PC-Blue - MS DOS Public Domain Library/PC-Blue MS-DOS Public Domain Library - NYACC.iso/vol130/tutorial.doc

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12  Tutorial:  Introduction

In this section we'll go through the process of creating
and editing a simple text file.  You'll learn how to use
the following keys:

   Normal typewriter keys (letters, etc)
   Shift and Caps Lock keys for letters
   Scroll Lock key
   Enter key
   Bksp (Backspace), Ins, and Del keys
   Four cursor movement arrow keys
   Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys
   F1 function key, F2 and F3 options

You can do a lot of editing with just these keys.  When
you feel comfortable with them you can pick up other
keys, as you need them.

If you press a key PC-Write is not expecting, or try to
move the cursor somewhere it can't move, you hear a
beeping noise.  Try Alt with letter A, for example.

We'll start by creating a new file.  Let's call it TEST.
You should have a diskette in the default drive with
ED.EXE on it.  Since this is a demonstration creating a
new file, the file TEST should not be on the diskette.

You can use a file name with a drive (like B:TEST) or an
extension (like TEST.DOC) if you like.  With DOS 2.00 you
can also use a pathname (like DEMO\TEST).  PC-Write uses
standard DOS files and file names.  It treats all file
names the same;  it passes the drive, extension and path
to the DOS normally.  The full file name must fit in 30
characters, however.
13  Tutorial:  Starting the Editor

Turn on your computer and load DOS as usual.  Assume the
default drive is A.  The DOS is asking for a command with:

   A>

Now type ED, a space, and the name of the file you want
to use.  In this case the name is TEST, so you type:

   A>ed test

You can type in upper or lower case, or a mixture.  After
typing the line, press the Enter key to start PC-Write.

If you just type "ed", without giving the name of a file
to create or edit, PC-Write uses the file named WORK.DOC.

The first thing PC-Write does is check whether the file,
TEST, exists.  If it does not, it tells you on the top
line with:

   New file.  Press Esc to cancel, or F1 to create "test"

If you had wanted to edit a file named BEST but typed
TEST by mistake, you could press the Escape key to stop
editing, go back to the DOS, and try again.  But you want
to create the new file TEST, so press F1.

PC-Write displays the normal top line, in this case:

   F1 Help. Push#JustOff. 99% Free. 00% Thru. Read "test"

This line says "Read" even though there is no text yet.
As soon as you add or change something it says "Edit".
"Read" means the text (if any) on the diskette is the
same as internal memory;  "Edit" means it is different.
14  Tutorial:  Typing Characters

Type a few sentences, as you would on a typewriter.  Try
two ways of starting new lines, with the Enter key and
with "wordwrap".  Type one line and press Enter to start
a new line.  Type another line all the way to the right
side of the screen, and wordwrap starts a line for you.
Most people get used to wordwrap very quickly.

Use the shift keys to capitalize letters.  Press Caps
Lock once and type in all caps.  Notice only the
alphabetic keys are affected.  If you use a shift key
when Caps Lock is on, you get lower case.  Try it.

Hold down a key and watch it repeat.  Make a row of dots.

Let's push the cursor around.  Use the four white keys
with arrows on them, on the right.  Move the cursor to
different places.  Hold down an arrow, watch it repeat.

The Home key moves the cursor to the left margin.  The
left margin may or may not be at the first character on
the line, or the first physical column.  Try it.

The End key moves the cursor to the end of the line, just
after the last character on the line.  Spaces at the end
of the line are included.  Try it.  Compare it with Home.

Press the PgDn key and watch the screen go down.  Press
PgUp and watch it go up.  Hold them to repeat.  These
keys are more useful when you have more text.  If they
seem reversed to you, you can change them later.

Move the cursor over some text and type some characters.
As you type, the characters on the right are pushed over
to make room.  You are in Pushright mode.

Press the Scroll Lock key once (on the PCjr, this is the
Fn key with S, marked "ScLock").  Type some characters
and watch them write over the old characters.  You are in
Overwrite mode.  Press Scroll Lock a few times and watch
the cursor change.  It is thicker in Pushright mode, so
it can "push" better.  After some practice, you'll always
know which mode you're in by looking at the cursor.
15  Tutorial:  The Bksp key

When you edit text, you do two kinds of actions:  moving
the cursor and screen to different parts of your text,
and making changes to your text.  There are two main ways
to change text:  add new text or remove existing text.

Removing text is called deleting it.  PC-Write provides
many ways to delete;  the most basic are the Del or Bksp
(Backspace) keys to delete one character at a time.

Bksp is the key above the Enter key, with a large arrow
on it.  If you mis-type a character, press Bksp to delete
it.  The cursor moves back so you can type the correct
character.

Bksp moves the cursor like the Left arrow key, except it
deletes the character.  Some people call it destructive
backspace, and the Left arrow non-destructive backspace.

In Pushright mode, Bksp pulls the rest of the line left.
In Overwrite mode it just moves left and replaces the
character with a space.  The space bar pushes right in
Pushright mode, or overwrites and moves the cursor right
in Overwrite mode, so Bksp and space are complementary.

Try the Bksp key.  Use it in Pushright and Overwrite
mode.  Hold it down to repeat.  Compare it with a space.

