ConText is a text editor in a desk accessory. It’s compact size, superior windowing, speed, and its ease of text manipulation make it the obvious choice above all other DA-based general text editors. A unique feature is the ability to set the document’s signature; this saves the file as though it was written on the word processor of your choice. Since ConText is a DA you can use it in conjunction with your favorite word processor, to cut and paste, just as you might use DeskPaint™ with say SuperPaint™.
SHAREWARE
ConText is shareware, it is distributed on the MacHonor system. After you use ConText for a reasonable trial period, send $12 (U.S.) to the address below. Please support shareware; you can’t get much cheaper than twelve bucks.
Previously registered users of ConText require *NO* upgrade fee.
Michael Conrad
955 Escalon Ave. #505
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Commercial distribution of ConText is not authorized without the expressed written consent of the author. You may however distribute ConText among your friends or through user’s groups or information services as long as you make no changes to the “About” box or the software in general, and you include this document.
USING CONTEXT
Menu Commands:
File Menu
•• New ••
Selecting ‘New...’ will create a new virgin document. The default font and size will be the active font and size after selecting this menu item.
•• Open ••
Use the ‘Open...’ command to open a pre-exhisting text file. ConText will allow you to open any file with the file type of ‘TEXT’.
If the file has been saved in ConText previously, ConText will read in the saved font and size located within the file’s resource. If no font/size resource is found, ConText will use the default font and size you have set.
•• Save, Save As ••
‘Save’ will save changes to a document that already has a file belonging to it.
‘Save As...’ will present you with a standard file dialog box asking you under what name you wish the new document to be named. Using the ‘Signature’ pop-up menu, you can select a variety of “signatures” under which you want the document to be saved. For example, if you created a document that you would like to open in MS Word™ by double clicking on it, you would choose “Microsoft Word™” from the pop-up menu. The icon that the file will display will even be the Microsoft Word™ text document icon. In case your favorite word processor isn’t located within the pop-up menu, you can select the ‘Custom...’ option and enter in the signature on your own. Any signature must be no less or no more than four characters long. ConText will recognize only the first four characters.
ConText will save the font and size associated with each file in it’s resource fork. ConText saves font and size information in an ‘EFNT’ resource. This appears to be pretty standard throughout text editors. So other text editors such as miniWriter, Joliwrite, and Edit have this information available to them as well.
•• Insert ••
The ‘Insert...’ command will present you with a standard file dialog asking what file you wish to insert into your current document. The selected file will be inserted at the current selection point. ConText will not allow you insert a file that will bring your current document above 32K.
•• Revert ••
Revert will revert your document to the last saved version on disk.
•• Page Setup, Print...
Works the same as in all standard Macintosh applications.
•• Set Print Margins ••
This selection will present you with a dialog which will allow you to set the left and right margins for your printed document. The selections available are: 1/2”, 3/4”, and 1”.
•• Set Tab Spaces ••
Here is where you select how large you wish your tab columns to be. The size is measured in character spaces. Because of this, the tab feature only works best with non-proportional fonts.
See “Using Tabs” below for more information on tabs.
•• Document Info ••
This command will present you with a dialog which lists the following information:
1. The number of lines of text
2. The approximate number of words
3. The number of characters in document
4. The number printing pages.
•• Preferences ••
This is where you set your preferences for ConText.
“Open To Full Screen”— If this check box is set, every time you open ConText, the document window will be made the size of the screen; this is useful with full-page displays. If this check box is unchecked, you retain the current window.
“Save Current Window Position As Default” - When this check box is selected and “Open To Full Window” is not checked, the current window position will be saved and be used as the default position. You can re-position the window by moving it, and then selecting the “Save Window Position As Default” check box and pressing the “OK” button.
“Open Dialog At Startup”— If this check box is selected, the standard file dialog box will be presented to you automatically any time you open the DA. This option can be duplicated by holding the Shift key down while you select ConText from the Apple menu.
“Save Current Font & Size As Default” — If this check box is selected, then the current font and size will be saved to the preferences file; they will be the active font and size at program launch.
“Default Tab Columns Spaces”— In this edit box you enter how many spaces you want your tabs to be. See “Using Tabs” below for more information on tabs.
“Set Default Print Margins” — This button will present you with the print margins dialog. The selected size will be saved to the preferences file as your default. You must press ‘OK’ in the main preferences dialog for your new settings to be saved.
You can save all changes to the internally located preferences file by simply pressing ‘OK’.
