Introduction Typing Text Importing Text Exporting Text

Introduction

You can create your text directly in PageStream or import it from another program. You must select the Text tool before you enter new text or edit existing text. When the Text tool is selected, the mouse pointer will change to the text cursor shape.

Text Cursor

You must position the insertion point (text cursor) before you can enter text. The insertion point is a vertical line that indicates where the new text will appear. As you type each character, the insertion point will move to the right of the new character.

To create a new article: Create text frames for the article and link them as required. Place the insertion point in the first frame and type or import text.

To add text to an existing article: Place the insertion point in the desired position and then type or import text.

To replace an existing article with updated text: Select all of the text in the article by placing the insertion point anywhere in an article and choose Select All from the Edit menu and then type or import the new text.

Placing the Insertion Point

If you choose the Text tool when a text frame is selected, the insertion point will be placed in that frame automatically. If one was not selected, or if you wish to enter text in a different text frame, you must place the insertion point manually.

To place the insertion point in an existing text frame or text block, move the mouse cursor over it at the desired point and click the mouse button. If there is text where you clicked, the insertion point will be placed there; otherwise, the insertion point will be placed at the end of the article.

Typing Text

As you type text in a text frame, PageStream will automatically wrap the text when you reach the right margin. Press the Return key only when you want to end a paragraph.

When you type in a text block, you must press Return at the end of each line because there is no right margin.

Moving the insertion point

There are two ways to move the insertion point:

• Position the insertion point with the mouse cursor.
• Move the insertion point with the arrow keys.

To move the insertion point with the mouse cursor, move the mouse to the desired position and click the mouse button.

To move one character left or right, press the Left or Right Arrow keys. To move up or down one line, press the Up or Down Arrow keys. Hold down an arrow key to move the insertion point repeatedly. You can also use the arrow keys in conjunction with various modifier keys to move the cursor greater distances.

To move to the...

• previous character: press the Left Arrow.
• next character: press the Right Arrow.
• previous word: press Option Left Arrow.
• next word: press Option Right Arrow.
• previous line: press the Up Arrow.
• next line: press the Down Arrow.
• previous paragraph: press Option Up Arrow.
• next paragraph: press Option Down Arrow.
• start of the line: press Control Left Arrow.
• end of the line: press Control Right Arrow.
• start of the article: press Control Up Arrow.
• end of the article: press Control Down Arrow.

Note: On Amiga and Windows computers, press the Alt key for the Option key.

Ending a paragraph

Paragraphs are ended by pressing the Return key. Ending a paragraph forces the text to wrap to the next line without continuing to the right edge. Paragraph spacing is normally used to set the space between paragraphs, but you can also press the Return key a second time to insert a blank line between paragraphs.

If tabs were used to indent the paragraphs in the above example, a tab symbol (a right arrow) would be shown when Show Invisibles is selected; however, this example uses First Line Indent instead of tabs. First Line Indent is the proper method to indent the first line of a paragraph.

You can break a paragraph into two separate paragraphs by moving the cursor to the desired position and pressing the Return key.

If you want to start a new line without starting a new paragraph, hold down Shift when pressing Return. The new line will be part of the same paragraph instead of a separate paragraph. This is useful when paragraph spacing is set and you do not want to have space between the lines, and when the paragraph type is set to bullet or drop cap and you wish to start a new line with a normal character.

Correcting mistakes

You can erase characters anywhere in your text by positioning the insertion point in it and pressing the Backspace (Macintosh: Delete) or Del (Macintosh: Forward Delete) keys. The Backspace key deletes the character to the left of the insertion point, and the Del key deletes the character to the right of the insertion point.

If the insertion point is at the beginning of a paragraph, pressing Backspace will erase the paragraph mark at the end of the previous paragraph, joining the two paragraphs together. Similarly, if the insertion point is at the end of a paragraph, pressing Del will erase the end of paragraph, joining the two together.

Typing special characters

PageStream allows you to enter many special characters that are not shown on the keyboard. Your computer comes with a utility to help you locate non-keyboard characters:

• Macintosh: Key Caps in the Apple menu.
• Amiga: KeyShow in the Tools directory.
• Windows: Character Map in the Accessories program group.

