# Basics

## Starting &kappname;

Type ``okteta`` at a command prompt or select Hex Editor from the Applications Utilities group in the &kmenu;.

The standard &Qt; and &kde; command line options are available, and can be listed by entering ``okteta` `--help``.

Command line options specific to &kappname; are:

``<&URL;(s)>`` - open file(s) from the specified &URL;(s)

## Usage

The main &kappname; window has the following components: a menu bar, a toolbar, a data view and a sidebar with tools.

When a file is opened or a new byte array is created, the bytes are displayed in the traditional view with two columns: one with the numeric values and one with the assigned characters. On the left side the offset of the lines are shown.

The data can be edited, cut, copied, pasted, dragged and dropped much as text can be in a text editor. A cursor marks the current position. Pressing the Insert key toggles between overwrite and insert modes. All operations can be done both in the value column and the character column.

&okteta; displays two linked cursors in the byte column and in the character column. Depending on the active column, indicated by a blinking cursor, you can enter only characters in the character column and byte values in the byte column.

The search dialog allows the user to search for a specific string of bytes, definable as hexadecimal, decimal, octal, binary, or text.

Multiple byte arrays can be open at the same time but only one can be active. Use the Windows menu to select which byte array will be active.