×

Hex Editor Help

File Operations

Loading: Drag and drop a file onto the main window, or click the window to open a file selection dialog. After the primary file is loaded, dropping another file loads or replaces the comparison file.

Saving: Click the Download Modified File button. You can also drag this button directly to your desktop or a file manager to save the file.

Navigation

• Mouse: Click and drag in either the Hex or ASCII panes to select bytes. Use the mouse wheel to scroll.
• Keyboard: Use PageUp/PageDown, Arrow keys, and Home/End to navigate. These keys affect the pane your mouse is currently hovering over.
• Go to Address: Click the Go to... button to jump to an address in the primary (left) file.

Editing & Copying

• Editing (Primary Pane): The Inspector Panel is the primary tool for editing. Select bytes in the left pane to enable the inspector.
• Automatic Original Comparison: If no comparison file is open, the first edit opens the right pane against the originally loaded file.
• Number Editing (Overwrite): To edit a number (e.g., Int32, Float64), type a new value into its corresponding input box in the inspector and press Enter. This will overwrite a fixed number of bytes at the start of your selection without changing the file size.
• Text/Hex Editing (Replace): To edit a block of bytes, use the "Selection As" editor. Choose an encoding (UTF-8, UTF-16 LE, or Hex), type your new content, and press Enter. This will replace the entire selected block, which may change the file size.
• Deleting: Select bytes in the primary pane and click the Delete Selection button in the inspector panel.
• In any inspector input, press Escape to cancel an edit and revert to the original value.
• Copying (Either Pane): Select bytes and press Ctrl+C. If your mouse is over the Hex area, it copies the hex string. If it's over the ASCII area, it copies the decoded text.

Search & Comparison

• Performing a Search: Type your query, select the data type, and click Search. Occurrences are found and highlighted in both files.
• Navigating Hits:
  • Hit 0: This special hit represents the start of the file. It's included in the navigation cycle to allow comparing differences from the very beginning.
  • Keyboard: Use Ctrl+ArrowUp/Down to change the "current" search hit. When hovering over the left pane, this changes the current hit in both panes. When hovering over the right pane, this changes the current hit only in that pane.
  • Buttons: Use the < Prev and Next > buttons to cycle through hits (including Hit 0).
  • Direct Input: Click the "Hit: X / Y" display to type a specific hit number (including 0) and press Enter to jump directly to it.
• Intelligent Diffing: The two files are aligned side by side using a Myers diff over their full contents.
  • Green: Indicates inserted or deleted bytes (present in one file only).
  • Brown: Indicates a byte that was modified.
  • Hatched empty cells are alignment gaps: they reserve the space of bytes inserted/deleted in the other file, so identical bytes stay side by side before and after every insertion or deletion.