getting Help}{Help}} mode for viewing Qt documentation.
Certain actions in Qt Creator trigger a mode change. Clicking on
\gui {Debug} > \gui {Start debugging} > \gui {Start debugging}
automatically switches to \gui {Debug} mode.

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\section1 Browsing Project Contents
Use the sidebar to browse files, projects and bookmarks.
\image qtcreator-sidebar.png
You can select the content of the sidebar in the sidebar menu:
\list
\o \gui Projects shows a list of projects open in the current
session.
\o \gui{File System} shows the content of the currently selected
directory.
\o \gui Bookmarks shows all bookmarks for the current session.
\o \gui{Open Documents} shows currently open files.
\endlist
You can change the view of the sidebar in the following ways:
\list
\o To toggle the sidebar, click \inlineimage qtcreator-togglebutton.png
or press \key Alt+0 (\key Cmd+0 on Mac OS X).
\o To split the sidebar, click \inlineimage qtcreator-splitbar.png

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. Select new content to view in the split view.
\o To close a sidebar view, click
\inlineimage qtcreator-closesidebar.png
.
\endlist

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\section2 Viewing Project Files
The sidebar displays projects in a project tree. The project tree contains
a list of all projects open in the current session. The files for each
project are grouped according to their file type.
You can use the project tree in the following ways:
\list
\o To bring up a context menu containing the actions most commonly
needed right-click an item in the project tree.
For example, through the menu of the project root directory you can,
among other actions, build, re-build, clean and run the project.
\o To list all files in a project, click
\inlineimage qtcreator-filter.png
and select \gui{Simplify tree}.
\o To hide source files which are automatically generated by the build
system, during a build, click \inlineimage qtcreator-filter.png
and select \gui{Hide generated files}.
\o To toggle the synchronization of your project tree with the file
opened in the editor, click
\inlineimage qtcreator-synchronizefocus.png
.
\o To see the absolute path of a file, move the mouse pointer over the
file name.

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\section1 Viewing Output
The task pane in Qt Creator can display one of the following panes:
\list
\o \gui{Build Issues}
\o \gui{Search Results}
\o \gui{Application Output}
\o \gui{Compile Output}
\endlist
Output panes are available in all \l{Qt Creator modes}{modes}.

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\section2 Build Issues
The \gui{Build Issues} pane provides a list of errors and warnings
encountered during a build. The pane filters out irrelevant output from
the build tools and presents the issues in an organized way.

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Right-clicking on a line brings up a context menu with options to copy
the contents and to show a version control annotation view of the
line that causes the error message.
\image qtcreator-build-issues.png

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The \gui{Search Results} pane displays the results for global searches,
for example, searching within a current document, files on disk, or all
projects.
The figure below shows an example search result for all
occurrences of \c textfinder within the \c "/TextFinder" directory.

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The \gui{Application Output} pane displays the status of a program when
it is executed, and the debug output.
The figure below shows an example output from qDebug().

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The \gui{Compile Output} pane provides all output from the compiler.
The \gui{Compile Output} is a more detailed version of information
displayed in the \gui{Build Issues} pane.

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\section1 Getting Help
Qt Creator comes fully integrated with Qt documentation and
examples using the Qt Help plugin.

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\list
\o To view documentation, switch to \gui Help mode.
\o To obtain context sensitive help, move the text cursor to a Qt class
or function and press \key F1. The documentation is displayed in a
pane next to the code editor, or, if there is not enough vertical
space, in the fullscreen \gui Help mode.
\image qtcreator-context-sensitive-help.png
\o To select and configure how the documentation is displayed in the
\gui Help mode, select \gui Tools > \gui Options... > \gui Help.

