Welcome to the SCRIBBLE! User's manual. Our goal with this document is to get you acquainted with some basic wordprocessing concepts, and then show you how to use SCRIBBLE! as an effective writing tool.
This manual is divided into three parts. Part 1, the SCRIBBLE! Tutorial, introduces you to basic word processing concepts. Part 2, the SCRIBBLE! Overview, gives you a bird's-eye view of the program and what its capabilities are. Part 3, the SCRIBBLE! Reference Guide, discusses each of the menu commands and the warious keyboard command sequences.
If you're new to word processing take the time to read through the Tutorial. The whole reason it's there is to help you get familiar with things like word wrap and text justification (two famous word processing buzz words). As a matter of fact, many concepts are explained in here that the Overview and Reference Guide will assume you already know.
More experienced users will find that they can start with SCRIBBLE! Overview and learn what they need to know in order to run the program correctly.
The Reference Guide is designed to explain the various menu items in SCRIBBLE!, one command at a time. When you get stuck using one specific menu item, this would likely be a good place to turn.
But, first things first. Let's make a duplicate copy of the master kisdette, and file the original away for safekeeping.
MAKING A DUPLICATE COPY OF THE MASTER DISKETTE
The disk that we delivered SCRIBBLE! to you on is a copy of Workbench 1.1. This means that you can use this disk to boot up the Amiga when it asks for the Workbench diskette. As a matter of fact, we suggest this as a good course of operation.
You see, SCRIBBLE! has only been tested with Workbench version 1.1, and this is the version we give you with the disk. Since we're not sure that is will run on any other releases, it is a good idea to boot from our disk so that you have the proper environment for SCRIBBLE!.
Kickstart version 1.1 or 1.2 will work, 1.2 works better. For the SCRIBBLE! dictionary to work correctly, Guam Amiga users should boot SCRIBBLE! in place of workbench.
SCRIBBLE! is NOT copy-protected in any manner, in keeping with the policy of Micro-Systems Software, Inc. We fimrly believe that quality software sold at reasonable prices is the best insurance againt piracy (unabashed plug!). Because of this lack of copy protection, you can make a duplicate copy of the master diskette with the standard DiskCopy program.
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NOTE: The following information tells you how to make a duplicate copy of the SCRIBBLE! diskette using Workbench. If you want to do this from CLI, use the DiskCopy utility program as described in the AmigaDOS User's Manual (CBM Product Number 327624).
DUPLICATING SCRIBBLE1 WITH ONE DRIVE
Boot up the SCRIBBLE! diskette and wait until the Workbench screen appears. Select the icon of the SCRIBBLE! disk by pointing at it with the mouse and clicking the left mouse button. (The icon should change color).
Press and hold the right mouse button. A menu will appear along the top of the screen. While continuing to hold the right mouse button, point at the first word in the menu, "Workbench". A pull-down menu will appear. Move the mouse pointer donw until the word "Dpulicate" is highlighted and release the right mouse button. A message should appear:
NOTE: Some master diskettes were named "Workbench" instead of "SCRIBBLE!". If the message you see is just like the one above, except that it has Workbench where we have SCRIBBLE!, everything is fine. Proceed along.
Since your SCRIBBLE! disk is already in drive 0, select "Continue. DiskCopy will begin reading tracks and when memory is full, the next message appears:
Wait until the red light on the disk drive goes out and replace the SCRIBBLE! diskette with the disk you want to use for your duplicate copy (it can be blank or previously formatted, it doesn't matter). Select "Continue" and DiskCopy will write the tracks it just read.
This procedure wil continue, one disk after the other, until the SCRIBBLE! disk is duplicated. File the master away in a safe place and re-boot the Amiga using the duplicate copy.
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NOTE: The new diskette will be named "copy of SCRIBBLE!" or "copy of Workbench", depending upon the name of the original. If you want to change this, just select the disk's icon as you did before and display the Workbench menu again. Instead of selecting Dplicate however, you'll select Rename. A prompt will appear that will let you edit the name of the disk to something shorter.
You may even want to make two or three duplicate copies in this manner, to safeguard against losing all of your diskettes containing SCRIBBLE!.
DUPLICATING SCRIBBLE! WITH TWO DRIVES
Boot up the SCRIBBLE! diskette and wait until the Workbench screen appears. Load the disk you wish to use for your duplicate copy into drive 1. It doesn't matter whether this disk is already formatted or not.
Point at the icon of SCRIBBLE! disk with the mouse, press and hold the left mouse button. The icon should change color and the mouse pointer should now appear as a circle with an "X" in the middle. Move the mouse pointer until it is over the icon for the disk you will use for
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the duplicate copy. Release the mouse pointer, and after a few seconds, a message appears:
NOTE: Some master diskettes were named "Workbench" instead of "SCRIBBLE!". If the message you see is just like the one above, except that it has Workbench where we have SCRIBBLE!, everything is fine. Proceed along.
Since you SCRIBBLE! disk is already in drive 0 and your destination disk is already in drive 1, select "Continue". DiskCopy will begin reading and writing tracks. When it is done, your copy will be complete. File your master diskette away in a safe place and reSCRIBBLE!boot your Amiga using the duplicate.
NOTE: The new diskette will be named "copy of SCRIBBLE!" or "copy of Workbench", depending upon the name of the original. If you want to change this, just select the disk's icon as you did before and display the Workbench menu again. Instead of selecting Dplicate however, you'll select Rename. A prompt will appear that will let you edit the name of the disk to something shorter.
You may even want to make two or three duplicate copies in this manner, to safeguard against losing all of your diskettes containing SCRIBBLE!.
