a few application tricks to make a modder's life easier

[Barathor]

These may already be well known to some, but I'd thought I'd just share some of these useful features with other modders that may find them useful. I've only discovered these myself not too long ago when I started modding again shortly after the release of Gods and Kings.

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Excel - Import XML files for easier viewing and analysis:

The XML isn't really difficult to read, especially within Civ5 where you don't need to list every single column's data within a row, you can just leave them out and most will default to a value declared in the schema.

But, sometimes it's just nice to view and compare all data next to each other and choose what you want to see or not. Also, sorting that data is quite handy.

Also, I never tried it yet since I'm a little wary of it. But, there's also an option to export the data. So, perhaps if one is more comfortable working in Excel, you can make all the changes within cells and just export it all back to an XML file for your mod. Again, I've never done any exporting and I'm not sure how well it performs.

Anyway, here's one simple way to set it up within Excel 2010:

• Click "File" then "Options".
• Select "Customize Ribbon".
• On the right side, under the heading "Main Tabs", you'll see a list of check-box items.
• Check "Developer".
• You'll know have a new tab on your ribbon interface.
• Select the "Developer" tab, and within the "XML" section, select "Import", then choose the XML file you want to view.
• Just click "OK" to the little warning that may pop-up about a schema and then click "OK" again to the next window (unless you want to put the table in a specific cell other than A1).
• Sometimes there's A LOT of data. Make sure to zoom out to see how the table is organized and where some data is.
• Also, the column header panes will be frozen in place so you can scroll down and still know what you're looking at. They also will come with sorting functions already built-in. Hide or Delete whatever you don't want to see and analyze away.

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Notepad++ - Compare Plugin:

This is a really handy plugin that's already built into Notepad++, an extremely handy (and free) application itself! I've read a lot of posts mentioning WinMerge and others, but if you already use Notepad++, you may just like to keep things simple and stick with that without having to install additional applications. This plugin will allow you to compare files and will highlight any differences between the two, while also aligning code that matches for easier viewing. This is useful to see what was changed in a patch if you backed-up the old XML files, for example.

Here's how you simply enable it if you don't see it:

• Click on the "Plugins" tab.
• Select "Plugin Manager" from the dropdown and select "Show Plugin Manager"
• Under the "Available" tab, find and check "Compare" and then click on the "Install" button below.
• The "Compare" plugin will now be available for use under the "Plugins" tab.

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Windows 7 - File and file contents searching:

Also, here's another useful "trick" that's probably even more well known to most and which I've been using since I've installed Win 7 and well before modding Gods and Kings. Nonetheless, here it is.

One option is to index the install folder of Civ. Personally, I don't bother with that since I don't search it that often. Also, with a fast processor, the unindexed searches aren't very long anyway.

To enable the searching of file contents within the search bar in unindexed locations:

• In your "Control Panel", select "Folder Options" (if you don't see it, take off the Category view and change it to Large or Small Icons).
• Click on the "Search" tab on top.
• Within the "What to Search" section, change the selection to "Always search file names and contents (this may take several minutes)".
• Now you can search for code like "RESOURCE_HORSE" and find all files that include that tag, for example.

To index the Civ directory:

• In your "Control Panel", select "Indexing Options" (if you don't see it, take off the Category view and change it to Large or Small Icons).
• Click on the "Modify" button.
• Use the check boxes to add the locations you wish, then click "OK".
• By default, Windows searches within file contents in indexed locations, so you're good to go.