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VEDIT Jr. General Purpose Text Editor One of the VEDIT Family of Editors Version 1.2 Manual Written By: Theodore Green and Charles Scott Programmed By: Theodore Green & Thomas Burt Greenview Data, Inc. 2773 Holyoke Lane Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Telephone: (313) 996-1300 Fax: (313) 996-1308 BBS (2400 baud): (313)-996-1304 BBS (9600 baud): (313)-996-1315 Copyright (C) 1990-1991 by Greenview Data, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, for any purpose without the express written permission of Greenview Data. DISCLAIMER Greenview Data, Inc. and the authors make no claims or warranties with respect to the contents or accuracy of this publication, or the product it describes, including any warranties of fitness or merchantability for a particular purpose. Any stated or expressed warranties are in lieu of all obligations or liability for any damages, whether special, indirect, or consequential, arising out of or in connection with the use of this publication or the product it describes. Furthermore, the right is reserved to make any changes to this publication without obligation to notify any person of such changes. Last Manual Revision: Mar. 30, 1992 TRADEMARKS VEDIT, V-SPELL and V-PRINT are trademarks of Greenview Data, Inc. MS-DOS, OS/2 and Xenix are trademarks of Microsoft. UNIX is a trademark of American Telephone & Telegraph. IBM and IBM PC are trademarks of International Business Machines. Ventura Publisher is a registered trademark of Ventura Software, Inc. WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro International Corp. Word Perfect is a trademark of WordPerfect Corp. Turbo Lightning and SuperKey are trademarks of Borland International. 2 VEDIT Jr. Table of Contents Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 1 - Introduction 5 Welcome to VEDIT Jr. 5 Main Features 6 VEDIT and VEDIT PLUS 7 V-PRINT and V-SPELL 8 System Requirements 10 Using this Manual 10 Notation 12 Chapter 2 - Getting Started 15 Installation 15 IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS Automated Installation 15 IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS Manual Installation 17 Checking Your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT 18 PATH Command 18 VEDPATH Environment Variable 19 Testing Your Installation 19 Getting Started Fast 21 Running VEDIT Jr. with Floppy Disks 21 Description of Files on Disk 22 Keyboard Layout 23 Notes on Normal and Alternate Layout 24 "Normal" IBM PC Keyboard Layout 25 Chapter 3 - Quick Tutorial 27 Starting VEDIT Jr. 27 Entering New Text 28 Moving the Cursor 28 Deleting Text 29 Typing Beyond the Visible Screen Area 30 Line and Column Numbers 31 Quick Cursor Movement 31 Undo 33 Using Menus 34 Answering a Prompt 35 Response History 36 Exiting the Menu System 37 Context Sensitive Help 37 Keyboard Help 38 General Help 39 Printing Text 40 Repeating Operations 41 Saving Your Work 42 The "Escape" Menu 42 Exiting VEDIT Jr. 43 Chapter 4 - Editing Guide 45 3 VEDIT Jr. Table of Contents Starting (Invoking) VEDIT Jr. 45 Invocation Options 45 "VEDIT" Environment Variable 47 Super-fast Browse Mode 47 Exiting VEDIT Jr. 48 Backup Files 49 The Status Line 49 Using Menus 51 Responding to Prompts 54 Point and Shoot File Selection 55 On-Line Help 56 Modifying the Help File 57 Mouse Support 58 Scroll Bars 59 "Stealth" Scroll Bars and the Right Button 60 Menu System 61 Block Operations 61 Search/Replace Options 62 Notes on Mouse Operation 62 Screen Display & Keyboard Characters 62 Entering Control and Graphics Characters 63 How Control and Graphics Characters are Displayed 63 Display Modes 64 End of Line Handling (DOS and UNIX files) 64 The <Tab> Key and Tab Characters 65 Lower and Upper Case Conversion 66 Key Emulation Modes 67 Other Keyboard Input Options (Technical) 68 Other Screen Display Issues (Technical) 68 Keystroke Macros 69 Scrolling the Screen 71 Vertical Scrolling 71 Horizontal Scrolling 71 Wrapping Long Lines on the Screen 72 Block Operations 73 Marking (selecting) a Block of Text 73 What exactly does the block include? 74 Copying/Moving Text Within Your File 74 [BLOCK COPY] and [BLOCK MOVE] 75 The Text Register 75 Columnar Blocks 76 Columnar Block Examples 76 Search and Replace 80 Pattern Matching 80 Word Procesing Functions 83 Definition of "Word" and "Paragraph" 83 Indenting Text (Left Margin) 84 Word Wrap (Right Margin) 85 Formatting and Justifying Paragraphs 85 Offset Paragraphs 86 Justification 87 4 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 1 - Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to Vedit Jr.! --------------------- Purpose of Program ------------------ VEDIT Jr. is a full featured text editor intended for program development, text preparation and the editing of any text or binary files you will ever encounter. It is ideal for writing assembly language and structured programs (C, Pascal, PL/I) and lengthy documents such as reports or manuscripts. It is also well suited for the preparation of text files being used with Desktop Publishing packages such as Xerox's Ventura Publisher (tm). Simple, Yet Powerful -------------------- VEDIT Jr. is simple enough to learn and use for the novice, yet has the speed, flexibility and power to satisfy the most demanding computer professional. It offers a rich assortment of editing capabilities, simple menu operation, complete on-line help facilities, and the ability to edit text and binary files of any size (even 100 Megabyte or larger). Totally Configurable -------------------- The comprehensive configuration lets you completely determine your own keyboard layout and select numerous default settings to configure VEDIT Jr. to your particular hardware, applications and personal preferences. By using the available options and "keystroke macros" VEDIT Jr. can very closely emulate other editors and word processors. An easy to use installation program for the IBM PC permits a quick, menu driven selection of the most common configurations of VEDIT Jr. This includes selecting from the normal keyboard layout (used in this manual) or from a WordStar or Word Perfect layout. VEDIT Family of Editors ----------------------- VEDIT Jr. is one of the VEDIT Family of Editors which also includes VEDIT and VEDIT PLUS. The VEDIT family is available for virtually every computer running under the PCDOS, MS-DOS (IBM and non-IBM compatible), UNIX 286/386/486, XENIX, QNX, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS and IBM 4680 operating systems. Attractive pricing is available for additional machines and for educational, OEM and site licensing. 5 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction Main Features ------------- * Edit any text or binary files of up to 2 Gigabytes (that's 2000 megabytes). Virtual file buffering automatically handles files larger than what will fit into memory. * Pull-down menu system. Easy access to most editing functions. Editing functions can also be quickly accessed with "hot keys" which bypass the menu system -- the menu system does not slow down proficient users. * Unlimited keystroke macros. Any combination of keystrokes can be assigned to a single key. Allows single key access to menu functions and creation of custom editing functions. Keystroke macros may be built into VEDIT Jr., saved to and loaded from disk. * Context sensitive help. Pressing the help key gives you precisely the information you need at the moment. The help text is user changeable and expandable. Add your own help prompts and messages, even create on-line help for other programs you use. * Multi-level Undo. Up to hundreds of the most recent edit changes can be reversed either step by step or line by line. Deleted text can be re-inserted in its original position or anywhere else. * Automatic indenting simplifies editing of structured programs; advantageous for word processing. Check for proper nesting of parentheses, e.g. "{" and "}", aids C programming. * Execute single DOS commands (DIR, compilers, V-SPELL, etc.) or enter DOS and return later. * Flexible block operations can process text on a character, line or column basis. Blocks may be moved or copied directly, or a text register (scratch-pad buffer) may be used for more flexible "cut and paste" operations. Blocks can be copied from one file to another. * Powerful search and replace. Supports sophisticated pattern matching, reverse searching, selective and global replace. Previous search strings can be quickly accessed. * Flexible printing with variable margins and page size. Print a block of text or the entire file with single, double or triple spacing. V-PRINT, a powerful print formatter is available. * ASCII table. Pop up the ASCII table or insert any desired control, printer or graphic character into the text. IBM PC box drawing characters are easily accessed. * Horizontal scrolling for editing long lines -- spreadsheets, program listings. Optionally, long lines can be wrapped onto multiple screen lines. 6 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction * Fully adjustable tab positions. The <Tab> key can enter a tab character or, optionally, spaces to the next tab position. * Word processing. Word wrap, paragraph formatting between adjustable margins, optional justification, printing. (Does NOT enter any "special" control character into the text.) Can read/write WordStar compatible files. V-SPELL, a high performance spelling corrector is available. * Word processor emulation. VEDIT Jr. can closely emulate other editors and word processors. Contains options for emulating common cursor positioning modes, other block operations, various styles of searching, functions performed by the <Tab> and <Enter> keys and much more. * Totally configurable. The keyboard layout is completely configurable -- assign any key to any function. Any desired number of keystroke macros can be built in. Default settings of all switches, parameters, options and screen colors can be configured. Configurable tab-fill and "newline" display characters. Provides selectable hardware/software cursor, cursor blink rate (or no blink) and much more. VEDIT and VEDIT PLUS -------------------- VEDIT and VEDIT PLUS are upwards compatible from VEDIT Jr. and have many additional features. Should your editing needs outgrow VEDIT Jr., you can easily move to VEDIT or VEDIT PLUS. Your $29 registration fee for VEDIT Jr. may be applied to your purchase of VEDIT or VEDIT PLUS when you purchase directly from Greenview Data and your purchase is made within six (6) months. The additional features in VEDIT include: * Multiple file editing. Simultaneously edit up to 37 files, each of any size. * Flexible windowing. Optionally display each file you are editing in its own variable sized window. Different parts of one file can be displayed in separate windows. Any window can be zoomed to full screen. * Hexadecimal and EBCDIC editing. Any window can be toggled to different modes for editing in ASCII, EBCDIC or Hexadecimal. A split screen with simultaneous editing in different modes is also possible. * Integrated compiler support. Popular compilers, assemblers, linkers, debuggers and Make programs can be run from within VEDIT. The cursor will be automatically positioned on source code lines containing 7 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction compilation errors. Very flexible and configurable; easily support new/custom compilers. * Search/replace with regular expressions. A full implementation of Unix style regular expressions permits more sophisticated search and replace operations. VEDIT PLUS has all the features of VEDIT and adds a powerful macro programming language: * Over 150 commands. Commands can be combined to create powerful "macros" which save you time by automating complex editing operations. Macros can be saved to disk and loaded from disk. * Complete macro programming language with looping, Repeat-Until, If-Then, If-Then-Else, conditional Jump. Numeric, character and string testing. * Auto-execution. A file containing macro commands can be specified for automatic execution when VEDIT PLUS is invoked. * Complete numerical capability with 24 bit resolution (+/- 8,388,607). 100 "variables", expression evaluation with numerical, logical and relational functions. On-line algebraic calculator. * Interactive input and output with complete screen and window control. Creating, deleting, size, position and color of windows is fully programmable. * (DOS only) Access to hardware. Memory and I/O ports can be examined and modified. DOS functions, BIOS functions and interrupts can be directly called. V-PRINT and V-SPELL ------------------- V-PRINT and V-SPELL work with VEDIT Jr. to give you a complete word processing system. Both V-PRINT and V-SPELL can be run from within VEDIT Jr. with a single keystroke, letting you instantly print or spell check the current document. V-PRINT Document Formatter -------------------------- V-PRINT is a powerful document (text) formatter which handles the details of page layout, including headers, footers, automatic page numbering, indenting and justification. V-PRINT not only handles the details of page layout, but also has facilities for automatic index and table of contents generation, underlining, overstriking, multiple font support for popular printers 8 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction and much more. Multiple files can be included in your document at print time with an "Include" statement. Single sheets, continuous forms and any selected page range can be printed. Combining VEDIT Jr. with V-PRINT gives you the capabilities of a full featured word processor. Both are particularly well suited to handling long documents such as reports, manuals and manuscripts. A table of contents and index can be generated by V-PRINT. The index can contain both words which appear in the text and "concepts" which are not explicitly mentioned in the text. V-PRINT also allows the Table of Contents and the Index to be edited before final printing. List price $79. V-SPELL Spelling Corrector -------------------------- This is the ultimate spelling corrector that proofreads 50 pages (100 Kbytes) of text in 30 seconds (on an IBM PC/AT), displays misspelled words in context and can instantly suggest corrections for any misspelling. Since it automatically corrects the words in the document, there is no need to go back to the word processor. The 70,000 word main dictionary is expandable--you can have your own supplemental dictionaries and/or merge them into the main dictionary. You can even create your own main dictionary. Not only VEDIT Jr., but most popular word processors are supported. For typesetting, desktop publishing and other applications, V-SPELL can perform file hyphenation by inserting "soft hyphens" in all words of a document. Since the hyphenation points are built into the dictionary, you can be sure it is 100% correct -- no error-prone algorithms are used! List price $79. 9 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction System Requirements ------------------- The DOS version requires: * MS-DOS or PCDOS version 2.0 or later, or a compatible DOS such as DR DOS or Concurrent DOS. DesqView and Microsoft Windows are also supported. * An IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or compatible computer. Some "near" compatibles such as the Tandy 2000 and Sanyo 550 are also supported. * At least 196 Kbytes of memory. (At least 100K of memory must be free after DOS is loaded.) * A hard disk is highly recommended, but VEDIT Jr. can be installed on, and will run from, a floppy disk. A minimum of 64K for the VJ.EXE is required, the optional 60K help file is highly recommended. * A monochrome, CGA, MCGA, EGA, VGA or compatible display adapter and display. The Amdec 1280 and Wyse 700 displays are also supported. EGA 43 line and VGA 50 line modes are supported. Using this Manual ----------------- HINTS: The best way to learn VEDIT Jr. is by running the "Demo/ Tutorial" disk supplied for DOS. This disk covers VEDIT Jr., VEDIT, and VEDIT PLUS features in great depth -- it is well worth the one or two hours it will take to carefully work through it. Between the "Demo/Tutorial" disk and VEDIT Jr.'s extensive on-line help, we hope that you won't need this manual very much. Organization ------------ *************************************************************** * * * This on-disk file consists of the first four chapters of * * the manual. The entire manual is summarized below. * * * *************************************************************** This manual assumes that you have a working knowledge of your computer and its basic operation. It is organized into the following chapters: * Introduction (Chapter 1) Introduces VEDIT Jr. and lists the main features and system requirements. 10 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction * Getting Started (Chapter 2) Explains how to install VEDIT Jr. and make sure that it is working correctly. It lists the files on disk and the "Normal" keyboard layout. * Quick Tutorial (Chapter 3) This short tutorial familiarizes you with the basic aspects of using VEDIT Jr. including the menu system, on-line help, how to save your result and exit VEDIT Jr. * Editing Guide (Chapter 4) Covers the main topics of how to use VEDIT Jr. in general terms. * Command Macros (Chapter 5) Describes how to use the "command macros" supplied only with VEDIT and VEDIT PLUS. In particular, the compiler support macro is covered in great detail. * Menu Reference (Chapter 6) Describes each item in the Menu system in detail. It includes many step by step directions for using the features of VEDIT Jr. The {CONFIG} menu described here lets you configure VEDIT Jr. and fine-tune it to your personal preferences and applications. * Edit Function Reference (Chapter 7) Describes each basic edit function in detail. * Configuration (Chapter 8) For the most part, you can configure VEDIT Jr. from within itself. However, some additional, mostly hardware related configuration changes can only be made with the VCONFIG program or ".CFG" configuration files described in this chapter. * Messages (Chapter 9) Lists and explains all error messages and common prompting messages. * Appendices The following topics are included in the appendices: Technical descriptions of VEDIT Jr.'s file handling, network support and memory management. Installation and usage of V-SWAP (supplied only with VEDIT and VEDIT PLUS). Additional keyboard layout information. Application Notes. ASCII Table. 11 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction Notation -------- <Ctrl-x> A control character, such as <Ctrl-U>, which is typed by holding down the "Ctrl" (Control) key and typing the specified letter. <Alt-x> A control character, such as <Alt-E>, which is typed by holding down the "Alt" (Alternate) key and typing the specified letter. <Backspace> The "Backspace" key. Also named "BS" on some keyboards. <Alt-Bksp> This is an abbreviation for <Alt-Backspace>. Other abbreviations used are <Ctrl-Backspace> and <Shft-Backspace>. <Enter> The "Enter" key. Also named "Return" or "CR" on some keyboards. <key> Any other individual key such as <Esc>, <Space bar> or <Tab>. <F1> The default key for the [HELP] function. The actual key is displayed on the status line. <F10> The default key for accessing the main menu. [function] A basic editing function such as [CURSOR UP] or [INDENT]. Each edit function name is usually followed with the keypress corresponding to the "normal" keyboard layout. However, you are free to modify the keyboard layout. The actual key assignments are displayed by the [HELP] function. {menu, menu-item}-x Menu selections are shown within braces optionally followed by "x" to indicate variable parameters. The main menu is selected with the [MENU] function (<F10>). For example, {GOTO, Line #} 71 denotes that you select "Goto" from the main menu, select "Line #" from the "Goto" menu, and then enter the value "71" at the line number prompt. 