NOTE: Version 2.0+ no longer uses a preferences file located within the system folder.
Font Menu
This menu is used to select the desired font.
Size Menu
Use this menu to select the size of the text. If you like, you can add or subtract sizes to this menu using ResEdit. Be sure you work only on a copy!
Utilities Menu
•• Find ••
Will locate the first occurance of the text you enter via the Find dialog. You can optionally replace the text by filling in the “Replace with” edit field.
•• Find Next ••
This item will find the next occurance of the text entered in the Find dialog.
•• Replace ••
Selection of this item will replace the currently hilited with the text entered in the Find dialog
•• Replace & Find Again ••
This will replace the currently hilited text and then find the next occurance of the text entered via the Find dialog.
•• Replace All ••
This will replace all occurances of the text throughout the document. This function is not undoable!
•• Remove CR’s, Add CR’s ••
The “Remove CR’s” and “Add CR’s” menu items will remove or add carriage returns to the document. This is a very useful feature when translating documents from other computer systems.
NOTE: This feature is not undoable.
•• Transform Quotes ••
“Transform Quotes” will turn all open and closed (single or double) quotes into the desired quote style. That is, it will transform “dumb” quotes into “smart” quotes, or “smart” quotes into “dumb” ones.
•• Tabs To Spaces ••
“Tabs To Spaces” will convert all the tabs found in the open document to the number of spaces specified for the document.
NOTE: This functions requires a lot of memory! It may not be possible when more than one DA is open and your working on a large file. It also will not allow your document to grow bigger than 32K. This function is not undoable.
•• Remove LF/NULL Chrs ••
This function will remove those pesky linefeeds and null characters some files contain when downloaded from IBM bulletin board systems or main frame systems.
NOTE: This feature is not undoable.
USING TABS
ConText 2.0 and above has the capability to recognize tabs within documents. This feature could dramatically slow your machine down. If you would rather have speed rather than tab handling capability, setting the “Tab Spaces” to zero (0) will bypass the tab handling routine, increasing your speed. So this feature will always be off, set the “Default Tab Columns Spaces” to zero (0) in the
preferences dialog.
VERSION HISTORY
VERSION 2.0 SPECIFIC ENHANCEMENTS:
—Completely new menu scheme.
—ConText can now read files larger than 32K!!!
—ConText is now 100% compatible with Thunder II.
—More command key equivalents.
—Completely new printing code.
—New support for tabs.
—Left and Right print margins may now be set.
—Added a popup menu in the Save As... dialog with file signatures of popular word processors.
—ConText now saves the font, size, tab, and print margin information associated with each file.
—ConText can now convert tabs to spaces.
—LF/NULL characters can now be removed.
—Help dialog located in the preference dialog.
—Number of pages field added in Document Info dialog.
—And more!
VERSION 2.0 SPECIFIC BUG FIXES:
—ConText would crash inconsistently when the mouse was pressed. Fixed!
—Transform Quotes function would not transform all the quotes properly. Fixed!
—Sometimes Smart Quotes would not be placed in the proper order. Fixed!
—ConText would produce garbage when pasting from a large clipboard. Fixed!
—You could not escape from selecting the window’s zoom box. Fixed!
—The text would shift up when the first character was pressed and the insertion point would hug the top of the window. Fixed!
—ConText would not overwrite a file with the Save As... function if the file was currently open. Fixed!
—Pressing the Tab key would generate several tabs instead of spaces. This would look nasty when loaded onto a word processor which really handled tabs. Fixed!
—Find/Replace will now replace a word with nothing (delete it).
—A LaserWriter would hang up for about 30 seconds after printing. Fixed!
—And so many more...
VERSION 2.01
—Fixed printing crash when selecting cancel from the print dialog.
—By using ResEdit, you can add your own sizes to the size menu.
—Menus now appear normal when using an enlarged main menu bar.
—Greatly enhanced Find/Replace functions.
—Setting the Tab Spaces to “0” will now speed up file procecution.
CLOSING
“Thank you” to all those who have written me with suggestions, comments and bug reports. I’ve tried very hard to incorporate all your suggestions and exterminate the bugs.
And a very special thanks to all those who beta tested this DA. It wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for you!
If you have any comments or suggestions, you can send them to the address above or to me at any of the information service addresses listed below:
CIS: [73457,426]
AOL: MichaelC50
GEnie: M.CONRAD1
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This documentation was designed, edited and packaged by:
