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Exercise eight Using and creating stationery

In this part of the tutorial you will learn how to use one of EasiWriter's most powerful features - Stationery Pads.

Different documents need different style definitions. Manuals like this, need styles for chapters, sections, emphasis and so on, whereas a letter needs styles for the address, date and main paragraphs. So that you don't have to define the styles each time you perform a task, EasiWriter has a special form of document called a Stationery pad.

Stationery pad

A Stationery pad is a document that is used as a template for other documents. It can contain both text and graphics as well as style definitions. When you start a new document from a Stationery pad an untitled document is created that is an exact copy of the Stationery pad - the pad itself is unaffected.

In the next part of the tutorial you are going to use a Stationery pad to write a letter from a newly successful writer to his bank manager. You will learn how to:

Opening from Stationery

  1. Open the Tutorial directory.
    In it you will see a Stationery pad icon called 'LetterPad'.
  2. Double-click on 'LetterPad' to create a new document.

A new document called 'Untitled' will be opened that is an exact copy of the Stationery pad used to create it. You will see that it contains text, a letter heading, and that the current style is called address.

The Manager

The Granite Bank Ltd

35 Mean Street

Grimton

Insert date

EasiWriter has a special command that lets you insert the date and, if required, time from your computer into a document.

The date will be inserted into the document at the caret position.

Its format can be changed using the Set date format command in the Format menu.

Changing the paragraph style

If you look at the paragraph styles you will see that four styles have already been set up ready for use - the first three of which have command key short-cuts.

At the moment the 'Address' style is in use which has been defined as no extra spacing between paragraphs. A different style has been created for the date.

The date will be reformatted to use the Date paragraph style which is right aligned with 36 points additional space both above and below. Next you are going to start a new line and use the normal paragraph style.

The Style indicator will now show that you are using the default paragraph style.

Dear Sir,

The next part of the letter is a bold centred heading. A style called Title has been created which will do this for you automatically.

Type the following and press Return:

a/c 123456789

Thank you very much for your letter pointing out that I currently have an overdraft on my account of £11.58p and that in view of the tenuous nature of my work you will be requiring both my knee caps as security.

It may interest you to know that this week I sold my new screen play David's Umbrella to Dranida films for £100,000.00. That means I think you will find my account currently stands at a figure of:

Using Tabs

The next part of the letter is a small table showing the new balance on your account.


Deposit £100,000.00
Less overdraft £11.58
Balance £99,988.42


EasiWriter has two ways of helping you present information in a tabular form, tables and tabs.

You have already used one of them - the tables command. This time you will learn how to use tabs.

EasiWriter has four types of tabs:

You are going to use left aligned and decimal tabs.

The tabs are located in the left of the Status bar beneath the back and close icons. Tabs can be dragged onto the ruler or placed by selecting them and clicking.

The tab will become highlighted in red to show that it is selected.

The tab will be placed on the ruler.

Next you are going to drag a decimal tab onto the ruler.

  1. Position the pointer on the decimal tab.
  2. Press Select and drag the tab down and to the right under the 4" division.

This paragraph now contains two tabs. You move to them using the Tab key.

  1. Press Tab.
    The Caret will align with the left tab.
  2. Type:
    Deposit
    The characters move to the right in the normal way.
  3. Press Tab and type:
    £100,000.00
    Characters to the left of the decimal point move left; those on the right move right.
  4. Press Return.
    A new paragraph is started and the caret moves to the beginning of a new line. You will see that in common with all the other paragraphs an additional 12 points of space has been added automatically.
  5. Press Tab.
    The caret now aligns with the word 'Deposit'; however, we could do without the extra 12 point spacing that has been added between paragraphs.

New line command

EasiWriter has a special way of starting new lines without ending the paragraph - the new line command. It is typed by holding down Shift when you press Return.

Because a new line is started without ending the paragraph the extra space added at the end of paragraphs is not applied.

First go back to the end of the last line.

Removing Tabs and Returns

Although they are invisible Tab and Return characters can be removed by backspacing over them.

The caret will return to the end of the last line.

Starting a
new line

  1. Hold down Shift and press Return.
    This time you will see that a new line has been started without the extra space.
  2. Use Tab and Shift-Return to complete the table, press Return after the last entry.
    Less overdraft £11.58
    Balance £99,988.42
  3. Type the final part of the letter:
    In view of the tenuous nature of the support you have given me, I would be grateful if you could now close the account and pay the balance into my new account (No. 987654321) at the National Friendly Bank just opposite you.
  4. Press Return and type:
Yours faithfully


Bud Ingriter

Document margins

The next part of this exercise will show you how to adjust the margins of the entire document.