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\endlist
You can display external documentation in the \gui Help mode.
To augment or replace the documentation that ships with Qt Creator and Qt:
\list 1
\o Create a .qch file from your documentation.
For information on how to prepare your documentation and create a
.qch file, see
\l{http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.6/qthelp-framework.html}{The Qt Help Framework}.
\o To add the .qch file to Qt Creator, select \gui Tools >
\gui Options... > \gui Help > \gui Documentation > \gui Add.
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\section2 Using Documentation Filters
You can filter the documents displayed in the \gui Help mode to find
relevant information faster. Select from a list of filters in the
\gui {Filtered by} field. The contents of the \gui Index and \gui Contents
pane in the sidebar change accordingly.
\image qtcreator-help-filters.png "Help filters"
You can modify the filters to include external documentation, for example,
or you can define your own filters. To construct filters, you can use the
filter attributes that are specified in the documentation. Each document
contains at least one filter attribute. If several documents contain the
same filter attribute, such as \c tools, you can use that attribute to
include all those documents.
To add filters:
\list 1
\o Select \gui {Tools > Options... > Help > Filters > Add}.
\o Enter a name for the filter and press \gui {OK}.
\o In \gui Attributes, select the documents that you want to include
in the filter.
\image qtcreator-help-filter-attributes.png "Help filter attributes"
\o Click \gui OK.
\o In the \gui Help mode, select the filter in the \gui {Filtered by}
field to see the filtered documentation in the sidebar.
\endlist
To modify filters, select a filter in \gui Filters, select the attributes,
and then click \gui Apply.
To remove filters, select them in \gui Filters, and click \gui Remove.

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\section1 Navigating with Keyboard

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Qt Creator caters not only to developers who are used to using the mouse,
but also to developers who are more comfortable with the keyboard. A wide
range of \l{keyboard-shortcuts}{keyboard} and
\l{Searching With the Locator}{navigation} shortcuts are available to help
speed up the process of developing your application.

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\section1 Developing Application UI
To help you design the user interface of your application, two visual
editors are integrated into Qt Creator:
\list
\o \QD
\o \QMLD
\endlist

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The integration includes project management and code completion.

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\section1 Using Qt Designer

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Qt Creator automatically opens all .ui files in \QD.

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To change the layout of \QD user interface elements:

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\o Select \gui Tools > \gui{Form Editor} > \gui Views >
\gui Locked.
When this option is unchecked, you can change the layout.
\o Click the header of an element and drag the element to a new
position.
\endlist
To change \QD properties, select \gui Tools > \gui Options... >
\gui Designer.
\list
\o Set the class properties and code generation preferences in \gui
{Class Generation}.
\o Set an additional folder for saving templates in \gui{Template
Paths}.
\o Set the grid settings and preview preferences in \gui Forms. To
preview your form with skins, enable \gui{Print/Preview
Configuration} and select your skin. Otherwise default preview
settings are used.
To preview the settings, select \gui Tools > \gui{Form Editor} >
\gui Preview, or press \key Ctrl+Alt+R.
\o To specify embedded device profiles, such as style, font, and screen
resolution, select \gui{Embedded Design}.
\endlist

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For more information on \QD, see
\l{http://doc.trolltech.com/designer-manual.html}{Qt Designer Manual}.

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\section1 Using Qt Quick Designer

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You can edit .qml files in the visual \QMLD editor or in the

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code editor.

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In \gui Projects, double-click a .qml file to open it in the code

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editor. Then select the \gui {Design} mode to edit the file in the
visual editor.
\note The visual \QMLD editor is provided as an experimental plugin that you must
enable to be able to edit QML files in the \gui Design mode. Enabling the
visual editor can negatively affect the overall stability of Qt Creator.
To enable or disable the \QMLD visual editor, select
\gui {Help > About Plugins... > Qt Quick > QmlDesigner}. You must restart Qt Creator
to enable or disable the visual editor.

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\image qmldesigner-visual-editor.png "Visual editor"
Use the visual editor panes to manage your project:
\list

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\o \gui {Navigator} pane displays the items in the scene. You can
show and hide items to focus on specific parts of the application.

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\o \gui {Library} pane displays lists of predefined \gui {Items} and
imported \gui {Resources} that you can use to design applications. The
images and other files that you copy to the project folder appear in the
\gui {Resources} pane.

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\o \gui {Properties} pane displays the properties of the selected component.

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You can also change the properties in the code editor.

