We’ve discussed in a previous blog why a tool as unassuming as a text editor also needs to be security-hardened in this day and age. In this blog, you can read on further to find out what tools UltraEdit uses to protect you and your data and what measures it employs to ensure its source code’s integrity.

Our Latest Additions to the UE Development Pipeline

UltraEdit is proud to announce that the source code and third-party components used in its underlying architecture are secured by state-of- the-art static application security testing tools (SAST) and source code analysis (SCA) tools.

UltraEdit recognizes that many individuals and businesses expect to be able to trust our tools with their most important and, often, confidential data. These security integrations represent a significant investment in meeting and exceeding those expectations. Hardening the security of our products to this level exemplifies our unwavering commitment to the integrity and protection of our users’ data and systems.

UltraEdit is primarily secured in three ways:

Why are these tools necessary?

UltraEdit stands alone in a crowded market of IDEs and editing tools when it comes to security. Our commitment to providing tools that not only exceed expectations in terms of functionality but also in terms of safety and security is unparalleled. One of UltraEdit’s priorities and edge over the competition lies in its ability to secure your digital assets by building a robust text editor built with security in mind—not as an afterthought. 

The industry-leading third-party tools we use provide ongoing comprehensive analysis and hardening of our codebase and serve as credible verification of the security of our applications. These tools help us identify critical issues and vulnerabilities before they ever ship.

Static application security testing (SAST) via Kiuwan

Kiuwan’s Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tool provides UltraEdit developers with several benefits: detecting security vulnerabilities in source code as they are written, enforcing the team’s coding guidelines, and flagging potential bug-prone elements in the source code.

Software composition analysis (SCA) via Black Duck

Blackduck by Synopsys is a software composition analysis (SCA) tool that UltraEdit uses to detect, manage, and secure its third-party source code components. This is an essential tool especially now that UltraEdit is adding its own plugin ecosystem.

UltraEdit’s Approach to Security: A Blend of Tools and Techniques

UltraEdit follows a three-pronged approach when it comes to security. This process involves internal checks, industry standard practices, and the utilization of software security tools. Each aspect of this approach filters out more surface areas and possible points of vulnerability in the software’s source code. 

Read on further to see how UltraEdit uses the latest additions to its toolset to help improve security.

• Manual and Peer Review

The first check comes in the form of manual peer review inside our development and engineering teams. Every edit or source code commit for any of our tools is inspected by a colleague before it is checked into source. Sharing written code also promotes transparency, early error detection, and collaboration, which are all essential for efficient software maintenance. 

It’s also the most accessible form of code protection; there’s no reason for a team or a company to not have a standard protocol involving manual peer review.

Keep in mind: Manual code review does have limitations, including the possibility of missing vulnerabilities due to human error or oversight. It’s also not easily scalable—something that might be of concern if you have multiple components or you’re dealing with multi-faceted source code applications.

In essence, though, this two-step manual process detects the most obvious errors and provides an avenue to ensure consistent coding standards. It’s also one of the easiest and most inexpensive options for securing source code; however, it must be augmented with other techniques such as automated testing.

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools.

To address the limitations of manual review, software developers employ automated tools and techniques. Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools are automatic quality control tools that complement manual code review. By combining manual review with suggestions from SAST tools, the overall security of source code is improved, helping to reduce the number of flaws that may slip into production.

These tools are used to evaluate source code without running or executing it—thus the term static. They examine the program’s structure and syntax to identify potential issues and errors, such as coding mistakes, security vulnerabilities, and performance bottlenecks.

UltraEdit uses a dedicated source code analysis tool (more on this later) to scan source code for possible vulnerabilities. These help detect issues that are laborious to check manually. This filters out common software errors such as obsolete programming techniques, memory leaks, buffer overflows, race conditions – things that can cause crashes or data corruption – and the like. It can even be fine-tuned according to UltraEdit’s own coding guidelines and conventions, which ensures better and faster development.

Keep in mind: While SAST tools cover a lot of ground in terms of curbing software vulnerabilities, it is not a catch-all solution. Because it lacks the ability to recognize context in the runtime environment, it may produce false positives, identifying issues that are not actual vulnerabilities, and false negatives. 

They are also often reserved for specific languages—meaning if you add components outside the supported code language, it may miss out on highlighting issues entirely. 

But overall, using automated tools greatly reduces development time as they can catch possible flaws early into a development cycle with minimal effort. They are also easy to use and are a great addition to manual peer review.

• Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools

Similar to how SAST tools augment manual review, software composition analysis (SCA) tools can also cover some of the limitations of SAST tools. SCA tools are primarily used to analyze and manage the open-source elements of applications and software source code.

UltraEdit, like most modern software, has external dependencies. UltraEdit is not open source software but it does use open source components. This is one of the more crucial steps that not every publisher will take. This type of scan cross-verifies each and every line in UE’s open source dependencies with a database of known vulnerabilities maintained by security professionals. This database is continuously updated so that security issues can be detected and mitigated as part of the standard product build pipeline.

Many SCA tools also provide an automated inventory of all open source components within a software package, including those components version numbers. This information is often published publicly via something called a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), a document that is now required by United States executive order for all federal software procurement.

Keep in mind: To properly work, SCA tools must rely on an up-to-date components database and list of known vulnerabilities. This means that obscure vendors or unpopular open source projects may sometimes take its time before it is identified properly. Developers must still exercise due diligence in choosing and maintaining the components they add to their source code.

However, SCA tools significantly reduce the time and effort required to track the provenance of libraries, plugins, and inherited components in your source code. This makes the SAST-SCA tool combo one of the most comprehensive security solutions available for software development. It vets most of the self-written code.

Threats and vulnerabilities in text editors

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center 2022 Internet Crime Report shows the trend of total cybercrime complaints they received contrasted against the amount of losses incurred.

Apart from the internal code that a team of developers writes, modern software is also built upon other pre-existing software and code. This makes it cheaper and faster to turn what would be a gargantuan development project into a more reasonable one-month sprint. However, this interdependent network of code also increases the scope of code that has to be secured and verified.

Even in a text editor—a usually unassuming piece of software—malicious actors may exploit security flaws due to the developers’ mistakes or due to inadvertent vulnerabilities embedded in the components of the source code.

• Security threats and vulnerabilities that can be present in a code or text editor include:
• Abuse of Third-Party Plugins: Security risks in popular extensible text editors that allow hackers to abuse plugins and escalate privileges on targeted systems
• Eval Injection: Improper neutralization of directives in dynamically evaluated code, which can lead to the execution of malicious code
• Broken Authentication: When authentication credentials are stolen, malicious actors can hijack user sessions and identities to impersonate the original user.
• SQL Injection: This can allow attackers to steal sensitive data, fake identities, and engage in various other malicious actions.
• Remote Takeover Vulnerabilities: Critical vulnerabilities in open source text editors that could allow attackers to remotely compromise a victim’s server and steal sensitive data
• Developer Negligence: Even without malicious actors, software may still become embedded with vulnerable components with security flaws if it gets published undetected.

Cybercrime takes on many forms: social engineering, network hacks, fraud, espionage, and a lot more. Each product or piece of software’s supply chain should theoretically be as fortified as possible. On the other hand, developer negligence and ignorance may also pose the same risks. Inadvertently using unverified source code and buggy, unreviewed code may bring as much harm as malicious actors.