At the end of every line is a line boundary character.
This is an "invisible" character, like a space character.
Just like the letter A key inserts a letter A, the Enter
key or the wordwrap process insert a line boundary.

What happens if the cursor is at the start of a line and
you press Bksp ?  In Pushright mode you delete the line
boundary character.  Join two lines by deleting the line
boundary.  Split them again by pressing the Enter key.
16  Tutorial:  Ins and Del keys

The other single character delete key is the Del key.  It
deletes a character, too, but it doesn't move the cursor.
It always pulls the rest of the line to the left, even in
Overwrite mode.

Try the Del key.  Compare it with the Bksp key.  Put the
cursor at the end of a line (with End) and use Del to
delete the line boundary.  Press Enter to split the line.

To delete text after the cursor, use Del.  To delete text
before the cursor, use Bksp.

If you happen to be in Overwrite mode and want to replace
a word with a shorter one, use Del to close up the line.
For example, if you typed "A yellow rose" and want to
make it "A blue rose", put the cursor at "yellow", type
"blue", and press Del twice to close up the line.

But what if you're in Overwrite mode and want to change
"blue" back to "yellow" ?  You need the Ins key.  It
inserts spaces, even in Overwrite mode.  Put the cursor
at "blue", press Ins twice, and type "yellow".

The Ins key is like the space bar in Pushright mode.
However, like Del, it doesn't move the cursor.  Ins and
Del are not affected by Pushright or Overwrite mode.

You can use Ins and Del to shift a line to the right or
left.  Put the cursor at the start of a line, and press
the Ins key a few times.  Watch the line shift to the
right.  Now press the Del key a few times and watch it
shift to the left.

Several keys are all related:  the Left and Right arrows,
Del and Ins, and Bksp and space bar.  After a while you
may pick some keys you like for editing.  Perhaps you
will stay in Pushright mode, and mostly use the Bksp key.
Perhaps you will stay in Overwrite mode, and use Bksp
with Ins and Del.  Perhaps you will use both methods.
17  Tutorial:  Help Screen and Saving

Now you know the basics of editing text.  All your work
was done only in internal memory.  To print or otherwise
use your work, you need to copy it to the diskette.

The F1 key handles this chore.  It also shows the Help
screen, and lets you exit or edit another file.

The main Help screen may look confusing at first.  It is
not intended to teach how to use PC-Write.  Instead, it
helps you remember which key does what.  There are more
Help screens that are easier to read.  Press the F1 key.
Find the keys you have learned so far on the Help screen:

   F1        Bksp      ScrLock   Enter
   Home/End  Ins/Del   PgUp/PgDd Up/Down/Left/Right Arrow

Press the up and down arrows to see other Help screens.
On the top line, look at the message for F1 actions:

   F1:continue F2:exit F3:save ...(other options)

There are a number of things you can do here.  We'll learn
three of them:  F1 to just continue editing,  F2 to exit to
the DOS, and F3 to save your text on the diskette.

After switching to the Help screen with F1, you can
switch back to your text by pressing F1 again.  Press F1
a few times and watch the screen switch back and forth.

After switching to Help with F1, you can press F3 to save
text in internal memory to the disk file.  Try pressing
F1 and then F3.  The top line switches (briefly) to:

   Writing "test", nnnn bytes to write.

The disk drive runs, and you see your text again with the
normal top line.  Now it says Read "test" instead of Edit
"test", since the text in internal memory is the same as
the text on the diskette.  If you make a change, the top
line will say Edit again.  Save your text with F1 and F3
often;  losing work can be frustrating!
18  Tutorial:  Exiting and Re-editing

Pressing F1 followed by F2 finishes running the editor
program and returns to the DOS, so you can run some other
program.  If you changed your text, it is saved on the
diskette first.  If not, the text in internal memory is
the same as on the diskette, so there is no need to save.

Go ahead and exit the editor by pressing F1 and then F2.
Now let's edit the file you created.  As before, type:

   A>ed test

As before, PC-Write checks whether the file TEST exists.
This time it does, so it displays:

   Reading "test", nnnn bytes are free.

After the file has been read, you see the message:

   Press Esc to cancel backup copy, or F1 to write "tes$"

Now you have a choice.  You can start editing immediately
or first write a backup copy of your text to the file
named TES$.  If you press F1, you'll see (briefly):

   Writing "tes$", nnnn bytes to write.

The idea of a backup file is like the idea of saving your
text while you are editing.  A backup file protects you
if your file gets written to a worn spot on the diskette.
It also protects you from making a mistake while editing
and saving your text (with the mistake) to the main file.

The name of the backup file comes from the name of the
file you are editing.  The last character is replaced
with a "$".  If you are editing a file whose name already
ends with $, there is no separate backup file.

Now you can edit your file again.  Practice the keys you
have learned.  Try creating new files and editing them.
18a Tutorual:  Printing

You just used the editoor program, ED.EXE, to edit your
text.  Usually you use the page printer program, PR.EXE,
to print your text.  For example, to print the file TEST
that you just created, tell the DOS:

   A>pr test

If the file TEST has move than 60 lines of text, the page
printer will automatically divide it into pages.

The page printer tries to read a file named RULER.PRT, to
learn about your printer.  The Installation procedure
(page 4) described how to make this RULER.PRT file.  If
the page printer cannot find this file, it asks you for a
file to use.  Just press the Enter key if this happens.