STARTING THE PROGRAM
If you are running SCRIBBLE! from the Workbench, all you need to do in order to get the program running is double-click the left mouse button while you are pointing to the SCRIBBLE! icon. Should you decide to run SCRIBBLE! from CLI, instead of Workbench, the procedure is equally simple. Type the name of the program "SCRIBBLE!" (MINUS THE QUOTES), and press the RETURN. Later you can rename this to something shorter, if you like.
Either way you choose to start the program, the end result is the same. SCRIBBLE! will power up and present you with a blank screen containing a colored block in the upper left hand corner.
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This is what's called an "edit window", because here is where you will enter and edit your text. More specifically, this initial window is your "primary edit window".
You see, SCRIBBLE! is capable of having more than one window on the display at the same time. Using this you can edit more than one document at a time (this will be discussed in more detail later).
Once this initial window is open, you are ready to begin entering the text of your document
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INTRODUCTION TO SCRIBBLE!
General Information iii
Making a Duplicate Copy of the Master Disk iv
Duplicating SCRIBBLE! with One Drive v
Duplicating SCRIBBLE! with Two Drives vii
Starting the Program ix
PART I: THE SCRIBBLE! TUTORIAL
Introduction 1-1
Phase 1: Writing a Document 1-3
Methods of Text Entry: Insert vs Overwrite 1-7
The "Insert" Mode 1-7
The "Overwrite" Mode 1-8
What if You Make a Mistake While Writing? 1-8
Moving the Cursor with the Keyboard 1-11
Shift (S) and ALT (A) Keystrokes 1-12
Moving the Cursor Around Your Document with
the Mouse 1-13
Using the SCRIBBLE! Status Window 1-17
Phase 2: Storing a Document 1-19
Create a Document 1-23
Verifying Your Work 1-27
Phase 3: Editing a Document 1-28
Centering a Line of Text 1-29
Styling Your Text 1-30
Styling Text Without Using the Mouse 1-32
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Multiple Styles and Removing Styles 1-33
A Quick Way to Save Your Editing Changes to Disk 1-35
Phase 4: Printing Your Document 1-36
Exiting the Program 1-38
Conclusion 1-39
PART 2: THE SCRIBBLE! OVERVIEW
Introduction 2-1
Two Steps to a Finished Document 2-2
Writing a Document 2-3
Printing a Document 2-8
Archiving Document Files 2-9
Archiving Non-Document Files 2-10
Checking the Status of SCRIBBLE! Defaults 2-10
Erasing a Document From the Screen 2-11
Getting a Document From Archive 2-12
Leaving SCRIBBLE! (Quit) 2-13
Changing Your Default Values 2-13
Text Justification 2-14
Line Length and Horizontal Scrolling 2-16
Setting Tabs 2-17
Display Colors 2-17
Setting Up the Default Page Size 2-17
Carriage Returns, Line Feeds, and Other Formats 2-19
Changing Words and Phrases Throughout a Document 2-20
Uses for Search and Replace 2-22
Block Operations: Cut, Copy, Paste 2-22
Styling Your Text 2-25
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The Editor's Tool Box 2-26
Printing Out Your Documents and Format Lines 2-28
Imbedding Special Printer Control Commands 2-29
What to Do if Your Printer is NOT in Preferences 2-34
Format Lines for Complete Printer Control 2-35
Header and Footer Formats 2-40
Page Layout 2-40
Conclusion 2-41
PART 3: THE SCRIBBLE! REFERENCE GUIDE
Introduction 3-1
The Project Menu 3-1
Project Archive 3-2
Project Status 3-5
Project Erase 3-7
Project Open 3-7
Project Close 3-9
Project Quit 3-10
The Default Menu 3-11
Default Archive 3-12
Default Justify 3-15
Default Line-Length 3-16
Default Tabs 3-18
Default Ink 3-19
Default Paper 3-20
Default Print 3-20
Default Format 3-23
The Text Menu 3-25
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Text Edit 3-26
Text Search 3-27
Text Replace 3-29
Text Copy 3-32
Text Cut 3-34
Text Paste 3-35
Text Style 3-36
The Print Menu 3-39
Print Preview 3-39
Print Linefeed 3-42
Print Go 3-42
Print Forward 3-45
Print Copies 3-46
Print Number 3-46
Print Spacing 3-47
Print Sheet 3-48
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PART 1 - THE SCRIBBLE TUTORIAL - INTRODUCTION
If you are already familiar with general word processing concepts, you may skip ahead to the SCRIBBLE Overview. Much of the same information is covered there, but without as much step-by-step explanation, which may be just what you would like.
Briefly, let's try and explain how word processors are meant to work. Word processing can be simplified into four stages: writing, storing, editing and printing. Printing your finished document is the end result, but it is almost secondary to the program. (Once you have begun printing, your interaction with SCRIBBLE! is over. It is only during the writing and editing of a document that you will actually be running the program.)
Traditional writing involved taking out a pen and paper, or a typewriter, and beginning to put your ideas on paper. Later, once you had completed your writing, you would review the material, make any needed corrections, and produce another copy of the document. One problem with this method appears when the correction are the least bit expensive, and cause you to generate an extra paragraph or two. Now the entire document must be retyped from the point of the error forward. Even simple errors would mean the retyping of an entire page.
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Word processing is similar in that you sit down at the computer keyboard and begin to write. However, instead of putting your ideas on paper, you store them in the computer's memory. Later, you can review the printed copy and make editing changes, exactly as you would with the older methods. But, once the editing changes are decided upon, it becomes a simple operation to reload into the computer's memory the document you created earlier, make the editing document you created earlier, making the editing changes, and print another copy. The amount of time saved will be enormous.