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\o \gui {State} pane displays the different states of the component. To add

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states, click the empty slot. Then modify the new state in the editor.
In the code editor, you can see the changes recorded as changes to
the base state.
\endlist

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\previouspage creator-qml-application.html
\page creator-editor-using.html
\nextpage creator-editor-finding.html

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Qt Creator's code editor is designed to aid you in creating, editing and
navigating code. Qt Creator's code editor is fully equipped with syntax
checking, code completion, context sensitive help and in-line error
indicators while you are typing.
\section1 Configuring the Editor
Qt Creator allows you to configure the text editor to suit your specific

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needs. To configure the editor, select \gui Tools > \gui{Options...} >
\gui{Text Editor}
You can perform the following configuration actions:
\list
\o Set the font preferences and apply syntax highlighting in
\gui{Font & Colors}.

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\o Set tabs, indentation, the handling of whitespace, and mouse operations in
\o Set various display properties, for example,
\l{Highlighting and folding blocks}{highlighting and folding blocks},
text wrapping or \l{Moving to symbol definition or declaration}
{moving to symbol definition or declaration}
in \gui Display.

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\o Configure \l{Completing Code}{code completion} in \gui Completion.
\endlist
\section1 Using the Editor Toolbar
The editor toolbar is located at the top of the editor view. The editor
toolbar is context sensitive and shows items relevant to the file currently
open in the editor.
\image qtcreator-editortoolbar-symbols.png
Use the toolbar to navigate between open files and symbols in use:
\list
\o To browse forward or backward through your location history, click
\inlineimage qtcreator-back.png
and \inlineimage qtcreator-forward.png
.
\o To go to any open file, select it from the \gui{Open files}
drop-down menu.
\o To jump to any symbol used in the current file, select it from the
\gui Symbols drop-down menu.
\endlist
When you create or edit forms in a \c{.ui} file, the toolbar contains
Qt Designer specific tools.
\section1 Splitting the Editor View
Split the editor view when you want to work on and view multiple files on
the same screen.
\image qtcreator-spliteditorview.png
You can split the editor view in the following ways:
\list
\o To split the editor view into a top and bottom view, select
\gui Window > \gui Split or press \key{Ctrl+E, 2}.
Split command creates views below the currently active editor view.
\o To split the editor view into adjacent views, select
\gui Window > \gui{Split Side by Side} or press
\key{Ctrl+E, 3}.
Side by side split command creates views to the right of the
currently active editor view.
\endlist
To move between split views, select \gui Window >

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\gui{Go to Next Split} or press \key{Ctrl+E, O}.
To remove a split view, place the cursor within the view you want to
remove and select \gui Window > \gui{Remove Current Split} or press
\key{Ctrl+E, 0}. To remove all but the currently selected split view,
select \gui Window > \gui{Remove All Splits} or press \key{Ctrl+E, 1}.
\section1 Highlighting and Folding Blocks
Use block highlighting to visually separate parts of the code that belong
together. For example, when you place the cursor within the braces,
the code enclosed in braces is highlighted.
\image qtcreator-blockhighlighting.png

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To enable block highlighting, select \gui Tools > \gui{Options...} >
\gui{Text Editor} > \gui Display > \gui{Highlight blocks}.
Use the folding markers to collapse and expand blocks of code within
braces. Click the folding marker to collapse or expand a block. In the
figure above, the folding markers are located between the line number and
the text pane.

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To show the folding markers, select \gui Tools > \gui{Options...} >
\gui{Text Editor} > \gui Display > \gui{Display folding markers}. This
option is enabled by default.

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\section1 Checking Code Syntax
As you write code Qt Creator checks code syntax. When Qt Creator spots a
syntax error in your code it underlines it and shows error details when you
move the mouse pointer over the error.
\list
\o Syntax errors are underlined in red.

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In the following figure, a semicolon is missing at the end of the
line.
\image qtcreator-syntaxerror.png
\o Semantic errors and warnings are underlined in olive.
In the following figure, the type is unknown.
\image qtcreator-semanticerror.png
\endlist

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\section1 Completing Code
Qt Creator understands the code as code, not just as plain text. This
allows it to help you to write well formatted code and to anticipate
what you are going to write and complete the code. The code completion
differs somewhat depending on whether you write Qt code or QML code.
\section2 Completing Qt Code
As you write code, Qt Creator provides a list of context-sensitive
suggestions to the statement currently under your cursor.

