Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/apps/word/dbwriter/quickdoc.txt

Text File | 1992-07-10 | 48KB | 920 lines

                                dbWRITER 1.8
                      ================================
                      Copyright 1991,1992 David Becker
                              GEnie D.Becker8
                           Compuserve 73030,3562

dbWRITER was originally an experiment in alternative interfaces, long before
my ZeST programs were developed. I wanted to create a custom graphic user
interface that would closely resemble GEM and be portable to the IBM
platform. I had written a simple text editor in my FontSwap2 program that I
wanted to expand so it became the perfect vehicle in which to test my
alternative interface ideas.

dbWRITER has been floating around in various BETA stages for quite a few
months. The first OFFICIAL RELEASE came as a result of much prompting by
other users. dbWRITER has never seen any serious testing therefore I would
appreciate your input when you are confronted with bugs. I hope to continue
perfecting dbWRITER in my spare time as well as adding many new and requested
features.

I have released dbWRITER in three parts. The dictionary file probably won't
be changed for some time so you will only have to download it once. The
thesaurus is also available online and will not be changed. The main program
and support modules will be released anytime an update warrants it. dbWRITER
and all my past programs are freeware, you can copy them, sell them through
the user group or upload them to local BBS systems. You use dbWRITER at your
own risk.

dbWRITER is configurable and will therefore run on all ST platforms. One
megabyte or more is recommended though you can run without the dictionary on
a 520ST. dbWRITER really needs more than one megabyte and a hard drive if it
is to be fully appreciated. I recommend TurboST by Softrek to dramatically
speed up text scrolling (Programmers note: I use the Line-A-Routine BITBLT
to scroll the screen). You will need a monochrome monitor.


Starting Out
============
I must begin by stressing the importance of regularly saving your document to
disk. If you are about to make any major change to your document such as a
global column or width reformat, or do a spell check, make sure you've saved
your work first. dbWRITER is fairly solid, but any application is bound to
have hidden bugs, please proceed safely at all times.

This manual is an overview of the primary commands and functions needed to
operate dbWriter. It assumes an understanding of the fundamentals of word
processing and general knowledge of the ST's mouse and keyboard.

Key combinations listed in this documentation may include the alternate key
<A>, the control key <C>, the LEFT shift key <S> or any combination of these.
<CS>L would require that you hold down the LEFT shift key and control key
while pressing the letter L.


Editing Text
============
The dbWRITER work space is divided into two areas. The uppermost blank area
is your text editing screen. This is where you will be typing and
manipulating your document. Just below at the bottom of the screen is the
command line. You can move the cursor around your document using the arrow
keys or by pointing and clicking with the left mouse.

Here are the basic editing principles,

- BACKSPACE moves the cursor to the left and deletes a character. It drags
  all text 'to the end of the line' along with it. BACKSPACE at the
  beginning of a blank line deletes that line and moves the cursor up and on
  to the end of the line above.

- DELETE deletes the character that the cursor resides on and also drags
  everything else 'to the end of the line' left. The cursor stays put. DELETE
  will remove a blank line and move all lines up one space.

- <SHIFT>DELETE deletes any line, empty or not and moves all lines up one
  space.

- When RETURN is used at the end of the last line in your document, the
  cursor jumps to the beginning of a new blank line below.

  When RETURN is pressed at the end of a line within your document it
  inserts a blank line below and moves the cursor to the beginning of this
  new line.

  When RETURN is pressed at the beginning of a line it inserts a blank line
  at the cursor, moves the existing line down then moves the cursor down to
  the beginning of this line.

  When RETURN is used within a line, the line is split into two parts and
  everything from the cursor position to the end of the line is moved to the
  line below, inserting a blank line if nescessary. The cursor is also
  moved down to the beginning of the line.

There are two distinct modes for text entry. INSERT and OVERWRITE. You toggle
between the two modes using the INSERT key. INSERT mode is the default and
displays a pointing arrow while OVERWRITE displays a crosshair.

INSERT MODE (this is where you will spend most of your time)

- When entering text or using the SPACEBAR, all other text in front is pushed
  forward. Each time a letter is typed, the cursor moves one space to the
  right awaiting the next keypress.

OVERWRITE MODE

- When entering text or using the SPACEBAR, all existing text is overwritten
  by the new characters. Nothing gets pushed forward. Each time a letter is
  typed, the cursor moves one space to the right awaiting the next keypress.


