The AXE Window

Here's a screenshot of AXE, with three documents open:

At the top of the AXE frame are AXE's three toolbars. From left to right:

• The Standard Toolbar carries all the usual Open, Cut, Paste buttons (etc) that we know and love.
• The Navigation Toolbar carries buttons to move the view one byte back or forward, to jump back or forward or to set the type of jump to be used, to specify an offset to Goto or to go to the last such offset used, and to search back, search forward, or define a new search.
• The Structures Toolbar carries buttons to cycle through the structures, make a structure based on the data at the current offset, and open the structure library. It also has buttons to cycle through and edit the bookmarks, and a button to set the number of bytes displayed per row.

At the bottom of the frame is the status bar.

Three documents are open, each in a different view type:

• This program's resource file, MFCX.RES, is open in a graphical view.
• Cliconfig.exe is open in a structured view, with its raw hex column suppressed.
• foo.html is open in a normal view, which is much like a regular hex editor.

Each view type is discussed separately elsewhere, but all of them allow you to edit binary data...

At the bottom of each view is a status bar. All views are divided up into columns. At the top of each column is a header. The headers contain the names of the columns, and can be dragged to resize the columns. Most of them also change the format of the column below in some way when clicked; the effect depends on what type of column was clicked. For instance, a numeric field may be toggled between decimal and hex format.

All views also show a blinking caret at the end of the current selection; this is where data will be inserted if you type directly into the column that shows raw hex. AXE has 'Insert' and 'Overtype' modes like a text editor; typing or pressing backspace in 'Insert' mode changes the length of the document.

• Clicking on the header of the 'offsets' column toggles not just that column but also the status bar fields between hex and decimal. Many types of column can also be right-clicked on to bring up a menu.
• Those little buttons that change view type are fiddly and hard to click on. Use the keyboard shortcuts Alt+1, Alt+2 and Alt+3 to change view type more smoothly.