Stedi is equipped with a powerful feature which helps in the organization of a program or text file by allowing the programmer to segment a file into a number of smaller units. Then the smaller units can be selectively viewed or suppressed as desired for editing purposes. This feature is called `folds'.
Briefly, a fold is created by entering two extra lines in the text which define the beginning and the end of the segment desired to be placed `in the fold'. Then the fold can be `closed' which means that the whole segment of text between these two special lines together with the two lines is replaced on the screen by a single line of text which is used to represent the entire segment. Subsequently, such commands as search and replace will not affect the text hidden in a closed fold. Thus, for example, a programmer could put various subroutines in different folds and then open only the one desired to be edited at any given time. A number of commands exist for opening and closing folds to provide quite a flexibility in using this feature. A full description of the folds feature follows.