Shareware Grab Bag/Shareware Grab Bag.iso/002/rgbtech.arc/GUIDE4

Text File | 1986-11-25 | 33KB | 622 lines

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        4. EDITING COMMANDS

             To begin editing the text in memory, enter E from the file
        screen menu.  The first 21 lines of the text will appear on the
        screen.  At the top of the screen the name of the file is given,
        along with an indication of the line and column number for the
        cursor.  At the bottom of the screen is a brief reminder of the
        operation of the function keys.  Hitting function key F1 (labeled
        "HELP") while in the editor, produces a complete on-screen menu
        of editing features.  Hitting Esc will then return you to your
        previous location in the text.  The sections which follow
        describe the editing commands in somewhat greater detail than is
        available from the help screen.  Until you want to do something
        fancy, the help screen may be all you need.  To exit the editor
        and return to the file screen menu, hit function key F10 (labeled
        "FILES").

             The maximum number of characters allowed on each line is one
        of the most important editing parameters.  However, this
        parameter affects the margins and thus can only be altered by
        going to the file screen menu and using the M - Margin Settings
        command.  See section 5.1 for details on setting this parameter.


        4.1 Cursor Keys

             The primary advantage of a computer text processor over
        conventional typing is the ability to move freely throughout your
        document, making changes wherever desired.  RGB-TechWriter is
        particularly good at this aspect of text processing, thanks to
        its ability to update the screen very quickly.  You can move
        about the text using a number of cursor-location commands, all of
        which are conveniently accessed using the cursor keys on the
        numeric keypad.  All of these commands are summarized in the help
        screen accessible from the editing mode by hitting function key
        F1.

             To move right or left by a single character position, use
        the left and right cursor arrows.  Similarly, you can move up or
        down one line at a time using the up and down arrows.  After each
        movement of the cursor, the screen is adjusted to make sure your
        location is always "on-screen."

             One way to move quickly from place to place is by holding
        down the cursor key.  After a short delay, it will send out a
        series of pulses at the rate of 10 per second.  If you want to
        travel long distances, however, other cursor commands are
        provided.  The PgDn and PgUp keys allow you to jump forward or
        backward in your document by one screen page (20 lines) at a
        time.  Holding down the Ctrl key while hitting PgDn or PgUp takes
        you to the end or start of your file, respectively.





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             The home and end keys will move you the the start or end of
        the current line.  If you hold down the Ctrl key while hitting
        these keys, you will move to the top or the bottom of the screen.

             Finally, if you hold down the Ctrl key while hitting the
        left or right cursor keys, the cursor position is moved one word
        at a time, coming to rest on the first letter of a word.  This is
        a quick way to move out into the middle of a long line.


        4.2 Entering Text

             As characters are typed from the keyboard they are inserted
        into the text in memory.  Each character is displayed on the
        screen immediately and the line it lies within is adjusted
        accordingly.  The rest of the screen, however, is not updated to
        reflect your input until you pause in your typing.  This is done
        because it takes too long to update the entire screen after every
        keystroke.  Although the screen is not updated each time, the
        paragraph you are working on is reformatted in memory after every
        keystroke.  This means that words within the paragraph are
        shifted between lines as needed so that as many words as possible
        are placed on each line without any line extending beyond the
        allowed line width.  You should not hit the carriage return at
        the end of a line if you are continuing with the same paragraph.
        The carriage return indicates the end of a paragraph, and is
        represented on the screen by a special carriage-return marker: a
        yellow dot.

             The paragraph reformatting can produce some unexpected
        results until you are familiar with its operation.  When the
        formatter is trying to split words between lines, it will do so
        at either a space or a hyphen.  You can add a hyphen to a long
        word to split it if you wish, but the hyphen will remain even if
        the word gets moved to a new location.  If you do not want a
        hyphenated word to be split between lines, you can "disguise" the
        hyphen by making it bold, or by defining an alternate character
        which translates into a hyphen when printed (see section 5.5).

