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- ======================================
- | Learning To Use PERFECT WRITER |
- ======================================
-
- Welcome...
-
- This begins a series of short lessons to acquaint you with
- Perfect Writer. These lessons are designed to be read at your
- own pace and convenience while sitting at your computer. You
- should be able to teach yourself Perfect Writer by simply reading
- through them and performing the exercises they present.
-
- The first thing you should learn is the command to scroll
- the text of this lesson forward:
-
- Escape...Forward...This window
-
- Press the Escape key. From the menu that appears, select
- "Forward," by typing `f'. From the next menu that appears, select
- "This window," by pressing `t':
- ...Esc...f...t
-
-
-
- A second command that scrolls the text backward is:
-
-
- Escape...Backward...This window
-
-
- Take a moment to practice these commands, scrolling the text
- of this lesson several screens forward and backward. When you feel
- comfortable with them, return to this point.
-
-
-
- Did you notice that when scrolling the text, Perfect Writer
- overlaps the screen by one or two lines? This provides a
- continuous point of reference when moving through a document.
-
-
-
- OVERVIEW
-
- What Is Perfect Writer?
-
- Perfect Writer is a `word processor' designed for people who
- write things -- notes, memorandums, letters, reports, term
- papers, theses, articles, books. It doesn't matter how short or
- how long, how trivial or how important the work is. If your job
- is writing, then Perfect Writer is for you.
-
- What does Perfect Writer do?
-
- To put it simply, Perfect Writer makes writing EASY.
- Writing with a typewriter, or even with a pencil and paper, would
- be satisfactory if we never made mistakes and never needed to
- revise or change what we had written. Unfortunately, most of us
- must write and rewrite our work, typing and retyping our
- documents until they are `perfect' (or as close to it as possible).
-
-
-
- With Perfect Writer, we leave all of this behind and begin
- to experience an unprecedented ease of composition.
-
- In these lessons, you will learn how easy it is to enter
- text, cut and paste lines and paragraphs, search and replace
- words, move sentences, work with two documents simultaneously,
- print, check spelling . . .and much more!
-
- How Does Perfect Writer Work?
-
- Using Perfect Writer, you create what might be called `soft
- copy', a representation of your document stored within your
- computer. This soft copy is displayed to the screen where you
- can alter or revise it in any fashion you desire...and at any
- time. When you have finished composing or making changes,
- Perfect Writer undertakes the task of printing a new and
- `perfect' version on paper.
-
-
- The LESSONS
-
- The computer-based lessons you will be practicing are:
-
- Lesson1 Creating and Printing a Document
- Lesson2 Moving Forward and Backward
- Lesson3 Cutting and Pasting
- Lesson4 Moving and Copying Text
- Lesson5 Document Appearance
- Lesson6 Searching
- Lesson7 Manipulating Documents
- Lesson8 Operation
- Lesson9 Layout
- Lesson10 Perfect Speller
-
- These lessons approximate the organization of the Perfect
- Writer User's Guide. Although they attempt to illustrate every
- major command procedure, you will nevertheless want to consult
- the User's Guide for more detailed explanations and examples.
-
-
- Let us begin by discussing those preliminaries you will
- find useful in understanding Perfect Writer.
-
- . . .The CURSOR
-
- The screen always contains within it the Cursor, a blinking
- underline that indicates where you are in the text. Characters
- are entered and deleted at the position of the cursor. As you
- will see, Perfect Writer provides numerous commands for moving
- the cursor about quickly and easily.
-
- . . .The COMMAND MENUS
-
- Perfect Writer uses a system of `pop-up' command menus to
- execute all of its word processing functions. These command
- menus are simply lists of tasks which Perfect Writer can perform,
- such as cutting a word, filling and justifying a paragraph, or
- switching you from one document to another.
-
-
-
- Rather than force you to memorize numerous command
- sequences, one keystroke calls a `Top menu' into view. This Top
- menu is your guide to using Perfect Writer. From it, you select
- the activity you desire. An appropriate submenu will appear,
- listing further options related to the command you have chosen.
-
-
-
- . . .The ESCAPE Key
-
- The Escape key displays the Top menu on the screen. During
- editing, when you wish to give a command to Perfect Writer,
- simply press the Escape key. The Top menu will appear,
- temporarily overwriting whatever is on the screen. To erase the
- Top menu, press the Escape key again. Perfect Writer will return
- you to your place in the document.
-
-
- Already, just by scrolling this lesson, you have gained
- considerable experience with the Escape key and Top menu.
- However, let us practice using them a little more. Press the
- Escape key now, several times. Notice how the Top menu appears
- and disappears. The Escape key both displays and cancels menu
- commands.
-
- You have two ways of selecting a menu option:
-
- 1. By typing the first letter of the command word (`f' for
- Forward, `b' for Backward, etc.).
-
- 2. By moving the highlighted markers at the side of the menu to
- your selection using the up or down arrow keys and pressing the
- Return key.
-
- In these lessons, we shall always list the full words of the
- menu options you are to select. How you select an option from the
- menu is up to you. Take a few moments now to use the menus to
- see which method you prefer. Move the cursor forward a paragraph
- and then backward a paragraph by selecting:
-
- Escape. . .Forward. . .Paragraph
- Escape. . .Backward.. .Paragraph
-
- If you get stuck in a command operation that is either
- confusing or appears to be in error, you have two ways of
- starting over:
-
- ESCAPE: Any command that Perfect Writer HAS NOT YET BEGUN
- EXECUTING can be canceled by pressing the Escape key.
- Thus, if you are half-way into a command and change your
- mind, pressing the Escape key will cancel your command
- and return you to your place in the document.
-
- QUIT: All submenus contain a `Quit' option. Unlike the Escape
- key which erases a menu entirely and returns you to your
- place in the document, Quit returns you to the previous
- menu to reselect a command.
-
-
- SUMMARY
-
- The commands we focused on in this introduction were:
-
- Escape...Forward...This window --- Scrolls to NEXT page.
- Escape...Backward...This window --- Scrolls to PREVIOUS page.
-
- Menu commands can be selected in two ways:
-
- 1. By pressing the first letter of the command.
-
- 2. By moving the highlighted markers to the command you
- want and pressing the Return key.
-
- To cancel any command that has not yet begun to execute,
- press ESCAPE.
-
- To return to a previous menu, select QUIT.
-
-
- EXITING PERFECT WRITER
-
- If at this time you wish to begin the first lesson on
- "Creating a Document," select:
-
- Escape...Documents...Read
-
- Perfect Writer will ask: "Document to read." Type
- "lesson1," followed by the Return key. Perfect Writer will read
- the first lesson into memory and switch you to it.
-
- If you do not wish to continue, select:
-
- Escape...Exit PW
-
- Perfect Writer may respond with the message "Document(s)
- not saved! Do you still wish to exit?" Answer `y' for Yes.
-
- Perfect Writer will return you to the PSI menu.
-
- End of Introductory Lesson