Word Wrap
=========
Word wrap can be toggled on and off by clicking within the command line box
at the bottom of the screen. When word wrap is enabled, any text extending
past the right margin will be automatically wrapped to the next line as you
type. Word wrap only works when there is a blank line beneath. Word wrap
does not effect editing, only typing when the cursor is at the end of the
line. This way you can format and play with any given line after it has been
typed without the irritation of the last word always wrapping around by
mistake.


Command Line
============
The bottom of the screen contains the command line. From left to right you
see the line number indicator which shows the line the cursor resides on.
Click within this box to jump to any line number. Next to that is the page
number indicator displaying the page that the cursor resides within. Click
here to jump to the beginning of any page. The bottom of this box doubles as
a document indicator, either DOC1 or DOC2 (you toggle between two documents
using <C>F). The word wrap indicator displays the status of automatic word
wrap, dark for on and light for off. Click here to toggle between these to
modes. The 'quick pick grid' is next and lets you [L] Load a text file, [S]
Save a text file, [P] Print the current document or [D] look up any word in
the Dictionary. The dbWRITER logo toggles the drop down menus on and off. The
left and right margin indicators reflect the ruler line and its margin
settings. Click here to directly enter a new setting. Page length defaults to
60 but can be changed by clicking in this box. Page length, margins, word
wrap and TAB settings can be custom saved and restored using the ruler
function <A>T. The system memory status box also doubles as a clipboard
indicator. Press this button to call clipboard functions when the clipboard
is full of text. Finally the CAP LOCK indicator has an up arrow for uppercase
lock and a down arrow for normal lower case typing. Use the CAP LOCK key on
the keyboard or click within this box.


Drop Down Menus
===============
dbWRITER uses its own custom style of drop down menu. If you are familiar
with GEM menus then you will have no trouble with these. Simply touch the
mouse cursor at the very top of the edit screen to the left, right or center
to 'drop a menu'. Menu choices flash as you run the mouse pointer over them.
Click the left button to choose or move the mouse off the menu left or right
to cancel. Not all functions are represented in the menus, only the most
important (some may be redundant). Click the dbWRITER logo at the bottom in
the command line to toggle menus off and on.


Text Attributes (italic, bold, underline)
=========================================
There are a few ways of setting bold, italic and underline attributes within
your document. Most likely you will want to change to one of these as you are
typing. Simply press F1(italic), F2(bold) or F3(underline) and then continue
entering text. The correct attribute will be reflected within the text editor
as you type. What has happened is dbWRITER has embedded an invisible control
character at the point where the function key was first pressed and again
just to the right of the cursor. As you type, the last hidden control
character is pushed forward and all text lying between the two control
characters is displayed as either bold, italic or underlined. The most
common method of exiting a chosen attribute is by pressing the RIGHT arrow
key once. This forces the cursor to skip over the last invisible control
character and allows you to once again type with normal text. You could also
use the UP or the DOWN arrow key to exit attribute selection. You can also
set up dbWRITER through the printer driver screen <A>W so that punctuation
automatically exits any attribute. You can have up to 3 different text
attributes on any line at the same time. Should you have difficulty with
bold, italic or underline text and a word gets scrambled, press F8 to clear
the line of all attributes and try again.

You can also set attributes 'after the fact' by placing the cursor on any
chosen word and pressing one of the function keys. If you want to set more
than one word, a sentence or a paragraph then create a text block (hold down
the left mouse and drag down) and choose bold, italic or underline from the
block options menu (right mouse button after the block is set). When a block
is highlighted, you can actually see the hidden control characters!

If you want to save your document as ASCII text you can press <S>F5 after
first saving a copy of your work to disk. This function will clear ALL hidden
control characters and therefore all text attributes. <A>E lets you delete
only ONE type of text attribute from the entire document.


Dictionary
==========
The dbWRITER dictionary is over 40,000 words long and is ASCII text. You can
change words in the dictionary if you follow some simple rules. Do not add or
delete any lines. Do not change spacing on any of the lines. Make sure the
words changed are alphabetic, alongside other words beginning with the same
sequence of letters with one space between each word. I encourage users to
continue updating the dictionary. Canadians will want to change color to
colour and check to cheque, etc.

dbWRITER also allows you to compile a personal supplemental dictionary file.
It will be automatically created during spell check and you will be prompted
to save this personal dictionary file to disk before exiting the program.