             Spaces are permitted to lie beyond the allowed line width,
        because they don't get printed anyway.  An interesting
        implication of this is that if you try to enter spaces at the
        beginning of a line which is not the start of a paragraph, they
        will all get shuffled back to the end of the previous line.  To
        indent a line which is not the start of a paragraph, you need to
        put a carriage return at the end of the preceding line.  This can
        be done by hitting the carriage return while in the first column
        of the line to be indented, because the carriage return marker
        will also be shuffled back to the end of the preceding line.  The
        TAB key does all of this automatically, and is the recommended
        way of indenting a section of text.  Simply hit the TAB key at
        the start of each line to be indented and add or subtract
        individual spaces as needed for the desired alignment.  If you
        need to significantly alter the indented section, it is best to


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        remove the added carriage returns and extra spaces before making
        the changes.  Function key ^F5 concatenates the line the cursor
        is on with the following line, removing any extra spaces.  Use
        this key on each line of the indented section to undo the
        indenting.  After altering the text, repeat the indentation
        process using the TAB key.

             For TechWriter files, tabs are initially set in column 6, at
        the right edge of the line, and at the midpoint of the line.  To
        move to the next tab, use the TAB key, or use Shift-TAB to move
        backwards to the previous tab position.  When tabbing forward,
        spaces are inserted into the text until the first character of
        the line lies in the next tab column.  Thus, if you hit TAB at
        the beginning of a paragraph which initially has only 3 spaces at
        its start, 2 more are added so that the paragraph starts in
        column 6.  To set a new tab, hit ^T in the desired column.  This
        notation means to hold down the Ctrl key while hitting the T key.
        To remove a tab, hit ^T while in that column.  To remove all tabs
        and start over, hit ^T while the cursor is located in column 1.

             When you hit the carriage return, several things happen.
        First the current paragraph is terminated at the current cursor
        position and a carriage-return marker is inserted.  If there are
        characters after the cursor in this paragraph, these are moved to
        the next line and become the start of the next paragraph.  The
        cursor is moved to the start of this new line.  If there are any
        blank spaces on this new line, they are deleted.  Finally, spaces
        are added to the start of the new line until the cursor lines up
        with the start of the line just above it.  This last feature is
        rarely encountered in normal text, but it is very helpful when
        programming in a structured language like Pascal, or when
        creating an indented list.

             If you type an incorrect character you can use the BACKSPACE
        (large left arrow key) to erase the previous character.  If you
        want to instead erase the character where the cursor is currently
        located, use the Del (delete) key.  To erase an entire word
        starting with the cursor location and continuing up to the start
        of the next word, use ^W.  The easiest way to replace one word
        with another is to move to the start of the offending word using
        the cursor keys, type in the new word and any spaces or
        punctuation which follow it, then hit ^W to erase the old word.
        Another control command, ^D, deletes everything on the current
        line, starting with the cursor location.  If there is a carriage
        return at the end of the line, it is only deleted if the ^D
        command is issued while the cursor is in column 1.

             This section (4.2) has thus far assumed that you are in
        INSERT mode, rather than OVERWRITE mode.  The current mode is
        shown on the top line of the editor screen.  To change back and
        forth between modes, use the Ins key.  When in OVERWRITE mode,
        characters which are typed replace the current text.  This mode
        is particularly useful for tables where you don't want to move
        other characters around each time you make an entry.  One


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        consequence of the OVERWRITE mode is that it prevents you from
        altering the length of paragraphs.  If you reach the end of a
        paragraph while in OVERWRITE mode, you will get no response to
        typed characters.  You may need to switch into OVERWRITE mode for
        a short period when this mode is more convenient, but it is
        recommended that you switch back to INSERT mode as soon as the
        task is completed.  In fact, several of the editing commands,
        such as ^W, automatically switch you back into INSERT mode when
        they are executed.  In OVERWRITE mode, the Del key replaces the
        character at the cursor position with a space, and the BACKSPACE
        key replaces the previous character with a space.

             A line can be centered by moving the cursor onto the line
        and hitting function key F5.  Lines which are part of a multiple-
        line paragraph cannot be centered.  The inverse of this function
        is left justification, obtained by hitting Shift-F5.  In this
        case, spaces are removed from the current line until the text
        starts in the current cursor position.

             The text memory can store a maximum of 62768 characters,
        depending on how much memory you have in your computer.  If your
        document is too long to fit in the available space, split it into
        separate files and use the dot command NUMBER to set the page
        numbering at the beginning of each separate file (See section
        5.5).  The block operations described in Section 4.5 are very
        useful for shifting text between separate files.  Other
        limitations you are unlikely to encounter are a maximum of 2047
        lines in the text, and no more than 2760 characters in any one
        paragraph.  RGB-TechWriter checks with each keystroke to insure
        that none of these limits are exceeded.  You will notice a
        markedly slower response when the file exceeds about 95% of the
        allowed capacity.