Another area where mistakes can occur that is removed by word processing is transcription. This term refers to when the author of a piece writes it out by hand and has someone else type it up. Time and again writers lament the errors that were created during the transcription of their documents. If the document was originally typed into the word processor, error-free copies can be printed at will. And, aside from errors introduced by the author themselves, new mistakes will not crop up from repeated editing and printing.
Word processors even help out with some of the common frustrations of business correspondence. You may think that because business letters don't often go through extensive periods of editing and reprinting, a word processor is not much of an improvement over a typewriter. Actually, however, this is not the case.
A lot of times, you'll decide to change one word or sentence, or perhaps add a figure to a quotation. With
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a typewriter, you must retype the entire letter. With the word processor, you simply load the document back into the computer's memory, make the change, and print another copy. The parts of the letter that did not change remain the same in the document and do need to be edited.
Something else a word processor will help your business correspondence with is filing. In many offices, either carbon copies or photocopies need to be stored in filing cabinets. Finding a specific letter later can take a great deal of time. With a word processor, your original letters can be stored on disk, with one disk holding hundreds of letters (a great space savings over filing cabinets). And because SCRIBBLE! stores an optional comment with each document, reviewing them later to look for a specific item takes little time at all.
Is you appetite whetted to get started? Good! Let's cover the four phases of word processing - writing, storing, printing and editing.
PHASE 1: WRITING A DOCUMENT
To begin writing a document, all you need to do is start the program and begin typing (see "Starting the Program" in the Preface). As you type, the characters appear on the computer's display. As they appear on the display, they are stored in the computer's memory. Later, you can store the document from the
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computer's memory to the disk, for a more permanent record. NOTE: From this point on, it will probably be to your advantage to have SCRIBBLE! loaded into your Amiga so that you can try out what you're reading. For example, while reading the next paragraph, you can try typing a sentence to see what "word wrap" looks like).
As you type, watch what happens when you approach the right hand margin of the display. Eventually, the word you are typing will no longer fit on the space remaining for that line, and SCRIBBLE! will move the partially typed word down to the next line, along with your cursor. This is called "word wrap", and is an important part of word processing.
With a typewriter, you press RETURN on each line, deciding manually where each line would end. Some of the newer typewriters have the ability to store an entire line as you type it, and print the whole line when you press RETURN (as opposed to the more normal typewriter which prints each letter as you type it). One of the things this is used for is allowing the typewriter to print the line "justified" out to the right hand margin of the document. The final printed document ends up with "smooth" margins on both the left and right sides.
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But you still make the judgement manually about where each line ends, and humans DO make mistakes. You may decide to end a line when, in reality, the next word you were going to type would have fit. The line resulting from this would have fewer words on it than could actually fit, which is wasting space.
With a word processor, you simply type and let the program decide when to wrap the word down to the next line. This way, you are assured that as much text as WILL fit on a line, DOES fit. Also, since the line is not ended wit a carriage return, you can decide to alter your margins later and SCRIBBLE will reformat your text to match the new line length.
Now, obviously you COULD press RETURN to manually end a line. And, as a matter of fact, you will. But only at the end of a paragraph or to create a blank line (a blank line in the text is what you get when you press RETURN while the cursor is in the first column of a line). And there is the special case of creating columnar reports or other tabular output, where you need to have a series of short lines with manual control over where they end. For example, in order to create the following table, I had to press RETURN at the end of each line.
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WIDGETS SOLD PROFIT
100 $10.00
200 $17.00
500 $34.00
If your following along with us, you've probably already typed in some text to watch the word wrap work. Now try typing a couple of words and pressing RETURN. Do you see the paragraph marker appear where you pressed RETURN? This shows you that the line has been ended manually at that position.
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METHODS OF TEXT ENTRY: INSERT VS OVERWRITE
A very important element of writing with a word processor in the current "text entry mode". SCRIBBLE! offers two modes, Insert and Overwrite. Why two modes? Well, each affects the manner in which the program acts when you type while the cursor is positioned over some existing text. Most of you will probably gravitate toward linking one method or the other, and leave SCRIBBLE! in the mode 99% of the time. For specific applications, though, each has its own special advantages. Let's look at both of them.
THE "INSERT" MODE
When SCRIBBLE! is operating in the "Insert" mode, if you type while the cursor is positioned over some existing text, the new characters you type push the text underneath the cursor to the right and the new text is entered at the cursor position. If you should press the RETURN key, a carriage return is inserted into the text at the current cursor position without replacing the character the cursor was positioned over, and an insert line is opened in the text, where you may enter new text.
You may toggle between the Insert and Overwrite modes by pressing ALT-I. When you are in the Insert mode, the letters "Ins" will appear in the status window at the bottom of the screen. The absence of these letters show that you are in the Overwrite mode.
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THE "OVERWRITE" MODE
In the "Overwrite" mode, however, if you were to type while the cursor is positioned over some existing text, the new characters will overwrite and replace the characters that are there currently. If you should press the RETURN key, a carriage return is inserted into the text at the current cursor position, replacing the character the cursor was positioned over, and an insert line is opened in the text, where you may enter new text.
You may toggle between the Insert and Overwrite modes by pressing ALT-I. When you are in the Insert mode, the letters "Ins" will appear in the status window at the bottom of the screen. The absence of these letters show that you are in the Overwrite mode.
I hope you can see the distinction between the Insert and Overwrite modes. Each has their place, and both are useful and necessary. You'll see how they work together as we discuss simple editing below.
WHAT IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE WHILE WRITING?