One megabyte users should be aware that the dictionary requires about 380K of
available memory. Check the system memory status display within the command
line and make a backup of your document BEFORE you load the dictionary. You
can purge the dictionary from memory using <A>X after the spell check is
complete. Alternatley you may wish to take advantage of the "Memory Saver"
spell check option within the configuration screen <A>C

You can look up any word or even a part of a word by placing the cursor down
on the first letter of the text and clicking 'D' within the quick pick grid
or pressing <C>V. The spell check window will open and if the word is present
it will be highlighted. If not, dbWRITER will show you a list of correctly
spelled words that come close. You can use the up and down arrow to page
through the dictionary or click on the arrows at the bottom of the spell
check window. You can also use SHIFT-UP or DOWN ARROW to fast reverse or fast
forward through the dictionary. If you hit ESC or any other key you can enter
a new word into the edit line at the bottom of this window and then press
RETURN to look it up. The right mouse button or UNDO exits the spell check
window (as long as you are not still entering a word on the edit line).

If you want to spell check your entire document then press <C>X. dbWRITER
will start at the top of your document and everytime it sees an unrecognized
word it will place a flashing black cursor on the word and bring up a dialog
box with three options,
                           SKIP, ADD and CORRECT.

If you know the word is spelled correctly and you want to add it to your
personal dictionary then choose ADD. If you know the word is spelled
correctly but it is an oddball then press SKIP and the spell check won't
bother you again if it sees another the same. If you want the computer to
help you correct the highlighted word then press CORRECT and the spell check
window will appear. If you see the correct spelling within the window you can
click on it with the left mouse button and it will replace the original word
within the edit line at the bottom. If not, you can page through the
dictionary or hit ESC or any key to manually type another spelling within
the edit line. Hit RETURN or the right mouse button to exit the spell check
window, replace the old word with the new spelling and continue on with the
rest of the document. Your personal dictionary will only be updated when you
quit this session of dbWRITER. Always quit using the UNDO key!

You can cancel spell check by pressing UNDO while the computer is scanning
words. The bottom left of the command line shows you the progress during
spell check. If the dialog (SKIP, ADD, CORRECT) is on the screen you can hold
down the right mouse button while pressing RETURN to also cancel spell check.

dbWRITER configuration <A>C contains an option called "Memory saver spell
check". When this option is active the spell check uses only half the
normal memory by doing two passes and loading only half the dictionary at a
time. Word searches are done by scanning the dictionary disk file instead
of loading the entire dictionary resident in memory. This dictionary disk
scan can take a few seconds but uses very little memory.


Thesaurus
=========
The dbWRITER thesaurus is contained within four files:

              THES1.DAT, THES2.DAT, THES3.DAT and THES4.DAT

These files should be in the same directory as dbWRITER or if you
choose to share these files with the dbWRITER accessory (see configuration
instructions below) they will be in the folder DICT on drive C:

There is a drop down menu on the far left (bottom) that will activate the
thesaurus screen or hit the key combination <CA>T

The thesaurus screen pops up in the middle of the text editor and awaits
input. Simply type the word you wish to search and hit RETURN. dbWRITER
looks at the files on your hard drive and does not actually load the
thesaurus into memory. This uses very little RAM. After a few seconds, if
the word was found, you will see the thesaurus choices appear at the
bottom of the thesaurus window. The combined thesaurus files contain almost
30,000 words!

Press RETURN to input another word or click again within the box.
The thesaurus search will continue to expand until it exhausts itself or
until you hit UNDO. Click the right mouse button, input an empty string or
press UNDO to exit the thesaurus window.


Mail Merge Database
===================
<S>F6 enters the mail merge database. One megabyte users should not enter
the database unless they plan on using it. I allocate the needed memory only
when entering mail merge for the first time, not when dbWRITER is first run.

This is a simple address book/cardfile that allows you to send form letters
to anyone included within the database. This feature allows you to imbed
both the salutation and inside address into your document using SHIFT-F7 or
SHIFT-F8. For example, your form letter might start like this:

                            Dear SHIFT-F7,

and everytime a new letter is printed the computer inserts a different name
onto this line. Same thing for the inside address (can also be used for
envelopes).

             Here are the options within mail merge,

             F1   Mark an address for inclusion or exclusion
                  in the current printouts. There will be a cross
                  in the upper left corner or a check mark. A
                  check mark will INCLUDE the entry when mail merge
                  printing and a cross will SKIP the entry.

             F2   Sort all the address cards. Mail merge sorts using
                  the last name on the salutation line. For example, if
                  your salutation line is 'Mr. David Becker' the sort
                  is smart enough to look at 'Becker' instead of 'Mr.'

             F3   Search for any string in any address card.

             F4   Load a mail merge database (extension of .MM)

             F5   Print one or all the address cards

             F6   Erase any one or all of the cards

             F7   Save your personal mail merge database to disk

             F8   Go to (jump to) any card number you wish

Use the arrow keys to cycle through the cards. Hit UNDO to return back to the
dbWRITER edit screen. Hit RETURN to enter edit mode. The black cursor appears
on line one (the salutation line). Type your information onto each line. You
must continue hitting RETURN after each entry line to exit edit mode.