        4.3 Special Character Attributes

             The real beauty of RGB-TechWriter lies in its use of
        character color to convey special information.  The special
        options available are listed below.  All of these features are
        summarized in the help menu available in the editing mode by
        hitting function key F1.

        Boldface - To enter boldface characters, hit function key F3.
        The word BOLD on the bottom line of the screen will be
        highlighted to remind you that you are in Boldface mode.  Any
        characters typed will appear brighter on the screen, and when
        printed will appear in boldface.  To return to normal print, hit
        F3 again.  This mode is cancelled when you return to the file
        screen menu.  Bold characters take longer to print than normal
        characters, because the printhead must make two passes of the
        line.





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        Superscripts - To enter superscripts, hit function key F2.  The
        word SUPER on the bottom line of the screen will be highlighted
        to remind you that you are in Superscript mode.  Any characters
        typed will appear magenta on the screen, and when printed will
        appear one-third of a single-spaced line above the normal line of
        text.  To return to normal print, hit F2 again.  This mode is
        cancelled when you return to the file screen menu or switch to
        Subscript mode.  Use of superscripts when the line spacing is
        less than 1.0 may produce uneven lines.  One exception that can
        be quite useful is to set the spacing to 0 for one line before
        changing it back to normal.  The line which falls between the two
        SPACE dot commands (see section 5.5) will be printed on top of
        the following line.

        Subscripts - To enter subscripts, hit function key F4.  The word
        SUB on the bottom line of the screen will be highlighted to
        remind you that you are in Subscript mode.  Any characters typed
        will appear cyan on the screen, and when printed will appear one-
        third of a single-spaced line below the normal line of text.  To
        return to normal print, hit F4 again.  This mode is cancelled
        when you return to the file screen menu or switch to Superscript
        mode.  See Superscripts for the implication of line spacing less
        than 1.0.

        Underline - To underline a character, move the cursor to the
        desired location and press ^_ (Ctrl - Underscore).  The
        background behind the character will turn from blue to black.  To
        remove an underline from a character, you also move the cursor to
        the desired location and press ^_.  If you press ^_ at the end of
        a paragraph, the paragraph is extended by adding an underlined
        space.  This makes it easy to draw long horizontal lines using
        the underline feature.

        Alternate Characters - RGB-TechWriter allows you to enter 95
        different alternate characters directly from the keyboard.  These
        characters are entered by holding down the Alt key while typing
        any letter key, number key, function key, or the underscore.  The
        character typed will appear on the screen in yellow (brown),
        rather than white.  To get capital letters, the symbols above the
        numbers, and another 10 function-key characters; hold down the
        Alt key while hitting first the + key and then the desired key.
        This prefix is necessary because the keyboard does not recognize
        the Alt and Shift keys together at the same time.  To enter an
        alternate-character "+", hold down the Alt key while hitting the
        + key twice.  When the alternate characters are printed, they
        activate your printer's alternate character set.  This is
        primarily intended for Greek and other special characters, but
        you could use it to generate italics or any other non-standard
        feature.  RGB-TechWriter gives you a great deal of flexibility in
        controlling what happens within your printer when one of these
        alternate characters is encountered.  Complete details are given
        in section 6.3.




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        Esc - If you want to enter a control character directly into your
        text, hit the Esc key first.  The control character can then be
        entered directly by holding down the Ctrl key while hitting the
        character key (in the form ^N), or you can enter its ASCII
        equivalent number (in the range 1 through 31) by holding down the
        Alt key while you type the number on the numeric keypad.  The
        control character will be represented by a single unique
        character on the screen.  For example, to enter the ESC code,
        CHR$(27), hit the Esc key once to invoke direct insertion, then
        either hit the Esc key again, or enter ALT-27 from the numeric
        keypad.  Either way, this code will appear on the screen as a
        small arrow pointing to the left.  Insert control codes with
        caution.  RGB-TechWriter will treat these codes just like any
        other character, and cannot account for the effect they may have
        on your printer.

        Extended Character Set - You can enter characters from the
        extended character set, those with ASCII equivalent numbers in
        the range 128 through 255.  To do so, hold down the ALT key while
        typing the ASCII equivalent number on the numeric keypad.  The
        character is represented on the screen by a unique character.
        The way this character will appear in print depends on how your
        printer interprets these character codes.  If your printer is
        compatible with the IBM extended character set, the character
        should print just as it appears on the screen.