The demand for extensibility has given birth to editor and IDE plugins—software components created by the open source community to solve each and every possible use case. Editor plugins and extensions provide exceptional flexibility and customizability to tailor to any user’s specific use case. (UltraEdit is adopting a modified version of this model.)

To mitigate these risks, it is important to use a combination of secure code review tools, regular testing during development, and monitoring and tracking repetitive issues. Secure code reviews can help identify and mitigate these vulnerabilities, ultimately strengthening the security of the code and text editors.

Looking forward: What to expect from UltraEdit

This blog post is meant to give you an idea about our approach to security and to share a bit about our two new security tools. There is no completely secure software available, period. But when it comes to security-hardened text editors, you can be sure that UltraEdit is one of the best (and maybe the only) choices available. Moving forward, UltraEdit will continue its endeavor to reinforce its security with the best industry practices.

Do you have specific use cases that need extra attention when it comes to security? The UltraEdit team is always looking for ways to improve the editor and its services. Send us a message detailing your use case, and we’ll make sure to consider it for the next release.

REGISTER NOW: Join our webinar on software security

The post Securing your software: How UltraEdit, a text editor, keeps your data safe appeared first on UltraEdit.

In this case study, we look at the story of one of our earliest users and how he made his custom wordfile to make UltraEdit, quite literally, his own unique editor.

Key Points: 

• UltraEdit can be one of the best editor options for niche languages and/or mature systems that aren’t mainstream.
• Due to its long and rich history, UltraEdit still supports thousands of programming languages usually used by enterprise companies.
• “[Using UltraEdit] makes programming a whole lot better than trying to go through it in the natural system editor.”

Who is the subject?

Marvin Cross has worked as a senior software developer in the healthcare industry since 1983. He currently works for Hampton Roads, Va.-based Sentara Health. Sentara is one of the largest health systems in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and among the top 20 largest not-for-profit integrated health systems in the country with 30,000 employees, 12 hospitals in Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina, and the Sentara Health Plans division, which serves more than 1.2 million members in Virginia and Florida.

Cross manages thousands of health insurance data interchange files and transaction records. His and his team’s work involves managing these records, verifying payments and transactions using data files, transferring records, and encoding them, as necessary.

Originally, he worked using the Pick OS with a language called UniVerse BASIC before transitioning to UltraEdit, in 2003

The Problem

Text editors, code editors, and IDEs will nominally support mainstream programming languages that are popular globally—but what do you do when a company uses a bespoke language developed four decades ago?

UniVerse BASIC is one of the lesser-known programming languages. It is a component of the MultiValue application platform, primarily used for developing enterprise apps. The base editor included in the Pick OS includes a YAFIYGI interface (a text-command-oriented document editing system as opposed to a WYSIWYG interface).

Furthermore, the files were borderline unreadable as it showed thousands of lines of source code in just two colors—black and white. There was no syntax highlighting or autocomplete—features that we have grown accustomed to today.

Cross used the base editor for years, an ordeal that he said caused “bleeding eye syndrome” because of its unintelligible format. This led to severe productivity hits as he constantly sifted through lines of unformatted and unhighlighted database files.

This is how Marvin reads, edits, and accesses the data files using the UniVerse basic base editor. There are no syntax highlighting and commands are issued via typing.

Why were they using this language/format?

Sentara has many patient records and a disproportionately higher number of data transfers and transaction records. With 12 hospitals in Virginia and northeastern Carolina, and the Sentara Health Plans division, which serves more than 1.2 million members in Virginia and Florida, you can imagine how large the database is for this system. The industry average is 80MB per patient per year—that estimates to about 96TB of text and numerical data for Sentara.

To streamline the process, the healthcare industry uses an exchange system called an electronic data interchange (EDI). This system allows one company to send business-related documents to another company in a standardized digital format.

But more importantly, these transaction records are encoded with the Pick OS using UniVerse BASIC. As with many file exchange formats, these formats nominally work well in their own ecosystem and less in others. Since the highest priority for the company is the security and accuracy of data with a functioning system, there is less incentive to risk a costly migration.

Simply put, the initial overhead requires immense effort and resources to be able to migrate to a new database system. There is simply not enough logistical and financial reason for a full reorganization—especially for a well-oiled machine that has already proven reliable. It may seem counterproductive to limit the tech you use, but most companies will often resort to maintaining whatever system they have as long as it works within reasonable margins.

Solution: Ol’ reliable UltraEdit

Sticking with what works is usually the safest option, but it is usually neither the most efficient nor the easiest way to achieve business goals. The UltraEdit editor, provided Cross the following:

• The flexibility to both use UltraEdit as his main editor and go back to the base editor when necessary
• Full-featured source editing for nearly any interchange format or language
• Unhindered performance regardless of the size of the database

Another advantage that UltraEdit boasts above other editors is its longevity and long history. Tech professionals have trusted UltraEdit for nearly three decades, amassing user-requested features and becoming a time capsule for how the software development and IT space have evolved throughout the years. Accordingly, UltraEdit is one of the few text editors that still works above and beyond other sunsetted tools and software.

UltraEdit also maintains the languages and allows syntax features via its customization features or assistance from community-submitted settings and files. In fact, due to the nature of his work and the straightforward nature of UltraEdit’s code highlighting, Cross was able to easily make custom syntax files for UltraEdit. He then submitted a highlighting word file from the 1990s that is available for the community to download and use for themselves.

With the wordfile enshrined in UltraEdit’s repository, any of Cross’ teammates and colleagues can easily install UltraEdit, download the wordfile, and enjoy the benefits of a rich text and EDI editor with syntax highlighting.

Using a supplementary tool like UltraEdit is both low-commitment and low-effort, with high returns. “[Using UltraEdit],” according to Cross, “makes programming a whole lot better than trying to go through it in the natural system editor.”

Feature Highlight: UltraEdit’s Custom Wordfiles

A wordfile is a plain text configuration file that UltraEdit/UEStudio uses to highlight keywords in source code files. This is mainly used by developers who are working when their default IDE does not support a specific language or when users want to customize the syntax highlighting for a language themselves.

Besides highlighting, a wordfile can also provide the following features:

• Code folding
• Brace matching
• Function listing
• And more…

UltraEdit has a repository of user-submitted wordfiles where users can get the one they  need, or create their own just as Cross did.

The Result

The benefit of having these bread-and-butter editor features is that users get the experience of a modern development environment on virtually any code or data file. It’s hard to pinpoint how much time this small benefit saved Cross, but imagine working with a default notepad editor for any coding work—it takes exponentially longer and is extremely frustrating.

Using an unopinionated editor like UltraEdit provides developers like Cross with the basic necessities plus leeway to make the editor truly his own. There may be slight differences in EDI formats between companies and industries, but with UltraEdit’s flexibility, this no longer poses a problem. You can freely open and edit any text-based format.

Lastly, the customizable features and shareable wordfiles provided Cross and his team with multiple benefits and a significant boost in productivity.

The post How one company uses UltraEdit for EDI management —an UltraEdit case study appeared first on UltraEdit.

If you were to build a house for the most important people in your life—for instance, for your family—comfort and security would be your top priorities. Apart from safely designed spaces and ample living space, you would want to make sure that the structure is building code compliant and made from materials that you trust.  

This is exactly  why a bill of materials is a crucial element in software development. In the same way that documenting building materials and designs used in a construction project establishes structural integrity, having a complete list of software dependencies and open source components in your source code allows you the extra confidence about the applications you are using. 