There are two kinds of editing you will do with a word processor. We'll call the first "simple" editing. This happens when you are writing a document with your word processor and notice that you have mis-typed a word. The other, which we'll call "advanced" editing, involves special commands that can make text bold, or
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underlined, or edit an entire document at one time. There will be more on advanced editing later.
Much of the time, however, you'll catch you typos as you make them. Even those of us who stare intently at the keyboard while typing look up to review our documents eventually. Once you spot a mistake, the method you use to correct it depends on what kind of mistake it is and where it occurs. What are the most common type?
*Typing double or extra characters.
*Omitting a character or characters
*Typing a wrong character.
*Omitting a complete word or words.
For example, let's say that you are typing a sentence and you mis-type the word "fellow" as "fellowa". All you need to do is backspace over the "a" at the end of the word (Typing the BACKSPACE key on the Amiga keyboard will tell SCRIBBLE! to move the cursor one position to the left and erase the character previously there.)
Now let's say that you mis-type the word as "afellow". Backspacing now means that you would erase the entire word and have to retype it. Not very efficient for a space age item like word processing! No, what you do in this case is use the LEFT ARROW instead of the backspace key. This moves the cursor to the
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left without erasing what it passes over. When the cursor is safely over the top of the extraneous "a" press the DEL key once. Now, use the RIGHT ARROW key to move back to where you were typing on the line and continue with your work.
How about still another case? Let's day that you mis-type the word as "felow". In this case, you do not want to REMOVE a character, you want to INSERT one. In this case, you would engage the insert mode, if it is not already engaged, by typing ALT-I. Then move the cursor with the arrow keys until it is over the "l" in the misspelled word and type an additional "l". The rest of the word will bump over to make room for it, and you will be left with a perfect "fellow".
Obviously, inserting more than a few characters in this manner can become slow as the program wraps words to make room for your new text. To combat this, SCRIBBLE! will allow you to open an "insert block" by pressing the F10 key. When you press the F10 key, the text from the current cursor position to the end of the current line on the screen will be moved down to the next line, and you will have plenty of room in which to insert your new text. As you use up the space on each line, a new line will be opened for you. When you have completed your insertion, type F10 again to close the block and restore the text to normal.
If you have been following along with your program as we cover these items, trying using these two modes now. Move the cursor with the arrow key until it is over
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some of the text you have typed. Type some new text while in the Overwrite mode and while in the Insert mode. Observe the different ways SCRIBBLE! treats the text underneath the cursor while you type.
Try using the special key we mentioned, DEL and F10. Type DEL while the cursor is positioned over some text. Do you see how it removes the character under the cursor and moves the character to the right of the cursor one position to the left? Now type F10. See the insert block open up? Type something and type F10 again. Can you see how the text closes up again?
MOVING THE CURSOR WITH THE KEYBOARD
You should have, at this point, begun to grasp the basic skills of writing with a word processor. You've already learned about word wrap, about using the RETURN key to force the end of a line, and about correcting your mistakes with the Insert and Overwrite modes. The next major step in using the SCRIBBLE! program effectively is being able to quickly move the cursor around the document.
Most of the keyboard cursor positioning is found on the cluster of arrow keys located in the lower right hand position of the keyboard. In their normal unshifted state, these keys move the cursor one character or line in the specified direction. In other words, if you type the left arrow, SCRIBBLE! will move the cursor one character to the left. If you type
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the right arrow, one character to the right. And the up and down arrows move the cursor one line up and one line down, respectively.
Holding down the SHIFT and ALT keys while typing the arrow keys tells SCRIBBLE! to magnify the scope of the cursor movement. Consider the following table:
SHIFT (S) and ALT (A) Keystrokes
Keystroke Action
left arrow Moves cursor one character to the left
right arrow Moves cursor one character to the right
up arrow Moves cursor up one line
down arrow Moves cursor down one line
S+left arrow Moves cursor to the first character of the
document
S+right arrow Moves cursor to the last character of the
document
S+up arrow Displays the previous video "page"
S+down arrow Displays the next video "page"
A+left arrow Moves cursor to the last character on a line
A+right arrow Moves cursor to the last character on a line
A+up arrow Moves cursor to the first line in the window
A+down arrow Moves cursor to the last line in the window
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In addition to the arrow keys, certain other keys have been assigned to the task of cursor movement. These all make use of the CTRL key. This key is located on the left hand side of the keyboard, just above the SHIFT key. As with SHIFT and ALT when used with the arrows, you will hold this key down while you type another key to move the cursor.
Keystroke Action
CTRL+S Moves cursor one character to the left
CTRL+D Moves cursor one character to the right
CTRL+E Moves cursor one line up
CTRL+X Moves cursor one line down
CTRL+F Moves cursor to the first character of the next word
on the current line
MOVING THE CURSOR AROUND YOUR DOCUMENT WITH THE MOUSE
Perhaps at this point you feel that the program already has enough ways to get you where you're going, and would just as soon not be bothered with another. We hear it all the time: "word processing is KEYBOARD intensive, mice just get in the way". SCRIBBLE may
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serve to dispel some of these rumors in your mind. Editing text with the mouse is elegant and FAST.
To begin, examine the mouse pointer. Is it shaped like a pencil? If you're not sure, examine the "Action" indicator in the status window. Does it read "Edit"? If it does not, hold down the right hand Amiga key (the letter "A" just to the right of the space bar) and type the letter "E". I want you to be sure that you're in the Text Edit mode before we begin.
In the Text Edit mode, when you point to an area within the edit window and click the left mouse button, SCRIBBLE! will immediately put the cursor there. Normally, when you are editing a file, you will scroll the text until you see the area you want to change. At which point you must move the cursor from its current location, usually relying on the keyboard repeat rate, which can produce a long and frustrating delay. Using the mouse to point and click at what you want to change will get you there in a split second.