             All of the features listed above can be compounded together.
        For example, you could have a bold-superscripted-underlined-
        alternate character!  There is a different character color for
        each combination, as determined from the rules listed below.  By
        the way, it is from these rules that RGB-TechWriter gets its
        name.  Remember that normal characters start out as white (a
        combination of red, green, and blue) on a blue background.

             1. Underlining changes the background to black.
             2. Boldface increases the intensity of the character.
             3. Superscripting removes the character's green component.
             4. Subscripting removes the character's red component.
             5. Alternate characters have the blue component removed.

        In the extreme example of the bold-superscripted-underlined-
        alternate character, the character would appear as bright red on
        black.  The compounded combinations you are most likely to
        encounter are superscripted alternate characters (red) and
        subscripted alternate characters (green).


        4.4 Searching Text

             RGB-TechWriter provides a mechanism which allows you to
        search through the text in memory, looking for a particular
        string of characters.  An option allows you to replace each
        occurrence of the string with another string of characters.  The
        strings can be up to 63 characters long.


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             To begin a search, hit function key F6.  You will be
        prompted to enter the "search string."  Indicate your completion
        of the string by hitting the Enter key.  RGB-TechWriter will take
        this string of characters and search for any similar occurrence
        in the text, starting at the current cursor position.  Thus, to
        search the entire file, you need to invoke this command when the
        cursor is at the beginning of the file.  In conducting the
        search, RGB-TechWriter ignores the color of the characters, and
        doesn't discriminate between small and capital letters.  If a
        match is found, the cursor is moved to the new location.  You
        then have a choice.  If you hit the Esc key you are returned to
        editing mode, with the cursor at the new location.  If you hit
        the space bar, this match is ignored and RGB-TechWriter searches
        for the next match.  You can continue to skip matches until the
        one you are interested in is found.  If no more matches are
        available you are returned to editing mode with the cursor at its
        original location.

             If you are interested in replacing one string with another,
        hit function key Shift-F6.  You are again prompted to enter the
        "search string," but then you are also asked for a "replacement
        string."  You can include subscripts, superscripts, bold
        characters, and alternate characters in the replacement string in
        the same way that you would enter them in the text directly.
        RGB-TechWriter searches for a match to the search string as
        described above.  If a match is found, you have three options.
        If you hit the Esc key you are returned to editing mode, with the
        cursor at the new location.  If you hit the space bar, this match
        is ignored and RGB-TechWriter searches for the next match.  If
        you hit the letter R (for Replace), the file is altered by first
        erasing the match to the search string, then inserting the
        replace string.  The replace string is inserted in the text
        exactly as entered.  After replacing the string, RGB-TechWriter
        searches for the next match to the search string.  These three
        options give you the flexibility to replace some occurrences of
        the search string and not others.  RGB-TechWriter does not
        support automatic replacement of every occurrence of a string.

             It is common to use the Esc key with either of the above
        functions to stop the search process and make a correction.  If,
        after making the change, you want to continue with the same
        search you last performed, hit function key ^F6.  This will
        repeat the last search function, starting with the current cursor
        position.

             It is possible to search for and replace the yellow
        carriage-return markers.  This is useful for converting an ASCII
        file into TechWriter format, in which case you would replace all
        carriage return markers except the ones at the end of a paragraph
        with a single blank space (or with nothing, if there is already a
        blank space at the end of each line).  To search for the carriage
        returns, use the normal procedure, but for the search string
        enter a character 249.  This is done by holding down the Alt key
        while typing 249 on the numeric keypad.


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        4.5 Block Operations

             Cutting and pasting is an important part of any document
        preparation.  There are a myriad of reasons why you may want to
        move entire blocks of text from one part of the text to another.
        RGB-TechWriter allows you to do this for block sizes up to 8,000
        characters.  You can even move blocks of text from one file to
        another.  Three block operations are provided to move, copy, or
        delete a block.

             Before you can do any of the block operations, you must
        define your block.  This is done by hitting function key F8 when
        the cursor is at the beginning of the block, moving the cursor to
        the first character after the block, and hitting F8 again.  The
        block is identified by being displayed in "inverse video."  The
        word BLOCK on the bottom line of the screen is highlighted to
        indicate the presence of a marked block.  The way in which blocks
        are marked is such that you can mark a paragraph or group of
        paragraphs without having to move the cursor out of column 1.
        Just hit F8 at the beginning of the line which starts your block,
        then hit it again in column 1 of the line immediately after the
        last line you want to include.  You can also mark any part of a
        paragraph as a small block.  If you want to expand your block,
        just hit F8 again at the new start or end position.  You can't
        shrink a block, however.  If you hit F8 while the cursor is
        either within the block or at the first character position
        immediately after the block, the block is turned off and the
        screen is returned to normal.  The block is also turned off if
        you attempt to enter or delete any characters.  If you try to
        define a block which is too big a warning is issued, but the
        block remains marked.  This is because although you can't move or
        copy an oversized block, you can delete it.