In the wake of security issues brought about by incidents such as the Heartbleed Bug and Log4j exploit, the Biden administration issued an executive order on improving national cybersecurity in May 2021. The goal of the executive order is “to modernize [the federal government’s] approach to cybersecurity.” and “to keep pace with today’s dynamic and increasingly sophisticated cyber threat environment.”

One of the key developments mandated by the EO is adding a mandatory software bill of materials (SBOM) to be included for all government software procurements. This requires all software companies wishing to sell to the US federal government must provide an SBOM for each product sold.

According to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, an SBOM is “a nested inventory, a list of ingredients that make up software components.” It lists down all the building blocks present in a software and allows information and security professionals to: (1) verify all components have no known vulnerability, and (2) trace the software supply chain and therefore manage risks in the event of a possible exploit.

How does an SBOM help cybersecurity?

To put things plainly, the SBOM requirement is based on the aspect of transparency. That may raise a few eyebrows: wouldn’t a complete list of all software dependencies be equally dangerous?

The short answer is possibly yes, but it is important to note that an SBOM is merely a reference. It is not meant to curtail threats nor limit exposure to vulnerabilities on its own (more on this later). In essence, it serves as the “guide” or manual for understanding and mitigating risks inherent to a software product by, for example, listing all open source libraries and their respective versions incorporated into that product.

The idea is that more transparency reinforces quality and security especially amongst the open source software community. With more eyes on a particular tech or code, issues and vulnerabilities are discovered and remedied more quickly—sort of like the idea behind blockchain operating like a public ledger. And in this case, the benefits far outweigh the risk of documenting your source code components.

Open source programs are software or bits of code that is published and made available to the public—and it has been so useful and fundamental to contemporary software development that you would be hard pressed to find a functioning program or application that does not utilize open source components. 

The architecture of modern software is highly interdependent.

Suffice to say, the main benefit that a bill of materials provides to cybersecurity is by providing transparency into a software’s supply chain. A software supply chain is every component that is used by an application or plays a role in its functioning. You might see where this is going. A software supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Take for example the log4j exploit. According to CISA, log4j is a software component that is used to log security and performance information in consumer, enterprise services, websites, and applications. There was a problem: An unauthenticated remote actor could exploit this component and take control of a system with the Log4Shell. Log4j was so broadly used by companies and organizations around the world that when news of the vulnerability broke out, everybody was scrambling to remove, repudiate, and patch out all applications associated with the component.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in how an SBOM could have helped mitigate the associated risks with such a widespread vulnerability. 

The underestimated benefit here is time. If you maintain an SBOM for your product, it would be easier to verify how much of your software supply chain has been impacted by a newly discovered security flaw. Combing through your source to see if you’re affected  takes precious time that could have otherwise been used to patch or remove the affected component. 

Furthermore, if you’re publishing software for widespread use (e.g. commercial software), maintaining an SBOM provides a crystal clear picture of what risks or issues might be present in third party components your project uses, allowing you to remedy these proactively before there’s a larger exploit or incident, instead of reactively when the damage has already been done.

In short, an SBOM helps security and IT professionals by providing a complete list of possible program dependencies. This list either helps them identify and maintain vulnerable components earlier in the software development life cycle (SLDC), or otherwise helps them swiftly identify where to make reparations in the decisive moments of a security breach. 

A visualization of a project’s dependencies and their properties from Google’s Open Source Insights Project

Zero trust—even for yourself

In the same EO, there is a reference to a zero trust model—wait, weren’t we talking about creating a list for transparency? Yes, but we have not addressed to whom we should be transparent. An SBOM should generally be only accessible by people with the right clearance. That includes your own DevOps engineers, cybersecurity and compliance personnel, and in some cases, your trusted clients. In the hands of these people, an SBOM is a very powerful tool in your defense against malicious actors. 

A lesser known purpose of an SBOM is to protect companies from themselves. Apart from verifying who has access to sensitive information such as your product’s bill of materials, the zero trust model also relies on the following tenets: 

• Right person(s)
• Right data
• Right type of access
• And only for the right reasons.

These four elements severely limit how much of a company’s sensitive data is accessible by employees, which is a core tactic used for minimizing the surface area and potential vulnerabilities in an IT system. No user or system is automatically trusted by default, regardless of their location or network environment. “Zero trust” operates under the assumption that all entities, whether inside or outside the network perimeter, should be treated as potentially untrusted and subject to verification and authorization.

There are many different benefits in following a zero trust model of security. In fact, some of your favorite apps and programs might already be using it. Here are some practices that you may have already experienced:

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Just-in-Time (JIT) access
• Continuous monitoring
• Conditional access
• Device health checks
• User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA)

How do you generate a software bill of materials?

An SBOM is a key element in a wider security architecture. Shoring up defenses comes with “an acknowledgement that threats exist both inside and outside traditional network boundaries”.

Planning and Preparation

So how do you create an SBOM? First off, you must identify what type of SBOM you need. This will depend on what program you have, how mature it is in its SLDC, and overall size of the program.

From Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: Types of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) Documents

The next consideration is the format of the SBOM. As of the time this article was written, while there is no universal data exchange format yet, there are three prevalent formats: SPDX, CPE and CycloneDX. Any of these open source options should be sufficient for most use cases, but find the one that best suits your program. As for the actual file documentation format, SBOMs can come in formats as simple as a .csv file but can also be delivered in a wide variety of other file formats such as: .xlsx, .spdx, .xml, .json, and .yaml.

And if you are interested in creating your own bill of materials for collaboration with federal agencies and institutions, it is best to refer to their public facing forums to see their policies on SBOM formats. For instance, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration does not have a standard format but does specify the minimum elements that a bill of material should contain. Other federal agencies might have differing requirements.

Planning an SBOM

Creating and managing an SBOM is a complex undertaking especially if you have a large program or utilize a wide number of free and open-source software (FOSS) and libraries. Creating an SBOM from scratch is usually the hardest part especially if you are opting for a more manual approach (maintaining one is by no means a meager task but is not as complicated as the first bill made). Here is a general checklist for creating and keeping an SBOM up to date:

• Defining the project scope 
• Listing known FOSS components and libraries used
• Establishing protocols for monitoring component updates
• Setting up vulnerability alerts and security notifications
• Updating the SBOM to reflect changes

Manually Creating an SBOM

Manually creating an SBOM is possible, but software composition analysis (SCA) programs can greatly reduce the resources required to do so. A reputable SCA tool would include third-party and specialized components used in your source but it is still up to the developer to verify and check a one-to-one correspondence with the actual source This is where manually checking and recording source code components is essential. For example, an SCA tool might tag your source as dependent on the an library when in reality you are merely using a single binary file, a code snippet, or even a reference. Freeform input is acceptable as long as you follow whatever format you originally chose.

Generating an SBOM with Tools

As mentioned earlier, creating an SBOM with tools is usually more practical and faster. SCA programs automatically scan your source and list down all the components complete with version number, library information, and similar helpful details that will complete your SBOM.

These tools will analyze your source code and return an output in the format of your choosing. One of the most common methods SCA tools use to generate SBOMs is the upload and scan method. This may involve initiating the process with an API call, verifying the call with an account with the right privileges, and supplying one-time authentication keys. The actual scan happens off site and the service provider provides the final output document.