12 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction Register Today! --------------- One benefit in registering VEDIT Jr. (for only $29) is the professional quality manual whose more than 200 pages describe the program in complete detail. You will also receive the latest production version of VEDIT Jr. which does not have the Shareware sign-on screens. We welcome your comments and suggestions. 13 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 1 Introduction This page is intentionally blank 14 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started Chapter 2 - Getting Started ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Installation ------------ NOTES: Be sure to refer to the file "README" before installing VEDIT Jr. -- simply give the DOS command "README". This file often contains last minute installation instructions. Refer to Appendix F (Troubleshooting) if you have any trouble installing or running VEDIT Jr. (Not included with on-disk doco.) When we refer to "IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS" we mean all IBM PC/AT, PS/2 machines or compatibles, including all clones, running either PCDOS or MS-DOS 2.x, 3.x, 4.x, 5.x or compatible operating systems including Concurrent DOS and DR DOS. IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS Automated Installation --------------------------------------- The IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS version of VEDIT Jr. can be quickly installed and configured with the supplied INSTALL program. It creates the directory "\VEDIT" (on a hard disk), copies the appropriate files to it and lets you select from the most common configuration options including display type, screen color and the initial keyboard layout. There is NO NEED to initially run the configuration program VCONFIG. NOTES: This automated installation is NOT compatible with some memory-resident programs and, in particular, with the Norton Commander Commander(tm), 4DOS and other "point and shoot" programs. You must remove such programs to perform the installation or follow the "Manual Installation" directions. However, once installed, VEDIT Jr. itself will run with these programs. The automated installation DOES NOT alter your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files! It creates the directory "\VEDIT", copies files to it and pre-configures VJ.EXE. Before actually installing VEDIT Jr., you should make a copy of the original VEDIT Jr. disk and place the original in a safe place. Install VEDIT Jr. from this copy to prevent inadvertent damage to the original diskette. Refer to the documentation provided with your operating system for information on how to copy diskettes. 15 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started To install VEDIT Jr. on a floppy disk: 1. You will need a blank, formatted floppy disk on which to install VEDIT Jr. Refer to the documentation provided with DOS for information on how to format diskettes. 2. Place a copy of the VEDIT Jr. distribution diskette into drive A: and a blank, formatted diskette into drive B: then type: A: <Enter> 3. Start the installation program by typing: INSTALL A B <Enter> 4. Follow the instructions provided by the installation program. The installation program will ask several questions. Answer these questions by pressing the appropriate letter key. You do not have to press <Enter>. To install VEDIT Jr. on a hard disk: 1. Place a copy of the VEDIT Jr. distribution diskette into drive A: and type: A: <Enter> 2. Start the installation program by typing: INSTALL A C <Enter> This command will install VEDIT Jr. from the diskette in drive A: to the directory "\VEDIT" on drive C:. If you want to install on a drive other than C:, substitute the "C" in the above command with the appropriate drive letter. 3. Follow the instructions provided by the installation program. The installation program will ask several questions. Answer these questions by pressing the appropriate letter key. You do not have to press <Enter>. The tutorials in this manual show examples for the "Normal" (recommended) keyboard layout only. While VEDIT Jr. may be installed to mimic Wordstar or WordPerfect, it is suggested that you first try our normal configuration. When complete, you will have a ready to use "VJ.EXE" file in the directory "\VEDIT". NOTE: Skip down several pages to the topic "Checking Your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files" for further important installation instructions. 16 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started Then refer to the topic "Testing your Installation" below. IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS Manual Installation ------------------------------------ This topic covers the steps needed to install VEDIT Jr. when the automated installation will not run on your system. The only file absolutely needed to use VEDIT Jr. is VJ.EXE. (You can rename it if you wish.) To use the on-line help you also need the VJHELP.HLP file. VEDIT Jr. can be configured to search for its help file in the root directory or "VEDIT Home Directory", typically "\VEDIT", of any drive you select. Decide upon the name of a new directory to hold all VEDIT Jr. files. This manual assumes it is "\VEDIT" on any desired drive. Create the directory. When installing VEDIT Jr. on a floppy disk, you can install it into the root directory. After you create "\VEDIT", you should copy all files from the original disk or disks to this directory. This chapter lists the files found on the VEDIT Jr. distribution disk(s). The supplied VJ.EXE will immediately run on any machine, but is not configured ideally for either floppy or hard disk systems. You only need to change the configuration parameters 1.0 and 2.3 (see Chapter 8) to adapt VEDIT Jr. to your particular disk configuration. Unless you configure it, VEDIT Jr. only searches the current drive and directory for its help file. With a hard disk, you should configure VCONFIG parameter 1.0 to "C:\VEDIT\" and 2.3 to "0" -- assuming you are installing VEDIT Jr. in "\VEDIT" on drive "C:". With a floppy disk based system, you may want to copy only the VJ.EXE and VJHELP.HLP files to your system disk on drive A. Then configure VJ.EXE with VCONFIG parameter 1.0 set to "A:\" and 2.3 set to "0". Refer above to the topic "IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS Automated Installation" for information about setting up your PATH command and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Here is a typical installation: 1. Make sure you are in the root directory of drive C. Put the original VEDIT Jr. diskette into drive A. Give the following DOS commands: MD C:\VEDIT CD C:\VEDIT COPY A:*.* 17 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started 2. Start up the configuration program with the command: VCONFIG VJ.EXE Refer to Chapter 8 (Configuration) for details about running this program. 3. In the configuration program select "1" from the main menu and enter a "VEDIT Jr. Home Directory" of "C:\VEDIT\". Then select parameter 2.2 and change it to "0". 4. Press <Enter> to return to the main menu. Type "E" to exit the configuration program. At the confirmation prompt type "Y" to save your changes. NOTE: Skip down several pages to the topic "Checking Your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files" for further important installation instructions. Then refer to the topic "Testing your Installation" below. Checking Your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files ----------------------------------------------- You should check the file "CONFIG.SYS" which is in the root directory of your hard (boot) disk. It must contain the two lines: BUFFERS=10 FILES=40 ***It is OK if the numbers are larger than those listed above!*** If you discover that you do not have a CONFIG.SYS file, you can create one using VEDIT Jr. You can do this after completing the Quick Tutorial in Chapter 3. CONFIG.SYS is a normal text file. The "BUFFERS=10" statement is not really necessary but speeds up not only VEDIT Jr. but virtually every other program. No computer should be without it. "BUFFERS=15" or "BUFFERS=20" may further speed up some programs, but also make DOS use up more memory space. PATH Command ------------ To run VEDIT Jr. from other drives and directories, DOS must know where to find VJ.EXE. Our recommendation is to simply copy VJ.EXE to a directory, typically "\DOS" or "\BIN", which DOS already searches for other programs such as CHKDSK.COM, FORMAT.COM, etc. Alternatively, you can add the directory "\VEDIT" to the PATH command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. However, long PATH commands slow down computer operation. For more information on PATH and AUTOEXEC.BAT refer to your DOS manual. 18 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started If you prefer not to have VEDIT Jr. in the default directory "\VEDIT" you can create the desired directory and copy all files from the "\VEDIT" directory to it; then remove the "\VEDIT" directory. Then run the configuration program VCONFIG (Chapter 8) and set parameter 1.0 (VEDIT Jr. Home Directory) to the directory in which the VEDIT Jr. files reside. "VEDPATH" Environment Variable ------------------------------ As an alternative to running VCONFIG to set the "VEDIT Home Directory", you can set the environment variable "VEDPATH" to the desired directory. When this environment variable is set, it overrides any configuration setting. For example, if you placed the VEDIT Jr. files in the directory "\DOS\VEDIT" on drive "C:", you could add the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: SET VEDPATH=C:\DOS\VEDIT Testing Your Installation ------------------------- Now that you have VEDIT installed, let's start it up once just to make sure that everything is working. 1. Assuming that your PATH command includes the directory containing the VEDIT Jr. program, you can can start up VEDIT Jr. from any directory by typing: VEDIT <Enter> If VEDIT Jr. was properly installed, there will be a short pause, and you will see the VEDIT Jr.'s signon message on the top of the screen. There should also be a (flashing) cursor near the upper-left corner of the screen. 2. Press the <Esc> key to bring up the "Escape" menu in the middle of the screen. If you cannot read the menu, cannot tell which item is currently selected, or cannot tell which letter in each item is highlighted, your screen attributes are not set correctly. If you have a monochrome (black and white) monitor or a laptop computer you may need to re-install VEDIT Jr. for a monochrome monitor or start up VEDIT Jr. with the "-M" option. Otherwise, see "Change Screen Parameters" in Chapter 8 (Configuration) on how to change screen attributes. 19 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started 3. To exit VEDIT Jr. and return to DOS using the displayed {ESCAPE} menu, press <Cursor Down> to highlight "Quit File (Abandon)"; then press <Enter>. At the confirmation prompt "Abandon altered file (Y/N)" type "Y". You should now be back in DOS. NEWS.TXT LINE: 1 COL: 1 INS F1=HELP ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │▓ │ │ │ │ ╒══════════════════════╕ │ │ │ ESCAPE MENU │ │ │ │ Remove Block Markers │ │ │ │ Exit file │ │ │ ╘══════════════════════╛ │ │ │ │ │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ VEDIT Jr. is now installed and tested. Refer to Appendix F (Troubleshooting) if you encounter any trouble running VEDIT Jr. 20 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started Getting Started Fast -------------------- Despite the many pages in this manual, basic editing with VEDIT Jr. is very intuitive and you can start using it immediately, without having to study this manual. It is easiest to start the editor by specifying the name of the file you want to edit: VJ filename.ext For help while editing press the [HELP] key. The name of the help key is displayed on the status line (default: <F1>). [HELP] first displays the key assignments for all of VEDIT Jr.'s functions. For more help on any function, just press the corresponding key. The [MENU] key (default: <F1>) starts the pull-down menu system. Select the desired function using the cursor keys and then press <Enter>. To finish editing, access the "File" sub-menu and select "Exit". If you have altered the file, it will prompt you whether you want to save or abandon your changes. NOTE: The quickest way to learn VEDIT Jr. is to run the supplied "DEMO/TUTORIAL" disk which covers almost everything you need to know to effectively use VEDIT Jr. Running VEDIT Jr. with Floppy Disks ----------------------------------- To run VEDIT Jr. with dual floppy disks (no hard disk) place the disk containing the installed VEDIT Jr. into drive "A:", the data disk containing your text files into drive "B", change to drive "B:" and specify the name of the file you want to edit: A:VJ filename.ext Remember: To edit any file, the amount of free space on your disk must be at least as large as the file you want to edit. 21 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started Description of Files on Disk ---------------------------- README.BAT Last minute notes to read before getting started. INSTALL.BAT Batch file to start up the automated installation; it uses the files INSTALL.VBT and VBATCH.COM. INSTALL.VBT Script file for automated installation. VBATCH.COM Installation program used for automated installation. VCONFIG.EXE Configuration program described in Chapter 8. VJ.EXE Executable VEDIT Jr. program. KEYS.IBM A graphic representation of the "normal" IBM PC keyboard layout. P.BAT Batch program to start up the PRINT.VDM macro. VJHELP.HLP Help file accessed by the [HELP] function. WORDSTAR.KEY Keyboard layout file to emulate WordStar (tm). Described in WORDSTAR.DOC. WORDPERF.KEY Keyboard layout file to emulate WordPerfect (tm). Described in WORDPERF.DOC. 22 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started Keyboard Layout --------------- VEDIT Jr.'s keyboard layout is completely configurable. The automated installation lets you select the initial keyboard layout. You can modify the initial layout with the {MISC, Keyboard layout} sub-menu. Unless you have a very strong personal preference, we recommended you start off with the "normal" keyboard layout. It has been carefully thought out to work well with VEDIT Jr.'s features and menu system. All examples in this manual list the name of the edit function or menu item and the corresponding keystroke in the "normal" keyboard layout. Examples are: [HELP] (<F1>) and {BLOCK, Set Marker} <F9>). The initial IBM PCDOS/MS-DOS keyboard layouts are: * NORMAL. The recommended layout used in this manual. It requires an AT-style "enhanced" keyboard because keys such as <Shft-Up Arrow> and <Ctrl-Ins> work with VEDIT Jr. only on an enhanced keyboard. * ALTERNATE. This is very similar to the "normal" layout and is described below. It should be selected if you have an older IBM PC without an enhanced keyboard. * WORDPERF. Emulates Word Perfect. Since it has few menu "hot keys", it helps to access menu functions with a mouse. Fully described in the file WORDPERF.KEY. * WORDSTAR. Emulates WordStar using control, cursor and function keys. Fully described in the file WORDSTAR.KEY. NOTE: The following pages list the "normal" layout in logical order. Appendix G (not included in the on-disk manual) lists the layout in alphabetic order. The layout is available on-line via the [HELP] function and {MISC, Keyboard layout, Display}. The status line always displays the current key assigned to the [HELP] function. "Alternate" Keyboard Layout --------------------------- The "Alternate" keyboard layout is identical to the "Normal" layout with the exception of these functions. It does not use any "enhanced" keyboard keys. [HELP] <Alt-F1> (instead of <F1>) [MENU] <F1> (instead of <F10>) [T-REG COPY] <Ctrl-F10> (instead of <Grey+>) [T-REG MOVE] <Alt-F10> (instead of <Grey->) [T-REG INSERT] <F10> (instead of <Grey*>) [SCROLL UP] <Ctrl-B> (instead of <Shft-Up Arrow>) 23 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started [SCROLL DOWN] <Ctrl-V> (instead of <Shft-Down Arrow>) [SCROLL RIGHT] <Ctrl-Right Arrow> (instead of <Shft-Right Arrow>) [SCROLL LEFT] <Ctrl-Left Arrow> (instead of <Shft-Left Arrow>) Notes on "Normal" and "Alternate" Layouts ----------------------------------------- * The "<Grey>" keys are on the very right-hand side on the IBM PC keyboard. The original IBM PC keyboard had only <Grey+>, <Grey-> and <Grey*>. The IBM PC "enhanced" keyboards also have <Grey/> and <Grey.Enter>. VEDIT treats all of these keys as function keys. * IBM PC "enhanced" keys including <F11>, <F12> and the "<Grey>" keys are normally supported. However if the VCONFIG (Chapter 8) configuration setting for "Keyboard input" is changed from the default "ROM BIOS" to "DOS", these keys may appear dead. (Some versions of DOS support them and others do not.) * The "alternate" keyboard layout also assigns [SCROLL UP] to <Ctrl-Up Arrow> and [SCROLL DOWN] to <Ctrl-Down Arrow>. However, these assignments will only work on an "enhanced" keyboard. * Since VEDIT treats the <Grey+>, <Grey->, <Grey*> and <Grey/> keys as function keys, the "alternate" layout assigns the displayable characters "+", "-", "*" and "/" to these keys. (They are set up as simple keystroke macros.) 