             As soon as you define a block and it isn't too big, it is
        copied into a special block buffer in memory.  The contents of
        this buffer remain intact until you mark another block, although
        after you have completed the block operation the block is no
        longer displayed.  This even applies if you delete the block.
        This allows you to mark a block in one file and have it retained
        in the block buffer while you load a different file into memory.

             The simplest of the three block commands is the block copy,
        invoked by hitting function key Shift-F9.  The contents of the
        block buffer, which were defined when the last block was marked,
        are entered into the text at the current cursor location.  Note
        that it is not necessary for the block to be highlighted for this
        function to operate.  You can insert as many copies of the block
        into your text as you wish without having to mark it again each
        time.







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             The block delete function allows you to delete large blocks
        of text at once.  To start the process, hit function key ^F9.
        Since accidental use of this function could cause a major loss of
        data, you are required to confirm your choice before the block is
        deleted.  The block must be marked and highlighted for this
        function to operate.  Note that even blocks which are too big for
        the block buffer can still be deleted in their entirety.

             The most common block manipulation is the block move.  After
        marking the block, position the cursor at the location where you
        would like to move the block.  Hit function key F9.  The block
        will be moved provided that the block is marked, highlighted, and
        not too long.  The process involves filling the block buffer when
        the block is marked, deleting the block from the text, then
        copying the block buffer to the cursor position.

             Two additional functions are provided which relate to
        blocks.  Function key Shift-F8 attempts to re-highlight the last
        block marked.  If the text has been altered since the block was
        defined, the restored block may not correspond exactly to the
        previous block.  Function ^F8 counts the number of words in the
        current block, even if the block is too long for the block
        buffer.  If no block is currently highlighted, this function will
        count the total number of words in the text in memory.


        4.6 Equation Lines

             As a scientific text processor, RGB-TechWriter recognizes
        the special requirements which arise in conjunction with
        equations.  RGB-TechWriter allows you to create special lines in
        your text called equation lines, which behave differently from
        normal text lines.  An equation line is identified by a green
        marker at the end of the line, just before the carriage-return
        marker.  To create an equation line, hit function key F7.  A new
        blank equation line will be inserted in the text at the cursor
        position.  To convert an existing normal line into an equation
        line, hit function key Shift-F7.  When an equation line is
        created, it will occupy the full line width.  The only ways to
        delete an equation line are to use the ^D command while in column
        1, hit the Del key while the cursor is positioned on the green
        marker, or through the block delete function, ^F9.  Create as
        many consecutive equation lines as are needed by your equation.
        The special properties of equation lines are listed below.

             1. Contiguous equation lines are never split between pages.
                If while printing the file there is insufficient room to
                fit the entire equation on the current page, the equation
                is moved to the top of the next page and printing
                proceeds from there.






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             2. Text can be inserted without altering the line length.
                By creating a whole line of blank space at the outset,
                equation lines allow you to move freely through the
                region without concern over the length of the lines.

             3. Equation numbers remain right-justified.  Locate the
                cursor at the green equation marker either by repeated
                cursoring or by using the End key.  If you then type an
                equation number, it will be right justified, ending in
                the last column of the line. Furthermore, any subsequent
                additions to or deletions from the line will not affect
                the location of the number.

             4. When equation lines are printed, the line spacing is not
                allowed to exceed single spacing.  If the text just
                before the equation was double-spaced, the spacing would
                be reduced to single-spacing for the equation, then reset
                to double spacing for the text after the equation.  You
                may set the spacing to a value less than 1.0 for
                equations.  Setting the spacing to 0.2, for example,
                gives you five vertical levels for each standard line of
                print.  This makes possible very complex expressions.

             5. Function key ^F7 can be used to jump directly to the next
                equation.  This makes it easy to check your equation
                numbering.

             6. ^D while in any column other than the first will delete
                all of the text on the equation line after the cursor,
                but will not reduce the length of the line or remove the
                green equation marker.

        Otherwise, equation lines behave as normal lines.  INSERT and
        OVERWRITE modes are both available, plus line centering, search
        and replace, and block manipulation.





















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