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To open the list of suggestions at any time, press \key{Ctrl+Space}.
If only one option is available, Qt Creator inserts it automatically.
When completion is invoked manually, Qt Creator completes the common prefix
of the list of suggestions. This is especially useful for classes with
several similarly named members. To disable this functionality, uncheck
\gui{Autocomplete common prefix} in the code completion preferences.

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Select \gui Tools > \gui{Options...} > \gui{Text Editor} > \gui Completion.
The following table lists available types for code completion and icon
used for each.
\table
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\row
\i \inlineimage completion/class.png
\i A class
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/enum.png
\i An enum
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/enumerator.png
\i An enumerator (value of an enum)
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/func.png
\i A function
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/func_priv.png
\i A private function
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/func_prot.png
\i A protected function
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/var.png
\i A variable
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/var_priv.png
\i A private variable
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/var_prot.png
\i A protected variable
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/signal.png
\i A signal
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/slot.png
\i A slot
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/slot_priv.png
\i A private slot
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/slot_prot.png
\i A protected slot
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/keyword.png
\i A keyword
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/macro.png
\i A macro
\row
\i \inlineimage completion/namespace.png
\i A namespace
\endtable

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\section2 Completing QML Code
As you write QML code, Qt Creator suggests properties, IDs, and code
snippets to complete the code. The snippets can consist of multiple
fields that you specify values for. Select an item in the list and press
\key Tab or \key Enter to complete the code. Press \key Tab to
move between the fields and specify values for them.
\image qmldesigner-code-completion.png "Completing QML code"
\section1 Using Bookmarks
To insert or delete a bookmark right-click the line number and select
\gui{Toggle Bookmark} or press \key{Ctrl+M}.
\image qtcreator-togglebookmark.png
To go to previous bookmark in the current session, press \key{Ctrl+,}.
To go to next bookmark in the current session, press \key{Ctrl+.}.
\section1 Moving to Symbol Definition or Declaration
In Qt Creator you can move directly to the definition or the declaration of
a symbol by holding the \key Ctrl and clicking the symbol.

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To enable this moving function, in \gui Tools > \gui{Options...} >
\gui{Text Editor} > \gui Behavior select \gui{Enable mouse navigation}.
\section1 Using Update Code Model
To refresh the internal information in Qt Creator pertaining to your code,

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select \gui{Tools} > \gui{C++} > \gui{Update Code Model}.
\note In Qt Creator indexing updates the code automatically. Use

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\gui{Update Code Model} only as an emergency command.
\section1 Pasting and Fetching Code Snippets

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In Qt Creator, you can paste snippets of code to a server or fetch
snippets of code from the server. To paste and fetch snippets of code,
Qt Creator uses the following:
\list
\o \gui{CodePaster}
\o \gui{Pastebin.Com}
\o \gui{Pastebin.Ca}
\endlist

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To configure the server, select \gui{Tools} > \gui{Options...} >
\gui{Code Pasting}.
To paste a snippet of code onto the server, select \gui{Tools} >
\gui{Code Pasting} > \gui{Paste Snippet...} or press \key{Alt+C,Alt+P}.
To fetch a snippet of code from the server, select \gui{Tools} >
\gui{Code Pasting} > \gui{Fetch Snippet...} or press \key{Alt+C,Alt+F}.

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\note To use \gui{Pastebin.Com}, configure the domain
prefix in \gui{Tools} > \gui{Options...} > \gui{Code Pasting} >
\gui{Pastebin.com}.

