New Kate version. How to turn off various annoying "features"?

[Stefan]

I love Kate and am using it since years.
However, when I updated my system, I found that I seem unable to deactivate some annoying “features” in the new Kate version:

• Turning off autocompletion still works, luckily. However, when I type a bracket, apostrophe and the like, Kate always inserts the closing counterpart, too. This is hyper-annoying. How do I turn this off?

• I have not yet managed to find out how to make the tab key work the normal, traditional way. I just want Kate to insert a \t at the cursor position. Instead of this, Kate indents the whole line. How do I configure the normal editor behaviour?

P.S.: The new Kate version here is 22.12.3.

[j-knight]

Settings menu, Configure Kate… The General tab has the option for closing brackets, the Indentation tab has options for tabs.

[Stefan]

Thank you very much!

The problem is just that I do not know what to activate. I have the feeling I tried all possible combinations and nothing works to deactivate the autoinsertion of the closing marks.
Maybe you can help me by telling me what to check in the General menu?

[Stefan]

Regarding the tab key and the Indenting configuration:

On my FreeBSD computer, when I have marked some block, and press TAB, every line of the marked block gets indented (differently in the ctl-alt-b block mode, which also is ultra convenient ).
When nothing is marked, the tab key just works the traditional way, inserting a \t at the cursor position.

I would love to have this behaviour on Debian also. What do I have to check?

[j-knight]

Ah sorry, I missed a step, choose the Editing category on the left, then the General tab and switch off the Automatically close brackets checkbox. As for Tabs, maybe set Indentation mode to None?

[Stefan]

As for Tabs, maybe set Indentation mode to None?

This worked Thank you

Editing category on the left, then the General tab
and switch off the Automatically close brackets checkbox.

Yes, this was already switched off.

The problem is just when I type, block mode activated, marked area stretching over multiple lines, then this setting " Automatically close brackets" seems to be always active, no matter of the checked/unchecked state of the configuration checkbox, always automatically auto-inserting the closing characters.
When nothing is marked, or normal (non-block-mode) marking was there, the setting is respected, not inserting anything except what was actually typed.

Any idea?

[j-knight]

Empty the Enclosing characters field. Selected text is always surrounded by them if they are specified.

[ben2talk]

I can select two paragraphs, hit tab and both are indented by one (tab) space.

[Stefan]

@j-knight After emptying the field, it showed a grey text “Feature is not active”.

Unfortunately this had no effect when typing in the block mode. Here a screenshot directly after entering the opening round bracket ‘(’: the closing bracket is automatically inserted

[as I only can post one image per post, screenshot follows next post]

@ben2talk Yes, the Editing->Indentation configuration tab looks different on Debian. This confuses me much, as I remember it being like yours from my FreeBSD machine. (Unfortunately, I cannot access that machine right now to verify)

[Stefan]

This is what I get in block mode after typing an opening bracket (with the “Enclosing characters” field in the Editing->General menu empty):

You see, it still automatically adds the closing bracket…

[ben2talk]

This is true - I forget whether I turned this on (I had this for a long time, also custom colours to highlight between brackets):

I set the colour scheme item (Bracket Highlight) to very dark, as you see in the word 'multicoloured).

I have Plugin Manager Coloured Brackets and I can edit those colours to suit my current colour scheme (starting with my current scheme, copied/renamed for editing).

However, I’m not sure where (or, indeed, why) you’d turn that off… to get past the closing bracket you can simply type that bracket (i.e. you don’t have to use arrow keys or mouse to get past it) so it really does just serve as a useful reminder.

You can disable automation…

Or you can remove items which are automated… if you remove all of them, then they are all disabled. You can enter any one, or all of the ones which you want automated.

KWrite vs Kate

Both of these applications are based on the same frameworks - you might think that they’re pointless duplicates.

However, you can configure KWrite to be your ‘text editor’ and Kate to be your ‘code editor’.

This means, if you type text (with brackets) you can do so in KWrite, with a nice proportional font.

However, when working with CODE, you select your nerdy monospace font.

[godanov]

I am having similer problems with KATE. I cannot turn off the Google seearch area nat the bottem of the window

I do not use it ever, so it needs gone from view.

[skyfishgoo]

you only see this kind of completing if your page format in the lower left corner is of a programing language (bash).

if you change it to “normal” it doesn’t do that.

[skyfishgoo]

do you have a screen shot?

if you right click on the thing, can you not “hide button”?

[godanov]

[skyfishgoo]

are you talking about the search… bar across the bottom?

that’s not a google search, it’s just a search feature in kate

if you notice the Output button is highlighted… you can click on that to stow the search area or you can simply drag the divided down to the bottom of the screen.

you can also right click on the Output button and chose Hide button if you don’t want access to it.

these tools are found under View > Sidebar buttons where you can toggle them on or off.

[godanov]

fixed but i have another problem, this is a rtf document and this is not what it is supposed to look

[Jack_White]

EDIT : Seems like you used to use a very old version of Kate. Things might have been different back then. ( BTW, are you using Debian? )

Kate had all those features enabled for years now — they weren’t added in a recent update. Perhaps you are confusing it with another editor you have used before?

About RTF documents — Kate is a plain text / code editor, so it doesn’t support editing rich documents. You might want to take a look at a word processor like LibreOffice Writer or OnlyOffice.

[skyfishgoo]

that is how .rtf is supposed to look when you view it as a text file.

if you want to render it as an .rtf then use libre office writer or one of the many other office word processor applications available.

[ben2talk]

@Stefan

P.S.: The new Kate version here is 22.12.3.

The new one here is 25.08.0.

There is no ‘search’ on the Sessions page, but that’s not Google anyway.

Tab works exactly as I’d expect - though you did not specify what you think that ‘normal’ or ‘traditional’ means - and those two things are often different because some old ‘traditional’ behaviours needed improving.

Kate never inserted \t at the cursor position. However, if I’m midway along a line, pressing TAB does, indeed, insert a TAB at the cursor, not moving the rest of the line.

Perhaps you’re confusing Widnows - where Notepad will insert a ‘tab’ character; and editors can be configured to insert literal tabs.

However, Kate always focussed on indentation rather than raw characters… because it’s a CODE editor (not a ‘text’ editor).

You need to LOOK IN THE SETTINGS.

Look for ‘Insert spaces instead of tabs’ and uncheck it. This is an ‘editing’ function, so in the settings you need to find Editing options - the confusing part is that ‘TABS’ are thought of as indentation - so that’s where to find it.

Overall, as you say you ‘used Kate for years’ I would suggest you SHOULD already have learned where settings are.

Look at editing, there you can turn off automatic closing of quotes, brackets etc. You can also edit and add or remove items from the list (so maybe just brackets, not quotes).

If it’s too complicated, then try out KWrite (I set it to have a non mono proportional font, it’s more of a TEXT editor than a CODE environment).

But for RTF - a nasty Windows format - you need a Word Processor, and Kate isn’t a Word Processor. Try Writer instead.

Kate - 22.12.3 was released on 2nd March 2023 so you are more than 3 years behind the curve… I think only available for Debian 12; something that might have avoided confusion in your post.

As for why you’re confused about editing an rtf format document in a plain text editor or code editor - that’s anyone’s guess.