Recall the concept of zero trust: working with tools (i.e. third party providers) should undergo an even higher level of scrutiny than if you were executing everything on premise. You would not want to grant admin privileges to an entity you do not trust.  

A sample SBOM in a CycloneDX .json format opened in UltraEdit. Taken from GitHub.

Summary

Whatever your stance is on zero trust and the creation of SBOMs, there is no denying that the industry is trending towards it. More and more companies and software developers—not just federal agencies—will be requiring an SBOM as part of their purchase order. Similarly, even the open source community will be more trusting 

Creating an SBOM should not only be considered because it is a federal requirement, instead generating an SBOM should also be considered for the benefits it provides in strengthening your software supply chain. It bolsters your defenses in preventing vulnerabilities from even reaching your users, and it also allows you an extra layer of remediation when huge security flaws are detected.

The post Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) demystified: What it is, why it’s necessary, and how to generate one. appeared first on UltraEdit.

What Are The Keyboard Shortcuts?

Keyboard shortcuts are keys or key combinations that are used to perform some actions on the computer instead of pressing the mouse keys.

Different software offers many keyboard shortcuts, the use of which significantly speeds up the process of working with computer programs. Also, there are a lot of Mac keyboard shortcuts and Windows keyboard shortcuts which allow you to effectively perform various tasks in operating systems.

What Are The Benefits Of Using Keyboard Shortcuts vs Mouse?

Most apps offer many keyboard shortcuts, the use of which significantly speeds up the process of working with computer programs.

Let’s list the main advantages of using keyboard shortcuts.

• Significant time savings. Moving the mouse cursor and clicking it takes much longer than pressing keys on the keyboard. If you know the most common keyboard shortcuts, you can save a few seconds on each simple action that you perform many times a day.
• Increasing concentration. When using a mouse, you need to distract yourself from the keyboard all the time and look for the cursor on the screen. It distracts attention and impairs concentration. By using more keyboard shortcuts, you will be focused on the task and will not be distracted.
• Key combinations are easier and more convenient to use. Once you memorize the keyboard shortcut for performing a certain action, you will no longer use the mouse for that action.
• Commands called from the keyboard are more precise. If you use a mouse, there is a greater chance that you will make a mistake. Since you use the keyboard to type text in the active window, commands called from the keyboard are more accurate.

What Is Command Palette?

The command palette provides quick access to all the commands available in UltraEdit. To open it, use Ctrl+Shift+P or click the icon on the right side of the ribbon bar menu next to the help icon.

You can search for commands in the command palette by name and invoke commands from it. In addition to the name of the commands, you can find keyboard shortcuts for invoking them (if they exist) and their locations. You can add a command to your favorites by clicking the star to the left of its name.

In addition to commands, the command palette also includes settings.

The command palette keeps a history of all the files you’ve opened so you can quickly reopen them. If necessary, you can clear the open history.

What Are UltraEdit Native Feature Shortcuts?

UltraEdit provides a large list of default keyboard shortcuts, which you can use to work with text files easier and faster. Let’s list some of them.

• Close all open files (Ctrl+Shift+F4). If you have finished working on many files and want to close them, press Ctrl+Shift+F4 instead of performing multiple mouse clicks.
• Search in files (Ctrl+Shift+F). This keyboard shortcut opens a dialog to search for text in several files in the selected directory. You do not need to open files in UltraEdit and perform a search in each file separately.
• Duplication of the active line (Alt+Shift+D). If you need to duplicate a line of text, it’s much easier to use a single keyboard shortcut instead of selecting, copying, and pasting that line.
• Next paragraph (Alt+right arrow). Press the Alt key and right arrow to position the caret at the first non-space character of the next paragraph.
• Previous paragraph (Alt+left arrow). Positions caret at the first non-space character of the current paragraph (if positioned mid-paragraph) or previous paragraph. These commands allow you to quickly move through the text without leaving the keyboard.
• Context help (Shift+F1). Press Shift+F1 to invoke the context-sensitive help.

How To Set Your Own Key Mapping?

UltraEdit allows you to edit, add and remove keyboard shortcuts to suit your needs.

To add or change a keyboard shortcut, follow these steps:

• Select the command you want to change from the command list.
• Click in the Press new (multi)key area of the input window to give it focus.
• Enter the new key assignment in the “Press a new (multiple) key” window. This keyboard shortcut will be saved and displayed.
• Click the Assign button and the new key will be assigned to the command.

You can easily restore the factory settings of the keyboard shortcuts by clicking the Default button.

Do you want to have a reliable, easy-to-use, fast, and versatile text editor? Try the 30-day free trial of UltraEdit.

The post UltraEdit: Keyboard Shortcuts Or Mouse? appeared first on UltraEdit.

Web application testing is a critical step in software development, ensuring that the end product meets its quality standards and requirements. Thorough testing detects and resolves bugs and technical issues, improves the user experience and reduces the risk of security breaches. Let’s check out how to create and test an application using the best testing tools.

Why Is Testing Applications Critical?

Testing applications helps to identify and fix any bugs, technical issues, or security vulnerabilities before release. Which in turn builds customer confidence and establishes trust in the brand.

Neglecting application testing can result in costly and time-consuming fixes after release and can also impact the reputation of the company, too. Moreover, it can result in frustrated users, security breaches, and lost revenue.

Therefore, testing should be integral to the software development life cycle. It helps us ensure that the final product meets the necessary standards and delivers a positive user experience.

What Are Some Common Ways To Test An Application?

There are several ways to test an application, including:

• Unit Testing: It lets the testing team test individual components or modules to verify their functionality and performance.

• Integration Testing: This testing technique allows us to test the interaction between components or modules to ensure they work correctly together.

• Functional Testing: It involves testing the application’s functional requirements and verifying that it works as intended.

• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): It helps us in testing the application from the end-user perspective to ensure it meets their needs and expectations.

• Performance Testing: It helps us to test the application’s speed, scalability, and stability under different load conditions.

• Security Testing: We can evaluate the application’s security measures to identify any potential threats or vulnerabilities.

• Automated Testing: It allows us to use tools and scripts to automate the testing process, increasing efficiency and accuracy.

Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, the specific testing approach will depend on the nature of the application, development processes, and other factors. Some more testing approaches are regression testing, load testing, usability testing, black box testing, stress testing, non-functional testing, and user interface testing.

Tester’s Toolkit: What is UltraEdit?

UltraEdit is a versatile text editor software that is widely used by programmers, web developers, and other IT professionals. It boasts a language agnostic and powerful feature base. Its capabilities have made it popular for editing code, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other programming languages.

UltraEdit is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms. Moreover, it gives amazing features to create an application without any challenges. It also includes a customizable interface that allows users to adjust the look and feel of the software to meet their specific needs. With its reliability and robustness, UltraEdit is a must-have tool for any software development or coding project.

What Are The Features Of UltraEdit & How Do They Help In Application Development?

UltraEdit is a feature-rich text editor software with the following features:

• Syntax highlighting: This Supports multiple programming languages and provides syntax highlighting for code, making it easier to read and identify errors.

• Code folding: This allows you to collapse sections of code to make it easier to navigate large files.

• Code completion: This automatically completes code as you type, reducing the time it takes to write code.

• Column mode editing: It enables you to edit multiple lines of code at once, making it easier to make changes to large blocks of code.

• Regular expression support: It Provides support for complex search-and-replace operations using regular expressions.

• Integrated file comparison: This makes it easy to compare two files and merge changes.