Experiment with this for a few minutes. Move the mouse pointer around inside the edit window and click the left button. Do you see the cursor following your movements? This will, in time, be of great use to you.
There is much more that you can do with the mouse, however, each SCRIBBLE! edit window has two proportional scroll gadgets on it, one vertical and one horizontal. Each one consists of two arrow symbols
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(one in each direction), a box representing your document's width or length, and a bar inside that box, which relates to the total size of the document in memory. All of these parts performs a different function.
If you use the vertical scroll gadget on the right hand side of the screen, you will be moving the documents vertically, or by lines. Should you use the horizontal scroll gadget at the bottom of your screen, you will be moving the document horizontally, or by characters. The arrow symbols move the documents one line or character at a time. Point to the arrow symbol and click the left mouse button now. Did your document move? If you hold down the left mouse button, the text will continue to move until you release the mouse button (or move the pointer away from the symbol).
To move about the document by "pages", point to the open area on either side of the bar which appears inside the scroll gadget and click the left mouse button. The direction of the movement will depend on which side of the bar you were on when you clicked the mouse button. For example, if you click in the open area of the vertical scroll gadget above the bar, the document will move one page up. If you click below the bar, the document will move one page down. If your scroll gadgets do not show any open space on either side of the bar, it means that the current edit window is showing you all the document at the same time.
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It is interesting to note that these bars are proportional in nature and will expand and contract depending upon the size of your window and the amount of text in your document. In other words, as you are entering the text of a document, with each new line, the vertical scroll gadget will become slightly smaller. If you make your line length larger, or the size of your edit window smaller, the bar in the horizontal scroll gadget will decrease in size, making you aware of the fact that you're seeing less and less of the line.
One other way to use the proportional scroll gadgets is to have them position you directly to a location in the document. In other words, deciding to move to the top of a document, the bottom of the document, or somewhere in between, and have SCRIBBLE! move you there. To do this, point at the bar inside of the scroll gadget with the mouse and press the left button. The pointer should change color. Continue to hold the left mouse button and move the pointer. The bar should move with you. Position the relative position you want (top, bottom, or somewhere in between) and release the mouse button. SCRIBBLE! will move your cursor to whatever line of the document it needs to in order to place you where you indicated. Remember, this is an approximate location within the document, not a specific line position.
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USING THE SCRIBBLE! STATUS WINDOW
Earlier in this section, we make reference to the status window which appears at the bottom of your screen (at least it does when the program powers up; like all Amiga windows, it can be moved). This display is very important to you, so we'll discuss it here:
The above diagram is roughly the appearance of the status window, and will aid in our discussion.
The first item in the status window is the current page number. When you tell SCRIBBLE! how long you lines are and how many of them will fit on a page, it can give you a pretty good idea of where the current line is in the document. The "current line" is the line which the cursor is currently positioned on. As you move through the text, this indicator will change, informing you when you have crossed to a new page.
The next item in the status window is the line number of the current page you are on. The number of lines per page is calculated as Page Length minus the Top and Bottom Margins. As soon as we finish with the status window, we'll discuss selecting commands in the SCRIBBLE! menus. These menus are where you'll be able to set Page Length, Top Margin, and Bottom Margin.
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Next is the Column Indicator. This tells you what column of the current line the cursor is located in. This is especially useful when your line length is greater than the size of the window, and the program is scrolling the display horizontally.
After the column number indicator is the current action mode indicator (e.g. "Action"). When you power up the program, SCRIBBLE! is in Edit mode, which is where you enter and edit text. Other modes include Search, Replace, Copy, Cut, Paste and Style. These are all part of the advanced editing features of SCRIBBLE!, and will be discussed later. As you choose these modes, the mouse pointer changes shapes. Since interpreting these pointer shapes may be difficult at first, SCRIBBLE! gives you the additional aid of the Action Indicator.
To the right of the Action Indicator are some special flags that appear or disappear, depending on which mode the program is operating in. The first of these is the Phrase "Ins". This appears when the program is in the Insert Mode, and is not present when the program is in the Overwrite Mode. (The Insert and Overwrite modes were discussed earlier.
Following Ins are the letters "B", "U", and "I". These tell you when you have engaged one of the special character formats such as boldface, underline, or italic.
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These can be turned on or off while you are typing by pressing one of the following functions keys:
F6 Boldface
F7 Underline
F8 Italic
When the letter appears, the indicated mode is active. For example, if the letter "U" was showing, all of the text you would type would be underlined. If the letters "B" and "U" were both showing, any text you would type would be both underlined and boldfaced.
Now that you know the various elements of the status window, experiment with it. Move the cursor around in your edit window. Do you see the Line and Column indicators changing? Type ALT-1. Type is a second time. Did you see the "Ins" come and go? Press the previously listed function keys. Can you see the indicators light up? Turn on boldface and type some text. Turn on underline also and type some more text. Does it appear that way on the screen? If not, check your indicators and try again.
PHASE 2: STORING A DOCUMENT
Before you can successfully store a document from the computer's memory onto disk, you must learn how to activate a SCRIBBLE! menu command. This is done with your Amiga mouse.
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Press (and hold) the right mouse button. Look at the top of the screen. Do you see a collection of words there? They should look like this:
_________________________________
| Project Default Text Print |
|________________________________|
Each one of those words is a SCRIBBLE! menu. While continuing to hold the right mouse button, move the mouse pointer until it points to any of these words. A menu should appear, starting from the word you pointed to and moving downward. These are called "pull-down menus".