24 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started "Normal" IBM PC Keyboard Layout ------------------------------- [BACKSPACE] <Backspace> [BLOCK COPY] <Ctrl-F9> [BLOCK MOVE] <Alt-F9> [CANCEL] <Ctrl-C> [CURSOR UP] <Up Arrow> [CURSOR DOWN] <Down Arrow> [CURSOR RIGHT] <Right Arrow> [CURSOR LEFT] <Left Arrow> [DELETE] <Del> [DEL PREV WORD] <Alt-F5> [DEL NEXT WORD] <Alt-F6> [ENTER CTRL] <Alt-Q> or <Ctrl-Q> [ERASE EOL] <Ctrl-Z> [ERASE LINE] <Ctrl-Y> or <Ctrl-X> [ESCAPE] <Esc> [HELP] <F1> [INDENT] <F8> [INSERT TOGGLE] <Ins> [LINE BEGIN] <Home> [LINE END] <End> [MENU] <F10> [NEXT LINE] <Ctrl-Enter> (Same as <Ctrl-J>) [NEXT PARAGRAPH] <Ctrl-F6> [NEXT TAB STOP] <SHIFT Tab> [NEXT WORD] <F6> or <Ctrl-Right Arrow> [PAGE UP] <PgUp> [PAGE DOWN] <PgDn> [PREV PARAGRAPH] <Ctrl-F5> [PREV WORD] <F5> or <Ctrl-Left Arrow> [REPEAT] <Ctrl-R> [REPEAT LAST] <Alt-R> [REPLACE] <Alt-F2> [SCREEN BEGIN] <Ctrl-Home> [SCREEN END] <Ctrl-End> [SCROLL UP] <Shft-Up Arrow> [SCROLL DOWN] <Shft-Down Arrow> [SCROLL RIGHT] <Shft-Right Arrow> [SCROLL LEFT] <Shft-Left Arrow> [SEARCH] <F2> [SEARCH AGAIN] <F3> [TAB CHARACTER] <Tab> [T-REG COPY] <Ctrl-Ins> or <Grey+> [T-REG MOVE] <Shft-Del> or <Grey-> [T-REG INSERT] <Shft-Ins> or <Grey*> [UNDENT] <F7> [VISUAL EXIT] <Ctrl-E> or <Grey/> 25 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 2 Getting Started "Normal" IBM PC Keyboard Layout cont. ------------------------------------- Built-in Keystroke Macros: <Alt-B> Access {BLOCK} menu <Alt-C> Access {CONFIG} menu <Alt-E> Access {EDIT} menu <Alt-F> Access {FILE} menu <Alt-G> Access {GOTO} menu <Alt-H> Access {HELP} menu <Alt-M> Access {MISC} menu <Alt-P> Access {PRINT} menu <Alt-S> Access {SEARCH} menu <F9> Set a "character" type block marker <Ctrl-N> Set a "column" type block marker <Ctrl-F> Format the current paragraph <Ctrl-Pg Up> Go to the beginning of the file <Ctrl-Pg Dn> Go to the end of the file <Ctrl-S> Set a text marker <Ctrl-G> Goto a text marker <Alt-F3> Goto matching parenthesis - () <> [] {} <Alt-J> Toggle between text colors <Alt-L> Toggle between 25 and 43/50 line screen (EGA/VGA) <Ctrl-K> Add a new keystroke macro <Alt-K> Start/stop recording a new keystroke macro <Ctrl-P> Print a block of text <Ctrl-U> Undo current/previous line <Alt-Bksp> Undo last edit operation (keystroke) <Ctrl-Bksp> Erase from cursor to beginning of line <Alt-N> Edit next file (save/abandon current file) <Alt-X> Exit VEDIT Jr. - save/abandon file 26 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial Chapter 3 - Quick Tutorial ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let's take a quick tour of VEDIT Jr. In this chapter you will learn basic text editing, using the menu system, displaying help and, most importantly, how to save the results. In short, you will know all that's required to really use VEDIT Jr.! Each basic editing function in VEDIT Jr. has a name which we normally show as in [HELP] and [CURSOR RIGHT]. We show which key to press to perform the editing functions as in <F1> and <Cursor Right>. To keep things simple, this quick tutorial often just lists which key to press to perform various editing operations. However, the rest of this manual is oriented towards the names of the editing functions. NOTE: Since this quick tutorial is specific on which keys to press, it assumes that you have installed VEDIT Jr. on an IBM PC and selected the "Normal" keyboard layout. Starting VEDIT Jr. ------------------ To start VEDIT Jr. and begin editing a file called NEWS.TXT, type: VEDIT NEWS.TXT Unless you already have a file called NEWS.TXT in the current directory, VEDIT Jr. will create this file for you. If the file does exist, VEDIT Jr. will load it and display the beginning of the file. The screen will appear as: NEWS.TXT LINE: 1 COL: 1 INS F1=HELP ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │▓ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The "status line" at the top of the screen indicates the name of the file being edited, the location of the cursor by line number and column number, and which key performs the [HELP] function. The status line is also used to display prompts, error messages and the top line of the menu system. The "cursor" is initially at the top left of the screen. The cursor 27 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial indicates the exact location at which any edit changes, such as typing in new text, will be made. Entering New Text ----------------- VEDIT Jr. starts up in "Insert Mode". As you type, new letters are inserted at the cursor position. You can tell that VEDIT Jr. is in Insert Mode by the "INS" on the status line. If you do not see "INS" on the status line, press <Ins> once (the [INSERT TOGGLE] function). VEDIT Jr. is usually configured to have a different cursor type in "Insert" and "Overstrike" modes. You can now type some text which will appear on the screen and will soon be made into a file. Type in the following text. Press the <Enter> key at the end of each line. You can make simple corrections while typing by pressing <Backspace>. NEWS.TXT LINE: 6 COL: 1 INS F1=HELP ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │Bach simply awed the professional musicians │ │who met or just observed him. Their descriptions │ │indicate that Bach, at the head of an orchestra, │ │was a conductor very much like the great │ │conductors of today. │ │▓ │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Pressing the <Enter> key moves the cursor to the beginning of the next line. When you press <Enter> while in Insert Mode, you are inserting a "newline" character. Every text line ends in a "newline" character. (The "newline" character is normally invisible, but like many things in VEDIT Jr., you can configure it to be visible. Moving the Cursor ----------------- You can move the cursor to another part of the text using the "Cursor Control" (arrow) keys: <Cursor Up> <Cursor Right> <Cursor Left> <Cursor Down> To move the cursor back to the first line, press <Cursor Up> until the cursor is back on the first line. If you keep pressing <Cursor Up> the cursor will no longer move, because you're at the beginning of the file. 28 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial Similarly, if you press <Cursor Down> while on the last line, the cursor will not move any further because you are at the end of the file. Pressing <Cursor Left> while at the beginning of a line will move the cursor to the end of the previous line. Similarly, pressing <Cursor Right> while at the end of a line will move the cursor to the beginning of the following line. With the default configuration, VEDIT Jr. only lets you position the cursor at real characters in the text and at the ends of lines. You cannot position the cursor on the screen where there is no text. However, VEDIT Jr. has several "Cursor Positioning Modes" which let you modify this behavior. Deleting Text ------------- You can delete the character at the cursor by pressing <Del>. When you do that, the character just after the cursor will be "drawn back" to the cursor position. Move the cursor just before the word "the": Bach simply awed▓the professional musicians To delete the word (and the extra space) press <Del> four times: Bach simply awed▓professional musicians You can also delete the character just before the cursor by pressing the <Backspace> key. This is helpful when you want to change the word you just typed. If you now press <Backspace> five times, the line will be: Bach simply▓professional musicians Earlier in this chapter, when you wanted to start a new line, you inserted what we called a "newline" character with the <Enter> key. While you cannot actually see it, a "newline" really is like a character. (Technically, for DOS files it is two characters a "carriage return" and a "line feed".) When you type a character key, a visible character is inserted. Similarly, pressing <Enter> inserts a "newline". Also, just as <Del> or <Backspace> delete visible characters, they will also delete a "newline" or a space. To show this, move the cursor to the "T" in the word "Their" and press <Enter> to split the line in two: 29 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial NEWS.TXT LINE: 3 COL: 1 INS F1=HELP ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │Bach simply awed the professional musicians │ │who met or just observed him. │ │▓heir descriptions │ │indicate that Bach, at the head of an orchestra, │ │was a conductor very much like the great │ │conductors of today. │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ As you can see, a "newline" has been inserted. Now press <Backspace> to delete the "newline" again: NEWS.TXT LINE: 2 COL: 31 INS F1=HELP ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │Bach simply awed the professional musicians │ │who met or just observed him. ▓heir descriptions │ │indicate that Bach, at the head of an orchestra, │ │was a conductor very much like the great │ │conductors of today. │ │ │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Of course the <Del> key can also delete characters, and a "newline" is no exception. Try the following: <Enter> <Cursor Left> <Del> In short, when you're at the beginning of a line and want to append it to the previous line, press <Backspace>. When you're at the end of a line and want to append the following line, press <Del>. You can delete an entire line by pressing <Ctrl-Y> (the [ERASE LINE] function); any following lines will then move up. You can delete text from the cursor position to the end of the line by pressing <Ctrl-Z> (the [ERASE EOL] function). You can blank out the current line by first pressing <Home> and then <Ctrl-Z>. This is different from <Ctrl-Y> in that it changes a line of text to a blank line instead of erasing it entirely. Typing Beyond the Visible Screen Area ------------------------------------- Now lets see what happens when you type in more than a single screen full of text. Move the cursor to the end of your current text and press <Enter>. Then repeatedly type a few characters and press <Enter> until 30 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial you reach the bottom of the screen. As you get near the bottom of the screen, VEDIT Jr. will automatically "scroll" the text upward to make room for new text. In effect, you could keep typing forever. Now try typing a very long line. As you get to the right side of the screen, just keep typing. VEDIT Jr. will automatically scroll the text to the left to make room for the new text. Line and Column Numbers ----------------------- VEDIT Jr. tells you exactly where you are in your file by displaying the line and column number of the current cursor position on the status line. Note the "LINE" and "COL" displayed on the status line. In the previous example, VEDIT Jr. had scrolled the text to the left. If you look at the status line in that example, you will notice that "COL:" had changed to "20:", which tells you that the left edge of the screen is at column 20. The real column number is still displayed on the status line in its normal location. Quick Cursor Movement --------------------- Using arrow keys to move the cursor might be fine if you do not have far to go, but what about long distance jumps? Fortunately the arrow keys are only some of the cursor control keys available. In addition to moving line by line or character by character, there are keys which can move the cursor by words, paragraphs, screens and to the beginning or end of a line or screen. Other movements using the {GOTO} menu are also possible and are described later in this manual. (But not in this on-disk documentation.) Moving by Words --------------- To move the cursor forward an entire word, press: <F6> [NEXT WORD] To move the cursor backward an entire word, press: <F5> [PREV WORD] The <F5> and <F6> keys will always place the cursor on the first character of a word. If the cursor is not currently at a word, pressing <F6> will move the cursor to the first character of the next word and <F5> to the first character of the previous word. 31 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial Moving to the Beginning or End of a Line ---------------------------------------- To move the cursor to the end of the current line, press: <End> [LINE END] If the cursor is already at the end of the current line when <End> is pressed, the cursor will move the the end of the next line. To move the cursor to the beginning of the current line, press: <Home> [LINE BEGIN] If the cursor is already at the beginning of the current line when <Home> is pressed, the cursor will move to the beginning of the previous line. From working with other editors and word processors, you may be used to the <Home> and <End> working differently than they do in VEDIT Jr. Do not worry, VEDIT Jr. has many configuration options that let it closely emulate other editing styles you may already be used to. Moving by Screens ----------------- Well, actually just less than a screen. VEDIT Jr. comes configured to "page" the screen up or down two lines less than the actual text screen size. This allows some overlap between screens of text, thus providing a visual reference for easier reading. To move the cursor forward an entire screen page, press: <PgDn> [PAGE DOWN] To move the cursor backward an entire screen page, press: <PgUp> [PAGE UP] Even though these functions refer to "pages", they bear no relation to printed pages for a completed document. They are simply "screen" pages and their size depends mostly on the number of lines of text your computer displays. Moving by Paragraphs -------------------- What is a paragraph? Since VEDIT Jr. is a "Plain Text" editor, it does not introduce unseen control characters to mark where one paragraph ends and the next begins. Instead, it considers a blank line as a break between paragraphs. Even when the first line of a paragraph is 32 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial indented, if there is not a blank line between it and the previous paragraph, VEDIT Jr. will think it's all one big paragraph. To move the cursor forward an entire paragraph press: <Ctrl-F6> [NEXT PARAGRAPH] To move the cursor backward an entire paragraph press: <Ctrl-F5> [PREV PARAGRAPH] The <Ctrl-F6> and <Ctrl-F5> keys always place the cursor on the first character of a paragraph. If the cursor is not currently at a paragraph, pressing <Ctrl-F6> will move the cursor to the first character of the next paragraph and <Ctrl-F5> to the first character of the previous paragraph. Undo ---- VEDIT Jr. offers you the luxury of changing your mind. Perhaps you changed some text, then decided it was better before the change. Rather than deleting and retyping, you can ask VEDIT Jr. to "undo" those changes. To undo your last action press: <Alt-Bksp> Each press of <Alt-Bksp> undoes the next previous action. Actions which can be "undone" in this way include inserting or overwriting characters, deleting characters and cursor movements. Up to the last 1,000 of these actions can be undone by repeatedly pressing <Alt-Bksp>. To try it, first delete a line of text by pressing <Ctrl-Y>. Then press <Alt-Bksp> and the line comes back. Go ahead and make some other changes deleting, overwriting and inserting text. Repeatedly pressing <Alt-Bksp> will reverse these changes step by step. You can also undo changes line by line by pressing <Ctrl-U>. This is a quick way to undo all the changes you just made to a line, but did not intend to make. For this tutorial you do not want to repeatedly press <Ctrl-U> or you will soon end up with a blank screen because that is how you started out. You cannot reverse the effect of an Undo function. 33 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial Using Menus ----------- So far, you have learned how to perform basic operations by pressing particular keys which are assigned to them. Most of these operations are also available using menus, along with many that do not have a direct keypress equivalent. To activate the menu system, press: <F10> [MENU] VEDIT Jr. will replace the status line with a horizontal menu bar. This is the "main menu" which shows the names of each "pull-down" menu. One item in the main menu will be highlighted and a pull-down menu will be displayed. VEDIT Jr. shows you this pull-down menu in advance of actually selecting it as a reference of what is available in it. File Edit Block Goto Misc Print Search Config Help ╒═══════════════════════╕ │ Browse mode No │ │ New │ │ Open... Ctrl-N │ │ Directory (change)... │ │ Save as... │ │ Save and continue │ │ Exit Alt-X │ ╘═══════════════════════╛ NOTES: If the main menu does not have a highlighted item or the pull-down menus appear blank, you may need to start up VEDIT Jr. with the "-b" monochrome option. Assuming the menus are now readable, you can save the monochrome settings permanently into the VJ.EXE file by selecting {CONFIG, Save into VEDIT}. VEDIT Jr. displays sub-menus before they are selected so that you can preview the items in the sub-menu. This has a little different "look" from some other menu systems, but the keystrokes are the same. Although we think that our sub-menu preview feature is very useful, you can disable it. This is described under "Using Menus" in Chapter 4 (Editing Guide). It should be noted that other menus systems and VEDIT always preview sub-menus when using a mouse. To highlight a different main menu item, press: <Cursor Right> or <Cursor Left> Try highlighting each item in the main menu and examine the items in each pull-down menu. 34 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial Before you can make a selection from a pull-down menu you must select it from the main menu. Highlight "File" and press <Enter> to select the {FILE} menu: File Edit Block Goto Misc Print Search Config Help ╒═══════════════════════╕ │ Browse mode No │ │ New │ │ Open... Ctrl-N │ │ Directory (change)... │ │ Save as... │ │ Save and continue │ │ Exit Alt-X │ ╘═══════════════════════╛ You can tell that you have selected a pull-down menu by the highlight bar which appears in it. You can move this bar up and down to select the desired item. To highlight a different menu item, press: <Cursor Down> or <Cursor Up> or <Space Bar> Try highlighting each item in the {FILE} menu. Items in the pull-down menus can also be selected by highlighting the desired one and pressing <Enter>. In some cases these items will themselves be sub-menus. For example, in the {MISC} menu, the item {MISC, Keyboard Layout} is a sub-menu. Answering a Prompt ------------------ The "Directory" item in the {FILE} menu lets you view the names of all files in your current directory or any other directory you specify. You can then press <Enter> to have VEDIT Jr. display the current directory or you can type in the directory of your choice. To display the current directory, select "Directory" from the {FILE} menu; at the "Enter filename:" prompt simply press <Enter>. A typical display might be: 35 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial ╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ C:\VEDIT\*.* │ │ .. VEDIT.EXE VCONFIG.EXE VHELP.HLP ERRATA.DOC│ │ WORDSTAR.KEY WORDPERF.KEY KEYS.IBM README.BAT WHATS.NEW │ │ COMPARE.VDM DISPLAY.VDM KEY-MAC.LIB MACROS.LIB PRINT.VDM │ │ SORT.VDM NEWS.TXT │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ This is VEDIT Jr.'s "point & shoot" file selection window. It is displayed any time you respond to the "Enter Filename" prompt by just pressing <Enter>. It is usually used when selecting new files to edit. "Point and Shoot File Section" in Chapter 4 (Editing Guide) describes this in more detail. When you're done viewing the directory, press <Esc>. VEDIT Jr. will go back to displaying your text. To display the contents of the directory "C:\DOS", select {FILE, Directory} as before. At the "Enter filename:" prompt enter: C:\DOS\*.* <Enter> In the typical screen below, notice that the top line indicates that the files in the "C:\DOS" directory are now being displayed. ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ C:\DOS\*.* │ │ .. ASSIGN.COM BACKUP.COM BASIC.COM BASICA.COM │ │ CHKDSK.COM COMMAND.COM COMP.COM DEBUG.COM DISKCOMP.COM │ │ DISKCOPY.COM EDLIN.COM FDISK.COM FORMAT.COM GRAFTABL.COM │ │ GRAPHICS.COM KEYBGR.COM KEYENH.COM LABEL.COM MODE.COM │ │ MORE.COM PRINT.COM RESTORE.COM SELECT.COM SHIPTRAK.COM │ │ SYS.COM TREE.COM APPEND.EXE ATTRIB.EXE BASIC.EXE │ │ CHKDSK.EXE EXE2BIN.EXE FIND.EXE JOIN.EXE LINK.EXE │ │ REPLACE.EXE SHARE.EXE SORT.EXE SUBST.EXE XCOPY.EXE │ │ ANSI.SYS DRIVER.SYS HDRIVE.SYS VDISK.SYS │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Response History ---------------- VEDIT Jr. remembers what you enter in response to its prompts. You can recall and reuse these past responses or even edit them. For example, to see this in action select {FILE, Directory} again. At the "Enter Filename" press: <Cursor Up> This will recall the previous "C:\DOS\*.*" entry. 36 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial File Edit Block Goto Misc Print Search Config Help ╒═══════════════════════╕ │ Browse mode No │ │ New │ │ Open... Ctrl-N │ │ Directory (change)... │ ╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ Enter Filename: C:\DOS\*.* │ ╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ ╘═══════════════════════╛ HINT: While editing a response, the <Cursor Right>, <Cursor Left>, <Home>, <End>, <Backspace> and <Del> keys may also be used. Exiting the Menu System ----------------------- To back up, or you might say "escape" from the current menu, press: <Esc> Pressing <Esc> will take you back one menu level. Pressing <Esc> from the main menu removes the menu system. Pressing <Esc> while editing pops up the special "Escape" menu (which is described later). Of course, you can press <Esc> to leave the "Escape" menu too. You can also jump totally out of the menus from any point. To quit the menu system, press: <Ctrl-C> <Ctrl-C> (the [CANCEL] function) cancels any operation in progress. Pressing it from anywhere within the menu system immediately removes the menu system. You can think of <Ctrl-C> as the "Panic Button". It cancels any function which is prompting you and aborts any printing in progress. Even if your keyboard layout has some other key assigned to [CANCEL], <Ctrl-C> will abort any printing, abort any command macro which is running and, in most cases, cancel any prompt. Context Sensitive Help ---------------------- VEDIT Jr. provides context sensitive on-line help. When you press <F1> (the [HELP] function), VEDIT Jr. will "pop-up" additional information related to what you are currently doing. 