If you are trying to use LESS files in Eclipse, you will notice that those files are viewed as plain text – no indenting, no color-coding, no outlining, etc.  If you want to fix this up so that these LESS files behave like CSS files, do the following:

Install XText (this is a pre-requisite for LESS in Eclipse).

  1. Go to Help >> Install New Software.
  2. In the Work With textbox, type: http://download.eclipse.org/modeling/tmf/xtext/updates/composite/releases/
  3. Wait a moment while the listview refreshes.
  4. Check the box next to the latest version of XText.
  5. Click Next, Next, I Accept, Finish.
  6. Wait for this installation to complete – if you have selected Eclipse processes to run in the background, you might not see a progress bar.
  7. When prompted, restart Eclipse.

Install LESS

  1. Go to Help >> Install New Software.
  2. In the Work With textbox, type: http://www.normalesup.org/~simonet/soft/ow/update/
  3. Wait a moment while the listview refreshes – this should not be nearly as long as the XText refresh.
  4. Expand net.vtst.ow.
  5. Check the box next to LESS.
  6. Click Next, Next, I Accept, Finish.
  7. During the installation, you will be warned about this content be unsigned – I have had no problem with this software thus far and suspect this to be an innocent error on the part of the Developer.
  8. Wait for this installation to complete – if you have selected Eclipse processes to run in the background, you might not see a progress bar.
  9. When prompted, restart Eclipse.

The first time that you click on a LESS file in your project, you will be prompted: “Do you wish to add the LESS project nature to the project?”  Respond Yes.

Voila!  (Yes, the word is “voila” – not “wah lah” or “wa la”)