home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Collection of Tools & Utilities
/
Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso
/
edit
/
heaven.zip
/
GUIDE.4
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1986-11-20
|
38KB
|
717 lines
31
APPENDIX
WRITER'S HEAVEN AND QUICKEYS
The IBM BIOS causes a pressed key to repeat after a pause.
The length of this pause and the slowness of the subsequent
repetition can be a serious irritant to a writer.
I found a reasonably adequate solution in the program
Quickeys, available at no cost from PC Magazine. Quickeys is a
resident program that shortens the pause and speeds the
repetition. It is loaded by typing QUICKEYS at the DOS prompt.
Subsequent typings of QUICKEYS provide even greater speed. I
strongly recommend QUICKEYS for use with Writer's Heaven.
Because of copyright, I am unable to distribute Quickeys
with Writer's Heaven. Quickeys is documented in PC Magazine,
March 11, 1986, pages 255-258. The article includes code in Basic
and in assembly language. You can also download the program from
PC Magazine's Interactive Reader Service, (212) 696-0360.
If you use Quickeys, be aware of the following minor
problems:
1. Repetition of a cursor or scrolling command may cause you
to "overshoot." A long repetition may give you a beep.
2. Occasionally, a repeated scrolling command may continue
on its own indefinitely, until you press another key. (You can
use ESC, which will not add text.)
3. If you use the Writer's Heaven OTHER KEY with a CURSOR or
SCROLL KEY and continue pressing the second key in the combina-
tion, you may get a beep.
4. Characters inserted with the Alt-keypad method will
repeat endlessly until you press another key.
Hopefully Quicksoft will someday add a similar feature to
PC-Write as an "editor switch" option.
PRINTING THE WRITER'S HEAVEN CONTROL FILE
If desired, the Writer's Heaven control file, ED.DEF, can be
printed out normally by PC-Write, except that the "guidelines"--
principally, the ruler lines--will not appear. The file can also
be printed out in DOS, but you may have to make a copy of the
file and remove from it the special character preceding each
guideline to avoid problems with your printer.
WRITER'S HEAVEN Appendix 32
MODIFYING THE WRITER'S HEAVEN CONTROL FILE
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT MODIFY WRITER'S HEAVEN ON ANY DISK THAT
WILL BE COPIED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO OTHERS.
Writer's Heaven basically consists of a custom PC-Write edit
control file, ED.DEF, which is read by the PC-Write edit program
when that program is first loaded. This is a normal text file
containing key redefinitions and other instructions. Directions
for modifying or constructing such files are found in the printed
PC-Write manual (but not in the abridged manual on the PC-Write
disk.) The PC-Write help screen RECORD KEYS contains brief notes.
You may wish to modify the Writer's Heaven file on your
workdisk to add features you're accustomed to--for instance, to
edit the default ruler, to add dot commands or "editor switches,"
or to redefine keys. Or, if you currently use more than one edit
control file--with different extensions--you may wish instead to
copy them to your Writer's Heaven workdisk and append the
Writer's Heaven control file to each of those files, making
changes as needed. (If you're using PC-Write 2.7, you may not
have room on your workdisk to do this.)
WARNING: Do not add the line !PR.DEF to a Writer's Heaven
control file! Due to a bug in PC-Write 2.6 and 2.7, this line
deactivates Writer's Heaven key definitions employing Alt.
If you wish to change PC-Write's default ruler, modify the
ruler at the end of the Writer's Heaven control file only. Any
other ruler acts only on the control file.
To redefine keys used or unused in Writer's Heaven, add your
definitions only to the end of the file. (Some keys not used in
Writer's Heaven have been deactivated by lines in the control
file.) You do not need to delete previous lines. Most of the
Writer's Heaven key redefinitions, though, make up an integrated
system, and are best not tampered with--at least not until you
are familiar with the system.
Though Writer's Heaven takes up most of the choice keys
available for user-defined commands, many keys are still
available--for instance, the numeral keys with Alt, which at
present duplicate the main function keys; and almost all
Ctrl-Shft keys, if you do not need PC-Write's box-drawing
capabilities. You could also use two-key combinations--for
instance, you could define Ctrl-A as a USER KEY, which could be
employed for special functions in combination with any other
keys.
Users of "near-compatibles" who have needed to use the
special PC-Write edit control file ED.SPC may find they no longer
need the key redefinitions found in that file. All the redefined
functions except those normally provided by Ctrl-SPACE and
Alt-SPACE will be accessible with Writer's Heaven commands.
WRITER'S HEAVEN Appendix 33
WRITER'S HEAVEN AND KEYBOARD PROGRAMS
Because of limitations in the IBM BIOS, it is not possible
in PC-Write to assign functions to most punctuation keys in a
shifted status. But if you use a keyboard program that makes this
possible (for instance, Newkey), you can improve the placement of
the Writer's Heaven ACTION KEYS. I suggest the following changes:
1. Reassign the OTHER KEY (Ctrl-O) to Ctrl-semicolon (;).
2. Reassign Alt-OTHER (Alt-O) to Alt-semicolon (;).
3. Reassign the SYMBOL KEY (Ctrl-W) to Ctrl-apostrophe (').
4. Reassign F5 to Ctrl-O (letter O).
5. Reassign ScrollLock (Pushright/Overwrite) to Ctrl-W.
The ACTION KEYS would then look like this:
___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ ___ ___ _ _
| ! W ! | | | || | | | || | | | | ! O !| ! P ! ! { ! | |
| !___! |_ _| |_ _|| |_ _| |_ _|| |_ _| |_ _| !___!| !___! !_[_! |_ _|
|PUSH/OVER | | CLEAR| EDIT SWAP
_\ _ _ _ _ _ _\ _ _ ___\ _ _ _ _ _ _\ ___ ___
|| | | | | | || | | ! H !| | | | | | || ! : ! ! " !
_|| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _|| |_ _| !___!| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _|| !_;_! !_'_!
\ \ REFORM \ \OTHER SYMBOL
_ _\ _ _ _ _ _ _\ _ _ _ _\ _ _ _ _ _ _\ _ _
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _| |_ _|
If you are using a program that creates a Dvorak keyboard,
you may find Writer's Heaven particularly suited to your needs.
Because Writer's Heaven commands are linked more to key positions
than to key names, Writer's Heaven can easily be adapted to
Dvorak. (A Dvorak key