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Exercise seven Using styles

EasiWriter allows you to group many formatting commands into a single named command called a style.

Styles can be created for emphases and structures. Emphasis styles are appended to the Text submenu and Structure styles appear in the Format submenu. Each structure has a default style which you can change. You can also add new styles.

In this part of the tutorial you will learn how to:

Emphasis styles

Emphasis styles allow you to control the attributes of text including its font, size, language, colour etc. Using an emphasis style you could for example change a word into Trinity.bold, upper case , red with a single command.

Structure styles

Structure styles vary according to the type of structure.

For example the first section on this page of the manual has a right aligned, hanging heading in Homerton.Bold.Oblique 14 points with 10 point Trinity.medium body text with eight points additional spacing after sections. The Heading and body text are separated with a thin vertical rule and the section automatically starts a new page.

This amounts to a lot of formatting attributes but just one style definition. In fact the whole of this tutorial was written in EasiWriter using just two section styles.

Just choosing Main section from the Structure menu caused all the attributes described above to be applied automatically.

You are going to use the text for Exercise one of this tutorial to learn how to create, modify and use your own styles.

First you need to open the document called 'Chapter1'.

  1. Open the 'Tutorial' directory.
  2. Double-click on 'Chapter1' to open it.
  3. Click on the Toggle size icon to increase the window size.

Changing the picture format

If you scroll through the document you will see that there are four pages of formatted text with two full size, centred, sprites showing an EasiWriter window and the 'Save document' menu.

First you are going to change the scale of the pictures to 50% and then align them to the left.

You could make the changes to each picture individually, but it makes much more sense to change the default picture style so that all the pictures in the document are exactly the same.

Selecting a picture

  1. Scroll the document to bring one of the pictures into view.
  2. Click on the picture to select it.

A red border indicates that the picture is selected. The Style indicator says 'Picture Style'. Each structure has one built in or default style that is used whenever you create a new structure. If you look at the Format menu when a picture is selected you will see that this default style appears as a submenu.

If you create new picture styles they will appear in this menu. If you have more than one style they will also appear if you click Menu on the Picture button.

Scaling a picture

Next you are going to halve the picture size.

  1. Click Select on the Style indicator button to open the Picture Format dialogue box.

  2. Edit both the X Scale % and the Y Scale % writable icons to 50 and click OK.

The picture will be reduced to 50% full size.

Aligning a picture

Pictures, like text, can be aligned to the left, centre or right. While the picture is selected one of the alignment icons will be 'pressed in' to show you which alignment is selected.

Next you are going to align the picture to the left.

The picture will move to align with the left margin marker.

Style indicator

If you look at the Style indicator, in the top right hand corner of the window, you will see that it has changed to 'Picture Style *'.

The '*' shows that the picture style has been overridden with some changes.

When you have made a change to any style you can do one of two things:

Changing a style

We want to change all the pictures in this document, so must save the style changes without changing the name.

  1. Click Adjust on the Style indicator or choose Save style changes from the Format menu.

The Save Style Changes dialogue box will appear. It shows the style name plus a description of any modifications that have been made to it.

All the pictures in the document that use this style (in this case the other one) will change to 50% scaling, left aligned.

Any new pictures incorporated into this document will automatically be left aligned and 50% reduced in size as this is now the default style setting.

Note that now the picture style has been updated the '*' has been removed.

Changing the section format

Unique to EasiWriter is the ability to control the entire formatting attributes of a structure using a single style definition. For a section this means that the position and type specifications of both its heading and body text, plus any borders and rules that may be applied to it, can be controlled with a single style command.

To see how this works you are going to change the type face and size used for the heading, change its position from above its body text to the left hand side and draw a rule between the heading and the section's body text.

Moving the caret

Using Control with the up and down arrow keys is a quick way of moving the caret to the beginning and end of the document.

The left and right arrows keys used in conjunction with control move the caret to the beginning and end of paragraphs.

The caret will move to the beginning of the document.

Selecting a heading

Before making any changes to the section heading, you need to select it.

The selection indicator will change to 'Section Heading'.

