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1991-12-14
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%OP%VS4.11 (04-Dec-91), Gerald Lewis Fitton, R4000 5065 0380 9644
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%OP%PDPipeLine
%OP%WC834,2070,44,1620,0,0,0,0
%CO:A,72,72%
%C%Lost Words
%C%by Gerald L Fitton
Keywords:
Beginners Word Fitton
Disappearing Text
Newcomers to PipeDream (and many who've had it quite a while too)
complain that text seems to disappear when they <Tab> to change the
column they're working in. Let me try to explain how it happens.
PipeDream is an 'Integrated Package' consisting of a spreadsheet as
well as a wordprocessor, etc. In order for it to be easy to use as a
spreadsheet the screen is divided up into separate columns (and into
rows as well).
Load the file Disappear and have a look at it. Here's the way it
works. Column A stretches all the way from the left border of the
screen to column A's own right margin.
The wrap margin is shown by the vertical arrow in the row which has:
.á.á.á.áAá.á.á.á.áBá.á.á.á.áCá.á. etc in it.
The right margin is set with <CTRLáH>. Column B starts immediately
after the letter A, in fact the letter A is the right hand end of
column A's width. Column width is set with <CTRLáW>. You will see
that a column has two right hand sides, a right margin and a (right
set) width. These two right hand sides of a column are used
differently by text (words) and expressions (numbers and formulae).
The result of evaluating an expression is forced to fit into the column
width because the assumption is that you're doing spreadsheet work if
you use formulae. Text can flow up to the right margin (which is
usually set to the right of the column width). If you chose the Files
- Option Wrap to be ON (a blue star in the square), then text will wrap
around when it gets to the right margin (but see my remarks two
paragraphs lower down); if you chose Wrap to be OFF (no blue star)
then text can be typed after the right margin but you won't be able to
see it and it won't print.
Now to the difficult bit. Imagine that you have typed a paragraph of
text into a column A with a right margin setting of about 72 characters
so the text runs across the whole page. The width of column A might be
8 characters but, in typing text you won't notice this fact. If A has
a width of 8 characters then column B starts at the 9th character (from
the left of the page) and stretches to its own right margin probably
somewhere near the right hand edge of the page. If you <Tab> into
column B (use cell B2 for this) and type a single letter (or even a
space) into cell B2, then the text in column A (but in row 2 only)
seems to disappear! It hasn't really disappeared. What has happened
is this; you have laid an imaginary second sheet of paper, column B,
over the text of column A so that some of column A is hidden by the B
sheet of paper! Of course you can have a C sheet and a D sheet etc
which overlay the earlier sheets.
If that was the difficult bit then here's the clever bit. Enter single
letters into cells B2 and B3. This will hide part of the A sheet.
Place the cursor into cell A2 and reformat the paragraph. What happens
now is that the hidden text reappears. Paragraph A has been
reformatted so that the text 'flows' around the parts of column B that
are occupied. This effect is difficult to describe on paper; you have
to do it yourself to appreciate exactly what is going on.
Beware! If you save a file which has only spaces in a cell (eg in B1)
then the spaces disappear when you save the file. If you want the
spaces to remain in order to retain a good looking format, then you
will need a 'Hard space' rather than a space bar space. A hard space
is most easily produced by holding down <Alt> and tapping the space
bar. Have a look in the directory of this disc called Words.
Centering Headers & Footers
Now here's a problem that many of you seem to have. I don't have it
because I use neither headers nor footers! I think it was John Jordan
(Wolverhampton) who brought this up first. If you have columns beyond
the right hand edge of the printed page with a right margin (the
vertical arrow) off the page then the centring is calculated by using a
line which extends from the left hand end of column A to that rightmost
right margin. This means that in some extreme cases the footer
disappears off screen to the right and you might think you've lost it!
More disappearing text!