Overview

The Data Visualizer allows users to view a bitmap representation of their document contents to help identify patterns within their data.

By selecting or creating different color palettes users can quickly identify text sequences within binary data, patterns and repeating data, tables, and even palette-based images.

Default Palettes

Each Data Visualizer palette maps each byte of a document to a specific color.

Segmented

The segmented palette displays bands of colors based on the byte value of the data. The palette is organized by color bands to help visually separate control, ASCII, and extended ASCII characters.

Range	Color / Description
[ 0 .. 31]	Grey scale; ASCII Control characters
[ 32 .. 127 ]	Green; ASCII characters
[ 127 .. 254 ]	Blue; Extended ASCII characters
[ 255 ]	Black

Grey Scale

The grey scale palette maps each character to its grey scale RGB value.

For example, <byte> becomes RGB(<byte>, <byte>, <byte>).

All 0x00 values are rendered as black and all 0xFF values are rendered as white.

Reverse Grey Scale

The reverse grey reverses the palette order of the grey scale palette.

For example, <byte> becomes RGB(255-<byte>, 255-<byte>, 255-<byte>).

All 0x00 values are rendered as white and all 0xFF values are rendered as black.

Custom Palettes

Hex Workshop processes the standard Microsoft(tm) .pal file format (RIFF format with PAL information in the palette information in the DATA chunk). The palettes must contain exactly 256 colors. Hex Workshop will output error information in the Output Results Window if unable to parse a palette file.

Users can create custom palettes using a graphic software package or by hand. Hex Workshop provides a palette structure viewer library (pal.hsl) to aid in palette design.

By default, palette files should be placed in <Install Directory>\Palettes (e.g. C:\Program Files\BreakPoint Software\Hex Workshop v6.5\Palettes). Alternatively, users can change the default palette directory through the Paths Configuration Preferences.

Hex Workshop must be restarted to load new palette files.

Position Brackets

The Data Visualizer draws thin brackets around the visualization bitmap to indicate where the editor data resides in the bitmap.

Set Editor Caret Position and Selection

Mouse-Over location

When users move the mouse over the visualizer bitmap, the cursor position displayed in the Status Bar is updated to show the offset within the document.

Clicking within the Visualizer Bitmap

Pressing the left mouse button while on the Visualizer bitmap will set the caret position within the editor window.

Selecting within the Visualizer Bitmap

Users can select data within the Visualizer Bitmap (and editor) by either:

Pressing the left mouse button and dragging the mouse pointer to the ending location.
Pressing the left mouse button to set the start location and holding the shift key while pressing the left mouse button to select the ending position.

Both selection methods will update the selection indicator in the Status Bar.

Manipulation

Zoom to Editor View

The Zoom to Editor View feature synchronizes the Data Visualizer view to match the column width and page width of the editor. When synchronizing with the editor view all of the scrolling and column width adjustment features are disabled. Zooming in or out automatically disables the Zoom to Editor View.

Zoom to Doc

The Zoom to Doc features zooms out to view as much of the document as possible. Zooming does not adjust row length (number of bytes displayed per row). To adjust the row length, see Increase Row Length, Decrease Row Length, or Set Row Length features.

Zoom In (Keyboard: '+')

Zoom in decreases the height of the Visualizer boxes.

Zoom Out (Keyboard: '-')

Zoom out increases the height of the Visualizer boxes.

Match Editor Row Length (Keyboard: <space>)

Set the Visualizer row length to match the editor row length. The number of bytes displayed per row will automatically adjust as the editor view is adjusted by sizing or through the General Display Options Preferences.

Increase Row Length (Keyboard: <right arrow>)

Increases the number of bytes displayed per row in the Visualizer. The maximum number of rows displayed is limited by the width of the Data Visualizer window. Increase the window size by dragging the window frame to allow for larger row lengths.

Decrease Row Length (Keyboard: <left arrow>

Decreases the number of bytes displayed per row in the Visualizer.

Set Row Length

Defines a specific row length. The row length will be reset if the window is sized smaller than the designated row length.

Refresh (Keyboard: F5)

Forces a repaint of the Data Visualizer.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

All keyboard shortcuts require that focus be set to the Data Visualizer by clicking within the Data Visualizer Window.

Key	Description
Home	Scroll to top of Visualizer View (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
End	Scroll to end of Visualizer View (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
Page Up	Scroll up one page within Visualizer View (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
Page Down	Scroll down one page within Visualizer View (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
Up Arrow	Scroll up one line within Visualizer View (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
Down Arrow	Scroll down one line within Visualizer View (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
Left Arrow	Decrease Column width (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
Right Arrow	Increase Column Width (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
+	Zoom In by shrinking Visualizer box height
-	Zoom Out by increase Visualizer box height
Space	Match row width to editor width (not applicable when Zoomed to Editor View)
F5	Refresh the Data Visualizer by forcing a repaint