Global Search and Replace
=========================
<C>S brings up the search and replace screen. If you want to search for a
text string then click in the box at the top, enter your target text and
press RETURN. If you are going to search and then replace this text with an
alternate string then enter this on the next line using the same process.

The next set of buttons let you choose how much of you document to search
within. You can search forwards from the current cursor position to the
end of your document. You can search backwards from the end of the
document to the cursor or simply search every line from top to bottom.
Highlight the correct button by clicking the left mouse on it.

Below are the WITH QUERY, WITHOUT QUERY buttons. These buttons function only
during search and replace. WITH QUERY prompts you before replacing text
and WITHOUT QUERY just replaces text on its own without asking.

The button to the right is CASE SENSITIVE. When this is darkened the computer
looks for an exact match when searching text strings. Upper case and lower
case MUST match exactly. When this button is light, case does not matter when
searching for text.

The next set of buttons, ITALIC, BOLD, UNDERLINE only work with search and
replace. The computer can search for the text string in the top box and turn
it into one of the three chosen attributes, italic, bold or underlined. The
text is not replaced by the string in the second 'replace string' box but is
simply converted to the chosen attribute.

To begin a simple search WITHOUT replace press the bottom left button on
this screen titled SEARCH or hit RETURN. F10 will continue searching after
each occurrence.

To begin a search AND replace press the bottom center button titled
SEARCH-REPLACE.

To begin a search and attribute change press the bottom right button titled
ATTRIBUTES. UNDO cancels any search underway or exits this screen.


Auto Load Options
=================
dbWRITER will automatically load a ruler line (DBWRITER.TAB), a mail merge
database file (DBWRITER.MM) and a set of macros (DBWRITER.MAC) if it finds
the correct filename present in its directory. The dictionary can be
loaded automatically through the configuration dialog <A>C
(You can't auto load the dictionary if memory saver is turned on).


Block Options
=============
There will be many times when you wish to manipulate only a small portion of
your document. This can be accomplished by defining a text block. The easiest
way of doing this is to place the cursor at the beginning of your chosen text
by pointing and clicking the left mouse. Hold down the button and drag down
and to the right (or only to the right) with the button depressed. You can
move the highlighted area up and down as long as the mouse button is held.
It's easy to highlight only one letter, one word, a sentence or a paragraph!
If you drag past the bottom of the edit screen the document will begin to
scroll up. Let go of the mouse button when you have highlighted the chosen
text. If you mess up you can hit ESC and try again.

With a defined block, the right mouse button no longer calls your custom
keypress but instead opens the block option dialog box. Here are 15 options
for your chosen text. You can click the left mouse on any option or press the
correct number or letter to activate it.

                1. Delete Block (There is no safety buffer for
                   deleted blocks. All text beneath will snug up
                   into the deleted area.)

                2. Copy Block (You can't copy a text block into a
                   text block. Move the cursor to the point of
                   insertion and you can copy into an existing
                   sentence or start from a blank line. The
                   original block remains highlighted.)

                3. Move Block (A copy is made at the cursor
                   position then the original block is deleted.)

                4. Write to Disk (A copy of the chosen text is
                   saved to disk under a filename of your choice.)

                5. Print Block (Only the chosen text is printed
                   together with any chosen attributes.)

                6. Italic (Change the entire block of text to
                   italic.)

                7. Bold (Change the entire block of text to bold.)

                8. Underlined (Change the entire block of text to
                   underlined.)

                9. Clear Attributes (Erase all bold, italic and
                   underline attributes from the chosen text.
                   Control characters become visible within
                   highlighted text.)

                A. Justify Block (Flush left or flush right. If
                   only a small part of a line is highlighted the
                   whole line is still justified.)

                B. Copy to Clipboard (This is the only way to copy
                   blocks into blocks or to copy between two
                   seperate documents. The content of the
                   clipboard remains intact even if you load
                   another document. Clipboard functions are
                   called by clicking in the system memory box
                   You can stack text blocks within the clipboard
                   or replace text in the clipboard with the new
                   block.)

                C. Indent Block (Once again if a part of a line is
                   highlighted the whole line will still be
                   affected. Positive numbers indent right,
                   negative numbers indent to the left.)

                D. Reformat Width (The easiest way to reformat a
                   paragraph is with F9 but this accompishes the
                   same thing with your chosen text block.)