Move the mouse pointer carefully until the word Project is highlighted. A menu should appear that look something like this:
______________
| Project |
|____________|______________
| Archive ___ |
| Status |A| S |
| Erase ___ |
| Open |A| O |
| Close ___ |
| Quite |A| Q |
|__________________________|
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While keeping the right mouse button pressed down move the pointer to the word Archive. Another menu will appear to the right of the pull-down menu. We call these "pop-out" menus. This menu will appear something along the order of:
Notice as you move the mouse pointer through this menu how the various options become highlighted. The option that is highlighted at the moment you release the right mouse button will be the command you choose.
If you want to exit the menus without choosing one of the options, move the mouse pointer completely away from all of the options shown (such that none of them are highlighted). Then release the right mouse button.
Sometimes you will want to select one of the commands and remain in the menu to select another command. In these cases, you simply highlight the option and click the left mouse button (while still holding the right mouse button). You'll stay in the menu, but the command you selected will be executed when you finally exit the menus. If you pick one
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command with the left mouse button and then highlight another command before you release the right mouse button, the commands will be executed in the order that you have chosen them.
You're now ready to store a document from memory to disk. First we need a document to store. Let's clear out memory and create one. Using the technique you just learned for selecting commands, select the Erase command on the Project menu.
When you have successfully selected this command, you'll see a requester such as this one appear:
This requester is your final warning that you are about to completely erase the document currently in the computer's memory. Under normal circumstances, make sure that you have stored the current document to disk before responding "Yes". In this case, however, we have nothing to store. So move the mouse until it points to the gadget which contains the word "Yes" and click the left button. Your document will erase immediately, and you will have a clean slate to begin typing in new text.
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CREATE A DOCUMENT
You should know enough about SCRIBBLE! at this point to create a simple one or two line document. Take a few moments and do just this. If you are at a loss for what to type, copies these lines:
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. The Quick Brown Fox jumped over the Lazy Red Dog. I am creating a sample document with SCRIBBLE!, my new word processor.
Once you've completed typing in your sample text, you are ready to select the Project Archive command and store your text to disk. In the same manner as you selected the Erase command on the Project menu before, now you need to select the Archive command on the same menu. When you do this, the pop-out menu appears with the two choices "Documents" and "General". Move the mouse pointer carefully until the Documents option is highlighted and release the right mouse button.
Now your disk will activate for several moments. When it is completed, you will see a large requester appears in the center of your screen with some document names displayed and a series of boxes across the bottom with various commands in them. (At least, there SHOULD be some document names displayed. Several sample files were included with the master disk. More on these later.)
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Move the mouse until it is pointing at the box containing the word "Store" and click the left mouse button one. A second, smaller requester will appear that looks something like this:
SCRIBBLE! wants to know what name to use for this document as it is stored on the disk. This should be a name unique from all other names on the disk. The name should have some significance to either contents of the document or at least what sort of document it is (e.g., "LETTER-41" or "JONES-LETTER"). You will have the option to attach a comment to the document name in a moment, though, so it will not be necessary to go into minute detail.
To type in the document name, you must first move the mouse until it points to the open box inside of the requester and click the left mouse button once. This is VERY IMPORTANT. If you omit this step, you will not be able to type anything into the box. (As a matter of face, if you try and type and SCRIBBLE! will not take your input, you probably "missed" with your selection. Try again, more carefully.
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Once you've selected the input box, you can type in up to 16 characters to name this file. Let's call ours "SAMPLE". Therefore, when you've done this correctly, the requester will look like this:
If you do not want to attach a comment to this document name just point the mouse at the box with the word "OK" in it and click the left mouse button.
If you decided that you want to attach a comment however, before you can type one in you need to point the mouse at the open box inside the requester and click the left mouse button once (this is generally
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true for all such requesters anywhere in the program). Let's attach the comment "PRACTICE DOCUMENT" to our document name. When you've done this correctly, the requester will look like this:
As with the document name earlier, either press the PRESS key or point the mouse at the box with the word "OK" in it and click the left mouse button.
As soon as this is done, the disk drive will activate again. This is SCRIBBLE! storing the document onto the disk. The second small requester will disappear and only the big requester with the document names in it will remain. When you see the name of your document, "SAMPLE.DOC", appear in the requester, the operation is complete. (Notice that SCRIBBLE! added the pattern ".doc" to the document name. This happens when you select the "Documents" option from Project Archive. The "General" option will not. This will be discussed, in detail, later in the manual.)
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VERIFYING YOUR WORK
If you followed the above steps correctly, and there were no errors with your Amiga hardware, the document name "SAMPLE.DOC should have been added to the list of those documents stored on that disk. Let's run through a quick procedure to verify this.
Move the mouse until it points to the box with the word "Resume" in it and click the left mouse button. The large requester will disappear instantly and you will see the SCRIBBLE! edit window once again. Do you remember how we erased the current document just before we started this exercise? If not, go back and review. Because you should repeat this now. Erase the current document from the computer's memory so that you have a blank screen.
When you've done this, select the Archive command on the Project menu again. Just as you did before, move the mouse over the word "Documents" and release the right mouse button. The disk drive will activate and the large requester with the document names in it will re-appear (this is called the "Archive Requester" if you're curious).
Can you see the document name "SAMPLE.DOC"? Good. Move the mouse until it is pointed at this name and click the left mouse button one. The name and its command should highlight (be displayed in reverse video). If it happens to be the first name in the left, it
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will already be highlighted. But you can still practice this by highlighting another document name and ten coming back to "SAMPLE.DOC". The important thing here is to get the feel for how you tell SCRIBBLE! which of the documents listed on the screen you want it to load.