37 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial * If the menu system is active, the information is on the current menu selection. * If VEDIT Jr. is prompting you for something, the information is related to how you should respond. * Otherwise, (i.e. if you are on a text screen without menus or prompts), the information describes the special keys available to you. For example, activate the menu system and directly access the {FILE} menu by pressing <Alt-F>. Then press <F1> and you should see a screen like this: File Edit Block Goto Misc Print Search Config Help ╒═══════════════════════╕ │ Browse mode No │ ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │{FILE} Menu -- │ │Browse mode Enables/disables browse mode for the current file and the │ │ next file edited. │ │ │ │ When set to "Yes", the next file edited using {FILE, Open} │ │ (<Alt-N>) will be opened in a fast "browse-only" mode. │ │ │ │New Empties (closes) the buffer. If the buffer contains an │ │ altered file, you are prompted whether the file should be │ │ saved or abandoned. │ │Press any key to continue │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The displayed help information may be more than one page long. You can advance to the next page by pressing any key. After the last page, VEDIT Jr. will return to the way it was before you asked for help. Keyboard Help ------------- VEDIT Jr. can also display a list of keystrokes and the operations they perform. To display keystroke help, make sure you are not in the menu system and press <F1>. The resulting screen should look like this: 38 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial ╒══════════════════════════════ Keyboard Help ════════════════════════════════╕ │[BACKSPACE] Backspace [NEXT LINE] Ctrl-Enter │ │[BLOCK COPY] F9 [NEXT PARAGRAPH] Ctrl-F6 │ │[BLOCK MOVE] Alt-F9 [NEXT WORD] F6 │ │[CANCEL] Ctrl-C [PAGE UP] PgUp │ │ . . . . │ │ . . . . │ │ . . . . │ │ . . . . │ │[HELP] F1 [SCROLL LEFT] Ctrl-Cursor-Left │ │[INDENT] F8 [TAB CHARACTER] Tab │ │[INSERT TOGGLE] Ins [T-REG COPY] Ctrl-Ins │ │[LINE BEGIN] Home [T-REG MOVE] Shft-Del │ │[LINE END] End [T-REG INSERT] Shft-Ins │ │[MENU] F10 [UNDENT] F7 │ │Press key for desired function or <Enter> for next screen: │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Each basic "edit function" is shown along with the keys assigned to it. These are described in detail in Chapter 7 (Edit Function Reference). From this display, you can obtain additional information on a particular edit function by pressing the key(s) assigned to that function. For example, to display additional help on [LINE END], press <End>. You should see the following screen: ╒══════════════════════════════ Keyboard Help ════════════════════════════════╕ │[LINE BEGIN] Moves the cursor to the first character of the current │ │ line or, if already there, to the first character of │ │ the previous text line. │ │ │ │[LINE END] Moves the cursor to the end of the current line or, │ │ if already there, to the end of the next line of text. │ │ │ │ The behavior of [LINE BEGIN] and [LINE END] can be │ │ changed with {CONFIG, Emulation, Line emulation}. │ │ │ │[NEXT LINE] Moves the cursor to the beginning of the next line of │ │ text. │ │ │ │Press any key to continue │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ General Help ------------ VEDIT Jr. can also provide help information on particular topics. First press [HELP] and then the <Enter> key twice: 39 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial ╒══════════════════════════════ Keyboard Help ════════════════════════════════╕ │ HELP TOPICS │ │ │ │STAT Status line messages │ │MARG Setting left and right margins │ │FORM Formatting paragraphs │ │HZ Horizontal scrolling │ │IC Inserting control and graphics characters │ │CONV Lower / upper case key conversion │ │EMPTY Emptying a text register (free more memory space) │ │MOUSE Mouse support │ │ │ │ │ │Enter the word on the left for help on above topics: │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The screen lists topics on which additional help information is available. To select a topic, simply enter its name. For example, to display information about the status line, type "stat" (in upper or lowercase) and press <Enter>. You should get a result like this: ╒══════════════════════════════ Keyboard Help ════════════════════════════════╕ │BLOCK Indicates that both block markers have been set. The block │ │ can be processed from the {BLOCK} menu or printed from the │ │ {PRINT} menu. The block markers can be removed (cancelled) │ │ by pressing [CANCEL]. │ │ │ │C-N-S On the IBM PC, the status of the Caps/Num/Scroll Lock is │ │ displayed on the status line with the single letters "C", "N" │ │ and "S". │ │ │ │COL: Indicates in which column of the text the cursor is located. │ │ When the screen is scrolled sideways, the "COL" changes to │ │ the column number corresponding to the left side of the │ │ screen. E.g. "40:112" indicates the left screen edge is at │ │ column 40 and the cursor is in column 112. │ │ │ │DISK Indicates that the disk is full. This requires immediate │ │ attention since the file currently cannot be saved to disk. │ │ Use {MISC, DOS Shell} to enter DOS and delete some unnecessary│ │Press any key to continue │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ Printing Text ------------- You can print the text you have just created. Make sure that your printer is properly connected and "ON LINE". Press <F10> and "P" to enter the {Print} menu: 40 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial File Edit Block Goto Misc Print Search Config Help ╒══════════════╕ │ All │ │ Block ^P │ │ Finish/Eject │ │ Eject │ │ Reset │ │<Config │ ╘══════════════╛ This is a good time to try out the context sensitive help. Press <F1> (the [HELP] function). A pop-up window will give a short description of each item in the {PRINT} menu. Select {PRINT, All} to print the entire file. After the text is fully printed, the printer will advance to the beginning of the next page. Notice that the text started a few lines down on the page and was not printed on the left edge of the paper, but rather has about a one inch margin. The description of the {PRINT, Config} sub-menu in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference) explains how to configure various printing options. Repeating Operations -------------------- It is often desirable to repeat an editing operation such as inserting the same character, or deleting many lines. By using the [REPEAT] function (<Ctrl-R>), you can perform these operations a specified number of times without having to press the same key over and over again. For example, if you needed to enter 50 "*" characters into your text, you could press the "*" key fifty times, counting very carefully. With VEDIT Jr., there is a better way the [REPEAT] function is perfect for this. EXAMPLE - To enter 50 "*" characters into your text: 1. Press <Ctrl-R> (the [REPEAT] function). The status line will prompt you with: Repeat count: 4 2. Type "50" and press <Enter>. The status line now prompts: Press key to repeat: 3. Press "*". Fifty "*" characters will be entered into your text. At the "Repeat count" you can enter any number up to 256. You can also press [REPEAT] several more times to quadruple the initial value of 4 to 16, then 64 and finally 256. 41 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial After the repeat count is entered, you can press any text character, perform any editing function such as [ERASE LINE], or make any menu selection. For example, to delete 75 lines, press <Ctrl-R>. At the prompt enter "75". Then press <Ctrl-Y> (the [ERASE LINE] function). You can also repeat the last editing operation by pressing [REPEAT LAST] (<Alt-R>). Each successive [REPEAT LAST] repeats the last editing operation one more time. EXAMPLE - Toggle through all screen colors: 1. Select {MISC, Toggle Color}. (Press <Alt-M> and then "C".) The screen color should change. 2. Repeatedly press <Alt-R> (the [REPEAT LAST] function) to toggle through all screen colors. VEDIT Jr. also lets you repeatedly perform a sequence of editing steps over and over again. This is done using "keystroke macros" which are covered in Chapter 4 (Editing Guide) and Chapter 6 (Menu Reference). Saving Your Work ---------------- You should periodically save your work back to disk. You can do this using VEDIT Jr.'s menu system. The following example also introduces you to two menu short cuts. To save your work to disk, first press <Alt-F> to get the {FILE} menu. Then press "S" for "Save and continue". There may be a short delay while your file is saved to disk; you may also notice the message "Please wait for disk" in the lower right corner of the screen. In the above example you went directly to the {FILE} menu by pressing the <Alt> key in combination with the first letter of the main menu item. You can use this trick to go directly to any main menu item. The second short cut was to press the highlighted letter of the desired menu item; this is usually the first letter. The "Escape" Menu ----------------- The {ESCAPE} menu is totally separate from the main menu. This menu is displayed when you press <Esc> and VEDIT Jr. does not know from what you want to "escape". 42 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial NEWS.TXT LINE: 1 COL: 1 INS F1=HELP ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │▓ │ │ │ │ ╒══════════════════════╕ │ │ │ ESCAPE MENU │ │ │ │ Remove block markers │ │ │ │ Exit file │ │ │ ╘══════════════════════╛ │ │ │ │ │ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ You select items from this menu using <Cursor Up> and <Cursor Down> just as you do from other menus. Exiting VEDIT Jr. ----------------- To finish editing, simply press the <Esc> key to bring up the {ESCAPE} menu. Then select "Exit file". If you have not altered the current file, it will immediately exit VEDIT. Otherwise it will prompt you whether the changes to the current file should be saved or abandoned. To save your work and exit VEDIT Jr.: 1. Press <Esc> to bring up the {ESCAPE} menu. 2. Press "E" to select "Exit file". 3. At the prompt press "Y" to save and exit. Note that selecting "Exit" from the {ESCAPE} menu is identical to selecting "Exit" from the {FILE} menu. That's It! ---------- That's all you need to create and edit text files. Obviously there is much more VEDIT Jr. can do for you. For example, VEDIT Jr. can copy or move blocks of text, search for and replace words or entire phrases and perform numerous other operations. Take some time to get comfortable with basic editing, then read on through the more detailed chapters which follow. We certainly enjoyed creating VEDIT Jr. and sincerely hope it serves you well. 43 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 3 Quick Tutorial This page is intentionally blank 44 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Chapter 4 - Editing Guide ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Starting (Invoking) VEDIT Jr. ----------------------------- Begin editing by typing the name of the VEDIT Jr. program; this is normally "VJ". Although not necessary, this is normally followed by the name of the (first) file you want to edit or create. For example: vj letter.txt When creating a new file, the message "New file" will briefly appear. The filename on the status line at the top of the screen indicates which file you are editing. Invocation Options ------------------ The syntax for invoking VEDIT Jr. is: vj -options filename -a outfile In addition to the filename, one or more "options" can be specified (in upper or lowercase) when you start up VEDIT Jr. -b This puts VEDIT Jr. into "browse mode"; you can view files, but cannot alter them. You also cannot create files nor write blocks to disk. -m Causes VEDIT Jr. to use screen attributes which are appropriate for a monochrome (Black and White) monitor. -o Causes VEDIT Jr. to write to the screen via the "BIOS" (instead of directly to the screen memory). This overrides the value set by configuration task 5.1. -o1 Same as "-o". -o2 Causes VEDIT Jr. to write to the screen via the "BIOS" on non-IBM type machines. This is necessary for VEDIT Jr. to work on the Tandy 2000 and other "near" compatibles. -snnn Restricts VEDIT Jr. to use a maximum of 'nnn' Kbytes of memory for all data areas. The minimum value is 30. When 'nnn' is not specified, "-s" defaults to (approximately) "64". Without this option VEDIT Jr. may use all available memory. -nnn Causes VEDIT Jr. to start up on line 'nnn' of the file. If there are fewer than 'nnn' lines in the file, it will start 45 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide up at the end of the file. You can also specify a numeric expression such as "-7890/3". -- Signals the end of the invocation options. This is only needed when the filename being edited begins with a "-". filename The name of the file to edit. All filenames may include full drive and path specifications. -a outfile The file being edited will be saved under the name 'outfile'. This is similar to using the {FILE, Save as} function from within VEDIT Jr. To see a summary of all invocation options, give the command: vj /? Notes: "-m" is only needed if VEDIT Jr. was installed (configured) for a color display and you have a monochrome display connected to a color (EGA/VGA) adapter. The "-s" option lets you control how much memory VEDIT Jr. uses. The total memory used will be 'nnn' Kbytes plus the size of the executable VEDIT Jr. (approximately 64 Kbytes) plus another 10 Kbytes. "-s" can provide memory for running other programs from within VEDIT Jr. using {MISC, Dos shell}. Otherwise VEDIT Jr. may use all available memory. Values of less than 196 for the "-s" option will limit the memory available for text register operations and the number of Undo levels available. With this option, or with little available memory, Vedit Jr. will be somewhat slower in editing large files. See Also: "Exiting VEDIT Jr." and "Backup Files" later in this chapter. {MISC, DOS shell}, in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference). Examples: To edit the file "CONFIG.SYS" in the root directory of drive C:, type: vj c:\config.sys After you have modified and saved CONFIG.SYS, you will have both an updated copy called CONFIG.SYS and the original copy called CONFIG.BAK. To edit the file "PHONE.LST" and limit the memory used by VEDIT Jr. to 130 KBytes, type: 46 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide vj -s130 phone.lst To edit the file "PROGRAM.C" and have the cursor start up on line 984, give the command: vj -984 program.c To load the existing file "FAXSHEET.SAV", make changes to it and save it as the file "TOMJONES.292": vj faxsheet.sav -a tomjones.292 VEDIT Environment Variable -------------------------- If you use the same invocation options over and over again, you can set up the environment variable "VEDIT" with any desired default options. For example, if you always wanted VEDIT Jr. to use monochrome screen colors and to use a maximum of 196 Kbytes of data space, you could add the following line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: SET VEDIT=-M -S196 Super-fast Browse Mode ---------------------- Invoking VEDIT Jr. with the "-b" option causes files to be opened in a special and very fast "browse-only" mode. {GOTO, Beginning of file}, {GOTO, End of file} and relative jumps using the mouse will then work instantly on even multi-megabyte files. Files opened in browse-only mode are indicated with a "!" preceding their filename on the status line. Since VEDIT Jr. does not create any temporary files in browse-only mode, you can browse files on a read-only drive, such as a CD-ROM drive. You can also enable browse mode by selecting {FILE, Browse mode}. This disables additional changes to the current file and the next file opened with {FILE, Open} will be opened in the special browse-only mode. Notes: CD-ROM and other Read-only files are automatically opened in browse-only mode. VEDIT does not always know the current line number when browsing; the line number is then displayed as "?????". If you must know the line number in a browsed file, set {CONFIG, File handling, Enable 47 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide fast browse mode} to "No". Browsing will be slower, but the correct line number will always be displayed. You cannot disable browse mode if you invoked VEDIT with "-b". To alter a file you are currently browsing, select {FILE, New}. Then set {FILE, Browse mode} to "No". Then open the same file again with {FILE, Open}. See {FILE, Browse mode} in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference) for related information. Exiting VEDIT Jr. ----------------- To exit VEDIT Jr. select either {FILE, Exit} or {ESCAPE, Exit file}. The "Exit" function is available in both the {FILE} and {ESCAPE} menus for convenience. To exit VEDIT Jr. and save or abandon the current file: 1. Select either {FILE, Exit} or {ESCAPE, Exit file}. If no changes were made to the file since it was opened or last saved, VEDIT will immediately exit without any prompt. 2. If the file has been changed, it will prompt with: Save the file <filename> ? [Y]es [N]o-abandon [C]ancel Press "Y" to save the file and exit VEDIT. Press "N" to abandon (not save) the changes and exit VEDIT. Press "C" to cancel the operation and return to your editing. Notes: If there is insufficient disk space to save the modified file, VEDIT Jr. displays an error and aborts the request to exit. If this happens, you have several options. You can exit and abandon any changes made or delete unneeded files from your disk. Or you can use {FILE, Save as} to save the file on another drive. {MISC, DOS shell} and {MISC, Run DOS program} let you execute DOS commands for deleting files. Be careful not to delete any files which start with the same name as the file you are editing. VEDIT Jr. may be using these files for temporary storage. See Also: "Starting VEDIT Jr." earlier in this chapter. {FILE, Exit} in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference). 48 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Backup Files ------------ When you edit and modify an existing file, VEDIT Jr. renames the original file to the same name with a ".BAK" extension. This provides an automatic backup of the original file contents should you need to refer back to the original file. Any existing ".BAK" file is deleted during this process. Backup files take up additional disk space but provide important data protection. They provide a backup in case of a major editing mistake which you may not notice until days later. They also provide some protection against accidentally deleting files -- the most recent revisions may be lost, but at least the previous revisions are still there. When you are sure you do not need the backup files anymore you can delete them with the DOS command "DEL *.BAK". (The "XDEL" command from Digital Research's DR-DOS can delete all backup files in all directories with the command "XDEL *.BAK /S".) However, if you are determined not to have VEDIT Jr. create backup files, this backup feature can be turned off. To turn off backup files: 1. Set {CONFIG, File handling, Enable backup} to "Off". 