By default, Windows Grep will show only lines containing matches (unless you opt to view the whole file). The Number of lines to show either side of matching lines option allows you to set a 'window' around each match and display lines either side of matching ones.
Checking Show matches as soon as search is complete will cause Windows Grep to display matching lines in all files as soon as the search is complete.
Setting Show search dialog on program startup will bring up the search criteria dialog as soon as the program is started
Confirm program exit allows you to have an 'Are you sure?' option when you try and close Windows Grep down
Windows Grep can launch external editors when Edit <filename> is selected from the menu available when right-clicking on the file list window.
By default, notepad is used. To change this to something more powerful, select Preferences from the Options menu, and pick the Editor tab. You can now specify the editor command to execute.
The editor command line takes the following form:
<full path and filename of editor> [$F] [$L] [$G] [$C] [$E]
$F will be substituted with the name of the file that is currently selected in the file list window when the Edit command is chosen. It will be enclosed in quotes. Use $E instead if you don’t want it to be.
$L will pass the number of the line that contains the first match in the file. Future versions will support the passing of the line number clicked on.
$C will pass the column number of the first match
$G will pass the search string
The parameters may be in upper or lower case and are optional. However leaving off $F will probably render the command useless - the editor will be launched with no file loaded.
Examples:
notepad.exe $f (the default)
Launch Notepad and load the selected file
"c:\Program Files\MyEdit.exe" /file=$F /line=$L
Launch MyEdit.exe, and pass filename and line number on the command line.
Future versions of 32 bit Windows Grep may support other editors using DDE or some other protocol. If you want me to consider adding support for your preferred editor, please ask!
The compatibility tab allows you to change the format of filenames created during replacements. See Controlling the names of files created during replacements