• Customizable interface: It Allows you to customize the look and feel of the software to meet your specific needs.

• Multi-caret editing: It Allows you to make the same change in multiple places in your code at once.

• Macro recording and playback: This enables you to record macros to automate repetitive tasks and play them back.

• Integrated FTP/SFTP support: It Allows you to edit files directly on a remote server over FTP/SFTP.

These are just a few of the many features that UltraEdit provides. Its powerful and flexible capabilities make it a valuable tool for any software development or coding project.

How To Create An Application In UltraEdit?

It is very simple and easy to create an application using UltraEdit. Let’s begin the process in steps.

1. First, we have to select Project Manager from the project menu.
2. The next step is to click on Create button. We have to select Using Templates from the context menu.
3. Then, we must navigate to Compilers Pane and select a Compiler. We should ensure the installation of the compiler in our computer to work through UltraEdit.
4. The next step is to select our desired application template. Then, we must specify our project’s name, location, and path and click on Create.
5. In the next step, we will specify the general framework of our application.
6. After selecting our desired options, we must click on Build in the Build toolbar.
7. We will get the Compiler Options dialog, where we must click on Ok. It will build our first application.
8. The next step is to run our application by clicking on Run in the Build toolbar. It will help us launch our newly created application.

We have realized that creating an application is very simple. But we still have some more steps to take. We have to add further functionality to our application in UE Studio. It can be done based on our customized requirements for our application.

How Can You Test Your Application With An Automated Testing Tool?

To test an application with an automated testing tool, follow these steps:

• Choose a testing tool that best fits your requirements (e.g., Selenium, Appium, etc.)
• Write test cases that cover various scenarios and edge cases for your application.
• Integrate the test cases with the testing tool, such as TestRail.
• Run the test cases and collect results.
• Analyze the results and fix any failing test cases.
• Repeat the process until all test cases pass successfully.
• Continuously run the test suite as part of your development and deployment process to ensure the application remains stable.

Choosing a testing tool that supports your application’s technology stack is important. It will help us to write test cases that are thorough and maintainable. Automated testing can significantly speed up the testing process and increase the reliability and consistency of your results.

How Does TestRail Support Application Testing Process?

TestRail is a test case management and test execution software that supports the application testing process by providing the following features:

• Test Case Management: Store and organize your test cases in a centralized location for easy access and collaboration.

• Test Plan & Test Suite: Create and manage test plans, define test suites, and organize test cases into meaningful groupings.

• Test Execution: Run your test cases and track their results within TestRail, including recording step-by-step details, screenshots, and attachments.

• Results Tracking & Reporting: View and analyze test results, including generating custom reports and charts to better understand your testing progress.

• Integration with Other Tools: Integrate TestRail with other tools such as Jira, GitHub, and Selenium to streamline your testing process.

• Collaboration & Communication: Collaborate with your team and stakeholders by sharing test results, assigning tasks, and tracking progress.

By using TestRail, teams can effectively manage the testing process, track progress, and communicate results. It ultimately leads to a more efficient and streamlined testing process.

Final Thoughts

Creating and testing an application can be a complex and time-consuming process, but it’s essential to ensure a high-quality product. A combination of manual testing and automated tools, such as Selenium and TestRail, can help streamline the process.

Moreover, it can minimize human error and increase the reliability and consistency of test results. A well-executed testing plan can help catch issues early, reduce downtime, and improve the overall user experience.

FAQs

What Is Test Application?

Application testing is the process of checking any software application for bugs utilizing test automation frameworks, tools, and scripts. It enables teams to publish strong, bug-free software applications into the actual world.

Why Do We Test Applications?

We do it to make sure that an application is doing what it is supposed to do.

How Do I Manually Test An Application?

• Review the software requirement specification document’s requirements for analysis.
• Make a detailed test plan.
• Create test cases that address each of the specifications listed in the document.
• Get the QA lead to review your test cases.
• Run test cases and look for any issues.
• Report any bugs, and after they’ve been repaired, run the failed tests once more to confirm the fixes.

Which Software Is Used for Software Testing?

Selenium is one of the best tools for software testing.

Sign Up for free now to manage test cases, test runs, and other testing activities by using TestRail.

The post How To Create And Test An Application appeared first on UltraEdit.

Source: https://simplexsoftware.com.au/website-design-services/web-design-sydney/

Not every website is a goldmine; only stunning websites with great functionality and visual appearance offer high ROI. Thus, the demand for such websites has been on an aggressive trend. Unsurprisingly, this spiked demand for exceptional developers, too. These developers require extraordinary tools to create, deploy and deliver such websites and software. Developers need high-end web & software development and QA testing tools.

Being a developer, you might know about the importance of using the right tools for web development. But among the hundreds of possible choices, which would be considered essential tools for web development and QA Testing? Some common QA test tools are TestRail, Codepen, UltraEdit, GitHub, etc., which ensure continuous integration & software quality. Let’s delve deeper and explore the roots of web software engineering.

7 of the Best Tools for Web Development and QA Testing Process

Here is the list of quality control weapons developers must have in their arsenal to let their clients win this fierce competition.

UltraEdit

UltraEdit, with its impressive code production environment and flexibility, holds the first spot in the list of the best tools for web development in 2023. It is a text editor, code editor, hex editor, plus coding software perfect for editing HTML, JavaScript, PHP, C/C++, Perl, and virtually any other programming language. This cross-platform code editor can handle and edit files larger than 4 GB (it can handle even 18 GB files).

UltraEdit is an award-winning application that supports 64-bit file handling on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows platforms. However, the system must have Windows 7 or later versions. The impressive part, it comes with a 30-day FREE trial. The more exciting features of UltraEdit are waiting below:

Text editing features

• Paragraph alignment (left, center, right, fill)
• Drag and drop editing
• Auto-indent wrapped lines
• Save state

Find & replace features

• Quick find
• Bookmark matching lines
• Filter on selection
• Incremental search
• Replace in files (with this feature you can specify a parent directory and search for a string starting from that directory and UltraEdit can replace it in any file it occurs in.  So you could potentially change a string/paragraph wherever it occurs all across a website with one command – without having to manually track down all those occurrences.)

Web development features

• Full FTP support
• Multi-pane FTP browser
• Code folding
• Offers smart templates

Advanced features

• Shell integrations add
• Configurable tool support
• Editable macros
• Command palette

You can check the pricing details here.

TestRail

Web development is one of the most critical things in the modern technological era. Explore the essential tools for web development and QA testing today.

The second tool is a feature-loaded software testing professional tool, TestRail, which is essential for QA testing in web development. This test automation tool helps the QA team ensure software quality, improve efficiency, avoid costly setbacks, and reduce the waste of time in the functional testing process. In addition, it allows better-prioritized tasks, making the software development life cycle much faster.

Not to mention its benefit for duplication of data that traditionally occurs while managing tests, defects, and requirements. Moreover, TestRail increases collaboration & quality assurance, one of its benefits that no one acknowledges.

In other words, a test automation tool can help deliver quality software on time while avoiding defects and glitches using agile methodologies.

Additional features of TestRail

• Automated testing
• Manual testing/unit testing/regression testing/load testing
• Security testing & performance testing
• Exploratory testing phase
• User acceptance testing
• Accurate reports
• Rich integration feature & test cases
• 14-day Free Trial

CodePen

Another essential tool for web development is CodePen [1], beloved by the front-end developer community. This tool allows you to write codes in the browser and displays the results while you build. It’s an online editor for developers possessing any skill set from beginner to advanced.