Changing the font and size

Next you are going to change the font to Homerton and its size to 10 points.

The Type style... command allows you to make both these changes at the same time. It also lets you underline and strike-out text as well as choose different heights and widths for fonts.

  1. Click on the Font button or choose Type style... from the Text menu.

The Type style dialogue box will appear.

  1. Click Menu on the Font pop-up menu and choose Homerton.
  2. Click on the 10 point button.
  3. Click Apply to confirm the choice.

Changing the heading alignment

Next you are going to align the heading to the right margin.

The Heading will move to align with its right margin marker.

Changing the section format

Now you are going to select the section and change its format.

  1. With the heading still selected, click on the Selection indicator (or press F11) to select the entire section.
  2. Click on the Style indicator button.

The Section Format dialogue box appears where you can:

Other controls let you balance and vertically justify the text in columns, and automatically indent paragraphs. These and other aspects of Section formats are fully described in Chapter two - Using EasiWriter.

At the top of the dialogue box you will see the heading position icons. Running from left to right they are: No heading, Heading inside columns, Heading above columns, Hanging heading.

Hanging heading

  1. Click on the Hanging heading icon.
    In the centre of the dialogue are icons representing the vertical rules starting with none followed by ¼, ½, 1 and 2 point rules.
  2. Click on the ½ point rule (second line from the left).

  3. Check that the dialogue box looks like this and click OK to confirm the choices.

The section will be reformatted.

Changing the default section style

To change every section in the document to this new style save the style changes with the same name, just as was done for the picture style.

  1. Check that the section is still selected.
  2. Click Adjust on the Section Style* button or choose Save style changes from the Format menu.
  3. Click Update without changing the name.

Scroll through the document and you will see that every section in the document has been reformatted.

Creating a new style

When you have made some changes to a structure, paragraph or text that you want to use in another part of the document you can save those changes as a style.

Next you are going to create a new section style to see how this works.

Make sure that the Selection indicator says 'Section Heading'. You are going to increase its point size and change its font to oblique.

  1. Click on the Font button to open the Type style dialogue box.
  2. Click on the Style pop-up and change the style to Oblique.
  3. Click on the 14 point button then click Apply to confirm the choice.

Next you are going to give the section the property of starting a new page. First you need to select the entire section.

  1. Click on the Selection indicator to extend the selection from the section heading to the entire section.
  2. Click on the Style indicator button or choose Change... from the Format menu.
    The Section Format dialogue box will appear.
  3. Click Menu on the text 'immediately' in the Start section icon and choose 'on next page'.
  4. Click OK to confirm the choice.

As this section already starts a new page you will not see any effect from this change for the moment.

Now that the style change has been made, you can create a new style.

Creating a new section style

To create a new section style, you first select the section that has the changes you want and then save the style changes with a new name.

  1. Check that the section is still selected.
  2. Click Adjust on the Style indicator button or choose Save style changes from the Format menu.
  3. Edit the style name to 'Main section'.
  4. Click Create to confirm the choice and create the style.

If you look in the Section styles submenu you will see that EasiWriter has appended this new style.

You will also notice that the Ctrl-F10 has been automatically added to the new style for use as a keyboard short-cut.

Applying a style

Styles can be changed by selecting the structure and then choosing the new style from the Style submenu or by using the keyboard short-cut.

To see how this works try the following:

  1. Scroll down the document until the second section, 'Button bar', is in view.
  2. Click in the section's body or its heading.
  3. Select the section either by pressing F11 three times or by choosing Section from the Select menu.
  4. Choose Main section from the Section Style submenu (or press Ctrl-F10).

If you scroll down you will see that not only has the heading changed to 14 point Homerton.Oblique, but the section has also started a new page.

You can change back to the previous style by choosing it from the Section style menu or by typing its keyboard short-cut Ctrl-F9.

The Undo command (F8) can also be used to undo a style change.

Creating a paragraph style

All parts of an EasiWriter document can have styles created for them. Next you are going to learn how to create and use Paragraph styles.

