Basic TreePad manual

Basic TreePad manual.

Introduction

TreePad is a very easy to use program. This text, 'Basic Treepad Manual' can be very helpful for the beginning user. It explains the basic functions of TreePad, like adding, removing and editing data.
If you are not a beginning user, you might want skip this manual and use the program right away. For a complete reference on ALL the features TreePad offers, please see manual.hjt. Please note that manual.hjt can be viewed only using the TreePad program itself.

Using Treepad

To have an idea on how to use TreePad, you can start the program and open the file "manual.hjt".
TreePad consists of a tree (the left part of the screen) and an article (the right part of the screen).

The right pane, the 'article' can contain texts, links, etc. The article is similar to a Word Processor or a text editor. The left pane, the tree, can contain a large number of 'nodes'. 'Nodes' are similar to leafs of physical trees in the real world.

A node can contain an article, a text. When you select a node (in the left pane), the text inside that node is displayed in the article (right pane).
If you press the little "+" of a tree node, the 'sub tree' of that node is shown. This subtree also consists of nodes! So nodes can not only contain texts, but also other nodes!
If you click on a node, you select that node, and the text inside that node will be displayed in the article in the right pane. If you click on a '+' of a node, the subtree of that node will be shown. If you click on a '-' of a node, the subtree of that node will be hidden.

Tree nodes can be easily moved around, deleted, inserted, edited, copied and pasted. Articles can be edited in exactly the same way as in a standard word processing program.

Although TreePad is very easy to use and conforms to Windows standards, actions like moving, deleting and adding nodes, editing texts are explained in full detail below.

The tree part.

How to add a node
* With the mouse: right click the tree with your mouse, choose 'Add node' in the menu that pops up. The node appears and you can type the node name. After you have finished typing in the node name, press 'enter'.
* With the keyboard: simply press 'ins'

How to delete a node
* With the mouse (recommended): right click the node you want to be deleted, and choose 'delete node' in the popup menu. Important: the node and all of it's children are deleted.
* With the keyboard: press 'del'

How to change the node name
* With the mouse (method 1): select a node by clicking on it once. Wait. Click on it again. An edit cursor will appear in the node name.
* With the mouse (method 2): right-click the node you want to edit, and choose 'Edit node'. The node name will now display a cursor. After typing the new node name, press 'enter'. Press 'escape' to make the old node name appear.
* With the keyboard: press function key F2

How to open a node
* With the mouse : click on the little "+" sign to the left of the node you want to open. An opened node displays its children.
* With the keyboard: select the node with your cursor (up/down) keys and press the "+" key on the Numeric-pad of your keyboard.

How to close a node
* With the mouse: click on the little "-" sign to the left of the node you want to close.
* Keyboard: use the "-" key of the Numeric-pad of your keyboard.

How to move a node (to become a child of another node)
This option moves the node so that it will become a child node of the destiny node.
* Using drag-and-drop, with the mouse: move your mouse cursor to the node you want to move. Press the left mouse button down. While keeping the mouse button pressed down, move it to the destination node and release the mouse button. The node you wanted to move will now be a 'child' node of the destination node. Important: the node, text and all of it's children and texts are moved to the new location.

How to move a node (to become a sibling of another node)
This command moves the node to the position just below the destination node. The difference with the previous command is, that the node will not become a child of the destination node, but a sibling.
* Using drag-and-drop, with the mouse: the actions are almost the same as above, except now keep the 'shift' key pressed when dragging the node. Note: press the shift key BEFORE you start the mouse operation.

Using the article part.
The article part is the right half of the screen, on which normal text can appear. When selecting a tree node, the accompanying article (normal) text will appear in the right half of the screen. By clicking on the article with your mouse, or by using the keyboard ctrl-tab key combination, you can make the article the active part of the program. When the article is active, you can add or edit text in it.
Right clicking on the article will make a popup menu appear with many useful options which you can also find in the main TreePad menu.

This concludes the basic manual.