                E. Upper Case (The entire block is changed to
                   upper case letters. Numbers and special
                   characters are not affected.)

                F. Lower Case (The entire block is changed to
                   lower case.)

Click the right mouse button again or hit UNDO to exit block options
without making a choice. You can also use key commands to set a block:

     <C>A Block start     <C>Z Block end    <C>U Use the block options

or check out the far left drop down menu under text block options.

The configuration screen has an option called "Auto options after
setting text block". When this is enabled the text block option dialog will
display after you set your text block by dragging the mouse.


Configure dbWRITER
==================
<A>C enters the custom configuration screen. These settings reflect the way
dbWRITER operates when next run. You can set the maximum number of lines in
the dbWRITER editor. This option will save memory for those using a megabyte
or less and only wanting to type short letters. The default is 4000 lines. I
set it at 20000 on my MegaSTe and at 2000 on my 1040ST. (If the maximum line
setting is exceeded while using dbWRITER you will see a warning dialog
advising you to save your document. Please change your configuration and run
dbWRITER again.)

Maximum number of lines for the clipboard defaults to 99. If you are going
to be copying between two seperate documents you will need this set higher.

Maximum number of mail merge names. If you use dbWRITER in your business
you may want this set quite high, or maybe you have lots of friends!

Text block auto options (as descibed in the section on text blocks) is next.

You can auto load the dictionary when dbWRITER is first run by selecting
the next option. You can't auto load the dictionary with memory saver.

The next two options set the dictionary and thesaurus paths. When using the
dbWRITER accessory (available on GEnie and Compuserve) you can share the
dictionary and thesaurus instead of having seperate files for each
application. Follow the instructions included with the dbWRITER desk
accessory and after the accessory has created and installed the new
dictionary folder (it creates a folder called DICT on drive C:) and you have
copied the thesaurus files into it, you can share these between the dbWRITER
program and the dbWRITER accessory. If you do not use the dbWRITER accessory
than the dictionary file and thesaurus files must be in the same directory as
DBWRITER.PRG

The next box tells dbWriter to save a custom ruler line everytime you save
a text file. The ruler will share the same name as your text file but will
carry the proper .TAB extension. Ruler lines are auto loaded when they
share the same name as text files (example: LETTER.TXT and LETTER.TAB).

The last option is called "Memory saver spell check". When this option is
active the spell check uses only half the normal memory by doing two passes
and loading only half the dictionary every time. Word searches are done by
scanning the dictionary disk file instead of loading the entire dictionary
resident in memory. This dictionary disk scan can take a few seconds but uses
very little memory.

Many other settings are saved with your configuration such as screen colour,
key click, visible page breaks, and the custom right mouse button press to
name a few.

Did'nt I mention the custom right mouse button key press? This is cool!
Press <A>F and dbWRITER will ask for a custom key press to assign the right
mouse button. Any key combination supported by dbWRITER! Now everytime you
press the right mouse button you can call your favorite function.


Printer Driver Configuration
============================
<A>W brings up the printer driver screen. Here you can create you own
custom drivers by simply entering the DECIMAL values for bold, italic,
underline and form feed right from your printer manual. Just click the
CHANGE button next to each attribute, enter the codes and when you are done
save your new printer driver as PRINTER.DBP for auto load everytime you run
dbWRITER. (If your printer supports subscript, superscript, light text or
other special effects you can easily substitute these codes for bold,
italic or underline!)

At the bottom next to the SAVE and LOAD buttons you can choose the device
to print to, either the serial port (modem) or the parallel port (this will
most likely be what you are using and is the default).

The next button decides whether punctuation exits attribute selection.
For example, if you are typing using bold, should a period, question mark or
exclamation mark exit you back to normal text?

The command button lets you send any custom printer string to your printer
and the form feed button ejects a page from your printer.

All other settings are saved with your printer driver.


Ruler Line
==========
You can set and remove TAB marks (small triangles) by pointing and clicking on
the ruler line. If you click and hold the left button a vertical line will
appear that you can slide back and forth. Let go of the mouse button to set
your TAB! Normally you would click once quickly on any existing TAB marker to
remove it or click on any empty space to set a new TAB marker.

Left and right MARGINS can also be set by clicking on top of the MARGIN within
the ruler line (the black blocks with L or R inside) and holding down the
mouse button. This is a bit tricky, you must click between the horizontal
ruler line and the top of the command line. Drag the double vertical lines
left or right and then let go of the button. MARGIN settings will change
within the indicator box as you go.