Paragraph styles can control the margins, tabs, font, font size, colour, language and the spacing between lines as well as the extra spacing both before and after the paragraph.

For this document we need to make a simple change to the paragraphs that contain text that the user is required to type. For example:

This is the style we use for text that is to be typed.

By changing the font to Corpus medium it is much easier for the user to distinguish between informative text and text to be typed.

  1. Scroll to bring the paragraph above the section on 'Word wrap' into view.
  2. Triple-click in the paragraph beginning 'Our plan was to throw a stick...' to select it.
  3. Click on the Font button and choose Corpus from the Font menu.

The paragraph font will change to Corpus medium and the document will be reformatted.

As there are several paragraphs in the tutorial that indicate text to be typed it is a good idea to create a paragraph style for them. You can then change the appearance of subsequent paragraphs with a single keystroke.

  1. Click Adjust on the Style indicator to open the Save Style Changes dialogue.
  2. Name the style 'Type this'.
  3. Click Create to confirm the choice and save the style.

EasiWriter will create the new paragraph style and will allocate Ctrl-F10 as its keyboard short-cut.

Using a paragraph style

The style used for a paragraph can be changed by simply moving the caret into it and choosing the new style from the Paragraph style menu. Unlike other structures, paragraphs do not need to be completely selected before having a style applied to them.

  1. Scroll down and click in the paragraph that begins 'Actually it worked out fine...'.
  2. Click Menu on the Style indicator button and choose Type this from the Paragraph Style submenu.

The paragraph will have been reformatted in the new style.

Next you are going to apply the style using the keyboard short-cut.

  1. Scroll down until you see the section 'Inserting text'.
  2. Click in the text 'each time' and press Ctrl-F10.

Once again the paragraph is reformatted.

Using Emphasis styles

Emphasis styles are used to change the appearance of individual parts of text such as words or cells in a table. They are added to the Text submenu.

EasiWriter appends Ctrl-F6, Ctrl-F7 and Ctrl-F8, for use as keyboard short-cuts, to the first three emphasis styles that are created.

All documents have Bold and Italic, and a style called Plain which is used to remove emphasis.

Later you will create a new emphasis style. First you will use the existing styles.

  1. Scroll to the beginning of the document.
  2. Select the text 'Installation guide' in the paragraph beneath the first list.
  3. Click on the Italic button.

Next you are going to change some words on the second page of the document to bold.

Go to page

EasiWriter has a Go to page command that lets you go directly to any page in the document.

  1. Choose Go to Page from the View menu (or press F5) to open the Go to page dialogue box.
  2. Edit the page number to '2' and click OK.

The second page of the document will be scrolled into view.

You are going to change the words 'Cut' and 'Paste' in list item '2' into bold as they represent menu items.

  1. Double-click on the word 'Cut' to select it.
  2. Click on the Bold button.
  3. Make the word 'Paste' bold in the same way.

Applying emphasis as you type

Emphasis styles can also be used as you type. The following exercise will show you how to do this. Note that TechWriter has different keyboard short-cuts to EasiWriter.

  1. Click at the end of the paragraph you have just changed.
  2. Choose Bold by pressing Ctrl-B (Ctrl-F6 TechWriter users) and type: Bold.

You will see that the text you typed was changed to bold.

Next you will change the typeface to italic and then revert back to the normal typeface for the paragraph.

  1. Choose Italic by pressing Ctrl-I (Shift-F6 TechWriter users) and type: Italic.
  2. Revert to Plain by clicking on the Plain button ( Ctrl-F5) and type:
    Normal.

Creating an emphasis style

Emphasis styles are created in the same way as other styles. First make the changes you want to the text, then choose Save style changes from the Format menu. You are going to create an Emphasis style for keys that the user has to press such as Return and Delete.

Searching

First you are going to use the Find routine to find the first occurrence of the word 'return' in the document.

  1. Move the caret to the beginning of the document (Ctrl-Up arrow).
  2. Click on the Find button or choose Find/replace from the Search menu.
  3. Type return into the Find writable icon.
  4. Click Find.