However, CodePen empowers front developers to learn how to code in programming languages like HTML, CSS, and Java. It’s an easy-to-use front-end development tool. Here are the things you must know about CodePen: –

• You can show off your GitHub profile with CodePen.
• Keep upgrading your skills with CodePen.
• One can use CodePen for FREE and enjoy all the basic features.
• Supports front-end coding languages like HTML, Java, CSS, etc.
• Share your work with the most active front-end development community.

Angular

Though HTML stays top of the list when it comes to front-end development languages, it declaring dynamic views with HTML is not possible. That’s where you need AngularJS [2], an open-source web framework by Google. Angular JS is fully extensible, resulting in an environment that is readable, quick to develop, and expressive.

This web development tool will suit your application’s needs since every feature can be replaced or modified. Also, its abilities are gaining popularity among front-end developers & qa engineers. In short, if you are willing to deploy robust applications, Angular is a must.

JQuery

Here’s the fifth web development tool necessary in every developer’s toolbox. This tool is again for front-end developers who work with JavaScript. JQuery [3] is a feature-rich JavaScript library that is small and fast. You might be aware of the problems associated with JavaScript.

JQuery, with its versatility and extensibility, solves them all and makes writing JavaScript much faster and easier. Additionally, it works with multiple browsers and helps you avoid common browser errors. It’s been used by millions of developers. To conclude, JQuery is a successful tool with almost 15 years of widespread use.

GitHub

Imagine you’re working hard on new features of an application, and suddenly you screw up everything. That’s the pain only a developer can understand!

GitHub [4] can eliminate the risk of losing all your important data and features you’ve added. It is an online software development platform for tracking, storing, and collaborating on software projects for best functional testing.

Over time, GitHub has become vital for all developers & test environments. Since its founding in 2008, this platform has gained popularity and has acquired millions of users. The most impressive part of this tool is you can view changes you’ve made and go back to the previous state.

Several helpful features of this free service make it an ideal tool for the software development process in 2023.

Chrome Developer Tools

Last but not least, Chrome Developer Tools [5] are one of the best web development tools in 2023. Chrome developer tools are a powerful toolkit in the Google Chrome Browser and Safari that allows you to inspect, edit, and debug code in real-time and measure page performance.

These tools come in handy when you need to fix errors and measure the performance of your codes. Also, Chrome Developer Tools have device and browser modes to ensure that your pages look fine and function correctly in all browsers and devices.

So, don’t forget to use Chrome Developer Tools while coding, as it will help you improve productivity.

Final Verdict

This article contains the 7 of the most essential tools for web development and QA Testing in 2023. UltraEdit is a highly flexible code editor that will be with you for any work, and TestRail is a software testing tool for automated testing that will allow you to deliver projects on time with zero glitches. To conclude, each of these tools has its own pros and plays a vital role in the whole development cycle, so do add these tools to your toolbox and become a pro developer.

However, to add yourself to the list of pro-QA testers, you must try TestRail, a feature-loaded software testing tool. Try TestRail for FREE!

[1] https://codepen.io/

[2] https://angularjs.org/

[3] https://jquery.com/

[4] https://github.com/

[5] https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/

The post The Essential Tools For Web Development and QA Testing In 2023 appeared first on UltraEdit.

Numerous text editors incorporate additional features such as spell check, line numbering, and the capacity to search and replace Text. Software engineers, web developers, and data scientists frequently utilize text editors for writing, editing, and debugging code.

They are also often utilized by authors, journalists, and other professionals that require a dependable tool for writing and modifying text-based materials. Text editors are increasingly adopting AI-based capabilities for editing in 2023, such as intelligent code completion, which can save developers time and boost their productivity.

Nano Text Editor: An Overview!

Despite its popularity among Linux users, the Nano editor has significant restrictions that users should consider before selecting it as their preferred text editor.

As a command-line text editor, the Nano text editor may present difficulties for people unfamiliar with the command-line interface and commands such as “yum install nano” and “nano filename.”

In addition, the Nano command line editor lacks some advanced features and functionalities available in other text editors, such as integrated debugging and project management tools.

It also handles large files less efficiently than other editors, which can be a problem for developers and programmers who frequently work with big files.

Users seeking a more versatile text editor that does not require a command-line interface may wish to investigate alternatives such as UltraEdit.

Best GNU Nano Alternatives

There are times when you need to use a more advanced text editor. For example, you must insert images into documents or work with multiple files simultaneously.

Here are some of our favorite Nano alternatives:

UE Studio 

UEStudio

If you are using old design tools for text editing, throw them out and start using UltraEdit. This wonderful and fastest tools can save you time and effort.

Moreover, US Studio is a text and source code editor for macOS, Windows, and Linux systems. The tool has been known for its advanced and powerful features, including code folding, syntax highlighting, multi-caret editing, and its support for various file formats and programming languages.

Features:

UEStudio is a powerful tool that combines UltraEdit’s capabilities with Git’s powerful version control features.

• Integrated debugging and development tools
• Project and workspace management
• Code folding and outlining
• Code highlighting and syntax analysis for over 20 languages
• Code navigation and search tools
• Built-in FTP/SFTP client
• Function list
• Integrated SQL Explorer
• Integrated hex editor
• Macro recording and playback
• Customizable interface and key mapping
• Support for large files (4 GB and larger)

It is designed for programmers and developers to help them to be more efficient and productive in their work.

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is another well-known text editor available on the market; it offers a variety of text editing features and is designed specifically for edit the code and files. It is also renowned for its usability, speed, and adaptability.

Sublime Text

Additionally, Sublime Text supports various programming languages. It provides handy features that aren’t in a nano text editor, such as code completion, syntax highlighting, and a command palette that enables you to perform activities such as opening a new file, pasting Text, and finding and replacing Text rapidly.

In addition, the program is widely available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, making it an excellent choice for people seeking a flexible text editor.

In addition, it includes the functionality of existing Unix tools such as nano, including the ability to edit and configure files and specify a file name when opening a new or existing file.

Features:

Some features of Sublime Text include:

• Syntax highlighting and code folding for a variety of programming languages
• Multiple selections and cursors, allowing you to make multiple changes at once
• A powerful search and replace tool with regular expression support.

Sublime Text is available for download. Also, the latest version has new updates and various in-built features.

Text Editor Atom

Using Atom, you can solve a variety of problems. Based on the Electron framework, it is written in JavaScript. With its wide range of plugins and themes, Atom is designed to be a “hackable text editor” and highly customizable.

Atom

Features

Atom offers the following features:

• Autocomplete and syntax highlighting for many programming languages
• Support for Git and GitHub built-in
• Multiple tabs and panes are available in this powerful interface.

While Atom is similar to Sublime Text in many ways, it is built on electrons, making it more similar to VS Code and open-source software.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is also available for Linux operating systems and Windows, UNIX operating system, and macOS.

Included are code restructuring, code snippets, code completion, debugging, and an integrated Git control. Moreover, additional functionality can be provided via extensions.

Features

Among the features of VS Code are:

• Provides intelligent completions based on variable types, function definitions, and imported modules.
• Support for debugging many languages and platforms
• Integrated Git control that allows you to view and manage code changes.

CodePen

CodePen is a communal development environment and online code editor for front-end developers. It enables developers to create and share HTML, CSS, and JavaScript-based online applications.