You can save and load custom rulers using <A>T or even setup dbWRITER's
configuration to load a custom ruler when run. If a ruler line shares the
same name as a text file (example: LETTER.TXT and LETTER.TAB) then this
ruler line will be loaded along with the text file. Printout margins (left
and top) are saved with your ruler line.


Printout Configuration Screen
=============================
The first two options set the top and left margin for only the printed page,
not for the displayed document. These settings are saved with your custom
ruler line.

Next you can set the number of copies to be printed. The countdown box at the
bottom right of this screen displays the total number of complete copies (not
pages but entire documents) sent to the printer. This indicator resets
everytime you close the printout configuration box.

If you want to send a form feed (page eject) after each page is printed then
set this option to YES.

The next box tells dbWRITER to send your entire document continuously to the
printer without prompting you at all or to alternately ask after each page.

If you have entered the mail merge database and inserted a Shift-F7 or
Shift-F8 into your document then you can print using the mail merge database.
This option will be lightened if the database is not available.

The next option sets the page number that will begin the printout.

The last option sets the number of lines between pages. It may be easier to
set the automatic perforation skip on your printer and just print from
dbWRITER continuously. If you are printing labels then this option will be
invaluable.



Extras and Reminders
====================

- Press HELP to find the current version number.

- UNDO quits dbWRITER and returns you to the GEM desktop.

- The 'quick pick grid' next to the dbWRITER logo lets you [L] Load a text
  file, [S] Save a text file, [P] Print the current document or [D] look
  up any word in the Dictionary.

- The cursor control arrows are non-destructive and the cursor floats freely.
  You can use the arrows or mouse to move the cursor ANYWHERE on the screen
  above the last line of your document.

- SHIFT-LEFT ARROW takes you to the beginning or SHIFT-RIGHT ARROW to the
  end of any line.

- If you've just screwed up a line you can hit CONTROL-UNDO to call the
  safety buffer and restore the line.

- Click the left mouse button once quickly and the cursor will drop wherever
  the arrow is pointing. Drag with the left button to set a text block. Use
  the right button to call up block options or hit ESC to clear the block.

- CONTROL-RETURN centers any line of text.

- The INSERT key toggles between insert and overwrite mode (pointing
  arrow or crosshairs).

- You can pass parameters to dbWRITER. If you have Mega STe - TOS 2.05 or
  better just 'pick up' your text file with the mouse and 'drop it' on top of
  the dbWRITER.PRG icon. The program will run and then will automatically
  load your document! You can 'install' any file with the extension .TXT or
  .DOC on all TOS versions and have dbWRITER do the same thing when you
  double-click on the text file!

- F9 reformats the current PARAGRAPH to the margins.

- If you place the mouse pointer at the very bottom of the screen you can
  scroll through your document by pressing the left and right buttons.


All Currently Supported Functions in Brief
==========================================

<C>Q ........... Calendar. (Defaults to system date, use the arrow keys to
                 change the month or year. UNDO or right mouse to exit.)

<C>W ........... Invert the screen colours. (Black on white / white on black.
                 Colours are saved automatically with your configuration.)

<C>K ........... Toggle key click on and off. (Default is off. Key click is
                 also saved with your configuration.)

F4 ............. Load an ASCII text file. (You can alternately click the [L]
                 within the 'quick pick grid'. dbWRITER offers a basic import
                 option when it recognizes a non-ASCII file. Wordwriter and
                 First Word Plus importation is also supported.)

F5 ............. Merge a text file. (Merge another small file at the cursor.
                 This file must be less then 500 lines.)

F6 ............. Save a password encrypted text file. (Encrypted files are
                 automatically recognized when loaded and you are then
                 prompted for the correct password. This function requires
                 a lot of memory, make a backup first.)

F7 ............. Save a text file. (You can also click [S] within the grid.)

<CS>F7 ......... Save a text file using the last filename. (You must have
                 first saved your file at least once. The previously
                 saved text file will be renamed to BACKUP.TXT)

<C>H ........... Toggle slow scroll on and off.

<C>N ........... Automatic scroll. (Use the up or down arrow key to start the
                 scroll in the chosen direction. Try it with slow scroll.)

F10............. Continues a string search initiated with CONTROL-S.

<C>F ........... Flip between two separate text files. (You can use the
                 clipboard to copy text back and forth between two files. The
                 two text buffers work best when you have MORE than one meg
                 of memory. I allocate extra memory only when this function is
                 called. dbWRITER remembers the cursor position, line and
                 page for each document and returns you to the correct last
                 position when flipping back and forth.)

<CA>T .......... dbWRITER Thesaurus

<C>T ........... Jump to the top of your document. (CLR does the same thing.)

