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I am working on a very old project which needs to be updated. Because the program needs to be backwards compatible, the changes need to be made in this older IDE.

There is no built in syntax highlighting that I see. Is there a plugin or menu that I have missed?

Joe
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Dan Smith
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    Both VBA and VB6 have syntax highlighting built-in and it is on by default. I use it all the time, so it's not clear why you aren't seeing it. Checking the settings under Tools..Options. It's in the "Editor Format" tab. – RBarryYoung Mar 14 '16 at 20:55
  • You are in fact correct it seems. Colors were not set correctly. Unfortunately, the colors it offers still wont do what I need- objects stay in black. – Dan Smith Mar 14 '16 at 20:59
  • It's not clear what you do need then. Perhaps you could clarify a bit more? – RBarryYoung Mar 14 '16 at 21:06
  • It's not that its absolutely necessary, but I am more used to modern IDEs and the way they highlight. The code is old and a bit hard to read without it, especially the way the previous developer laid things out. – Dan Smith Mar 14 '16 at 21:11
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    That I am afraid is just a part of what sucks about having to work in these legacy tools. I am not aware of any reliable fix that works *In Situ*. You get used to it after awhile, and it's a much smaller handicap than other limitations (like how weak Intellisense is, the lack of namespace control, and fairly limited Class-development features). – RBarryYoung Mar 14 '16 at 21:27
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    See [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34232697/is-there-vba-syntax-highlighting-for-opening-and-closing-loops-and-if-statements/34232732#34232732) for some useful tools. They won't make your IDE behave like a modern environment, but can help a lot. Smart Intender is especially useful for understanding someone else's code. – vacip Mar 14 '16 at 21:34
  • Hopefully I will sort it out. The syntax is different than the VB I am used to seeing as well, so there might be some other questions forthcoming. As for @vacip's answer, some of those tools look like they might help while I get used to the older IDE. Thanks again. – Dan Smith Mar 14 '16 at 21:39
  • @DanSmith How should we help you on your syntax highlighting issue if you don't tell as which IDE you use with exact version? Visual Studio 6.0 or later is for example one IDE for Visual Basic which has built-in syntax highlighting. Click on __About__ item of the used IDE and update the question with this important information. – Mofi Mar 16 '16 at 06:49
  • @Mofi, This is VB6 (6.0.9782). To date, I did change some of the syntax highlighting options, but was really wishing to get it closer to modern Visual Studio. This thing has no intellisense either, which would be excellent. – Dan Smith Mar 16 '16 at 15:21

1 Answers1

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Within VB Editor, go to Options then Editor Format and adjust colours.

There are also some 3rd party softwares out there that will enable you to edit your code with syntax highlighting.

UltraEdit Visual Basic Editor

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Brendan Gooden
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