Codepen

The site is also social, allowing developers to discover and investigate new projects and cooperate with other creators.

Features:

Among the features of CodePen are:

• A code editor that enables you to write and view the outcomes of your code in real-time.
• A range of pre-built templates and examples to facilitate a quick start.
• Support major front-end libraries and frameworks, including React, Vue.js, and AngularJS.

Notepad++

Notepad++

Programmers and developers use another popular editor known as Notepad++. It is a free and open-source GNU project.

The amazing part of this tool is you can easily paste text or code from other sources. The tool is also popular for supporting Linux distribution, allowing users to start working on different OS.

Notepad++ is a modeless editor, meaning we can work on multiple files and make changes simultaneously without changing the mode. We can use the ESC key to exit edit mode, a basic feature of multiple Linux distros.

Other notepads like nano that are command line editors require the following commands like nano email despite they lack features like search and replace. But due to the easy interface of Notepad++, beginners can also use this editor. Notepad++ is a versatile tool that allows users to edit new lines and file types. You can use notepad++ as a default text editor.

It is easy to navigate Notepad++; you can easily go to a specific word or a specific line number. You can search items and go to the search terms by using the search option.

Features

• Support 50+ languages
• Customizable interface
• The code syntax is highlighted while the report is stored with a selected report format, making it smooth to edit the code

Unlock the Full Potential of Your Text Editing with UltraEdit

If you’re looking for a text editor with extensive features like syntax support, regular expressions, and macros, UltraEdit is the right choice.

Other text editors are designed to be simple, quick, and easy to edit, but they need the advanced features that UltraEdit brings to the table. In addition, we have optimized our interface so that both novice and expert users can use it.

FAQ

How many types of text editors are there?

There are three main types of text editors: line editors, stream editors and word processors.

Line editors

Line editors are character-oriented programs allowing you to edit one line of text simultaneously. An example of a line editor is the Unix command line interface (CLI).

Stream editors

Stream editors allow you to insert and delete whole text lines simultaneously. An example of a stream editor is sed, which stands for “stream editor.”

Word processors

Word processors are desktop publishing applications allowing you to format documents graphically on your computer screen.

Is CSS a text editor?

Simply put, a CSS-rich text editor facilitates the creation and editing of web content without the need to write any code. Using a WYSIWYG editor, you can generate web content even if you are unfamiliar with HTML.

What distinguishes text editors from word processors?

Text editors and word processors are computer programs that allow you to create and edit text documents. While they share many similarities, they also differ in some important ways.

Text editors are designed to be as simple as possible, with fewer features than word processors. They are often used for writing code but can also be used for writing prose and other documents.

On the other hand, word processors provide many features and options that make it easier to create documents quickly and easily. Word processors often have built-in features such as spell checkers, grammar checkers, and thesaurus functions.

The post What Is The Best Alternative To Nano Text Editor? appeared first on UltraEdit.

What is tabular text data?

Tabular text data is structured data that is stored as rows and columns and can be displayed as a table. Columns can have headers that explain what data they contain.

Why are CSV files used?

A CSV (comma-separated values) file is a plain text file that has .csv extension. It contains tabular data and separates it with delimiters (usually commas, but you can use other delimiters). It is widely used due to its simple adaptability. This means that almost any spreadsheet program can easily open it and read data from CSV files.

Sample CSV file looks like this:

Barry French,12,457.81,Nunavut,Appliances,0.58
Barry French,12,2.99,Nunavut,Binders and Binder Accessories,0.39
Clay Rozendal,483,3.99,Nunavut,Telephones and Communication,0.58

Using CSV file format is a simple way to transfer data because it is easy to create and open with many programs. CSV format is often used to export data to a database and to exchange structured information between programs that cannot communicate with each other directly.

Let’s see how to search and replace text in columns and how to sort tabular data using popular text editors.

How to find and replace text in columns?

Google Sheets

In order to search or replace text in Google Sheets, click Edit -> Find and Replace.

The find and replace dialog will open. You can specify the text to search for and replace with here.

After you write the text to search for and press Find, the cell with the found text will be highlighted. If the text is not found, a corresponding message will appear. You can replace the text in the selected cell. To do this, fill in the Replace with field and click the Replace button. If you want to replace all the text found, click Replace all.

Microsoft Excel

In Microsoft Excel go to Home -> Find & Select an action you want to do: Find or Replace.

After that, the corresponding dialog box will open. Enter the text to search for and click Find next so that the first cell with the found text is highlighted in the table. Click Find all to select all cells that contain the specified text.

In the Replace dialog, you can perform a simple search. In addition, you can also specify the text to replace the found one.

UltraEdit

UltraEdit offers powerful options for searching and replacing tabular text. Go to the Home section and select the desired action: Find or Replace.

In the dialog box, specify the text you want to search for and move between the fields that contain matches using the Next and Previous buttons. You can also find out the number of all matches by clicking on Count all.

You can also use additional search settings and regular expressions.

The search and replace dialog looks like this.

Specify the text to replace with and use the Replace button to replace the currently found text and Replace all to replace all matching text.

How to sort tabular data by field?

Google Sheets

If you want to sort the data in the Google Sheet by one column, click on the button in the column name to call up the drop-down menu.

In the menu that opens, choose the sort order (A to Z or Z to A).

You can also sort data by multiple columns. To do this, first, select the range to sort. Then, in the menu select Data -> Sort range -> Advanced range sorting options.

After that, a dialog box will open in which you can add columns to be sorted by and define their order. You can define the sorting method (A to Z or Z to A) separately for each column.

If your table has headers, check the corresponding checkbox in the dialog box and specify the headers instead of column names for sorting. After you have configured all the sorting options, click the Sort button and the table will be sorted.

Microsoft Excel

With Microsoft Excel, you can sort tabular data by a single column or by an entire range, just like we did in Google Sheets. To sort by one column, select it and click the appropriate button in the menu bar (Sort Ascending or Sort Descending).

To sort by several columns, select the required range and click the Custom Sort menu button.

In the dialog box that opens, add the columns by which the sorting will take place. If the table has headers, then check the My data has headers checkbox and select the headers of the required columns. If not, then leave the checkbox unchecked and select the columns by their name.

Finally, click OK and the table will be sorted.

UltraEdit

In order to sort tabular data by the first column in ascending order in UltraEdit, just click the Sort button in the menu bar under the section Edit.

If you want to sort in a different way, click on the drop-down menu button under the Sort button, and select the Advanced sort/option.

After that, a dialog box will open in which you can make all the necessary settings:

• Select the sort order – Ascending or Descending.
• Remove duplicates when all or all keys match.
• Configure case-insensitive sorting.
• Set up a custom separator.
• Select the column numbers by which the sorting will take place.

If you need to sort by only part of the field and ignore the other part, fill in the values in the Start character (the number of the first character to be considered when sorting) and End character (the number of the last character to be considered when sorting) fields.

Looking for the best text editor for working with CSV files? Download a 30-day trial version of UltraEdit for free.

The post How To Work Effectively With CSV Files In Tabular Text Editors appeared first on UltraEdit.

What is a hex editor?

A hex editor is a computer program used to view and edit binary files (also called a binary editor).

Binary files are files that contain data in machine-readable form. Information that is displayed in binary format can also easily be represented in hexadecimal format. The hexadecimal data format is more human-friendly than the binary one. In addition, it requires four times less space. Hex codes represent the physical data of files, and hex editors allow you to edit them.