2. To make this change permanent in VEDIT Jr. select {CONFIG, Save into VEDIT}. The Status Line --------------- VEDIT Jr. provides a wide variety of information on the "Status Line" located at the top of the screen. Additional status information is available by selecting the menu item {HELP, Status display}. The Status Line may include the following information: BLOCK Indicates that both block markers have been set. The highlighted block can be processed with the {BLOCK} menu, printed with {PRINT, Block} and indented/undented with [INDENT] and [UNDENT]. The block markers can be removed by pressing [CANCEL] (<Ctrl-C>). C-N-S On the IBM PC (DOS only), the status of the Caps/Num/Scroll Lock is displayed on the status line with the single letters "C", "N" and "S". 49 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide COL: xxxx Indicates in which column of the text the cursor is. When the screen is scrolled sideways, the "COL" changes to the column number corresponding to the left side of the screen. E.g. "40:112" indicates the left screen edge is at column 40 and the cursor is in column 112. Disk The disk is full! This requires immediate attention since the file currently cannot be saved to disk. See the topic "Exiting VEDIT Jr." earlier in this chapter for more information. filename Indicates the name of the file you are currently editing. This may include a drive ID if the file being edited is not on the current drive. Use {HELP, Status display} to display the full pathname of the file and its size. The filename is preceded with "!" when the file was opened in browse-only mode. The file cannot be altered, but can be quickly browsed. INS "Insert" mode is on; if this is not displayed, VEDIT Jr. is in "Overstrike" mode. LINE: xxxx Indicates on what line of the file the cursor is. The message is reduced to "LI:" for line numbers greater than 65535. When the message is all in capital letters the entire file is memory. Otherwise the message is displayed as follows: Line: The beginning of the file is currently in memory, but the end of the file is on disk. lINE: The end of the file is currently in memory, but the beginning of the file has been written to disk. line: Only the middle of the file is in memory, the remainder is on disk. RM: xx Right margin value -- only displayed if the right margin is set. TEXT Indicates that you have text in the text register. The "BLOCK" and "1-END" messages have higher priority and may appear in its place. 1-END Indicates that only one block marker is set. The block of text is highlighted as you move the cursor. The block marker can be removed by pressing [CANCEL] (<Ctrl-C>). 50 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Examples: B:NEWS.TXT LINE: 1 COL: 1 INS N F1=HELP The status line above indicates that the file "NEWS.TXT" is being edited on drive "B:", the cursor is at the beginning of the file, "Insert Mode" is on, the "Numlock" status is on and the [HELP] function is assigned to <F1>. ACCOUNT.RPT Line: 233 40: 62 1-END CN Alt-F1=Help The status line above shows that "ACCOUNT.RPT" on the default drive is being edited, only the first part of the file is in memory, the cursor is located at line 233 and column 62, the screen is scrolled 40 columns to the right (the left most displayed column is actually column 40), the first (and not the second) block marker is set, "CapsLock" and "Numlock" are on and the [HELP] function is assigned to <Alt-F1>. Using Menus ----------- VEDIT Jr.'s menu system provides convenient access to many editing functions which complement the basic "edit functions". It also lets you access most configurable parameters and additional help and reference information. You can access the items in the menu system in three ways: * Bring up the menu system by pressing [MENU] (<F10>). You can then navigate through the available functions with the cursor keys; then press <Enter> to select the highlighted item. If the item is an editing function, it is then performed; if the item is a sub-menu, that sub-menu is selected. * Directly access the desired sub-menu by pressing the corresponding "hot key". On an IBM PC (DOS) the "normal" keyboard layout defines <Alt-x>, where "x" is the first letter of each main sub-menu. For example, <Alt-B> accesses the {BLOCK} sub-menu. You can then select menu items in the normal fashion. * Directly access the desired editing function by pressing its corresponding "hot-key". In this case the menus are not displayed; the selected editing function is immediately performed. The menu system displays the currently available "hot-key" for each menu item. As you learn them you will be able to edit faster. You can also add "hot-keys" for additional menu functions that you want to directly access. The menu system is straight forward in operation and similar to other menu systems. However, there are several special features you should be aware of: 51 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Sub-menus are displayed before they are selected; this lets you preview the items in the sub-menu. Therefore, after selecting [MENU] (<F10>), both the top menu bar and the {FILE} sub-menu are displayed. However, since the {FILE} sub-menu is not yet selected, pressing "S" selects the {SEARCH} sub-menu and not {FILE, Save and continue}. Although we think that this sub-menu preview feature is very useful, you can disable it. * <Space Bar> highlights the next item in the main menu and sub-menus. * You can also select by typing the highlighted letter of the desired menu item. This is often, but not always, the first letter of that item. This technique MUST be used when defining keystroke macros (i.e. "hot keys"). * When entering a sub-menu with <Enter> or the <Alt-x> technique, the initially highlighted item is the last selected item in that sub-menu. * You can also enter sub-menus from the main menu with [CURSOR DOWN] and [CURSOR UP] which then highlight the first and last items in the sub-menu, respectively. * Even after you have entered a sub-menu, [CURSOR LEFT] and [CURSOR RIGHT] will pop you back to the main menu and select the previous/next sub-menu. To directly exit from any menu or parameter prompt, press [CANCEL] (<Ctrl-C>). The [CANCEL] function aborts any menu selection or prompt and returns the editor back to normal editing. If you only want to back up to a previous menu level, press <Esc>. Pressing <Esc> from the main menu will exit the menu system and return you to normal editing. VEDIT Jr. displays the special {ESCAPE} menu when <Esc> is pressed and there is no pending operation from which to "escape". This "Escape" menu can be used to cancel block markers or to exit VEDIT Jr. Context sensitive help is available from within the menu system. While a menu is displayed, press [HELP] (<F1>). The information will contain a short description of each item in the current menu. Notes: If you cannot read the menus, cannot tell which item is currently selected, or cannot tell which letter in each item is highlighted, your screen attributes are not set correctly. If you have a monochrome (black and white) monitor or a Laptop computer you may need to re-install VEDIT Jr. for a monochrome monitor or start up VEDIT Jr. with the "-M" option. Otherwise use {CONFIG, Colors} to change the colors used by VEDIT Jr. to ones compatible with your computer. 52 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide There is some overlap between the basic "edit functions" and the editing functions found in the menu system. For example, {EDIT, Erase line} is the same as [ERASE LINE], and {SEARCH, Search} is the same as [SEARCH]. This overlap helps new users and lets you access edit functions with a mouse. As a convenience, the menu system remembers the most recent path taken. This way you can simply press [MENU] followed by <Enter> two or more times to select the same menu item again. As described on the previous page, VEDIT previews sub-menus before they are selected. This is visually a little different from most other menu systems. Although this does not change the keystrokes needed to select a menu item, it sometimes confuses a new user. This feature can be turned off by setting {CONFIG, Screen display, Enable sub-menu preview} to "No". However, as is customary in other software, sub-menus are always previewed when using a mouse. Examples: To select "Status Display": 1. Press [HELP] (<F1>). 2. Highlight "Help" using the Cursor keys; press <Enter>. 3. Highlight "Status display" using the Cursor keys; press <Enter>. To change the screen color: 1. Press <Alt-M> as a shortcut to the {MISC} sub-menu. 2. Press "C" to perform "Color toggle". To repeat the above operation: Press [MENU] <Enter> <Enter>. -OR- Press [REPEAT LAST] (<Alt-R>). To exit VEDIT Jr.: 1. Press [ESCAPE] to access the {ESCAPE} menu. 2. Press "E" to select "Exit". 53 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Responding to Prompts --------------------- When VEDIT Jr. needs to prompt you for additional information, such as a filename, it uses a pop-up "dialog" box. You can edit your response as you enter it. VEDIT Jr. maintains a "history" of the responses you enter at each type of prompt. You can recall and reuse, or edit these previous responses. The following edit keys may be used while entering a response: [CURSOR UP] Recall Previous Response. [CURSOR DOWN] Recall later response. [CURSOR LEFT] Move cursor one character to the left. [CURSOR RIGHT] Move cursor one character to the right. [LINE BEGIN] Move the cursor to the beginning of the response. [LINE END] Move the cursor to the end of the response. [DELETE] Erase the character under the cursor. [BACKSPACE] Erase the character to the left of the cursor. [ERASE LINE] Erase the current response. [ESCAPE] Cancel the operation for which the information was requested. Notes: Responses are always entered in "Insert" mode. It is not possible to change to Overstrike mode. After editing a line, it is not necessary to move the cursor to the end of the line before pressing <Enter>. Some prompts request only a single character. You respond to these simply by pressing the desired character. Do not follow your response with <Enter>. Examples: To insert two files with similar name, say "TEXTFILE.001" and "TEXTFILE.002": Select {EDIT, Insert file} and type "TEXTFILE.001" and <Enter>. Select {EDIT, Insert file} again; press [CURSOR UP]; use 54 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide [BACKSPACE] to edit the file and then press <Enter>. Point and Shoot File Selection ------------------------------ Since it is often difficult to remember exact filenames, VEDIT Jr. features point & shoot file selection. For any editing function which requires a filename, such as {FILE, Open}, VEDIT Jr. will first prompt you for the filename: Enter filename: If you know the exact filename you can simply enter it. Alternatively, you can press <Enter> to have VEDIT Jr. give you a display of all files in the current directory. Or you can enter a "filespec" using the "wildcard" characters "*" and "?" to have VEDIT Jr. only display selected files. The format of the "filespec" is identical to that used for the DOS "DIR" command. A typical point & shoot display might be: ╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ C:\VDOC\VEDJR\*.* │ │ .. TEMP\ EXAMPLES\ PRINTALL.BAT CHAPTER1.CAP │ │ CHAPTER2.CAP CHAPTER3.CAP LAYOUT.CAP CHAPTER1.CHP CHAPTER2.CHP │ │ CHAPTER3.CHP CHAPTER4.CHP CHAPTER5.CHP CHAPTER6.CHP CHAPTER7.CHP │ │ CHAPTER8.CHP CHAPTERX.CHP LAYOUT.CHP VED-HEAD.CHP VED-TOC.CHP │ │ CHAPTER1.CIF CHAPTER2.CIF CHAPTER3.CIF CHAPTER4.CIF CHAPTER5.CIF │ │ CHAPTER6.CIF CHAPTER7.CIF CHAPTER8.CIF CHAPTERX.CIF LAYOUT.CIF │ │ VED-HEAD.CIF VED-TOC.CIF VEDITTOC.GEN VEDIT.INI VEDITMAN.PUB │ │ CHAPTER6.SAV VED-HEAD.STY VEDMAN.STY CHAPTER1.TXT CHAPTER2.TXT │ │ CHAPTER3.TXT CHAPTER4.TXT CHAPTER5.TXT CHAPTER6.TXT CHAPTER7.TXT │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The top line displays the current "filespec" including the full drive and pathname. To select a file from the point & shoot window: 1. Use the cursor keys to highlight the desired file. 2. When there are many files, [PAGE UP] and [PAGE DOWN] may help in viewing the files; [LINE END] (<End>) highlights the last file and [LINE BEGIN] (<Home>) highlights the first file. 3. Press <Enter> to select the highlighted file. 4. Selecting the special first filename ".." moves up in the DOS directory structure. Any directories are displayed before other filenames and are indicated with a following "\". Selecting a directory moves down in the directory structure to that 55 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide directory. You can change the "filespec" from within the point & shoot window. To change the point & shoot "filespec": 1. Press the <Tab> key (the [TAB CHARACTER] function). The cursor will move just past the current filespec. 2. Edit the filespec as desired. Remember that you can use [CURSOR UP] to recall previous filespecs. 3. Press <Enter> when the filespec is correct. VEDIT Jr. will display a new set of files with the first one highlighted. Press [ESCAPE] or [CANCEL] (<Ctrl-C>) to cancel the point & shoot operation. Notes: To access files on a different drive you must change the "filespec". Changing to a different drive or directory during the point & shoot does not cause the next file selection to default to that drive/directory. To change the default drive/directory, use {FILE, Directory}. On-Line Help ------------ Help information may be requested at any time by pressing [HELP]. The keystroke assigned to [HELP] is always displayed at the right end of the status line. VEDIT Jr.'s help system is "Context Sensitive", which means that it will display information which is relevant to the task at hand. For example, during normal editing, requesting help displays general information on key assignments and basic operations. If you request help while a menu or prompt is displayed, information on that particular menu or prompt will be provided. The "General" help information is divided into three pages: 1. Keystrokes Assigned to Edit Functions This is a list of all edit functions and the keys which are currently assigned to them. When this page is displayed, you can press a listed keystroke to display additional information on the associated edit function. 2. Keystrokes Assigned to Built-In Keystroke Macros 56 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide VEDIT Jr.'s "normal" keyboard layout includes numerous "Built-In" keystroke macros. This page summarizes these macros and displays the keystrokes to which they are assigned. There is no additional on-line help available for these macros. 3. Help Topics This page is a list of assorted topics on which additional information is available. You can select the desired topic by entering the key word listed on the left. Notes: Pressing [HELP] during normal editing (i.e. no menus or prompts are up) is the same as selecting {HELP, General}. All help information is contained in the file VJHELP.HLP. It is usually located in the "VEDIT Home Directory" (typically "C:\vedit"). The help system's display of the edit function assignments is dynamic -- it reflects any changes you may have made to the keyboard layout. However, the summary of the keystroke macros is static; this summary is listed at the beginning of the VJHELP.HLP file. It is only applicable to the "normal" keyboard layout and will not be correct if you have an alternative keyboard layout. However, you can edit VJHELP.HLP as desired. See Also: The {HELP} menu and {MISC, Keyboard layout} sub-menu in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference). Modifying the Help File ----------------------- VEDIT Jr.'s help file VJHELP.HLP is a standard text file which is easily changed and/or expanded. You should find it very easy to edit the beginning of this file which lists a summary of the keystroke macros. The following is a technical description of how the help file works. This information is only necessary if you want to make major changes to the file. This discussion is easier to understand if you are examining the file VJHELP.HLP within VEDIT Jr. and are familiar with the operation of the on-line help. The help file uses three control characters: <Ctrl-L> Clears the help window <Ctrl-S> Displays the message following the <Ctrl-S> on the bottom of the screen and waits for the user to press <Enter>. It then 57 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide continues with the text on the following lines. <Ctrl-V> Displays the prompt "Press key for desired function or <Enter> for next screen:". The next key pressed by the user is decoded as an edit function and converted into a two-letter "edit function code". It then searches the remainder of the file for the string "\edit-function-code\" and displays the text starting on the following line. For example, [CURSOR UP] is converted to the code "\CU\". If you examine VJHELP.HLP, you will notice that the help text for [CURSOR UP] is preceded with "\CU\". <Enter> (the [RETURN] function) is converted to the code "\RT\". You will notice that <Ctrl-V> is usually followed with "\RT\" -- this defines what the "next screen" is. You can examine the VJHELP.HLP file to see what all of the edit-function-codes are. The end of VJHELP.HLP includes additional topics, beginning with the code "\BL\", which are directly accessed by context sensitive help. The text for these topics can also be altered. Mouse Support ------------- The mouse support makes it easy to navigate and select from the menu system. You can also quickly scroll to other parts of the file, perform block operations, switch between windows and access on-line help. If you have a mouse and it is active, the mouse cursor will by default remain invisible in the upper left corner of the screen. It will become visible when you move the mouse out of the corner. You can make it invisible again by moving it back to its corner. {CONFIG, Misc, Mouse Cursor} controls the mouse support. A value of "0" disables the mouse support. The default value of "1" starts the mouse cursor in the upper left hand corner where it is initially "invisible". This is the preferred value for experienced users. "2" starts the mouse cursor in the middle of the screen. This reminds new users that VEDIT Jr. has mouse support. The mouse support is fully described in the on-line help. To access on-line help for mouse support: 1. Press [HELP] (<F1>). 2. At the prompt "Press key for desired function..." click the left mouse button. 58 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide -OR- 2. Press <Enter> twice to see the "Help Topics" and enter "mouse". NOTE: For the mouse to work within VEDIT Jr., you must have the appropriate mouse driver installed in memory. This is usually done by loading "MOUSE.SYS" in your CONFIG.SYS file, or "MOUSE.COM" in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Be sure the Microsoft mouse driver is version 6.24 or later, or that the Logitech driver is version 4.15 or later. Older mouse drivers may not support the VGA 50 line mode. VEDIT Jr. uses only two buttons; the middle button on a 3-button mouse is inactive. Scroll Bars ----------- The installation lets you select whether or not scroll bars are enabled. The scroll bars work according to the IBM SAA/CUA standard, as with Microsoft Windows and most other programs. Even if you don't have a mouse, you may find scroll bars useful because they show your relative position in the file. Scroll bars can be enabled/disabled with {CONFIG, Screen display, Enable scroll bars}. The mouse support is fully functional with or without scroll bars. Of course, using the mouse is more intuitive when scroll bars are displayed. When scroll bars are not displayed, the right button can access "stealth" scroll bars described below. Standard scroll bar functions are available through use of the left button. The vertical scroll bar indicates your position with respect to the entire file. The horizontal scroll bar indicates how much the screen is scrolled sideways with respect to 1000 columns. You you can edit lines longer than 1000 characters; however, the scroll bar slider will remain in the rightmost position. Clicking an arrow scrolls in the indicated direction. Holding down the left button scrolls continuously. Clicking on the vertical scroll bar above or below the "slider" performs a [PAGE UP] or [PAGE DOWN] respectively. You can also drag the slider in order to quickly jump to a relative position in the file. This may take some time in multi-megabyte files, but will be nearly instantaneous in fast "browse" mode. Clicking on the horizontal scroll bar to the left or right of the "slider" performs a [SCROLL LEFT] or [SCROLL RIGHT] respectively (typically 20 columns). You can also drag the slider in order to quickly scroll the screen sideways up to 1000 columns. 59 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide "Stealth" Scroll Bars and the Right Button ------------------------------------------ The right button performs useful (and non-standard) mouse operations. When scroll bars are enabled, the right button can also access them. When scroll bars are disabled, the rightmost window column is considered a "stealth" scroll bar, just as if it were visible. Similarly, the bottom window line is the stealth horizontal scroll bar. Clicking the right button on real or "stealth" arrows scrolls in the desired direction. Clicking anywhere on a real or stealth scroll bar immediately jumps to the relative position. To make quick jumps within the file, move the mouse to the relative position on the real/stealth vertical scroll bar and click the right button. (Unless you are in fast browse-only mode, this may take some time in multi-megabyte files!) To [PAGE UP] move the mouse to the four rightmost columns of the top line, not including the real/stealth scroll bar, and click the right button. To [PAGE DOWN] move the mouse to the four rightmost columns of the bottom line, not including the real/stealth scroll bar, and click the right button. You can also [SCROLL UP] / [SCROLL DOWN] by moving the mouse anywhere in the top/bottom half of the window, respectively, and holding the right button as long as desired. Moving the mouse further to the right scrolls the screen faster. NOTE: This is a very convenient way to scroll at varying speeds. In summary, the right button responds to these regions of the window: ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ PgUp^│ │ Scroll Up ▒│ │(Slow ....................................Fast)▒│ │ ▒│ │ ▒│ │ ▒│ │ ▒│ │ ▒│ │ Scroll Down ▒│ │ PgDnv│ │<▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒> │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ 60 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Menu System ----------- To access the menu system, move the mouse to the status line and click the left button. To access the {ESCAPE} menu, click the right button. Select sub-menus and items by moving the mouse to them and clicking the left button. To navigate the menu system, hold down the left button. Sliding the mouse along the top screen line displays each sub-menu. Sliding the mouse up/down highlights each item or sub-sub-menu. Placing the mouse on an item and releasing the left button selects the item. To escape from the menu system move the mouse off the menus (into the text) and release the left button. This is the same action as [CANCEL]. Pressing both mouse buttons also performs a [CANCEL]. The best way to do this is to press and hold the left button; then click the right button and release the left button. Clicking the right button within the menu system accesses the on-line help. Block Operation --------------- To move the editing cursor to the mouse position, click the left button. To highlight a block of text, simply drag the mouse over the desired block of text with the left button held down. HINTS: To highlight a small block, move the mouse to the desired 1st position. Press and hold the left button. Drag the mouse to the 2nd position -- the highlighting will follow the mouse. Release the left button. This sets both block markers. To highlight a block larger than the screen, move the mouse to the desired 1st position. Press and hold the left button. Drag the mouse to another character and then back again to the original position. Release the left button; this only sets the 1st block marker. Then page to the desired 2nd position. Finish highlighting, by pressing, dragging and releasing the left button. Both block markers are now set. To copy a block, first highlight the block, setting both markers. Move the mouse to the position for inserting the block. While holding down the <Ctrl> key, click the left button. Moving a block is similar, except that you hold down the <Alt> key and click the left button. 61 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Search/Replace Options ---------------------- The top line of the dialog box for the Search/Replace functions reads "Press [SEARCH] or [REPLACE] for options"; when possible, the function names are replaced with the names of the assigned keys. To access the search options move the mouse to this top line and click the left button. A small dialog box will pop up. To select individual search options move the mouse to the selection letter (the letter inside square brackets) and click the left button. When all options are selected, position the mouse anywhere else in the dialog box and click the left button. Notes on Mouse Operation ------------------------ VEDIT's simple dialog boxes display selections in square brackets, i.e. "[Y]es [N]o". You can answer these by moving the mouse to the selection letter (or the bracket) and clicking the left button. When normal prompts are on the screen, the left button acts identical to the <Enter> key (when the mouse cursor is not on top of a selection). Therefore, the prompt "Press any key to continue" is satisfied by moving the mouse anywhere in the window containing the prompt and clicking the left button. When prompts and menus are on the screen, the right button acts identical to the [HELP] key and supplies context sensitive help. Pressing both buttons together always performs a [CANCEL], cancelling any current operation. During normal editing, this removes any block markers. To make the mouse cursor invisible, move it to the top left hand corner of the screen. This is useful when the mouse driver is loaded, but you don't want to use the mouse. Or set {CONFIG, Misc, Mouse cursor} to "0". Screen Display & Keyboard Characters ------------------------------------ VEDIT lets you display control and graphics characters in several different ways. During editing, all displayable characters such as letters, digits and punctuation are entered directly into the text, while function and control keys are interpreted as basic "edit functions" or as "keystroke macros". VEDIT Jr. allows complete flexibility in determining the desired 62 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide keyboard layout. You can assign the basic edit functions to any function and control keys, and build in as many keystroke macros ("hot-keys") as desired. Function and control keys which are not assigned to either edit functions or keystroke macros are usually ignored. Entering Control and Graphics Characters ---------------------------------------- There are 256 possible characters on any computer. (A computer's basic memory unit called a "byte" allows 256 possible values). The first 32 characters are called "control characters" and have decimal values 0 through 31 . The normal displayable characters have decimal values 32 through 127. The characters with values of 128 through 255 are called "graphics characters" or "high bit characters". To enter a control character into your text, you must precede it with [ENTER CTRL] (<Ctrl-Q>). This technique also lets you enter control characters into search strings. [ENTER CTRL] is fully described under the equivalent {EDIT, Enter CTRL char} in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference). On the IBM PC, graphics characters can be entered directly by holding down the <Alt> key and typing the decimal value of the desired character. All character values except "00" (the "null" character) can be entered in this way. You can enter the "null" character by pressing [ENTER CTRL] (<Ctrl-Q>) and then <Ctrl-2>. Alternatively, you can enter control and graphics characters into your file using {MISC, ASCII table}. How Control and Graphics Characters are Displayed ------------------------------------------------- Most control characters are normally displayed as a "^" followed by the corresponding letter, i.e. <Ctrl-G> displays as "^G". Alternatively, control characters can be displayed literally (i.e. the "smiling face" on an IBM PC). This is described below. Graphics characters are normally displayed literally, but can alternatively be displayed as a decimal value in the format "<nnn>". <Ctrl-I> the Tab character is normally displayed as spaces to the next tab stop. Alternatively, the Tab character can be displayed with any other character by setting the configuration parameter {CONFIG, Screen display, Tab display character}. <Ctrl-J> the Line-Feed character always ends a line of text and is the true "newline" character at the end of each line. The "newline" character is normally displayed as a space, effectively making it 63 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide invisible. Alternatively, a visible "newline" character can be chosen with {CONFIG, Screen display, Newline display character}. With DOS text files, a Line-Feed not preceded by the normal Carriage-return character is displayed as "<LF>". <Ctrl-M> the Carriage-Return character normally occurs just before the Line-Feed in DOS text files; in this case it is considered part of the "newline" and not displayed. Otherwise, a Carriage-Return character is displayed as "<CR>". Display Modes ------------- The configuration parameter {CONFIG, Screen display, Screen display options} determines how control and graphics characters are displayed. Although this parameter has eight possible values, these five values are the most useful: 0 Display graphics and control characters literally. 1 (Default) Display graphics character literally, but display control characters in the "^x" format. 2 Display control character literally, but display graphics characters as decimal values in the format "<nnn>". 3 Display graphics characters in the "<nnn>" format and control characters in the "^x" format. 4 Display all characters literally, including <Tab>, <CR> and <LF>. End of Line Handling (DOS and UNIX) ----------------------------------- The configuration parameter {CONFIG, File handling, Newline character(s)} determines whether VEDIT Jr. expects normal DOS or UNIX type text files. It determines how "newline" characters are displayed, deleted and inserted. By setting this parameter you can easily edit UNIX files under DOS. Each line in a DOS text file normally ends in both a Carriage-Return and Line-Feed character; this "<CR><LF>" pair is considered the normal "newline" character even though it really is two characters. Pressing [DELETE] once at the end of a line deletes the <CR><LF> pair. Similarly, pressing <Enter> (in Insert Mode) inserts a <CR><LF> pair.> If a line in a DOS text file ends in just a Line-Feed, "<LF>" is displayed at the end of the line. Such a line may be corrected by deleting the line <LF> with [DELETE] and then inserting the <CR><LF> pair with <Enter>. 64 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide UNIX text files normally have lines ending in in just a Line-Feed character, which is therefore the "newline". Pressing <Enter> inserts only the Line-Feed character. Carriage-Return characters have no special meaning and are displayed as "<CR>". VEDIT Jr. does not automatically convert a DOS file to UNIX or vice versa. However, this can be done with a search and replace operation. To convert a DOS file into a UNIX file: 1. Go to the beginning of the file with {GOTO, Beginning of file}. 2. Press [REPLACE] (<Alt-F2>). 3. Enter the following search and replacement strings: Search? <CR><LF> Replace with? <LF> Enter the "<CR><LF>"" search string by pressing <Ctrl-N>. Enter the "<LF>" by first pressing [ENTER CTRL] (<Ctrl-Q>) and then pressing <Ctrl-J>. 4. At the replacement prompt press "R" to replace all occurrences. The file is now converted. To convert a UNIX file into a DOS file: 1. Go to the beginning of the file with {GOTO, Beginning of file}. 2. Press [REPLACE] (<Alt-F2>). 3. Enter the following search and replacement strings: Search? <LF> Replace with? <CR><LF> Enter the "<LF>" search string by first pressing [ENTER CTRL] (<Ctrl-Q>) and then pressing <Ctrl-J>. Enter the "<CR><LF>" by pressing [ENTER CTRL], then <Ctrl-J>, then [ENTER CTRL] and <Enter>. (Then press <Enter> again.) 4. At the replacement prompt press "R" to replace all occurrences. The file is now converted. The <Tab> Key and Tab Characters -------------------------------- The <Tab> key is identical to <Ctrl-I> and is almost universally assigned to the [TAB CHARACTER] function. In "Insert" mode the <Tab> key normally inserts a "Tab" character into 65 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide the text. Tab characters are displayed using spaces up to the next tab stop, even though these spaces do not exist in the text. As a convenience, you do not have to be in Insert Mode to insert text on top of a Tab character. The Tab character will not be overwritten until you reach its last displayed position. Because of the importance of the <Tab> key and Tab characters, several configuration options are available: * The tab stops are normally set to every eighth column, but can be changed with {CONFIG, Tab stops}. Tab stops can be set at any desired columns, e.g. at 7, 20, 30 and 73. Tab characters which occur past the last tab stop are displayed as normal control characters, i.e "^I". * Instead of displaying Tab characters using spaces, you can select another character with {CONFIG, Screen display, Tab display character}. A suitable value on an IBM PC is "07". This can make it easier to distinguish between Tab characters and spaces in your file. * VEDIT Jr. can be configured to insert multiple spaces (up to the next tab stop) instead of a Tab character when <Tab> is pressed. Although this uses more disk space, it is useful in applications where tab stops outside of VEDIT Jr. will not be the same as those inside. This option is also handy with FORTRAN and COBOL programs. This option is selected with {CONFIG, Emulation, Expand <Tab> key with spaces}. * The operation of the <Tab> and <Enter> keys normally depend upon the "Insert" mode. This can be changed with {CONFIG, Emulation, Typewriter emulation mode}. Lower and Upper Case Conversion ------------------------------- This topic is primarily applicable to programmers, particularly assembly language programmers. Several modes are available for converting between lower and upper case letters as they are typed on the keyboard. These modes are selected with the parameter {CONFIG, Programming, Lower/upper case key conversion}, which can take on four values: 0 No conversion takes place. This is the default. 1 All lower case letters are converted to upper case. This is similar to the "Caps Lock" on a keyboard. 2 Conditional conversion -- lower case letters are converted to upper case only when the cursor is to left of the "Conditional conversion character". 66 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide 3 Similar to (2) except that characters are reversed instead of being forced to upper case. Modes "2" and "3" are specifically designed for assembly language programmers that prefer having the Label, Opcode and Operand in upper case and the comment in upper and lower case. In Mode "2" lower case letters are converted to upper case if they occur to the left of the "conditional conversion character", typically ";". To the right of the ";" they are not converted. In this mode an assembly language program can be entered or edited with all lower case letters and VEDIT Jr. will automatically convert the labels, opcodes and operands to upper case while leaving the comment fields alone. The "conditional conversion character" may be changed with {CONFIG, Programming, Conditional conversion character}. Mode "3" is similar to Mode "2"; instead of converting lower case to upper case, it reverses the case of letters appearing before the ";". This makes it easier to enter lower case strings into a program (hold down the shift key to enter lower case letters). NOTE: This upper/lower case conversion option does not affect any existing text; use {EDIT, Lower/Upper case} to convert existing text. Key Emulation Modes ------------------- Not only can you assign the basic edit functions to any desired function or control keys, but you can change how the commonly used edit functions work. This lets you emulate other editors and word processors and/or fine tune VEDIT Jr. to your preferences. The "emulation modes" can be changed with the {CONFIG, Emulation} sub-menu. They are fully described in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference). The emulation modes include: * Cursor positioning modes -- control how the cursor keys move the cursor past the ends of lines. * Typewriter emulation modes -- control how the <Tab> and <Enter> keys work in "Insert" and "Overstrike" modes. * Line emulation mode -- controls how the [LINE BEGIN] and [LINE END] functions (<Home> and <End> keys) work when the cursor is already at the beginning/end of the line. * Special emulation modes -- controls how the [SCREEN BEGIN], [SCREEN END], [SCROLL UP], [SCROLL DOWN], [SEARCH], [DELETE] and [BACKSPACE] functions work. A little experimentation is best for understanding these modes and 67 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide deciding which you like best. The on-line help describes these modes in more detail; select the {CONFIG, Emulation} sub-menu and press the [HELP] (<F1>) key. More sophisticated emulation can be performed with the use of keystroke macros. Other Keyboard Input Options (Technical) ---------------------------------------- Configuration parameter 2.6 (Chapter 8) controls whether VEDIT Jr. reads the IBM PC keyboard via "ROM BIOS" or "DOS". When set to "ROM BIOS" (default), keyboard enhancers, such as Borland's Superkey (tm), are bypassed and have no effect on VEDIT Jr.'s operation; set to "DOS", they affect operation (which may be desirable or undesirable). The parameter {CONFIG, Misc, Keyboard input options} controls several rarely changed options: * The "8th" bit can be enabled or stripped when reading the keyboard; you always want it enabled on an IBM PC. Note that this has no effect on 8-bit characters already in the text. Such characters are left unmodified when they are read from disk or written to disk. * 8-bit characters are normally treated as text (graphics) characters. Alternatively, they can be treated as as function keys. This is usually not desirable on an IBM PC. * Unassigned function/control keys can enter their codes directly into the text. * The case of all letters can be flipped e.g. typing "a" gives you "A" and typing "A" gives you "a". (We are not exactly sure why you would want this, but VEDIT has always had this capability.) Other Screen Display Issues (Technical) --------------------------------------- On the IBM PC, you can select from seven different cursor types -- four "software" cursors and three "system" cursors. VEDIT