To keep eWriter free as it evolves, I have used beta numbering. I began, arbitrarily, with 0.8 back in early 1997. I got up to 0.8e or f, I think, and went to 0.9. It seemed whole. But days later it was 0.9a. As I begin this list, it is 0.9r and within a week or two, as March 1999 ends, I will put up 0.9s. This year, and the last part of last year, versions are often only ten days or two weeks apart. Something needs fixing or information in dialog prompts or on info-plaques can be improved. And to justify my march through the alphabet, I dream up a new tool for a writer. Ill post this list in a very sketchy form in a few hours and, then, work at it whenever I get a few moments.These are not, and cannot be, in any sort of chronological order or version order. I haven't the memory for that. And Im grouping features, old and new, by similarities or when used. Actually, I wrote the above paragraph on March 23, 1999. Today is the 25th. I just sent 0.9s to those who put it up for me, and Coriolis has it up so the buttons on my site pages will get that for you. And its goodies might be anywhere in this list.
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feature | details |
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beyond Notepad, a textwriter (software typewriter) | |
no installation | Since eWriter is basically a typewriter with a mouse, an installation would be pretentious. So there is no install program. Nothing will be written (ever) to your Registry or to Win.ini or anywhere other than eWriters accompanying or generated files. Give eWriter its own directory, unzip ewriter.zip in that directory, and run the program. Quite a few files fall out. All but one of the .htm files are parts of eManual (Help menu); the one is eReference Shelf (Help menu). In time, eWriter generates two .ini files, its own general one and a separate one for superBoilerplate(s). And two similar files with a .set extension (for loaded revolver cylinders to import into Tools/Boilerplate sets and for Tools/Tagset Menu sets) will be created when you export sets. If you Save Desktop (Window menu), a .dsk file is generated. |
work session memory |
When you close eWriter, you may OK or Cancel the saving of settings.
These settings are saved in ewriter.ini. All sorts of variables,
lists, and other items, including the size and position of eWriter
itself, are remembered. Starting with 0.9t (due in
April, 1999) the .ini file is renamed ew_ini.bak and a new .ini
file is written. Also in 0.9t, another .ini file is kept for the
new superboilerplates and it, too, is backed up.
On the Window menu, eWriter has Save and Restore Desktop. You can save a list of files open and the window number for each and, then, restore that desktop. |
multiple and large files | Any post-Notepad textwriter must take more than one file at a time and those files cannot be limited to 32K or 64K. I have had several files over 100,000 bytes each, one of them 366,000 bytes, in editors. Ive had fifteen, sixteen files at a time loaded. |
plain text plus | eWriter is intended for the new on-line world, so it is a plain text or 7-bit character eTypewriter. But if you know what you are doing and what your mail program will do, you have two Edit menu options. One allows the 8-bit ANSI characters as text and the other as HTML/XML escapes. Given European keyboards, this allows natural typing of either ANSI text or HTML text. |
added HTML/XML escape keys |
From eWriters beginning, the Keys (Text Keys) menu has been
available for typing characters into your text that a browser or
other HTML/XML processor might attempt to respond to as a directive.
These are entered as escape codes: &#num;. To type what ends the
last sentence, I had to actually type &#num; where 38 is the
ANSI code for the ampersand (&). You might want to View source
and look at the last two sentences. The Keys menu has on it those
characters that you may want to enter as escapes when working with
HTML and that you will have to enter as escapes when working with
XML tagsets. (Entering ANSI 8-bit characters as escapes, as when you
are using a European keyboard, is another matter and there is an item
on the Edit menu to take care of that.)
The Keys menu has a General Symbol on Ctrl+G that types the three framework characters around the cursor and you type in the number and use the right arrow to skip over the semicolon. Then, there are nine of these character items. Those used most frequently have assigned key combinations, like that Ctrl+G, so you can type them in as you type normally. That ampersand (&), for instance, is Ctrl+O. These key combinations are in short supply in eWriter. And I dont want to tie a typing writer up in knots.
![]() On the Keys menu, which has the tools for putting HTML/XML escape codes into the text in HTML and XML documents, I have a look-up item. Through 0.9t this has been a simple pop-up info-plaque with a chart that is now under the Overview button as an at a glance reference within the 0.9us active selector and auto-typer.