<C>B ........... Go to the bottom of the current document.

<C>M ........... Mark a line (bookmark) and jump to it any time with <C>J.
                 (The line changes to light italic text. Hit ESC to clear
                 a marked line.)

<C>A ........... Mark the beginning of a block of text. (You can also hold
                 down the left mouse button and drag over text to set a
                 block. If you continue dragging past the last line, the text
                 will scroll up. After the block is highlighted use the right
                 mouse button to call up the option screen. Printer control
                 codes become visible within blocked text. Use ESC to clear a
                 text block.)

<C>Z ........... Mark the end of a text block.

<C>U ........... Calls the block option menu (or use the right mouse button).

<C>G ........... Go to any line number (or click within the command line).

<C>E ........... Go to any page number (or click within the command line).

<CS>TAB ........ Toggle between destructive and non-destructive TAB. (When you
                 hit the TAB key it either pushes everything in its path
                 ahead or just skims over existing text.)

<SA>T .......... Typewriter mode.(A checkmark becomes visible when this option
                 is active. After hitting RETURN, the current line of text is
                 sent directly to the printer.)

<C>S ........... Search and replace screen. (Click within the text entry boxes
                 at the top of this screen to enter your search strings. You
                 can search/replace FORWARD from the cursor position,
                 BACKWARDS from the current cursor position or everything in
                 your entire document. You can search/replace WITH QUERY and
                 you will be prompted to confirm each match. You can also
                 search/replace CASE SENSITIVE or without caring about upper
                 or lower cases. Finally you can search for a text string and
                 set its attribute to either italic, bold or underlined!
                 Click on one of the three choice buttons at the bottom of
                 this screen to initiate the search/replace. UNDO or the
                 right mouse button exits.)

<CS>D .......... Here you can set the editor to single or double spacing or
                 automatically reformat the entire document from single to
                 double spaces and back again.

<CS>P .......... Page preview. (Standard page sizes, side by side. Sixty
                 lines per page is the maximum supported by page preview.)

<CS>I .......... Auto or manual indent. (Automatic indent centers the entire
                 document left to right. Manual indent accepts positive or
                 negative numbers. Positive shifts text right, negative shifts
                 text to the left. If AUTO indent does not seem to work it
                 is likely because one or more lines are too long.)

<CS>T .......... Center one page. (If you have no more than one page of text
                 you can center it horizontally AND vertically!)

<CS>R .......... Reformat width. (This option can reformat your document
                 width to match the right and left margins. You can also
                 define a text block and reformat from the block options
                 menu. Make a backup of your document before reformatting.
                 If you want to reformat only the paragraph the cursor is
                 touching then press F9.)

<CS>F .......... Reformat full-out. (You will be prompted to first reformat
                 the document width. This usually results in a cleaner
                 justification. Backup your document before reformatting.)

<CS>L .......... Reformat the entire document flush left or right.

<C>V ........... View the dictionary. (Or click on the [D] in the quick pick
                 grid on the command line. The dictionary will be loaded if
                 this is the first time you have chosen the option. If you
                 are using a hard drive then this is relatively painless. The
                 dictionary will be retained in memory from this point on.
                 The file DICTIONA.RY should be in the same folder as
                 dbWRITER. You can place the cursor on any word, or even in
                 the middle of a word, and the computer will look it up in
                 the dictionary. If the word is present, it will be
                 highlighted. If not, hunt through the dictionary using the
                 up or down arrow. You can also type alternate words into
                 the dictionary window and then press RETURN to search
                 again. UNDO or right mouse exits.)

<C>X ........... Spell check the entire document. (When confronted with a
                 word it does not recognize, the ST gives you the option of
                 SKIPPING the word, ADDING it to your personal dictionary or
                 CORRECTING it. dbWRITER will look up the closest match to
                 the incorrect word and then display a list. If you see the
                 correct spelling just click with the left mouse. You can
                 also use the up or down arrow to browse the dictionary. Hit
                 RETURN to accept the word or any other key to edit it. Hit
                 UNDO during spell check to cancel or use RETURN while
                 depressing the right mouse button if the dialog box is
                 present.

<A>X ........... Purge the dictionary from memory. Restores all used memory.
                 You will have to reload the dictionary next time you use it.

<A>P ........... Print the current document. (You can also click [P] within
                 the grid. You can print single pages with a prompt between
                 pages or print continuously. You can send a FF after each
                 page or you can set the number of spaces between pages.
                 You can also print multiple copies and set you margins.
                 If the mail merge database is active you will also have the
                 option to print form letters.)

