Once a field has been selected for editing, the Field Edit Window is opened. All actual text editing is done via this window. Its contents can be edited in a full–screen fashion. The arrows move you through the text, and the `Home', `End', `Del' and `Backspace' keys work as expected. Pressing `Tab' or `Ctrl-Tab' moves the cursor to the beginning of the next and previous words, respectively. `Ctrl-W' deletes words. You can scroll the window up or down by pressing the `PgUp' and `PgDn' buttons, respectively, or by clicking with the mouse on the arrows on the border of the window. Clicking on the top frame of the window is equivalent to pressing `Home', while clicking on the bottom window frame is equivalent to pressing `End'. `ESC' erases the line, Ctrl-C brings back the original contents, and Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End delete the line to the cursor and from the cursor, respectively. You can also use the mouse to position the cursor. Just click at the desired position. Additionally, by pressing and holding down the left mouse button, you can mark a segment for later deletion using the Del button. A section may also be marked from the keyboard, by pressing and holding down the `Ctrl' key, and pressing the left and right arrow keys, or the `PgUp' and `PgDn' keys. Finally, clicking on the Close Window box at the upper left corner of the window is equivalent to `Ctrl-C ENTER', while clicking on the `[ok]' box at the lower right corner is equivalent to `ENTER'.
While in the Field Edit Window, page layout formatting is switched off, and one sees (and edits) all characters in the field. A line break is represented in the text by a user defined control word (`` \Cr" by default), followed by a numerical argument surrounded by curly braces, as in TEX commands. The argument may also be empty, signifying zero, however the pair of curly braces is mandatory. The numerical argument stands for the number of empty lines which will appear on the screen. Thus, `` \Cr{}" or `` \Cr{0}" will insert a simple line break, while `` \ Cr{3}" will insert a line break, followed by three empty lines. Since any sequence of more than one real space will be contracted to a single space in the bibliography file, one can insert hard spaces into the display by using a sequence of tilde characters ``~" (Note that the first space after the tilde string will be displayed).
From Ver. 1.4, it is possible to insert special characters (high bit codes) into fields, by entering their ASCII codes. This can be done in one of two ways. The first is the standard DOS method: press and hold down the ALT key, and enter the ASCII code from the numerical keypad. The second method is to press Ctrl-Q, and enter the ASCII code into the dialog box. BibDB also supports the various language-specific keyboards in the DOS ``keyb" command is used.
Another feature of the Field Edit Window is the `Capitalize' operation. Pressing `ALT-C', or clicking on the `[Cap]' box on the window frame (when it is displayed), will capitalize the edited text. All words will be capitalized, except articles and text enclosed in braces. TEX macros and text inside a math environment (surrounded by $) is not capitalized. Also not capitalized are BibTEX macro names (see below). Accented high bit characters will be capitalized according to the code page being used — if the code page does not support the capitalized variant (as frequently happens using e.g. code page 437), the TEX form will be substituted.
It is also possible to designate specific fields for automatic capitalization, using the configuration file. Fields designated as such will be automatically capitalized upon exiting the Field Edit window. Surround any text you do not want to be capitalized by braces (this is always a good idea, as BibTEX also has the capability to automatically capitalize).
While in the Field Edit Window you can also make use of the built in memory registers. There are 36 memory registers, labeled `A' to `Z' and `0' to '9'. Each register has a capacity of 255 characters. From the Field Edit Window you may save text into a register and/or insert text from a register. Saving text into a register is accomplished by pressing `ALT-S', or clicking on the `[S]' box on the window frame. The whole text string currently being edited is saved, unless a selection is in force, in which case only the selected text is saved. Recalling text is accomplished by pressing `ALT-R' or clicking on the `[R]' box on the window frame. The recalled text is then inserted at the current position of the cursor. It is also possible to preload strings into selected memory registers, using the ` \registers' environment of the configuration file (see below).
When exiting the Field Edit Window, the text is checked to see if it is balanced in terms of braces (`{' and `}'). If it is not, a message is given, and BibDB balances the text as best it can. This balancing is often wrong, but it protects the integrity of the rest of the file.
Special consideration must be given to fields which contain BibTEX macros. BibTEX macros are words which expand according to the BibTEX style file in use and/or `@STRING' commands in the database file, and consist of single alphabetic names. A field may also contain a mixture of macro names and strings (delimited by braces or double quotes), concatenated using the concatenation character `#'. BibDB has no way of knowing which words are macros and which are not, and so the following convention is used: all fields containing macros must have `@' as their first character. The `@' character appears on the screen, and also in the Field Edit Window. When outputting files, BibDB strips off this character, and writes the contents of the field with no enclosing braces, so that BibTEX will be able to recognize the macro invocations. All other fields (except purely numerical ones) will be outputted enclosed in braces or double quotes, and so will not be processed for macro names by BibTEX.
For the forgetful, `F1' will bring up a brief help screen.