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For example, you might ask colleagues to review a change that you plan to
submit to a version control system. If you use the git version control system,
you can create a \e{diff} view by selecting \gui{Tools} > \gui{Git} >
\gui{Diff Repository}. You can then upload its contents to the server by choosing
\gui{Tools} > \gui{Code Pasting} > \gui{Paste Snippet...}. The reviewers can retrieve
the code snippet by selecting \gui{Tools} > \gui{Code Pasting} > \gui{Fetch Snippet...}.
If they have the project currently opened in Qt Creator, they can apply and test
the change by choosing \gui{Tools} > \gui{Git} > \gui{Apply Patch}.
\section1 Using FakeVim Mode
In the \gui{FakeVim} mode, you can run the main editor in a manner similar
to the Vim editor. To run the editor in the \gui{FakeVim} mode, select

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\gui{Edit} > \gui{Advanced} > \gui{Use Vim-style Editing} or press
\key{Alt+V,Alt+V}.
In the \gui{FakeVim} mode, most keystrokes in the main editor will be
intercepted and interpreted in a way that resembles Vim. Documentation for
Vim is not included in Qt Creator. For more information on using Vim,
see \l{http://www.vim.org/docs.php}{Documentation} on the Vim web site.
To map commands entered on the \gui{FakeVim} command line to actions of the
Qt Creator core, select \gui{Tools} > \gui{Options...} > \gui{FakeVim} >
\gui{Ex Command Mapping}.
To make changes to the Vim style settings, select \gui{Tools} >
\gui{Options...} > \gui{General}.
To quit the FakeVim mode, click \gui {Quit FakeVim} or press
\key{Alt+V,Alt+V}.
\section1 Using an External Editor
To open the file you are currently viewing in an external editor, select
\gui Edit > \gui Advanced > \gui{Open in External Editor}.
To use the external editor of your choice:
\list 1

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\o Add the editor path to the \c{PATH} environment variable of your
operating system.
\o In Qt Creator select \gui Tools > \gui Options... >
\gui Environment > \gui General.
\o In \gui{External editor} enter the name of the application followed
by \key Space and \tt{\bold %f}. For example, to open the file in
Smultron, enter \tt{\bold{smultron %f}}.
To further define how to open the file in the external editor, you
can use the following variables separated by a space:
\list
\o Current line number \tt{\bold %l}
\o Current column number \tt{\bold %c}
\o Editor's x position on the screen \tt{\bold %x}
\o Editor's y position on the screen \tt{\bold %y}
\o Editor's width in pixels \tt{\bold %w}
\o Editor's height in pixels \tt{\bold %h}
\o Editor's width in characters \tt{\bold %W}
\o Editor's height in characters \tt{\bold %H}
\o To pass % symbol to the editor \tt{\bold %%}
\endlist
\note Not all variables work with all editors.
\endlist

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*/
\previouspage creator-editor-using.html
\page creator-editor-finding.html
\nextpage creator-editor-refactoring.html
To search through the currently open file:
\list 1
\o Press \key Ctrl+F or select \gui Edit > \gui Find/Replace >

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\gui{Find/Replace}.
\o Enter the text you are looking for.
If the text is found, all occurrences are highlighted as you type.
\o To go to the next occurrence, click \inlineimage qtcreator-next.png
, or press \key F3. To go to the previous occurrence click
\inlineimage qtcreator-previous.png
, or press \key Shift+F3.
\endlist

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You can restrict the search in the \gui Find field by selecting one
or several search criteria:
\list
\o To make your search case sensitive, select
\inlineimage qtcreator-editor-casesensitive.png
.
\o To search only whole words, select
\inlineimage qtcreator-editor-wholewords.png
.
\o To search using regular expressions, select
\inlineimage qtcreator-editor-regularexpressions.png
.

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Regular expressions used in Qt Creator are modeled on Perl regular
expressions. For more information on using regular expressions, see

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\l {http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.6/qregexp.html#details}
{Detailed Description} in the QRegExp Class Reference.

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\note If you have selected text before selecting \gui Find/Replace, the
search is conducted within the selection.
To replace occurrences of the existing text, enter the new text in the

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\gui{Replace with} field.
\list
\o To replace the selected occurrence and move to the next one,
click \inlineimage qtcreator-next.png
or press \key Ctrl+=.
\o To replace the selected occurrence and move to the previous one,
click \inlineimage qtcreator-previous.png
.