<CS>C .......... Word count and document status. (Calculate the number of
                 words, the number of lines, the number of characters and the
                 number of pages in the entire document.)

<CS>A .......... Sort and alphabetize. (Descending Z-A or ascending A-Z. This
                 option is fast and great for lists!)

<CS>CLR ........ Erase entire document. (You will first be prompted.)

<C>D ........... Show text macros. (You can program up to ten text macros for
                 instant insertion at any time in your document. Hold down
                 ALTERNATE and any function key to program the string and hold
                 down CONTROL and the same function key to insert the text
                 string into your document.)

<S>F9 .......... Load text macros from disk. (With this option you can load
                 any set of ten macros you want. The configuration
                 screen allows you to auto load macros when running dbWRITER.)

<S>F10 ......... Save macros to disk. (After programming some text macros you
                 can save them to disk for another session. )

<CS>T .......... Switch transposed letters. (I'm always doing this, typing
                 'thier' instead of 'their'.)

<CS>H .......... Format text into columns. (For the time being you can only
                 do two columns. I usually choose about 35 characters
                 across. You can also define the space between columns.
                 Each page will be separated by a FF printer control code.
                 Check your installed printer driver. Backup your document
                 before formatting it into columns. These 'psuedo' columns
                 cannot be individually edited after creation. Each line
                 of text is independant even though it contains two columns.)

<C>P ........... Set the page length. (Or click in the command line. The
                 default setting is 60 lines per page. This setting is
                 saved with your ruler line.)

<A>UNDO ........ Remove command line. (Hit ALT-UNDO or UNDO to re-install the
                 command line. This feature is nice when reading long text
                 files, it speeds up the scroll! While in this mode you can
                 use the left mouse button to scroll your document down or
                 the right mouse button to scroll up.)

<A>A ........... Gives you access to desk accessories. (Make sure you close
                 all opened accessories before returning to the edit screen.)

<C>Y ........... Clipboard. (You can click within the command line as well.
                 If you choose to view clipboard contents use the arrow
                 keys to scroll around the clipboard window. The clipboard
                 can be used to copy text between two seperate documents.)

<A>T ........... Save and load ruler lines. (All TAB marks and margins can be
                 saved or loaded from disk.  Also saves page length and word
                 wrap status. dbWRITER can be configured to automatically
                 load a ruler line when run.)

<A>B ........... Display page breaks with a dotted horizontal line. (This
                 will be saved with your configuration.)

<C>INSERT ...... Insert special graphic characters. (Point and shoot, make
                 sure your printer can support these special characters.)

<A>C ........... Configure dbWRITER (Changes take effect next time you run the
                 program. You can auto load the dictionary, the mail merge
                 database, a custom ruler or custom macro set. The mail merge
                 file must be named dbWRITER.MM, the ruler must be named
                 dbWRITER.TAB and the macros must be named dbWRITER.MAC) The
                 configuration file also contains information on screen
                 colour, key click, horizontal scrolling, page breaks and
                 other settings.)

<C>C ........... Fixed or free cursor.

<A>W ........... You can create custom printer drivers with this screen. (The
                 printer driver named PRINTER.DBP is always default loaded
                 when dbWRITER is run. You can also load another alternate
                 driver and you can save the current driver. When no driver
                 is present dbWRITER uses Epson FX mode. You can send a
                 custom control code to the printer, choose the output device
                 and decide how punctuation effects attributes. You can also
                 set the margins just for printouts. Use UNDO or the
                 right mouse to exit.)

<A>E ........... Erase all bold, underlined or italic codes.

<A>F ........... Assign a custom keypress to the right mouse button. (This
                 will be saved with the configuration.)

<S>F5 .......... Delete all printer codes in the entire document.

<S>F4 .......... Imbed a FF character or forced end of page. (This separator
                 is shown as a triple bar, 80 columns across.)

<S>F6 .......... Mail Merge Database. (This is a simple address book/cardfile
                 that allows you to send form letters to anyone included
                 within the database.)


In Closing
==========
dbWRITER was originally written for my own use only. I am happy to share it
with the rest of the ST community but please be patient with me. I will do my
best to deal with bugs and updates in a timely fashion. I may not always be
able to return a letter or electronic mail but I really do appreciate the
feedback! Updates will be posted on all the major online services. I will try
to enhance the limited documentation included with this version. I encourage
those users creating printer drivers to upload them and share. dbWRITER is
NOT shareware, it is freeware and you do NOT have to pay to use it. Enjoy!

                                             David Becker
                                             GEnie D.Becker8
                                             Compuserve 73030,3562