Mac Format 1996 April/MacFormat CD Edition MF36 (April 1996).iso/Floppy/MacFormat Floppy Archive/Floppy 35/NoteBook Maker 1.3/Notebook Maker 1.3/Notebook Maker 1.3.rsrc/TEXT_1255_•NB About Button Text.txt

Text File | 1995-01-08 | 9KB | 108 lines

     Using The Notebook Window

Window Buttons

‘Help’: This button displays the Help information you are currently reading. This button operates as a toggle, so if you press it again you will be returned to the topic that you were previously viewing.

‘Find’: The 'Find' button allows you to specify some criteria to search for. A dialog box will be displayed in which you can type the word or phrase you wish to find. Note that it is the text in the main window that is searched, not the list of topics at the left of the window.

Click the ‘Search’ button to perform the search - the process will begin with the first topic in the list. The first topic to contain the word of phrase will be displayed. If no topic is found then the Macintosh will beep.

‘Find Again’: After having performed a ‘Find’, and having found at least one topic containing the search string, the ‘Find Again’ button will allow you to find other topics containing the same word/phrase.  The process will begin with the current topic, and will continue until another topic has been found, or until all the topics in the list have been searched.

‘First’: This button will take you to the first topic in the list.

‘Prev’: The ‘Prev’ button moves you to the previous topic in the list.

‘Next’: This button will take you to the Next topic in the list.

‘Last’: The ‘Last’ button moves you to the last topic in the list.



Menu Items

File Menu

‘Edit Text/Browse’: Your Notebook can operate in either the ‘Edit’ or ‘Browse’ mode. In ‘Edit’ mode you can modify the text and font styles of any topic text—use the standard Macintosh techniques for editing the text. In ‘Browse’ mode, you cannot modify any of the text contained within your Notebook. If you select the ‘Edit Text’ menu item, the name of the item will automatically change to ‘Browse’ to indicate that if you select it again, you will return to Browse mode.

When you are in ‘Edit’ mode, the Font and Style menus will be enabled.

Depending on how your Notebook was created, the ‘Edit Text’ menu item may remain disabled. In this case your Notebook is ‘read-only’ which means you can browse, but you can’t modify any of the text.

While you cannot edit text in Browse mode, you may be able to copy selected portions of the text. If your Notebook has been created to allow you to copy text, then whenever you select any text within the topic window, the Copy menu item in the Edit Menu will be enabled, and you can copy the text to the Macintosh Clipboard.


‘Add New Topic’: If the person who has created your Notebook application has set it up so that you can edit the various topics (i.e. if you can use the ‘Edit Text’ menu item), then you will also have the ability to add new topics. This menu item will only be available for use when you are in ‘Edit Text’ mode.

If you have currently selected a topic in the topic list, the new topic will be inserted before the current topic. If there is no topic selected in the topic list (you can do this by scroling to the bottom of the list, and clicking with the mouse just below the last topic), then the newly created topic wil be added to the bottom of the list.

When you select this menu item, a dialog box will be displayed allowing you to enter the name of the new topic. Be careful, because this topic name is NOT modifiable, and you cannot delete topics from within your Notebook (Notebook Maker allows this functionality).

In general, the Notebook Maker application is used to edit topics and text in a given Notebook application. However, several users have requested the ability to add new topics to a Notebook, without having to use Notebook Maker. In order to keep the RAM and disk requirements of Notebook applications to a minimum, the addition of new topics is the only new functionality added to the Notebook applications. All other editing must be performed with Notebook Maker.


‘Save As Text’: This menu item will allow you to save all the information in the list as a text file. This allows you to open the file with any word processor any manipulate it should you want to. When you select this item, a standard Macintosh ‘Save As…’ dialog box is displayed so that you can name the new text file to be created. Note that any pictures associated with the topics are not exported to the new file.

Depending on how your Notebook was created, the ‘Save As Text’ menu item may remain disabled. In this case the developer of your Notebook has decided that you should not be allowed to save the contents of the Notebook to a text file.


‘Help’: This menu item duplicates the functionality of the Help button—it displays the help information you are currently viewing.


‘Quit’: This menu item will Quit the Notebook, and return you to the Macintosh Finder.



Edit Menu

The Edit Menu menu items generally remain disabled while you are viewing the various topics in Browse mode. However, in Edit mode, you can use the ‘Cut’, ‘Clear’, ‘Copy’, ‘Paste’ and ‘Select All’ menu items to edit the topic text as you would in any standard Macintosh word processing application.

In Edit mode, the ‘Undo’ menu item is enabled. Note that this is a full undo—if you select the menu item the text for the topic you are editting will revert to its last saved state. Generally the text is automatically saved when you view another topic, thus, if you have made several changes to a topic, then select the ‘Undo’ menu item, all of those changes will be lost.

If your Notebook developer has enabled the copy preference, you will be able to copy all or parts of any of the topics to the Macintosh Clipboard while using the Notebook in Browse mode.

If you wish to copy all of the text from the current topic, you can use the ‘Select All’ menu item prior to using the ‘Copy’ menu item.


Navigate Menu

Most of the menu items in this menu are identical to the appropriate buttons in the topic window. See the appropriate descriptions above.

‘Go Back’ using this menu item will allow you to move back (sequentially) through the last 12 topics you viewed.



Shortcuts

Topic Navigation

When in Browse mode, the four cursor (arrow) keys on the keyboard can be used to navigate through the list of topics because they duplicate the functions of the four navigation buttons and menu items. The cursor keys work as follows:

            Left Arrow:   Moves to the first topic in the list.
            Right Arrow: Moves to the last topic in the list.
            Up Arrow:     Moves to the previous topic in the list.
            Down Arrow: Moves to the next topic in the list.

When you are in Edit mode, the cursor keys on the keyboard move the text insertion point within the topic list. That is, in Edit mode you cannot use the cursor keys to navigate through the various topics.


Type Ahead

If the topics in your Notebook are in alphabetical order, pressing any keys on the keyboard will cause the appropriate topic to be selected. For example, if you have a list of staff members in the format ‘Surname, First name’, then quickly typing ‘Smi’ on the keyboard will cause the Notebook to automatically load the first topic whose surname starts with ‘Smi’ (e.g. Smith). If there is no topic label starting with ‘Smi’, then the next topic (e.g. Sneed, John) will be loaded.

Topic Text Scrolling

In Browse mode, the Up and Down cursor (arrow) keys on the keyboard can also be used to scroll the topic text area. Holding down the Command (‚åò) key and pressing the Down cursor key will scroll the topic text downwards.  Holding down the Command key and pressing the Up cursor key will scroll the topic text upwards.

If you have an extended keyboard, that is, one with ‘Page Up’, ‘Page Down’, ‘Home’ and ‘End’ keys, you can use these keys to scroll the topic text (rather than using the cursor keys and holding down the Command key at the same time).

By using the cursor keys on the keyboard, and making appropriate use of the Command key, or by using the additional keys available on an extended keyboard,  you’ll be able to navigate through the topics, and read them without having to use the mouse at all.

Automatic Searching

Holding the Command (⌘) key down, and double-clicking on any word in the topic text area will initate a search for that word. That is, double-clicking on a word (remember to hold the Command key down) is the equivalent of using the ‘Find’ menu item or button.