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real-world wordwrap | Notepads, and other Windows applications strange wordwrap to a wiindows right edge, not reflected in the text, is very strange. So eWriter has ordinary wordwrap. The line will wrap to either a space or a hyphen. A CRLF is added and if the wrap was to a space the space is deleted. The writer can change the wrap column (the farthest right column that can be filled) on the fly. |
hyphenation | Ctrl+Hyphen puts in a hyphen followed by a space. The trick is to feel the up-coming wrap and insert these two characters. EWriter will wrap to the space, delete the space, and enter CRLF. |
sensible tab key behavior | The tab key will float over text unless it is at the end of a line or at the beginning of an empty line. In that case, it will type in spaces to the next tab stop on the grid. The writer may change the tab grid "on the fly." To enter spaces within text, use Ctrl+Tab. |
sensible tab key results | Tab and Ctrl+Tab enter spaces, not a control code. This is so that any text editor, word processor, or browser will display the text in the same way. |
html Tab key | eWriters Tab and Shift+Tab float over text, forward and back, to the next or previous tab-stop on a grid that the writer sets on the fly. Ctrl+Period and Shift+Ctrl+Period do the same float over text. The difference is that your insertion point (ip, or caret) will be after the next tag to your right or before the last tag to your left. The items are on the Edit menu. This is for writers doing XML documents who frequently work with two, three or more nested tag-pairs, but it is very handy when writing with even simple HTML punctuation. It is like using the Ctrl+RightArrow to go to the start of the next word or Ctrl+LeftArrow to go to the start of the last word. Elements are treated like words for navigation. |
as you type shortcuts | The Edit menu, a traditional name, should be called the Write menu. It is a treasure chest of quick typing shortcuts. Spacebar and Backspace, with the control key, will insert or delete a line, Shift+Return will get a new line that duplicates an indent above. Ctrl+ (, [, or } gets the pair and the cursor between them. This will even work for commas and quotes, and Ctrl+A will get email italics. Ctrl+S and Ctrl+X get empty start and end HTML tags with the cursor inside. And there is more. Its all to help you keep your typing hands close to the front edge of your thinking. |
Spell and grammar checking | eWriter could have had a spell-check component, with DLLs to accompany eWriter.exe. But eWriter is an environment with powerful tool using capabilities. Use ANY programs spell, grammar, and other checking. I use Winword 7.0s spell checking because I do not have to use the dialog. I use the as you type red underlining. In eWriter, I use Copy All. I have Winword on the Tools menu and a hot key. I open it. I paste. All questionable spellings are underlined in red. For each, I note a correction I want. I Alt+Tab to eWriter, use Find for the errror, correct it, use F2 for a fresh save, and Alt+Tab to Winword. I do not try moving the whole file back after corrections in Winword because I don't trust Winword's export. Consider every utility or program component you have as an eWriter tool. |
21st century typewriting (or textwriting) | |
batch typing |
Batch typing means that one key, or key combination, will result in
more than one character being typed. In eWriter many uses of batch typing
are available. One is the loaded revolver cylinder
boilerplates. Ctrl+#, where # (top row) may be 1 to 8, can print even
quite a long line which you may have to chop up with the Enter or Return
key. Ctrl+Top# types the line unless it is empty, in which case you
get the editing box. To edit a non-empty, use Shift+Ctrl+Top# to get
the editing box.
![]() Sets of these may be kept in the bplates.set file for import or export using the Tools/Boilerplates Set tool. And editing may be done with this tool, too. |
superboilerplate |
The regular boilerplates are fast and simple. Ctrl+Top# types a single line of type. It can be very long, but you must back into it (from the end) and cut it up with the Return key. With superboilerplate, you can have multi-line mini-templates. Superboilerplate handles much more complex content than regular boilerplate, so every time that you key Alt+Ctrl+Top# (1...8), you get the dialog shown below and to type the content, just press the Type in Text button. You can Edit the content or switch to any other boilerplate. You still end up at the end, and must go back to fill in any additional content you want in the particular typing of this text. In the illustration, is a reusable table with one row in it. In SBP 6 is a duplicate of that row, to be added into a growing table from SBP5.