Jr. is typically configured to have a different cursor appearance in "Insert" versus "Overstrike" mode. For the software cursors, you can select the blink rate or a non-blinking cursor and a specific cursor color. For the system cursors, you can choose a thin, medium or full-height cursor. These options are a matter of personal preference and are configured with the {CONFIG, Misc} sub-menu. VEDIT Jr. will interrupt screen updates when you are performing rapid screen changes. Operations such as [PAGE DOWN] require updating the entire screen. If you press another [PAGE DOWN] while the screen is updating, VEDIT Jr. interrupts the unwanted update and restarts to 68 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide display the most current screen. You are most likely to notice this if you hold down the [PAGE DOWN] key. Keystroke Macros ---------------- In order to use VEDIT Jr. effectively and streamline your own editing tasks it is important to understand VEDIT Jr.'s extensive "keystroke macro" facilities. VEDIT Jr. can remember a sequence of keystrokes and repeatedly play them back at the press of a key. These stored keystroke sequences are called "keystroke macros". They let you assign a frequently typed sequence of keys to a single function or control key. You can define a virtually unlimited number of keystroke macros and each may contain up to several hundred keystrokes. Each keystroke macro is normally assigned to a function or control key that is not already in use (examples might be <Ctrl-F5>, <Ctrl-W> and <Alt-J>). Pressing the single function or control key then performs the equivalent of typing the entire sequence of keys. This saves you time, effort and reduces the chance of error. You can use keystroke macros to repeatedly execute almost any operation or sequence of operations. This includes selecting items from the menus, responding to VEDIT Jr. prompts as well as simply typing text. Keystroke macros have several purposes: * The most common use of keystroke macros is as "hot-keys" for directly accessing items within the menu system. Many such "hot-keys" are built into the "normal" and other supplied keyboard layouts. The menus display any "hot-keys" which directly access each item. * Since new keystroke macros can easily be added at any time, you can define one whenever you find yourself typing the same sequence over and over again. For example, you could define the key <Ctrl-A> to type out the whole phrase "attached and included herein by reference" each time it was pressed. You can add new keystroke macros at any time. {MISC, Keyboard layout, Add keystroke macro} lets you define a new keystroke macro and edit it as you enter it. Alternatively, {MISC, Keyboard layout, Record macro} lets you record a new keystroke macro while you edit your file. See these functions in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference) for more details. NOTE: VEDIT Jr. forgets new keystroke macros when you exit unless you make them permanent with {CONFIG, Save into VEDIT}. Example - Adding a new keystroke macro In this example, will define <Ctrl-F1> to enable justification. 69 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide (You could also define <Ctrl-F2> to disable it.) 1. Select {MISC, Keyboard layout, Record macro} (or press <Alt-K>). You will see the following dialog box: ╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ Press <Backspace> to edit; <Esc> to enter │ │ Function/Control Key? │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ 2. At the prompt, press <Ctrl-F1>. If you make a mistake, press [BACKSPACE] to delete the keystroke. Now press <Esc> to accept <Ctrl-F1>. You are now in "Record Mode" as displayed on the status line. 3. Justification is enabled by setting {CONFIG, Word processing, Justify paragraphs} to "1". Therefore, press the following sequence of keys: (assumes <F10> is [MENU] and <Ctrl-C> is [CANCEL]) <F10> C W J 1 <Enter> <Ctrl-C> (This keystroke macro ends in [CANCEL] to exit from the menu system; in general, keystroke macros do not end in [CANCEL].) Turn off the Record Mode by pressing <Alt-K>. The key to turn off (stop) Record Mode is displayed on the status line. The new keystroke macro is now fully defined. Notes: The function {MISC, Keyboard layout, Display layout} displays all active keystroke macros. The <Ctrl-F1> defined in the example above would display as: Ctrl-F1 [MENU]CWJ1[RETURN][CANCEL] VEDIT Jr. records the edit functions in a keystroke macro and not the function and control keys that were pressed. This ensures that keystroke macros are independent of the keyboard layout -- you can change the keyboard layout without having to reenter existing keystroke macros. You can get a printout of the entire keyboard layout or just the keystroke macros by selecting {MISC, Keyboard layout, Print layout}. 70 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Scrolling the Screen -------------------- The screen can be thought of as a "window" into a much larger area of text. Certainly this larger area can extend above and below the currently visible text. However, if the text is logically wider than the actual screen width, it can also extend to the right or left of the visible text. The areas of text which are not currently visible can be exposed by "scrolling" the display over to those areas. Scrolling happens naturally when entering new text as the older text "scrolls" off the screen. Vertical Scrolling ------------------ The screen scrolls automatically as the cursor is moved towards the very top or bottom of the screen. As delivered, VEDIT Jr. will scroll when the cursor reaches about the third line from the top or bottom of the screen. This ensures that you always see a few lines before and after the line you are editing. You can also use [SCROLL UP] (<Ctrl-Up Arrow>) and [SCROLL DOWN] (<Ctrl-Down Arrow>) to scroll the screen without having to move the cursor. This allows you to view lines which are just off the screen. The configuration program VCONFIG (Chapter 8) lets you select how many lines of overlap you will see when using [PAGE UP] and [PAGE DOWN], and how close to the top/bottom of the screen the cursor can get before the screen scrolls. Horizontal Scrolling -------------------- VEDIT Jr. can scroll the the screen sideways for editing documents which are wider than the display, such as spreadsheets or structured programs. Similar to vertical scrolling, the screen automatically scrolls as the cursor is moved toward the beginning or end of long lines. You can also scroll the screen horizontally without moving the cursor using [SCROLL RIGHT] (<Ctrl-Cursor Right>) and [SCROLL LEFT] (<Ctrl-Cursor Left>). When scrolling sideways, the screen normally jumps by 20 columns at a time. If desired, this can be changed with {CONFIG, Emulation, Horizontal scroll increment}. When editing extremely long lines, you can quickly move the cursor to any desired column with {GOTO, Column #}. 71 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Wrapping Long Lines on the Screen --------------------------------- Long lines normally extend off the right side of the screen. Alternatively, you can have them wrap onto multiple screen lines. This lets you see an entire long line at once. To wrap long text lines onto multiple screen lines: 1. Select {CONFIG, Emulation, Horizontal scroll margin}. 2. At the prompt enter a new value of "79". The "horizontal scroll margin" (independent of the word processing right margin) determines at which column VEDIT Jr. wraps long lines. Lines longer than the horizontal scroll margin are wrapped to the next screen (window) line. These additional screen lines are called "continuation lines" and are indicated with a special "continuation character", typically a reverse video "-" (dash) in the leftmost column. The continuation character can be changed with the configuration program VCONFIG (Chapter 8). When the horizontal scroll margin is set, the leftmost column is reserved for the continuation character -- lines which are not continuation lines have a space in the first column. Therefore only 79 characters can be displayed per screen line (assuming 80 character width); that is why "79" and NOT "80" is typically chosen for the horizontal scroll margin. The horizontal scroll margin can be set to values up to 255 which is obviously wider than your screen. In this case, only lines longer than the scroll margin and wrapped, and normal horizontal scrolling is used to view columns up to the scroll margin. Since continuation lines are quite obvious on the screen, this lets you flag lines longer than a specified length, e.g. lines that are too long for your application. For example, your compiler may not support lines longer than 132 characters. In this case, set the horizontal scroll margin to 132 and any longer lines will be obvious on the screen. Notes: Setting the horizontal scroll margin slows down screen updates by about 25% due to this feature's computational overhead. To reduce the amount of unwanted side to side scrolling, especially on CRT terminals, the [LINE END] function can be configured with {CONFIG, Emulation, Line emulation mode} to only go to the end of the screen line instead of the end of the text line. 72 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Block Operations ---------------- One of the most useful features of VEDIT Jr. is its ability to copy, move, delete, save and reuse blocks of text. A "block" can be any amount of text from one character to an entire file. A block can be either a group of contiguous characters called a "character block" or a vertical column which extends down through the middle of your text called a "columnar block". A block is selected (marked) by setting beginning and ending "block markers". VEDIT Jr. highlights this area so you can see what you have selected. Block editing functions such as {BLOCK, Delete} are not available until you have selected a block of text. Items which are not currently available in the {BLOCK} menu are displayed in a different color and do not have the "selection letter" highlighted. Selecting a block of text not only lets you perform block editing functions, but also changes the operation of other editing functions. For example, when the cursor is within a highlighted block of text, the [INDENT] and [UNDENT] functions indent/undent the entire block; otherwise these functions only change the current left margin. Marking (selecting) a Block of Text ----------------------------------- The description for {BLOCK, Set marker} in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference) describes in detail how to mark a block of text. In short, move the cursor to the beginning of the block and select {BLOCK, Set marker} (<F9>) to highlight a "character" block, or {BLOCK, Set column marker} (<Ctrl-N>) to highlight a "columnar" block. As you now move the cursor, intervening text will be highlighted. Many block operations including {BLOCK, Delete} and {PRINT, Block} can be performed after setting only the first marker the cursor position acts as the second marker. However, if you need to or want to, you can set the second block marker by again selecting {BLOCK, Set marker} or {BLOCK, Set column marker}. After setting the second block marker, the status line will display "BLOCK" and moving the cursor will not affect the highlighted block. All block operations are now available. You can also use the mouse to mark and highlight a block of text. NOTES: The "normal" VEDIT Jr. keyboard layout assigns <F9> as a "hot-key" for {BLOCK, Set marker}. If your layout does not have an assignment for this function, you can alternatively press [BLOCK COPY] even if you do not want to copy a block. [BLOCK COPY] also sets the block markers -- until both block markers are set, it only sets the block markers; when both block 73 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide markers are set, it copies the block to the current cursor position. To remove the block markers it is usually simplest to press [CANCEL] (<Ctrl-C>). What Exactly Does the Block Include? ------------------------------------ For "character" blocks you must mark the end of the block with the cursor one character PAST the last character to be included in the block. In other words, the character just before the cursor is the last character included in the block. Therefore, if you end a "character" block at the end of a line, the (invisible) "newline" character will not be included. On the other hand, if you end the block at the beginning of the next line, the preceding "newline" character will be included. This exclusion of the character at the cursor position may not make sense at first, but once you are used to it, it simplifies block operations. Although VEDIT Jr. displays the "cursor" on top of characters, it is best to think of the cursor as being between characters. Indeed, "graphics mode" word processors such as Microsoft Word (tm) and Xerox Ventura Publisher (tm) display the "cursor" between characters. However, because this is not possible in "text mode", VEDIT Jr. is forced to display the cursor on top of the next character. If you think of the cursor as really being between characters, you will understand why VEDIT Jr. marks the ends of blocks the way it does. However, we violate the above reasoning when marking "columnar" blocks. It is much more intuitive and useful to include the character at the cursor position when marking the end of a columnar block. Copying / Moving Text Within Your File -------------------------------------- The description for {BLOCK, Copy to cursor} in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference) describes in detail how to copy a block of text within your file. In short, first select the block of text to be copied by setting both block markers. Next move the cursor to the position where you would like the same text. Then select {BLOCK, Copy to cursor} or press [BLOCK COPY] (<Ctrl-F9>). Alternatively, to move the block, i.e. "cut" it from its original position and "paste" it into the new position, select {BLOCK, Move to cursor} or press [BLOCK MOVE] (<Alt-F9>). 74 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Copying a block of text to two or more places in your file or into another file is best done with the use of a "text register". [BLOCK COPY] and [BLOCK MOVE] ----------------------------- [BLOCK COPY] and [BLOCK MOVE] are "smart" edit functions that give you additional flexibility in setting block markers. Their operation depends upon how many block markers are set -- see the table below. The best way to understand their action is to try them in each situation. For example, when no block markers are set, pressing [BLOCK COPY] sets the first block marker; pressing it again (after moving the cursor) sets the second block marker; pressing it a third time copies the highlighted block to the current cursor position. In this way, only a single key is needed to copy a block of text. Block Function Key Behavior Function Key No Marker Set 1st Marker Set 2nd Marker Set ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ [BLOCK COPY] <Ctrl-F9> Set 1st Marker Set 2nd Marker Copy to cursor [BLOCK MOVE] <Alt-F9> Set 1st Marker Set 2nd Marker Move to cursor Notes: The "normal" VEDIT Jr. keyboard layout assigns <F9> to {BLOCK, Set marker}. Alternatively you could assign <F9> to [BLOCK COPY]. <F9> would then perform a convenient combination of setting block markers and copying a block of text. The Text Register ----------------- VEDIT Jr. provides a text holding area called a "text register" which is similar to the "scratchpad" in other editors. You can use the register to store text independently of the text you're editing. To copy a block of text into the text register, highlight the block of text and select {BLOCK, Copy to register} or press [T-REG COPY] (<Grey+>). Alternatively, to also remove the highlighted block from the file, select {BLOCK, Move to register} or press [T-REG MOVE] (<Grey->). The status line message "TEXT" now indicates that something is stored in the text register. You can insert the contents of the text register anywhere in your file or in another file. Place the cursor at the desired location and select {BLOCK, Insert register} or press [T-REG INSERT] (<Grey*>). The contents of the text register are lost when you exit VEDIT Jr. 75 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Columnar Blocks --------------- VEDIT Jr. can manipulate columns of text. A "columnar block" is a rectangle of characters in the middle of your text. It can be anywhere from 1 character wide to the full width of the text being edited. It can also extend from as little as one line to many pages in length. Once you have marked (highlighted) a columnar block, you can perform any of VEDIT Jr.'s block operations on it. You can also restrict a search/replace operation to the columnar block. Columnar blocks are especially convenient for editing tabular data. For example, you could copy a particular table of numbers, say between lines 10 and 20 and between columns 30 and 40 to the text register. You could then insert this table next to another table of numbers, say beginning on line 50 and column 60. To make columnar block operations appear as natural as possible, VEDIT Jr. performs some additional manipulations on your text. First, it assumes that a columnar block being copied should have a flush right margin. Since some lines being copied may be too short to reach the block's right margin, the copy of these lines is padded with spaces to make it flush. This insures that when the columnar block is inserted, it does not destroy the alignment of the following text. Similarly, when inserting a columnar block, spaces are added to pad short text lines which do not reach the insertion column. This keeps the inserted text aligned. In some cases, such as inserting a columnar block at the end of text lines, these extra spaces become trailing spaces which are not needed for alignment purposes. You can select with {CONFIG, Emulation, Trim spaces after columnar block insert} whether these trailing spaces are trimmed from the text. Second, if the columnar block being copied contains Tab characters, these tabs are converted to spaces. (This is essential for columnar operations to work as expected.) When the columnar block is inserted, you can select with {CONFIG, Emulation, Retab after columnar block insert} whether these spaces (and adjacent spaces in the existing text) are converted back to Tab characters. NOTE: This trimming and tab/space conversion applies only to the inserted text and adjacent spaces. It DOES NOT affect the entire file and only applies in COLUMN mode. Columnar Block Examples ----------------------- To perform columnar block operations mark the desired block with {BLOCK, Set column marker} (<Ctrl-N>). After setting the first block marker, the highlighting shows precisely which characters are included in the block. You should immediately notice the difference in the way the text 76 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide is highlighted in Column Mode. NOTE: When columnar markers are set, [CURSOR RIGHT] will move past the end of short lines (similar to cursor positioning mode 4). This lets you set the right column past short lines. The following screen shows a columnar block highlighted. Note that the cursor is in the lower right corner of the block. (Unlike character blocks, columnar blocks include the character at the cursor position.) SAMPLE.TXT LINE: 7 COL: 22 1-END INS F1=HELP ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │7777777777777777777777777777 │ │77777777777700000000077777 │ │777777777777000000000777 │ │7777777777770000000007 │ │77777777777700000000 │ │777777777777000000 │ │7777777777770000 ▓ │ │77777777777777 │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ After copying this block to the text register, the register will contain: 000000000 000000000 000000000 00000000. 