Now that "SAMPLE.DOC" is highlighted, point the mouse at the box with word "Get" in it and click the left mouse button. The disk drive will activate and SCRIBBLE! will load your document from disk. When the loading is complete, the Archive Requester will disappear (automatically, this time), and you'll return to the SCRIBBLE! edit window with your document loaded into the computer's memory (and displayed on the screen) once again.
Congratulations! If you successfully completed all of these steps, you just wrote, stored, and reloaded your first word processing document.
PHASE 3: EDITING A DOCUMENT
In this portion of the Tutorial, we'll spend some time discussing advanced editing features such as centering a line and styling some already existing text (boldface, underline, etc.). Earlier, we talked about changing the style of text while you were typing it, and now we'll discuss how to apply style to text already in the computer's memory.
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Before we get started with this, you need to load a sample document from the disk. Once again, select the Documents options of the Project Archive command. When the Archive Requester (the screen that lists all the document names) appear this time, highlight the document name. "HERMAN.DOC" (instead of "SAMPLE.DOC"). This is a document which was prepared specifically for this example.
When HERMAN.DOC is highlighted, point to the box labelled "Get" and click the left mouse button. The document will be loaded into the computer's memory and SCRIBBLE! will return to the edit window.
Before we start, let's define our objectives:
*Center the word "MEMORANDUM".
*Underline the word "real" in the last sentence of paragraph two.
*Underline and boldface the word "results" in the last sentence of paragraph three.
*Remove the underlining and boldface from the word "results" in the last sentence of paragraph three.
CENTERING A LINE OF TEXT
We'll begin with the centering operation. If the cursor is not located over the top of the document (which holds the word MEMORANDUM), move it
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there. Shift-Left Arrow is a fast way to do this. Once the cursor is there, press F3 function key. Did the line move to the center of the screen? Good.
Notice how the end of the line marker (formerly the paragraph symbol) following the word "MEMORANDUM" has changed into a "cents" symbol. This is SCRIBBLE!'s way of telling you that it has centered the line and you did not do it manually by tabbing or spacing over. Press F3 function key a second time. See how the line moves back to the left? Press F3 a third time. Is the line centered again? Good. You could never un-center a line that you centered manually with spaces.
Whenever you press the F3 function key, SCRIBBLE! will center the current line (which is the line that the cursor is located on). If you want to center a line while you're writing a document, type the line FIRST and THEN press F3 function key. (Pressing F3 key on an empty line will have no effect.)
STYLING YOUR TEXT
Now let's style some text. Move the cursor down through the document until it is positioned over the word "real" in the last sentence of the second paragraph ("....says there is a -real - motivation..."). Press and hold the right mouse button. Move the mouse pointer over the word "Text". One of the commands on the pull down menu which appears should be "Style". (If it's not there, you're not
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displaying the correct menu. Check which word is highlighted at the top of your screen. Make certain it's "Text".)
Move the mouse button pointer down over the word "Style". A pop out menu appears with your various styling options listed on it. Carefully move the mouse over the word "Underline" and release the right mouse button. Instantly, your mouse pointer should change to look like an artist's paint brush. (If you're not sure about this, check the "Action" indicator in the status window, which should now read "Style".) Now, all that remains for you to do is to tell SCRIBBLE! what text you want to underline.
Move the mouse pointer to the first letter of the word "real". Press and HOLD the left mouse button. As you move the mouse to the right (towards the end of the word) it will "drag" the cursor with it, and the text it passes over will be highlighted.
If you make a mistake, such as not starting at the correct spot, you can abort the highlighting by moving the mouse pointer off the edit window to the left hand or top borders. This instantly aborts the styling and you can release the left mouse button. (Moving the mouse point off the edit window to the right hand or bottom borders is legal and will not affect your highlighting procedure.)
Don't be concerned if while you are highlighting, you move the mouse pointer up or down a line and a lot
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of text gets highlighted. As long as the starting point is correct, you can move the pointer back on to the current line with no ill effects.
When the mouse pointer is over the last letter in the word "real", the entire word should be highlighted in reverse video. Release the left mouse button and SCRIBBLE! will underline the word.
STYLING TEXT WITHOUT USING THE MOUSE
You can also do the same task without using the mouse. If this is more comfortable for you. Also, if the text you want to style is not completely displayed in the current edit window, you will have to use the keyboard to highlight, since only the keyboard can scroll the edit window.
You still need to select Text Style and indicate what kind of styling you want with the mouse. Once the Style mode is engaged, however, you can use the keyboard for the rest. Just position the cursor, using the normal method, to the first character of the text you want to style (in our example, the first letter in the word "real".) Now press F9 function key. This anchors the cursor.
When you move the cursor now, again using the normal cursor movement keys, it will expand instead of moving. For example, after pressing F9 with the cursor over the "r" in "real", pressing the right arrow would leave the letters "r" and "e" highlighted. You
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should continue to move the cursor until all of the text is highlighted and then press RETURN. SCRIBBLE! will perform the indicated task, in this case, styling the text that you highlighted.
Here's a tip for you. The fastest way to style an entire document is to select the style you want to apply, type Shift Left Arrow to go to the top of the document, F9 to anchor the cursor, Shift Right Arrow to go to the bottom of the document, and press RETURN to apply the style to the entire document. Should there come a time when you want to remove all styling in a document, this method will come in handy (you can apply the plain style to an entire document easily).
MULTIPLE STYLES AND REMOVING STYLES
Let's move on to our third goal, using more than one style at a time. If you've been following the Tutorial, your style option should already be set for Underline. We're going to add a second option at the same time and show how you can add multiple styles in a single movement.