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frame typing | Writing or typing in punctuation marks has always been "blazing" the flow or trail. But, the generative writer casts marks ahead in his or her mind. Typing a comma, the writer senses that later comma that will come at the end of the inserted clause, phrase, or fragment. On the Edit menu, eWriter offers an item commas which inserts two commas, with a space and the cursor between them (, |,). On the Edit menu many of these are available. Using them takes a little getting used to, but they make that casting a conscious sense of where you are in structuring your text. |
input box typing | In a typewriter, the paper is uniform. In a textwriter, this is not the case. The chunk of paper that you may type the next word or phrase into may be in an input box that sits out above the surface of the paper, and when you've typed that word or phrase or expression, the result may even be some fancy batch typing. This, too, takes a little getting used to. For an example, I have to jump ahead a little to where the textwriter is extended into an htmlwriter. The HTML tags are advanced or late 20th century punctuation marks. One pair of marks is for headings. There is a pair (frame) that look like this: <H#>|</H#>. The number can be from 1 to 6 to get gradually less important heading styles. So, type Ctrl+H to get the frame. You get an input box in which to put the number, and then eWriter writes out the frame with the cursor between the start and end tags and that's where you go on typing the heading, then a Ctrl+Period carries you past the end tag and you go on with your textwriting. |
advanced search tools |
A textwriters great advance over the old, hardware typewriter
lies in the ability to move around in your writing and work here,
there, somewhere else ...as your thinking and imagining moves. And,
of course, you can move blocks of text as well. Searching for pieces
of text becomes important. Beyond the usual Find, Find Again, and
Find/Replace, eWriter has Go To Line number (and a Bookmarks dialog
that works with it) and a Re-search that stores a history of stable
phrases, titles or other that you use to go directly to work areas
even as files change.
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advanced navigation tools | A textwriter differs from a typewriter in that you can move around on the paper, and even move content around, so that you can work and write in a way that is closer to the way you think and plan interiorly. In eWriter you have all the normal Windows 95 navigation tools (keys and mouse). And you have some extras. For instance, if you are working with HTML or XML tagsets, you will often have nested tags. You may write inside an interior set and then wish to exit that interior set but not go out of the next set with, say, an End keystroke. Ctrl+Period will go behind the closest End tag after your cursor. And Ctrl+Shift+Period will back up before the closest Start tag. These are listed on Edit and Tagset menus. |
sensible Clipboard keys |
Windows originally used sensible Clipboard keys and, in most
programs you will find that they still work. Somebodys
fascination with Apple led to the wasteful and meaningless Ctrl+C,
X, and V. In eWriter the sensible keys are official (on the Edit
menu):
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21st century paper | The paper you type on takes, and you can write, anything youve seen on web pages (or scrolls). What you see in eWriter as you type looks pretty much like typewriter output has always looked. On the Format (Text) menu, you will see some changes you can make. If the white background is too lively for your eyes, you may have white text on a black ground. And if you want larger text, you may have that. These changes are for your visual comfort and do not affect eWriters manuscript printing or the text that is saved to file. |
text marking | In keeping with this 21st century paper, eWriter has a visual method for searching out work areas that parallels Re-search on the Search menu. This is text marking on the Format (Text) menu. Pieces of text are marked and, then, all marked pieces are colored red. You can quickly scroll from one marked block to another to go back and forth. The text is not affected. And it lasts only for the session. But it is useful and re-marking at the beginning of a session can be done using the Re-search tool. Want to print your marked text? EWriter prints and saves plain text. But you can use File/Export as RTF to create an .rtf file (same name) and take it into Wordpad or Winword. |
21st century textwriter, htmlwriter, xmlwriter | |
tag marking | When you load an .htm, .html, or .xml file, you are offered the option of having all the tags and their contents colored blue for easy visual spotting. This is done only on loading, but you can re-do the sorting out of tags by using File/Reload. |
21st century punctuating | Most think of the HTML/XML tags as lay-out marks for page designers, which is why it is impossible to write in HTML editors. A writer should use tags as punctuation marks. This is why Notepad isnt the best htmlwriter around. Tags are clumsy to type in without help. EWriter is designed to handle this 21st century punctuating. Most tags are on menus and others can be put ino boilerplate boxes. The most often used tags (and all boilerplates) are on hot keys and the rest on a simple click. Many of the marks are in two parts, one to set behind you and one to cast forward. This is frame punctuation. Many will take an input box or a sequence of them (instead of the dead stop of a dialog). The HTML, Key Entities, Javascript, and Meta menus are for HTML. The XML and Tagset menus are for HTML and XML tag handling or punctuating. |