Refer to your operating system manual for more information on these utilities.

PageStream allows you to enter more characters than some operating systems, so it offers additional ways to enter special characters. Common characters have easy-to-remember mnemonic sequences. To enter a character with a mnemonic sequence, press Control-C and then type the mnemonic.

You can also enter characters with their Unicode identification numbers. Press Control-D and then type the character number. The Unicode standard cannot be listed here, but a few common characters are listed below. For more information and more Ctrl-C and Ctrl-D mnemonics, please see the Special Characters appendix.

Left double quote

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: " l
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08220
MacOS: Option [
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0147

Right double quote

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: " r
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08221
MacOS: Option Shift [
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0148

Bullet

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: b u
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08226
MacOS: Option 8
AmigaOS: Alt 8
Windows: Alt+0149

En Dash

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: n -
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08211
MacOS: Option -
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0150

Em Dash

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: m -
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08212
MacOS: Option Shift -
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0151

Florin

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: f -
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 00402
MacOS: Option F
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0131

Ellipsis

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: . .
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08230
MacOS: Option ;
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0133

Dagger

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: | -
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08224
MacOS: Option T
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0134

Double Dagger

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: | =
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08225
MacOS: Option Shift 7
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+135

Trademark

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: t m
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 08482
MacOS: Option 2
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+153

Copyright

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: c o
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 00169
MacOS: Option G
AmigaOS: Alt E
Windows: Alt+0169

Registered Mark

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: r m
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 00174
MacOS: Option R
AmigaOS: Alt R
Windows: Alt+0174

Paragraph Marker

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: p !
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 00182
MacOS: Option 7
AmigaOS: Alt P
Windows: Alt+0182

Section

Ctrl-C Mnemonic: s e
Ctrl-D Mnemonic: 00167
MacOS: Option 6
AmigaOS: n/a
Windows: Alt+0167

Refer to your operating system manual for instructions on how to enter the system specific shortcuts listed here.

Inserting Characters Visually

PageStream's Insert Character dialog box can be used to insert characters without having to know their shortcuts or Unicode numbers. Choose Character from the Insert submenu of the Type menu to display this dialog box.

Select a font from the pop-up menu and then click on a character in the scrolling list. The character's Unicode (Control-D) number and mnemonic (Control-C) will be shown. To insert a character, select it and click Insert. This will close the dialog box and insert the character.

Importing Text

PageStream allows you to import text created with a word processor or text editor. Filters translate text from word processor formats into a format that PageStream can understand. Some filters can also export text from PageStream. You can import text only from programs which can save text in one of the supported formats listed below.

Import text filters included with PageStream

• ASCII: Plain text files. Since ASCII character sets vary between platforms, you will have to specify the computer on which the text file was created before importing it.
• HTML: HyperText Markup Language files. *
• RTF: Rich Text Format. This word processor format was created by Microsoft to allow easy data interchange between various word processors. If you want to import text in PageStream with special attributes such as text styles and paragraph options, this is the best format to work with. All professional word processors are able to save in RTF.
• Wordworth: Text files created with Digita Wordworth 3.1 or newer. Users can also open the documents with the document filter.
• Final Writer: Text files created with Softwood's Final Copy or Final Writer.*
• Excellence: Text files created with MSS Excellence.*
• ProWrite: Text files created with New Horizons' ProWrite.*
• WordPerfect: Text files created with WordPerfect 4.1.*
• IFF CTXT: PageStream's primary text format. Supports all of PageStream's advanced text formatting features.
• IFF FTXT: Basic AmigaOS text files.

* Limited implementation: supports some or most text attributes.

What is imported

PageStream recognizes most standard text in imported text, including: font, style, size, indents, tabs, color, tracking, leading, justification and styles. Graphics, objects and non-columnar text such as margins and footnotes will not be imported.

ASCII text does not contain character or paragraph attributes, and most word processors do not support PageStream's full range of text formatting options. PageStream allows you to embed text codes into text in any file format. When a file with these codes is imported, PageStream will translate them into standard text attributes.

