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GUIDE4
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1986-11-25
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17
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.
EDITING COMMANDS
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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
EDITING COMMANDS
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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
EDITING COMMANDS
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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.
EDITING COMMANDS
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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.
EDITING COMMANDS
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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.
EDITING COMMANDS
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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.
EDITING COMMANDS
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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.
EDITING COMMANDS
26
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.
EDITING COMMANDS
