Emacs, Kate and Vim-style modelines support for gedit.
Zander Brown
zbrown@gnome.org 2020

# Modelines

The Modelines plug-in allows gedit to analyse the lines of text at the start and end of a file, and then apply a set of document preferences to the file. The Modelines plug-in supports a subset of the options used by the Emacs, Kate and Vim text editors.

To enable the Modelines plug-in, select gedit Preferences Plug-ins Modelines.

# General Modeline Options

The following options can be set using gedit modelines:

Tab width

Indent width

Inserting spaces instead of tabs

Text Wrapping

Right margin width

Preferences set using modelines take precedence over the ones specified in the preference dialogue.

# Emacs Modelines

The first two lines of a document are scanned for Emacs modelines, and gedit supports the following Emacs modeline options:

Tab-width

Indent-offset

Indent-tabs-mode

Text auto-wrap

For more information on Emacs modelines, visit the GNU Emacs Manual.

# Kate Modelines

The first and last ten lines a document are scanned for Kate modelines, and gedit supports the following Kate modeline options:

tab-width

indent-width

space-indent

word-wrap

word-wrap-column

For more information about Kate modelines, visit the Kate website.

# Vim Modelines

The first and last three lines a document are scanned for Vim modelines, and gedit supports the following Vim modeline options:

et (expandtab)

ts (tabstop)

sw (shiftwidth)

wrap

textwidth

For more information on Vim modelines, visit the Vim website.