000000.. 0000... The "." are spaces which the columnar block copy added to the register in order to give it a flush right margin. Now consider the following text before inserting this register. SAMPLE.TXT LINE: 2 COL: 9 INS F1=HELP ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrr▓sssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ After inserting the register, the screen will display: 77 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide SAMPLE.TXT LINE: 7 COL: 18 INS F1=HELP ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrr000000000ssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrr000000000ssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrr000000000ssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrr00000000.ssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrr000000...ssssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrr0000.....▓sssssssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ This shows the importance of the added extra spaces when the block was initially copied to the text register. Now consider the following text before inserting the same text register. Note that text lines 6 and 7 do not reach the insertion column. SAMPLE.TXT LINE: 2 COL: 14 INS F1=HELP ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr▓sssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrs │ │rrrrrrrrrrr │ │rrrrrrrr │ │rrrrr │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ After inserting the same register, the screen will display: SAMPLE.TXT LINE: 7 COL: 22 INS F1=HELP ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr000000000ssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr000000000sssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr000000000ssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr00000000.s │ │rrrrrrrrrrr..000000... │ │rrrrrrrr.....0000.....▓ │ │rrrrr │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ By padding text lines 6 and 7 with spaces, the inserted block also remains aligned. Notice that the extra spaces added to the text register are now trailing spaces on lines 6 and 7 above and serve no alignment purpose. When {CONFIG, Emulation, Trim spaces after columnar block insert} is enabled 78 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide (the default), these extra spaces are trimmed following the insertion. To demonstrate this trimming, consider the following text register. Note that it contains a blank line consisting of spaces. 000000000 000000000 ..... 00000000. 000000.. 0000... Consider the following text which contains three trailing spaces on lines 4, 6 and 8. (Remember that trailing spaces are invisible unless you change {CONFIG, Screen display, Newline display character} to display the location of the "newline" at the end of each line.) SAMPLE.TXT LINE: 2 COL: 14 INS F1=HELP ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr▓sssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssss │ │rrrrrrrrr... │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrs │ │rrrrrrrrrrr... │ │rrrrrrrr │ │rrrrr... │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ With {CONFIG, Emulation, Trim spaces after columnar block insert} enabled, inserting the text register will change the screen to: SAMPLE.TXT LINE: 7 COL: 18 INS F1=HELP ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │rrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr000000000ssssssssss │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr000000000sssssss │ │rrrrrrrrr │ │rrrrrrrrrrrrr00000000.s │ │rrrrrrrrrrr..000000 │ │rrrrrrrr.....0000▓ │ │rrrrr... │ │ │ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The trailing spaces, including the existing ones on lines 4, have been trimmed. However, the trailing spaces on line 8, which was not involved in the insertion, still remain. As explained earlier, Tab characters in a columnar block operation are first converted to spaces and can optionally be converted back to Tab 79 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide characters. However, a single space is never converted to a Tab character. Also, the first two spaces following a "." (period), "!" and ":" are not converted to a Tab character. This makes columnar block operations more compatible with the needs of word processing. The above discussion also applies to columnar block copy/move operations performed with [BLOCK COPY] and [BLOCK MOVE]. These are implemented with an internal text register and therefore operate identically. A side benefit of this tab/space conversion is the ability to convert all the Tab characters in the edit buffer into spaces, or convert sequence of spaces into Tab characters. First mark the entire edit buffer as a columnar block; then move the block into a text register. If you only want spaces in the file, disable {CONFIG, Emulation, Retab after columnar block insert} and insert the text register back in. If you want spaces converted to Tab characters, enable {CONFIG, Emulation, Retab after columnar block insert} and insert the text register. Search and Replace ------------------ The descriptions for {SEARCH, Search} and {SEARCH, Replace} in Chapter 6 (Menu Reference) describe in detail how to perform normal search and replace operations. Therefore, this discussion assumes you already know the basics of "search strings" and "replacement strings". Pattern Matching ---------------- Pattern matching makes it possible to search not only for particular characters, but also for types of characters such as "any digit", or for characters that meet special conditions such as "occurring at the beginning of a line". You could even search for any five letter word beginning in "t" and ending in "n". These generalized searches are performed by using "pattern matching codes" within the search string. Each pattern matching code consists of the special character "|" followed by another character -- typically a mnemonic letter. NOTE: Although the mnemonic letter may be entered in upper or lower case, for purposes of clarity, all examples show these letters in upper case. Here are a few examples of search strings using pattern matching: |D|D Search for two consecutive digits. |N|D|D|D|N|D Search for next two digit number. (It will not match a three digit number.) 80 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide |<note Search for the word "note" appearing at the beginning of a line. t|A|A|An Search for any five letter word beginning in "t" and ending in "n". The following list describes all pattern matching codes: |A Match any alphabetic letter, upper or lower case. |B Match a blank - a single Space or Tab. |C Match any Control Character - a character with an ASCII decimal value of 0 to 31. |D Match any numeric digit - "0" through "9". This code does not match "." or ",". |F Match any alphanumeric character - a letter or a digit. |G Match any group character - {}, [], <> and (). (Internally used by {GOTO, Matching ()}.) |L Match the "newline" character. When {CONFIG, File handling, "Newline" character(s)} is set to "0" (default for DOS), this matches a "Carriage-Return", "Line-Feed" pair as a single "newline" character. Otherwise it matches a single "Line-Feed" character. |N Match any character except the following character or pattern code. Use this code to exclude a certain character or type of character. For example, to search for "exam " or "examiner" but not "exams", use "exam|Ns". Think of "|Nx" as "not x". |S Match any separator - a character which is not a letter or a digit. |T Match selected separators (terminators). This is similar to "|S" but will only match the following characters: ; : , ' " Space Tab Carriage-Return Line-Feed This code is primarily useful for programming language constructs where characters such as "$" and "_" may be part of variable names and labels. |U Match any upper case letter. |V Match any lower case letter. |W Match "white space" - one or more Spaces and/or Tabs. 81 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide |X Match any single character; this is the simple "wildcard" similar to "?" in DOS filenames. |0 Match the "Null" character (ASCII 0). |< Match the beginning of a line -- the following matched characters must occur at the beginning of a line. |> Match the end of a line -- the following matched characters must occur at the end of a line. || Match the "|" character. Since "|" starts a pattern matching code, you need two together to search for a single "|" in your text. Most pattern matching codes match a single character; however, some will match zero, one or even many characters. The code "|W" matches "white space" -- one or more spaces and/or Tab characters. For example, search and replacement strings to replace all white space at the beginning of a line with a single Tab character are: Search? |<|W Replace with? <Tab> The codes "|<" and "|>" match zero characters; they only ensure that the entire search string matches at the beginning or end of the line, respectively. Remember when using the [REPLACE] function that ALL text characters that are matched by the search string are replaced by the new text. This is where the difference between "|<" and "|L" is important text matched with "xxxx|<" does not include the "newline" character, while text matched with "xxxx|L" does include the "newline". 82 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide Word Processing Functions ------------------------- In addition to its wide range of features for general purpose editing, VEDIT Jr. has features specifically designed to assist with word processing. These include: Left Margin for When a left margin is set, VEDIT Jr. indents new Indented Text lines of text by automatically adding tabs and spaces (or just spaces) to reach the left margin. Existing paragraphs and arbitrary blocks of text can also be indented. Right Margin and Setting a right margin also enables "word wrap" Word Wrap words which would exceed the right margin are instead "wrapped" to the next line without breaking the word in half. VEDIT Jr. performs word wrap by inserting a normal "newline" character before the wrapped word just as if you had pressed <Enter>. Paragraph If desired, each paragraph can have different left Formatting and right margins. The margins for an existing paragraph can also be changed and the paragraph then "re-formatted" to fit the new margins. Justification When paragraphs are formatted, they can optionally also be justified. Justification produces a straight right edge to the text by adding spaces between words on each line. Center Line Lines of text can quickly be centered between the current left and right margins with the {EDIT, Center line} function. Unlike dedicated word processors, VEDIT Jr.'s word processing functions never insert special "control codes". Paragraphs are formatted by inserting only "newline" characters (a Carriage-Return and Line-Feed pair). Text is indented by using only Tab characters and spaces; if desired only spaces can be used. This makes it possible to use text files formatted with VEDIT Jr. with almost any other program. For example, VEDIT Jr. is ideal for preparing and editing text files using with Desktop Publishing packages such as XEROX Ventura(tm). Definition of "Word" and "Paragraph" ------------------------------------ It is important to know exactly what VEDIT Jr. considers to be a word and a paragraph. Words are allowed to have embedded periods in them, as in "i.e.". A 83 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide comma "," always ends a word, even if the comma is not followed by a space. As a special case, numbers with embedded commas, such as "10,000" are treated as one word. Of course spaces, tabs ("white space") and "newlines" separate words from each other. All other characters are allowed in words. To VEDIT Jr., a paragraph is separated from preceding or following paragraphs by at least one blank line or a line which starts with a "." "!" or "@" in the first column. Lines starting with these characters are assumed to be "print formatting commands" for programs like our V-PRINT. Print formatter command lines are not considered part of any paragraph and are therefore never re-formatted. Indenting Text (Left Margin) ---------------------------- There are several ways to indent text so that it does not begin in the first column. You can, of course, type spaces at the beginning of each line to be indented. This is the normal way of indenting the first line of a new paragraph. However, VEDIT Jr. can indent each new line of text for you, automatically. This is useful in word processing for indenting entire paragraphs, and for editing programs written in structured languages such as C, Pascal and PL/I. The left margin determines how much newly entered lines will be indented. Normally the left margin is set to column 1. Pressing [INDENT] (<F8>) increases the left margin and [UNDENT] (<F7>) reduces the left margin. These functions change the left margin by the "indent increment", which is normally "4", but configurable. The left margin can also be changed with {CONFIG, Word processing, Left margin}. VEDIT Jr. indents text by padding the beginning of lines with Tab characters and spaces. The optimum number of tabs and spaces will be used and depends upon the currently set tab stops. If you prefer text to be indented using only spaces, set {CONFIG, Emulation, Expand <Tab> key with spaces} to "Yes". VEDIT Jr. has another mode of indentation called "auto-indent". It is primarily intended for editing structured programming languages such as "C". In auto-indent mode, each new line will be indented the same amount as the previous text line. You can then change the indentation of the new line by pressing [INDENT] or [UNDENT] to start or end a block of program instructions. The main advantage of auto-indent mode is that you can jump around in a program and newly entered instructions will automatically fit the indentation of the current block of instructions. Auto-indent and the "indent increment" are configurable with {CONFIG, Programming, Auto-indent mode} and {CONFIG, Programming, Indent increment}. 84 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide HINTS Do not not indent your text to keep it from printing on the left edge of the paper. The print functions let you set a separate "printer margin" for this purpose. [INDENT] is not designed for indenting the first line of a paragraph. Spaces should be used for that purpose. Word Wrap (Right Margin) ------------------------ Setting the right margin enables "word wrap" which automatically starts a new line when text reaches the right margin. The entire word, which would otherwise exceed the right margin, is wrapped to the next line without breaking the word in half. The new line will start at the current left margin. Ordinarily, the right margin is disabled. To enable it, use {CONFIG, Word processing, Right margin}. The right margin is the last column in which a displayable character can occur. However, spaces, especially the typical two spaces following a sentence, are allowed to exceed this margin. A value of zero turns the right margin off, disabling both word wrap and the {EDIT, Format paragraph} function. The right margin can be greater than the screen line length, in which case VEDIT Jr. will either scroll the screen horizontally or display a continuation line before the word wrap takes place. As you edit a paragraph, existing text will sometimes extend past the right margin. This is normal, because word wrap only occurs when new text is entered past the right margin. You can get all the text back between the margins by reformatting the paragraph. IMPORTANT NOTES: The right margin should be turned off when editing programs; otherwise, accidentally selecting {EDIT, Format paragraph} will generally scramble your program. VEDIT's "undo" usually cannot recover the text in this case. Do not confuse the right margin with the "Horizontal Scroll Margin" -- the latter only controls how long lines are displayed on the screen. Formatting and Justifying Paragraphs ------------------------------------ VEDIT Jr. can "format" a paragraph to fit it between the current left and right margins. To do this, VEDIT Jr. may move one or more words from the end of a line to the beginning of the next line or borrow words from the beginning of the following line to fill out a line. In the 85 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide process, the number of lines in the paragraph may change. VEDIT Jr. can optionally add extra spaces between words to "justify" (straighten) the right edge of the paragraph. The paragraph will be formatted to fit between the current left and right margins. For example, if a paragraph is indented 8 spaces before formatting and the left margin is currently 4, formatting the paragraph will result in it being indented only 4 characters. To format a paragraph, first ensure that the left and right margins are set as desired, place the cursor anywhere in the paragraph and select {EDIT, Format paragraph} (<Ctrl-F>). After formatting, the cursor is advanced to the beginning of the next paragraph so that you can easily format several consecutive paragraphs. After formatting a paragraph or using word wrap, you may notice that each text line ends in a space. This actually is the space you typed between the words. Lines ending in a period "." are typically followed by two spaces. These spaces at the end of a line are allowed to exceed the right margin. When formatting paragraphs, VEDIT Jr. attempts to maintain double spaces between sentences, i.e. after ".", "!" and "?". NOTE: An indented line is not enough to separate one paragraph from another; blank lines MUST be used to separate paragraphs. Otherwise, re-formatting paragraphs will combine several paragraphs into one! Offset Paragraphs ----------------- An "Offset Paragraph" is a special type of paragraph whose first line is not indented the same distance as the rest of the paragraph. VEDIT Jr. maintains this difference in indentation when formatting a paragraph as in the following examples. This is an offset paragraph. Notice how the first line is indented 4 character spaces further than the rest of the paragraph. When this paragraph is reformatted with different margins, the second line will be aligned with the left margin and the first line will be indented the same four spaces. An offset paragraph can also have the first line outdented from the remainder of the paragraph. 1. This is an offset paragraph. Notice how the first line is at the left margin while the remaining lines are indented 4 characters. When this paragraph is reformatted with different margins, the first 86 VEDIT Jr. Chapter 4 Editing Guide line will be aligned with the left margin. Justification ------------- When "justification" is enabled with {CONFIG, Word processing, Justify paragraphs}, VEDIT Jr. will adjust the spacing between words to create a straight right edge to the paragraph. This is a justified paragraph. Notice how the spacing is randomly adjusted between words to maintain a justified right margin. This is preferable in some, but not all applications. If you need to edit text after it has been been justified, it is easier if you first "unjustify" the text. This removes the additional spaces between words, leaving the right margin ragged. (It will leave two spaces following ".", "?" ":" and "!"). To unjustify a paragraph, change {CONFIG, Word processing, Justify paragraphs} to "2" and reformat the paragraph. SUGGESTION: Documents justified by another word processor should first be unjustified for easier editing with VEDIT Jr. 87