Template Editing
A template is a dialog box that provides means for editing custom data structures in a more comfortable and error-preventing way than raw hex editing does. Editing is done is separate edit boxes. Changes take effect when pressing the Enter key or when quitting the template after being prompted. The data may originate from a file, from disk sectors, or from virtual memory. Especially when editing databases, you may prefer to define a custom template for ease of access to the records. You will find the command to print a template in the system menu.
A template definition is stored in a text file with the extension .tpl. The template editor enables you to write template definitions and offers syntax checking. A template definition mainly contains variable declarations, that are similar to those in source code of programming languages. The supported data types include all the common integer, floating-point and boolean variants, date types, hex values, binary, characters, and strings type. Arrays of both single variables and groups of variables can be used. The ability to move freely forwards and backwards within the data makes using templates particularly flexible:
The same variable may be interpreted and manipulated in several ways.
Irrelevant data sections can be skipped.
The template manager lists all text files in the WinHex directory that contain template definitions. The title of the template along with a description, the filename, and the date and time of the last modification is shown. Click the Apply button to display a template using the selected template definition for the data in the current editor window at the current position. You may also create a new template definition, delete or edit an existing one.
WinHex comes with several demonstration templates.