You can configure external programs that you can run from the Tools menu.
An external tool is simply another program, such as Paint or Notepad that you can call directly from Color Palette Editor. The benefit of defining external tools is that you can specify the command lines to make some tasks easier, for example to open an image directly in Paint for editing. Leveraging the power of external command line utilities can greatly expand supported functionality.
Each external tool is comprised of five different options.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | Specifies the title text that appears on the menu. You can use the ampersand (&) character in front of a letter to make it a keyboard accelerator. |
| Command | The path and filename of the command to execute. This field supports environment variables and application tokens. |
| Arguments | Specifies any custom arguments to pass to the command. This field supports environment variables and application tokens. |
| Initial Directory | Specifies the initial directory for the command. This field supports environment variables and application tokens. |
| Prompt for arguments | This option determines if the user is prompted for custom arguments when launching the tool. |
Environment variables are per-process variables provided by the operating system, and can be used to obtain the location of external tools or directories. To specify an environment variable, surround the variable name with percentage signs, for example %windir% or %TEMP%.
Application tokens allow you to inject information about the currently open document into the command lines for external tools. Application tokens consist of a keyword surrounded by brackets and a prefix character, for example $(ProjectPath).
| Token | Description |
|---|---|
$(AppPath) | The full path and executable name of the Color Palette Editor client |
$(AppDir) | The full directory name of the Color Palette Editor client |
$(AppFileName) | The name of the Color Palette Editor client executable |
$(AppName) | The name of the Color Palette Editor client executable, excluding the extension |
$(AppExt) | The extension of the Color Palette Editor client executable |
$(ItemPath) | The full path filename of the current palette |
$(ItemDir) | The full directory name of the current palette |
$(ItemFileName) | The name of the current palette |
$(ItemName) | The name of the current palette, excluding the extension |
$(ItemExt) | The extension of the current palette |
$(UserDataDir) | The full directory name of the Color Palette Editor user data folder |