Hex editing software allows you to open, view, and edit the contents of all file formats. Programmers can use the data obtained from the hex editor to debug the code.

Typically, a hex editor consists of three areas: an address area, a hexadecimal representation area, and a character area.

Address area

The address area is usually located on the left side of the hex editor. It displays the address of the first byte of each line. Addresses can be displayed in hexadecimal or decimal format.

Hexadecimal code representation area

The hexadecimal codes are in the middle part of the editor. Each byte of the file is represented in hexadecimal. Numbers from 0 to 9, as well as letters A, B, C, D, E, F are used to write the hexadecimal code.

Character area

The character area is to the right of the hex editor. It displays the ASCII representation of all bytes of the file. Each byte encodes a certain character or a special code that cannot be written in the character area.

How can you use the hex edit for Cybercrime investigation?

The hex editor has several different uses for cybercrime detection.

Detecting malware embedded in a file

Attackers can inject code into the file without changing its functionality. For example, embed malicious code in a document. The user will not be aware of the malware and will open the document.

Cybercrime investigators can use a hex editor to find malicious code.

Analysis of file signature

Information about the file type is encoded in a few bytes at the beginning of the file. This is the file signature. Often, cybercriminals change the file extension to hide the file or the data it contains. You need to look at the raw (binary) data to find out which file it actually is.

Data recovery

When deleting a file, the operating system does not erase it. If the space occupied by the file has not been overwritten, then the file can be restored. Using a hexadecimal editor, specialists can find fragments of a file on disk space and combine them. In this way, technicians can completely restore a file.

Identifying timestamps

The operating system fixes the date and time of file access and stores them in a file with a certain offset. Using a hex editor, investigators can find and decode the time stamp. This allows them to find out when the attacker gained access to the file.

Why should you choose UltraEdit for work with hex files?

UltraEdit is a popular text editor. However, apart from the basic editing features, it also offers a hexadecimal editing mode. UltraEdit provides you the ability to view and edit hexadecimal and binary data.

Using UltraEdit, you can easily search for errors in your files that cannot be seen in plain text. It also provides many other useful features such as syntax highlighting, quick search, easy navigation, etc.

The main features of the UltraEdit hex editor are:

• Allows you to edit any binary file.
• Displays binary and ASCII characters.
• Ability to set the number of hexadecimal bytes per line.
• Ability to search and replace, copy, cut, paste, and delete binary data.
• Supports editing of large files.

Try viewing, analyzing, and editing any file using the free trial version of UltraEdit.

FAQ

How do I edit a hex file?

To edit a hex file, use the text editor UltraEdit, which has a mode for working with hex data. First, you should select Hex/EBCDIC mode. After that, you can search, replace, copy, paste, and delete hex values.

What does a hex editor do?

The hex editor is used to display and edit binary and hex data. It can open and modify any type of file.

What is hex code editor?

A hex editor (byte editor or binary file editor) is software that allows you to view, analyze, and edit files in hexadecimal code.

Is hex code still used?

Hex code presents binary code in an easy-to-analyze form and provides the ability to work with it. That is why it is widely used by programmers, architects, cyber forensics, and other specialists who need access to raw data.

Why do technicians use hex?

Hex code is often used to represent binary values because it is easier to understand, write and verify, and allows you to represent large numbers with fewer characters.

The post How Hex Editors Help Solve A Cybercrime Investigation appeared first on UltraEdit.

What Is A Code Editor?

A code editor is a software designed for writing and editing source code. It can be a separate program or built into IDE, but it is necessary when creating the program.

To simplify the development process, code editors usually offer a lot of useful features, such as syntax highlighting, automatic formatting, code auto-completion, text search and replacement, multiline editing, and more.

The code editor is a simple program that you can download or use built into your web browser. At the same time, it offers a lot of features to simplify the process of writing code.

The important advantages of the code editor are its high performance, small size, and simple installation and configuration processes.

Examples of code editors: UltraEdit, Notepad++, Visual Studio Code, Vim, Atom, Sublime Text, Brackets, Bluefish, TextWrangler, and TextMate.

What Is An IDE?

IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a software development environment that combines several different tools in a single graphical interface. It includes a code editor, compiler, debugger, code testing tools, tools for creating GUI, and others.

IDE simplifies the software development process, as it provides all the necessary development tools simultaneously. With IDE you can get access to ready-made code libraries, which speed up the process of writing code. It allows you to install plugins that simplify your work and provides tools for finding errors and application performance analysis. IDE can support multiple programming languages or work with only one coding language.

The most popular IDEs are IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio, NetBeans, Eclipse, Phpstorm, and WebStorm.

What Is The Difference Between IDE And A Code Editor?

A code editor is a program that allows you to write source code and also has additional features to facilitate this process. For example, syntax highlighting, auto-completion, auto code formatting, quick navigation, multi-line editing, and more.

On the other hand, IDE includes many different tools that, in addition to writing and editing code, also allow you to compile, debug, test, analyze code, create GUIs, etc. IDE provides the same capabilities as a code editor and much more. Using IDE, you can get access to code libraries, which significantly speeds up the process of writing software.

IDE allows you to create software of any complexity from its design to implementation. The code editing tool is better to use for simple and quick projects.

All of the described features make an IDE more complex than a code editor. Therefore, it runs slower, takes up more disk space, and can have longer and more complicated installation and configuration processes than a code editor.

What Advantages Does The UltraEdit Code Editor Offer?

UltraEdit is a popular cross-platform text and code editor. It works on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. It is easy to install and convenient to use. In addition to the advantages that most source code editors provide, UltraEdit offers a number of additional features that allow you to use it for developing software of varying complexity.

When developing a complex project, you may need to work with large files. With UltraEdit, this is very easy to do, as it can quickly open and process files up to 10 GB in size. Thanks to the use of multithreading, you can open multiple files at the same time without delays. If necessary, you can also split large files into smaller parts using scripts for this.

UltraEdit has a built-in debugger that allows you to easily find errors in your code without using third-party programs. There is also a built-in history window that allows you to track all the changes that have occurred to the file since its creation.

A useful feature of UltraEdit is its ability to access remote files thanks to built-in support for FTP, SSH, and Telnet. You can securely connect to remote servers and download files.

In addition to the features described, UltraEdit allows you to edit and view hexadecimal numbers, edit tabular data in column mode, edit multiple lines simultaneously, preview HTML files, and much more.

FAQ

What does code editor do?

Code editor provides tools for software developers to write and edit source code. It has syntax highlighting, automatic code completion and formatting, navigation, find and replace, finding errors, and many more features that simplify the development process.

What is the difference between an IDE and a code editor?

A code editor is a text editor that allows you to write and edit code and has additional functions that simplify and speed up the process of writing code. An IDE is an integrated development environment that, in addition to a code editor, includes many other tools such as a compiler, debugger, testing tools, code profiling, GUI creation, and more.

Is Notepad++ a code editor?

Notepad++ is a text and source code editor for Windows.

What are examples of code editors?

UltraEdit, Visual Studio Code, Notepad++, Atom, Vim, Sublime Text, BlueFish, Espresso.

What is code editor in HTML?

An HTML code editor is a program that offers web developers tools to quickly write and edit HTML code.

Check out UltraEdit code editor for free and make the process of writing code simple and fast.

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