Return to the SCRIBBLE! menus and once again select Text Style. This time, notice how the check mark has moved from "Plain" to "Underline". This tells you that the Style mode is currently underlining text. Move the mouse pointer until the word "Bold" is also highlighted and release the right mouse button. You've just told SCRIBBLE to add another style in
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addition to underline. Now, when we apply this style to the text, it will be both underlined and boldfaced.
So see what effect this has on the menu display, bring up the Text Style pop-out menu again. Notice how the check marks are beside BOTH Underline and Bold? Move the mouse well off the menus so that no commands are highlighted and release the right button.
Let's apply this to some text. Move the mouse so that it is pointing to the first letter in the word "results" in the third paragraph ("...only -results - ..."). Press and hold the left mouse button. Do you see how the word "results" is now underlined and boldfaced?
Note: IF THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU HIGHLIGHTED THE WORD, CHECK THE TEXT STYLE POP OUT MENU AGAIN. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT YOU ACCIDENTLY SELECTED ONE OF THE OTHER STYLES WHEN EXAMINING THE MENU LAST TIME.
Removing a style is just as easy. Go back to the Text Style menu and highlight the "Plain" option. Release the right mouse button. Now, if you should display the Text Style menu again, only one check mark will be present. The Plain style is exclusive of all others. When it is active, none of the others can be. You could say that the Plain style is the absence of any other styles.
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Highlight once again the word "results". When you are applying the Plain style to some previously styled text, and the text in the surrounding area is not styled, you do not need to be so careful about your highlighting. It does not hurt to apply the Plain style to text that is already plain.
After you highlight the word "results" and release the left mouse button, does the old style disappear? Good. In this manner, you can apply and remove the special character formatting at will. Use the F6, F7 and F8 keys while you're typing, or use the Text Style command for existing text.
A QUICK WAY TO SAVE YOUR EDITING CHANGES TO DISK
Now that you've made editing changes to your document, you'll want to store this back on the disk. There is a faster way to do this than bringing up the Archive Requester again and using Store. If you have already loaded the document from a disk file, SCRIBBLE! will have the name of that file displayed at the top of your screen. If you modify the text and want to store it back to disk in the same file, all you need to do is press F4 function key once. This will instantly update the disk file who's name is displayed at the top of the screen with the current document loaded into the computer's memory. Do this now with HERMAN.DOC. Did you see the message "Saving file: HERMAN.DOC"? Good.
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PHASE 4 PRINTING YOUR DOCUMENT
Printing your document is easy, but some people will have trouble getting their printouts to appear just as they want them, for one primary reason. You see, BEFORE you can print something out with SCRIBBLE!, you must first "configure your printer" with Preferences. Prior to trying this, however, you should spend some time with your Amiga User's Guide. Preferences is not difficult to use, but the screen is full of data, and it sometimes can be confusing.
NOTE: For those of you who are not aware, Preferences is a utility supplied with Workbench. It's used to configure various options on your Amiga. Items like a display width, printer, and screen colors, are all under the control of Preferences.
To have SCRIBBLE! work correctly, there are two items that you must configure with Preferences. This first is the printer itself. When you display the Preferences screen, select the option "Change Printer". The next screen that you see will allow you to select the name of your printer from among the list of supported printers. Do this.
If your printer is NOT among those listed, it is still possible for SCRIBBLE! to be used with it. It will
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require some additional word on your part, and imposes certain restrictions on you. This will be explained in greater detail in the SCRIBBLE! Overview (see "What to do when your printer is not in Preferences"). For now, however, we will assume that you are fortunate enough to be able to locate your printer among those listed.
After you select your printer name, you should then set the printer margins. Set your left margin to "1" and your right margin to "255". This prevents Preferences from wrapping lines and leaves this control with SCRIBBLE! where it belongs.
Now you are ready to print out your document. If you do not still have the HERMAN.DOC file loaded, please reload it now. This is a good sample to print out your first time.
Press the right mouse button again to display the SCRIBBLE! menus. Move the mouse printer until you have displayed the Print menu. Move the mouse pointer down until the Go command is highlighted. It will display a pop-out menu with the options "Printer" and "File" on it. Highlight the option "Printer" and release the right button.
Your printout should begin immediately. If it does NOT, chances are quite good that there is a physical problem with your printer. Either it is not on, it is out of paper, it is "offline", or perhaps there is a problem with the printer cable. If all is well in your computer's
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environment, however, you should have printed out the HERMAN.DOC memo.
EXITING THE PROGRAM
To leave SCRIBBLE and return to CLI or Workbench (depending upon where you entered the program from), press and hold the right mouse button to display the menus. Select the Project menu.
Move down the Project menu until the Quit command is highlighted and release the left mouse button. You will see the following verification requester:
This is your last opportunity to abort before returning to CLI or Workbench. If you have not yet stored the document currently in the computer's memory on to the disk, select "NO!" and do so at once. Once you select "Yes", the document in the computer's memory is gone forever.
When you ARE ready to leave SCRIBBLE!, move the mouse until it points to the box containing the word
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"Yes", and click the left mouse button. You will be exited from the program immediately.
CONCLUSION
I hope you've profited from this all-too-brief tour through the basics of using SCRIBBLE!. We've written a sample document and used the menus to load and save documents to disk.
Our purpose in doing this was to ground you in the program. To get you using the program productively right away, so that you are getting some value from your purchase while learning of its more advanced functions. Your next step is the SCRIBBLE! Overview.
Material in the SCRIBBLE! Overview is presented in a more factual, reference style format. The assumption that you are following along is not made.
You should also read through the SCRIBBLE! Reference Guide. This handy portion of the manual covers each and every menu command in order. You can use it to look up commands as you need explanation for them, or you can read it through completely to get a picture of how the commands work together.