The find dialogue box will disappear and the first instance of 'return' in the document will be selected.

By convention the words representing keys should start with a capital letter. You will see that this 'return' does not. Rather than search the entire document editing each 'return' we can make this property part of the style definition so that it happens automatically.

You will see that the 'r' has been automatically capitalised. Other commands in this menu let you choose Upper case, Lower case and As typed (unmodified).

Next you are going to make the word bold.

Finally save these changes as a style.

  1. Click Adjust on the Style indicator button or choose Save style changes from the Format menu.
  2. Name the style 'Keystroke' and click Create.

The new style will be added to the Text menu and will have Ctrl-F6 (Ctrl-F7 TechWriter) appended to it for use as a keyboard short-cut.

Next you will search for more occurrences of the word 'return'.

Find same

EasiWriter has a special command that lets you repeat a search without having to open the search dialogue box.

EasiWriter will find the next occurrence of the word 'return', this time in a heading. As you don't need to change this one you can skip over it by choosing Find same again.

  1. Press Shift-F4 to find the next 'return'.
  2. Choose Keystroke from the Text menu.

Notice that not only did the font change but also the first letter was capitalised.

  1. Find the next 'return'.
  2. Press Ctrl-F6 (Ctrl-F7 TechWriter).

There are no more occurrences of the word 'return' in this document. If you choose Find same again EasiWriter will beep to tell you that it can't find any more. Try changing occurrences of the word 'Delete' into the Keystroke style.

  1. Move the caret back to the beginning of the document.
  2. Search for the occurrences of the word 'Delete' and apply the keystroke style to all except the one that is a heading.

Editing a style

In addition to enabling many formatting commands to be applied with a single command or keystroke, styles allow you to make global changes to a document. For example, suppose we decide that the Keystroke style might look better if it were Italic rather than Bold; all we need do is to change the style definition and all text that uses that style will be reformatted.

  1. Double-click on one of the words you have made into the keystroke style.
  2. Click on the Italic button.
  3. Choose Save style changes from the Format menu.
  4. Click Update without changing the name.

If you scroll through the document you will see that all the occurrences of 'Return' and 'Delete' have changed.

List styles

The final part of this exercise will be to create a new list style. You will then change some paragraphs into a list and apply the new style to them.

You will see this tutorial has three list styles:

  1. Numbered lists - see Chapter two using EasiWriter.

The first two list styles have already been created. You are going to create the Square bullet style. First you will edit an existing list style and then save the change as a new style.

  1. Press Home to go to the beginning of the document.
  2. Click anywhere in the first list and choose List from the Select menu.

  3. Click on the Style indicator or choose Change... from the Format menu.

When a list is selected the Change... command leads to the List format dialogue box where you can edit the bullet character.

  1. Click Menu on the Font pop-up menu and choose Selwyn.
  2. Press Delete to remove the existing bullet and type 'o'.
  3. Click Try to see the effect of the change.
  4. Click OK to return to the document.

Notice that EasiWriter has changed all the bullets in the list.

Next you are going to save these changes as a new style.

  1. Check that the list is still selected.
  2. Click Adjust on the Style indicator button to open the Save Style Changes dialogue.
  3. Edit the name to 'Item list'.
  4. Click Create to create the new style.

Creating a list

There are two ways to create a list;

  1. As you type:
    1. Choose List from the Structure menu and type the list item.
    2. Press Return to start a new list item.
    3. Choose End List and press Return to leave the list.
  2. From existing paragraphs:

You are going to use the last method to convert the last four paragraphs in the document into a list in the same style as the one you have just edited.

  1. Scroll to the end of the document (Ctrl-Down arrow).
  2. Triple-click in the paragraph 'Create a new document' to select it.
  3. Click Adjust in the last paragraph to extend the selection.

All four paragraphs will be selected. You can now turn them into a list.

  1. Click Menu on the List button.
  2. Choose Item list from the List styles submenu.

The paragraphs will be changed into a square bulleted list.

Summary

In this part of the tutorial you have learnt how to:

That concludes this part of the tutorial.


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