Rung Comment Editor

Topic: DMD0287

Help File Version: 2.10.0.636

Rung Comment Editor

Each rung of ladder logic in a Program or Task can have a Comment associated with it. The Rung Comment Editor is used to create and edit these comments. Text for the rung comment can be entered directly into the comment field, or the programmer can use copy and paste from another comment or another editor. All the traditional Windows editing keystrokes are available for editing, and for cutting and pasting text into and out of the comment editor.

After positioning the edit cursor on the rung to receive a new comment or edit existing comment text, the rung comment editor can be opened by selecting the Tools -> Comment Editor menu selection, pressing Ctrl + K, double clicking anywhere on an existing rung comment, or double clickingin the rung comment area of a rung (which will be identified by the mouse cursor changing from the simple pointer to a pointer with the text "Cmt" below it).

Creating New Rung Comments

The Edit Comments dialog provides a free-form edit window. This allows the programmer to enter the comment text any way they want, within the confines of the edit window. Each rung comment can contain up to 24 lines of text. The number of characters per line will depend on the font and any additional formatting applied. Text in the rung Comment can consist of any alphabetic character, alphanumeric value, punctuation mark, and arithmetic operator; essentially any printable ASCII character can be used.

The Comment editor supports many of the familiar Windows keyboard shortcuts for editing functions, such as selecting text (SHFT+ Arrow keys), Select All (Ctrl+A), Cut (CTRL + X), Copy (CTRL + C), Paste (CTRL + V), Undo (CTRL + Z), Page Up will move to the previous rung Comment, and Page Down will move to the next rung Comment.

At the top of the editor is the format toolbar which sets the display options for the comment text:

The first drop-down list selects the font for the comment text: Arial, Century Gothic, Courier New, Lucida Console, Times New Roman, or Verdana. The Font selection affects the word at the cursor location, any selected text, and any new text.

The second drop-down list selects the font size for the comment text: Small, Medium (default), Large, Huge. The Font Size selection affects the word at the cursor location, any selected text, and any new text.

The third group of buttons select the following text format options: Bold, Italicize, Underline, and text Color. The text Format selection affects the word at the cursor location, any selected text, and any new text. The Comment editor supports keyboard shortcuts for toggling the text format at the caret location of the current selection: Ctrl+B for Bold, Ctrl+I for Italics, and Ctrl+U for Underline.

The fourth group of buttons select the following text justification options: Left justified, Centered, and Right justified. The text Justification selection affects all of the text on the current row, and any new text.

The final button will remove all of the existing text in the comment editor.

At the bottom of the editor are the "tape transport style" controls that are used to navigate the rungs of the current code-block:

(First Rung) moves to the first rung

(Back 5) moves 5 rungs backwards

(Back 1) moves to the previous rung

(Forward 1) moves to the next rung

(Forward 5) moves 5 rungs forwards

(Last Rung) moves to the last rung

If any changes have been made to the currently displayed rung comment, you will be prompted to save these changes before moving to a different rung.

Using Goto Comment for Rung

The Comment editor provides a Goto Comment for Rung dialog to quickly navigate to a specific rung number (or address) in a specified Code Block. Select the destination Code Block from the drop-down menu, then enter the Rung Number (or Address) and click OK.

Code Block selects the code-block to use, click the down arrow to select from the list of Programs and Tasks.

Rung Number / Address specifies the rung number or address within the selected code-block to go to, click the up or down arrow to enter the rung number or address.

Moving (Cut & Paste) Rung Comments

The keyboard shortcut keys can be used to Cut and Paste individual rung Comments, or parts of rung Comments from one rung to another.

Use either the mouse or the SHFT + arrow keys to select (highlight) the source text
Use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + X (or right-click menu option) to Cut the text
Use the Previous, Next or Goto buttons to move to the destination rung number (or address)
Position the cursor where the text will be pasted then press Ctrl +V (or right-click menu option) to Paste the text.

If there is a range of multiple rung Comments that need to be moved, the Move Comments dialog makes the process very simple. Click the Move button to open the Move Comments dialog.

Source Rung Comment specifies the code block and the rung number (or address) of the first comment to MOVE.

Destination Rung Comment specifies the code block and the rung number (or address) in the code block to receive the Comment text.

Number to do specifies the number of successive Comments to MOVE.

Number means that specified number of consecutive comments will be MOVED.

Thru End of Source Code Block means MOVE all of the rung Comments from the source code rung to the end of the code block .

Addr / Rung Num group specifies whether the Source and Destination are rung numbers or rung addresses.

by Rung Number means the values entered are rung numbers.

by Address means the values entered are rung addresses.

Click the Move Comments button to perform the MOVE operation; click the Close button to exit the dialog. Note: The MOVE operation has the potential to overwrite existing rung Comments if the source and destination ranges overlap. Do-more Designer will prompt the programmer for confirmation before it completes the MOVE. Consider using the Move Comments function described below if the source and destination ranges overlap.

Copying Rung Comments

The keyboard shortcut keys can be used to Copy and Paste individual rung Comments or parts of rung Comments from one rung of ladder logic to another.

Use either the mouse or the SHFT + arrow keys to select (highlight) the source text
Use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + C (or right-click menu option) to Copy the text.
Use the Previous, Next or Goto buttons to move to the destination rung number (or address).
Position the cursor where the text is to be pasted then press Ctrl +V (or right-click menu option) to Paste the text.

If there are multiple rung Comments that need to be copied, the Copy Comments dialog makes the process very simple. Click the Copy button to open the Copy Comments dialog.

The Addr / Rung Num selection specifies whether the Source and Destination are specified by Rung Number or by Address:

Source Rung Comment is the code block and the rung number (or address) of the first comment to copy.

Destination Rung Comment is the code block and the rung number (or address) where the comment text will be placed.

Number to do is the number of successive comments to copy:

Number will copy the specified number of comments.

Thru End of Source Code Block will copy all of the comments from the source rung number ( or address) to the end of the code block.

Click the COPY Comments button to perform the copy operation, or Close button to exit the dialog without performing the copy operation. Note: The copy operation has the potential to overwrite existing rung Comments if the source and destination ranges overlap. Do-more Designer will prompt the programmer for confirmation before it completes the COPY.

Configure

The Configure... button opens the following dialog where the default settings for comment text can be set.

New Comment Default Font Size selects the font size (Small / Medium / Large / Huge) for any new comments added to the project.