The Page set up dialogue box will appear where you can:

It shows you a representation of a left and right hand page with a dimmed rectangle inside the left page and a solid rectangle inside the right page. The right hand page is where you make the changes.

You are going to set the top and bottom margins to 1" and the left and right margins to 1.5".

Before you do so try the following exercise:

  1. Move the pointer into the rectangle that represents the typing area in the right hand page.
    The pointer turns into a hand.
  2. Press Select and drag the mouse.
    The typing area moves inside the page and the values for the margins change as you drag.
  3. Move the pointer over one edge of the rectangle representing the typing area.
    The pointer changes into a double-headed arrow.
  4. Press Select and drag the mouse.
    The margin moves and the value associated with it changes as do the dimensions of the typing area shown in the top left corner of the dialogue box.

When you have finished experimenting you can set the correct values.

  1. Edit the writable icons so that the top and bottom margins are set to 1" and the left and right margins to 1.5".
  2. Click OK to return to the document.

The document will be automatically reformatted.

Editing tabs

In the next part of this exercise you are going to change the position of the tabs and add a tab filler (repeating set of characters) to the decimal tab.

  1. Triple-click over the paragraph containing the table to select it.
    The tabs will be visible on the ruler. First you are going to move the left tab ¼" to the right.
  2. Press Shift and drag the left tab from 1" to 1.25".
    Holding down Shift while dragging anything on the ruler constrains the movement to the minor divisions.

Tabs can also be edited in a dialogue box.

  1. Double-click on the decimal tab to open its Tab information dialogue box.
  2. Edit the Position writable icon to 3.75"

Tab fillers

Next you are going to add a filler to the decimal tab so that it looks like this:

Deposit £100,000.00

Up to four characters can be used as a tab filler.

  1. Type Space followed by a full stop and another Space.
  2. Click OK to confirm the changes.

That concludes the editing of the letter.

Creating a Stationery pad

Stationery pads can be created from any document and can consist of just formatting information or include some text as well. Stationery pads can save you a lot of time and give a consistent look to your work or the work of a group of people. Use them for Letters, Memos, Faxes, Manuals, Newsletters, Project reports etc.

For the final part of this tutorial you are going to make some changes to the layout of this letter, remove the text and save the document as a new Stationery pad.

Edit the date format

EasiWriter lets you use a variety of date formats - you can even design your own.

The Date and Time dialogue box will appear.

  1. Click on one of the other Date Format radio buttons.

or

  1. Click the Custom radio button and edit the custom Date Format writable icon so that it looks like the one above.
    (%we the %zdy%st of %mo, %ce%yr)
  2. Click OK to return to the document.
  3. Delete the date and reinsert it (Shift-F1).

The date will be reformatted.

You will find information about how to set custom dates in Chapter Three or in the RISC OS User guide.

Edit a style

Next you are going to align the date to the left and update its style definition.

  1. Click in the date to set the caret.
    The caret moves to the end of the date.
  2. Click on the Left align icon.

The date will move to the left.

  1. Choose Save style changes from the Format menu.

The Save style changes dialogue box will appear.

  1. Click OK without changing the name to update the style definition.

Next you are going to delete the text and type a new address.

  1. Choose Document from the Select menu.
  2. Press Delete.

The contents of the document will be removed.

Special characters

Some characters such as the bullet character '' that was used in the address are not directly accessible from the keyboard. These characters are typed by holding down Alt, typing a number on the numeric keypad then releasing Alt. The value for '' is 143.

A full list of these characters and their values can be found at the end of Chapter three Reference.

Next you are going to type a new letter heading. Either use your own address or invent one.

  1. Type a new letter heading separating each part with ''.
  2. Change its font, font size, centre it and add borders to make it stand out.

Finally you are going to set the caret ready for the address to be typed in.

  1. Press Return after the letter heading to start a new line.
  2. Choose Address from the Paragraph styles submenu.

The document is now ready for another letter to be typed.

Save Stationery

You can now save it as a Stationery pad from which other letters can be created.

  1. Open the directory containing EasiWriter.
  2. Hold down Shift and Double-click on !EasiWriter to open the Application directory.
  3. Choose Stationery from the Save menu and drag it into the '!EasiWriter' directory display.
  4. Click the close icon to close the !EasiWriter directory display.

A copy of the document will be converted into a Stationery pad which you can use for writing letters.

Summary

That concludes this part of the tutorial. You have learnt how to:


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