Rich Text Format (RTF) is Microsoft's format for exchanging word processing files. It is the best format for importing text from formats that do not have a corresponding PageStream filter. All professional word processors can save in RTF format.

How to import text

1. Place the insertion point.

If you select text rather than placing the insertion point, PageStream will replace the selected text with the imported text.

2. Choose Insert Text from the File menu.

A file selector will appear to choose a file. Select a file and click Open.

3. Choose options from the Insert Text dialog box.

Another dialog box will appear to select options specific to the type of file.

The following options might appear depending on the type of file imported:

• Filter: Shows the text import filter being used to import the text.
• Convert Quotes: Select to convert straight quotation marks to typographer's quotation marks.
• Convert Dashes: Select to convert double dashes to en-dashes, and triple dashes to em-dashes.
• Retain Formatting: Select to use the formatting attributes in the text file.
• Line has LF: Select to strip line feeds from an ASCII file. This will join lines into paragraphs.
• Character Set: Choose whether an ASCII file was created on a Macintosh, Amiga, Windows or MS-DOS computer. Other character sets are also available. This is required because character sets vary between computers and even some languages. See Appendix: Character Sets for more details on character encoding.(ASCII only)
• Text Codes: Choose the format of text codes to import, or None if you do not want to import text codes.

4. Click Insert.

The inserted text may be selected after it appears so that you can change its attributes immediately. Deselect it before editing it or typing more text. This depends on whether Select Text on Paste is checked or not in the Files tab of the Preferences dialog box. See the next point for more information.

Select text on paste

If you want imported or pasted text to be automatically selected, choose Preferences from the File menu, click on the Files tab, and select Select Text on Paste. Turning this option off will cause the text cursor to be placed at the end of the imported or pasted text.

Automatic frame creation

If you want to import text but do not know how many pages of frames to create, choose Preferences from the File menu, click on the Files tab, and select Automatic Text Frames. When this is selected, additional text frames will be created automatically when imported text overflows the last frame.

To set how the dimensions of the Automatic Text Frames are determined: Choose Like Master Page to create frames that match the master page margins, column count and gutter. Choose Like Last Frame to create frames that match the dimensions, column count, gutter and fill and stroke attributes of the last previously existing frame in the article.

Exporting Text

PageStream allows you to export text so that it can be edited in another program or later in another publication. Filters translate PageStream's text into a format that can be understood by text editors and word processors. You can export text in the following text formats:

Export text filters included with PageStream

• ASCII: Plain text files. You will have to specify the character sets because they vary between computers and even some languages. See Appendix: Character Sets for more details on character encoding.
• HTML: HyperText Markup Language files. *
• RTF: Rich Text Format. This word processor format was created by Microsoft to allow easy data interchange between various word processors. Choose this filter if you want to retain the majority of PageStream's text and paragraph attributes.
• Wordworth: Exports text for use with Digita's word processor for the Amiga.*
• IFF CTXT: PageStream's primary text format.
• IFF FTXT: Basic AmigaOS text files.*

* Limited implementation: supports some or most text attributes.

How to export text

1. Select the text to export.

Highlight the text with the text cursor.

The Text Cursor

2. Choose Export Text from the File menu.

Choose options from the Export Text dialog box.

The following options might appear depending on the type of file exported:

• Filter: Choose the text format in which to export the text.
• Convert Quotes: Select to convert typographer's quotation marks to straight quotation marks.
• Convert Dashes: Select to convert en-dashes to double dashes, and em-dashes to triple dashes.
• Character Set: Choose whether to save an ASCII file with Macintosh, Amiga, Windows or MS-DOS character sets. Other character sets are also supported. This is required because character sets vary between computers and language character code sets.
• Text Codes: Select to choose the format of text codes to export, or None if you do not want to export text codes.

3. Click Export.

Enter a name in the Export file selector. Click Save.

What is exported

PageStream exports text as best it can given the limitations of each format. To avoid losing text attributes, use IFF CTXT (or ASCII with PageStream text codes) if you plan to import the text into PageStream later. If you choose to export using text codes, the text will be exported without any attributes expressed in the destination filter's native format; all attributes will be represented by text codes where supported.

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