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### 7.3 External Editor

Although there is a built-in editor in Msc-generator GUIs, you can also use an external text editor of your choice with the MFC GUI. When you press Ctrl+E or click on ‘`Text Editors...|External Editor...`’ button on the ribbon, an external text editor is started, where you can edit the chart description. If you perform save in the text editor, the chart drawing is updated, so you can follow your changes visually. Also, if there were errors or warnings, they are displayed in the usual manner. If you select an error, Msc-generator will instruct the external editor to jump to the location of the error (if the external editor supports this functionality.)

During the time you are working with an external editor, the built-in text editor becomes read-only. You can exit the external editor any time to return to the built-in one. By pressing Ctrl+E or clicking on the ‘`Text Editors...|External Editor...`’ ribbon button again, Msc-generator attempts to close the external editor (which will probably prompt you to save outstanding changes).

You can select the text editor to start in `Preferences|External Editor`. You can select between the Windows Notepad, Notepad++ or any editor of your preference. The author finds Notepad++ a very good editor, so I included specific support14.

Since version 4.6 Msc-generator supports unicde characters via both UTF-8 and UTF-16 input, thus any of these can be used by the external editor to save the file. See International Text Support for more.

#### Footnotes

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You can download Notepad++ from http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/