The Basics

Window Layout

• The Title Bar, at the very top of the screen, shows the mode RoughDraft is in (Normal, Screenplay or Play), plus the name of the current file including its exact location on your computer.
• The Main Menu, located just under the Title Bar, contains all of the functions available in the program.
• The Main Toolbar, located under the Main Menu, gives quick access to a variety of commonly used functions. There is also a combo box on the far right for setting the magnification factor of your documents - it begins at 100% and can be changed by selecting a new size or typing one in. This does not affect the size of the text when it is printed - just the appearance on screen.
• The Format Toolbar, located under the Main Toolbar, gives quick access to the most common formatting options from the Text and Paragraph menus. It is disabled if (a) the file you are editing is not a Rich Text Format file (i.e. the file name does not end with ".rtf"), or (b) you are currently editing a Pad.
• The Main Document Area consists of the main text panel with a series of tabs at the top, one for each open file, which allow you to quickly switch between them. If a tab has an asterisk (*) before the filename, it means you have edited the file since it was last saved. Pressing the right mouse button in the Main Document Area brings up a menu offering some commonly used functions. Pressing the right mouse button while over the file's tab brings up a different menu allowing you to close the file or add it to the Favourites list.
• The Side Panel, to the right of the Main Document Area, offers a convenient way of opening files, finding and replacing, inserting special text, and editing the Pad.
• The Status Bar, at the bottom of the window, contains a message area, a help area, plus the time and date. The message area gives various items of information, while the help area gives assistance when you position the mouse pointer over a button, menu or screen area - even if it is on a different window.

Several of these elements can be switched off via the View Menu.

Navigation

As well as the cursor keys and scrollbar, you can move around text in the Text Area in a number of other ways:

• Ctrl + cursor left / cursor right - moves backwards and forwards one word at a time.
• Ctrl + cursor up / cursor down - moves up and down one paragraph at a time.
• PgUp / PgDn - moves up or down one window at a time.
• Ctrl + PgUp / PgDn - moves to the start or end of the current window of text.
• Home / End - moves directly to the start or end of the line.
• Ctrl + Home / End - moves directly to the start or end of the file.
• If you have a wheel on your mouse, this should allow you to scroll the window up and down.

Selecting Text

As well as holding the left mouse button down and dragging to select text, there are several other useful methods:

• Double-clicking on a word, holding the mouse button on the second click and then dragging causes only whole words to be selected - very useful!
• Triple-clicking on a paragraph, holding the mouse button on the third click and then dragging causes whole paragraphs to be selected.
• If you have a mousewheel, you can hold the left mouse button down, then use the wheel to scroll the text you want to select. This method can also be combined with the either of the two listed above.
• You can dispense with the mouse entirely by holding Shift and using any of the key combinations listed above to select text.