semantic punctuation | All punctuation is meaningful and helps structure the meanings that your text carries. An intentionally placed comma doesn't just signal some blank pause, but, because of where it is, much more. An italics-tag indicates a move in or out of italic mode in the typed delivery of a passage, but, again, in context it signals a shift in voice and that is meaningful. With the user defined tags in an XML-defined tagset or in the faked up equivalent for HTML that is described in the Magic XML paper in the eManual, a tag like a HIRE-DATE-tag adds a great deal of contextual meaning to the simple date seen in the typeset copy in a viewer. This requires knowing the formatted date is a HIRE-DATE or using View Source to read the manuscript a practice called doubled reading. |
a Format Pad |
In eWriter, you can use frame punctuation to type your
entire HTML document (or other) template as you go. Usually, you
will use boilerplate to group some items or even mini-templates on
crib sheets. (in 0.9t, superBoilerplate is added and will
hold mini-templates.) In any case, formatting relates to frame
punctuating. To speed this up, a Format Pad is laid over the Number
Pad (Num Lock is on) on the right-hand end of the keyboard. To access
this pad, hold the Ctrl key down (with Num lock on). This is exactly
the same as accessing a copy of the Navigation Pad by holding the
Shift key down. Here is what the pad looks like:
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user defined tagsets | At the bottom of the Tagset menu, you may have fifteen tags that you define. This is the center of your xmlwriter, but it is very useful with htmlwriting, too. You build this set using the Add Tag and Remove Tag items near the top of the menu. Once you have the hang of how tags go together, you can edit in the Tools/Tagset Menu Set dialog, as well as export your tagset or import tagsets that you keep in tslists.set. You can make tag pairs or either HTML or XML empties. All pairs will place the cursor between the start and end tags or surround selected text. (Tag pairs in boilerplate will not do this. But in boilerplate, you can have a row of start tags in one and the paired row of end tags in another.) |
tools | |
manuscript printing | eWriter is a 21st century eTypewriter and that means it is half of a duplex typewriter. It is as if you rolled your paper in at one end of a cyberspace wormhole and it rolled out the other end. It goes in from the textwriter as manuscript (or source) and comes out the other end, through a web browser, as typeset copy. To truly read such a document, you must read both copies, which is why browsers have View Source so you can read the engine scroll (page). eWriter does a nice straight forward printing of the manuscript copy. For fancy printing of the manuscript, do Copy All, open Winword or Ami Pro, paste it in, juggle your page set up, fonts, and what have you. But proper printing in this duplex eTypewriter is done from the browser which prints the typeset copy. |
the File menu tools |
When no files are open, the File menu tools are all concerned with
opening files to write within. The top three are New, Open, and
Template. You can keep files that are templates in your eWriter
directory with .tpt file extensions. Click on Template, and you see
a list of these. Open one and you will find that the copy you opened
is now a New File to protect the original from an accidental Save.
To work on the template itself, open it normally. At the bottom of
the menu, you have up to five of the most recently opened files. You
see nothing here until you have opened a file. These are kept across
sessions if you Save Settings at the end of the session. You also
see two items Add Direct Open File (5) and Remove Direct Open File.
You can have up to five files permanently on the menu right under
the Add and Remove tools.
Once a file is opened, a number of tools are added to the File menu. First, there is File/Reload. Several tools in eWriter do setup work that is applied on load, so that applying to the current file requires a reload. The manuscript printing is on this menu. And File/Export as RTF is used, as is the reload, for some special activities. EWriter is never used as Wordpad is. The RTF menu is for low level RTF coding and is used when working with WinHelp topic files. It has its own viewer, and eWriter always loads .rtf files so you see them as source. |
the Format (Text in 0.9u) menu tools |
The Wordwrap and Tab handling is done from here and a couple Warning
systems can be toggled On and Off. But there are also some useful
tools (or features). As visual assists, you can get white text on a
black (less lively) ground. And you can get larger type. These are
for screen reading only and do not affect printing or the text. They
work in conjuntion with loading and File/Reload. Text marking (see
above) is handled from this menu, as well.
In 0.9u, the main menu item called Format is renamed Text. And a new item on the Text menu is Reflow text as double spaced. The text can now be printed as manuscript or stored in the same or a new file as double spaced text. |
the Window menu tools |
The familiar Tile and Cascade of Windows MDI programs are here as
is the list of open windows at the bottom. There is also the
information that Alt+# (1...9) gets windows directly. And Alt+0 gets
a dialog in which you can get any window by typing its number. You
must use this for Window 10 (or greater). But, for nine widows you
can hot key among them directly targeting the window you want.
Save and Restore Desktop provide a tool for working on larger writing projects. Save Desktop asks for a name (without an extension) and produces a file in eWriter's directory with the .dsk extension. This lists in order the files you have loaded. Restore Desktop shows you the .dsk files you have, and you may open the one you want. It will restore the desktop you saved. |
the Tools menu tools |
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the Help menu tools |
The top section has
The next section has loadable lists of Helpful Websites, Useful WinHelp Files, and Useful HTMLHelp Files. And the last section has eWriters About box. |