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The Desktop

EasiWriter uses several types of icon on the Desktop as shown below:

EasiWriter

Double-click on the EasiWriter icon in the directory display to load the EasiWriter application onto the icon bar.

Click Select on the EasiWriter icon in the icon bar to start a new document.

Click Menu on the EasiWriter icon in the icon bar to get information about EasiWriter, change document windows, open a document from a Stationery pad and edit the hyphenation and spelling exception dictionaries.

Click Adjust over the EasiWriter icon in the icon bar to open the last used directory viewer.

You can also save Choices and turn on Smart quotes.

Documents

EasiWriter saves your work in documents. If you make changes to a document and choose Save the previous document will be overwritten (if it had previously been saved).

To save a document without altering the original, change the name of the document before saving it.

To open a document double-click on its icon. If EasiWriter is already loaded, you can also open a document by dragging its icon onto the EasiWriter icon in the icon bar.

If you hold down Ctrl when opening a document it will all be loaded into memory (if there is enough room).

Stationery pads

Stationery pads are a special form of document for frequently used formats and styles. For example if you were creating daily example sheets, or memos, in which certain information always remained the same you could enter the information common to all instances of the document and save it as a Stationery pad.

A Stationery pad can be created from any document by choosing Stationery in the Save menu.

Double-clicking a Stationery pad on the desktop, or dragging its icon to the EasiWriter icon in the icon bar, creates a new 'Untitled' document that is an exact copy of the Stationery pad, without affecting the pad itself. Saving a Stationery pad into the !EasiWriter directory causes it to be added to the list of Stationery pads that appear in the Icon bar menu.

Text files

Text files are designed to be read by other applications. They contain no formatting information or graphics. They are identical to those created by Edit. Text files can be opened by dragging them onto the EasiWriter icon on the icon bar. They will open into the currently selected Stationery pad chosen from the Stationery menu on the Icon Bar. Alternatively they may be incorporated into an existing EasiWriter document at the caret position by dragging the icon representing them into the document.

1st Word Plus

Text can be extracted from 1st Word Plus documents in the same way as Text files. Formatting information and graphics will be lost.

CSV files

CSV (Comma Separated Value) files are automatically converted into tables when dragged into an EasiWriter document. If dragged onto the EasiWriter icon on the icon bar a new document is created containing a table.

By default Automatic column widths will be used, but will be changed to Fixed width with word wrap if the table does not fit within the margins.

Word documents

EasiWriter can import and export Microsoft® Word 6, 7, 8 (Office 97/98) and 9 (Office 2000) documents.

EasiWriter can also import text from documents created by earlier versions of Word but all formatting will be lost.

Word files with the type 'MSWord' can be opened by double clicking on them.

EasiWriter will also check files that are dragged into one of its windows or onto the EasiWriter icon on the icon bar. If they appear to be Word documents they will be loaded.

If ImageFS2 is loaded, graphics embedded in a Word file will be converted to Paint or Draw formats and displayed in the document. If ImageFS2 is not loaded, or it cannot convert the graphic (e.g. some PICT files), or the graphic is only represented by its file name, the graphic will be represented by a grey rectangle on the screen.

When saving or re-saving a Word document any imported graphics will be exported in their original format. If ImageFS2 is loaded, EasiWriter will attempt to use it to convert graphics to 'bitmap' format.

RTF files

EasiWriter can read RTF (Rich Text Format) documents. It will check any file with an unrecognised file type, and if it starts with the standard RTF header, it will be loaded as an RTF document.

If ImageFS2 is loaded, graphics embedded in an RTF file will be converted to Paint or Draw formats and displayed in the document. If ImageFS2 is not loaded, or it cannot convert the graphic (e.g. some PICT files), or the graphic is only represented by its file name, the graphic will be represented by a grey rectangle on the screen.

EasiWriter can also write RTF documents.

Other documents

EasiWriter will check any type of document that is dragged into one of its windows or onto its icon on the icon bar. If the contents appears to be text it will be loaded. For example a !Run file will be loaded as if it were an Edit document.

HTML documents

EasiWriter can read and write documents as HTML files (HyperText Markup Language).

Note: HTML is not a page description language; it is one column of continuous text with optional links to graphics. The page proportions and line breaks depend on the size of the monitor or window in which the page is viewed. If an HTML file is loaded into EasiWriter it is formatted to fit within the page margins, which is likely to be different from how the same document is displayed by an HTML browser.

Note: Some HTML tables may be longer than a page. EasiWriter professional will truncate them. To see the entire table you may need to alter the size of the paper you are using. It will optionally, and by default, split the table into smaller ones.

The length of the lines generated can be controlled using Maximum line length in the Choices menu.

Java Applets

There is support for plug-ins (Applets) provided the Nested window manager is present.

The Help application

EasiWriter supports the interactive Help application that is part of the Applications suite.

Double-click on its icon and messages will appear containing information about the parts of an EasiWriter document and its window. As you move the pointer, the information changes.


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