-------------------------------------------------------------------------- WINEDT 95 ========= Release 1.d: January, 1996 --- Shareware Version --- Copyright (C) 1995-1996 by Aleksander Simonic E-mail: alex@cs.dal.ca Phone: (902) 429-7897 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This file contains some essential information on the shareware distribution of WINEDT 95, a state of the art text editor and project manager for Windows 95. All product names referenced herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: ========= 1. What is WINEDT? 2. More about WINEDT 95... 3. Getting Started 4. Running Applications from WINEDT 95 5. TeX Mode 6. Hints -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is WINEDT? ================== WINEDT 95 [Release 1.d] is a state of the art text editor and project manager for Windows 95. WINEDT 95 can be used to edit HUGE text files. The user can open many files at once and can switch between them using the Window Menu or Ctrl+Tab switch. WINEDT uses a Multiple Documents Interface (MDI) and follows or extends Windows' Standards in every respect. WINEDT 95 supports (LaTeX) Syntax Highlighting and Input/Output ASCII Code Translation Tables. WINEDT comes with a comprehensive, Context-Sensitive Help. WINEDT 95 can be customized to run with different utilities and is particularly suitable for writing TeX documents. WINEDT allows the user to install DOS and Windows Applications and activate them by using a Menu Command or a Tool Bar Button. Furthermore, WINEDT can pass currently opened files as parameters, making sure that changes are automatically saved before the files are compiled. After defining utilities (such as TeX, LaTeX, BibTeX, DVI Driver, Spell Checker), most of the common tasks while writing a TeX document or a project is reduced to clicking a Tool Bar Button or selecting a Menu Command. WINEDT is suitable for writing papers, theses or books, using a simple but efficient strategy to manage projects. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. More about WINEDT 95... ========================== If you did not read the file "0readme.txt" please do so now! The idea behind the design of WINEDT was to create a tool that would perform all routine tasks related to compiling, previewing and spell- checking of ([La]TeX) documents, while the author can focus on the contents. WINEDT is designed to provide an integrated environment for Windows or DOS based applications that require ASCII input. WINEDT is rather flexible with line terminators and does not require any conversion if the file is transferred from another system (any sequence of CR or LF is considered a line terminator). WINEDT can use any font available on your system. See the section "%Font:" in "winedt.dat" for instructions on how to customize the font(s) used by WINEDT. WINEDT allows you to define Input/Output ASCII translation tables in order to solve the problems with extended alphabets and keyboards. Although WINEDT does not have a macro language, almost every aspect of its behaviour can be (re)defined by the parameters in the initialization file. WINEDT's initialization file determines the "mode" in which WINEDT is running. The initialization file is a text file and can be modified through WINEDT Options/Setup Command. The file "WINEDT.DAT" contains the description of all parameters in the initialization file and provides examples on how to customize different aspects of WINEDT. This release of WINEDT 95 does NOT support long file names. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Getting Started ================== This is a good moment to browse through the Menu and see the WINEDT commands. You may notice that some commands and Tool Bar Buttons are Grayed (disabled). That means that they currently do not make sense (for example due to the lack of the selected text e.t.c.). You can invoke a context sensitive Help by pressing the "F1" button while browsing through the Menu. You may also try different commands such as Documents/Text Statistics and Text Status, Help/About e.t.c... You should also try do Disable and Enable Syntax Highlighting in Options Menu. You are currently running WINEDT in Plain Mode and this mode does not define any Utilities to run with the program. Don't Panic! You will soon learn how to install the utilities and run WINEDT in TeX Mode. You can open a new window and try to type something. Note that the names of all opened windows are appended to the Window Menu making it easy to switch between them (try also Ctrl+Tab "cool" switch - MDI Interface). You can try to open another copy of this file and see what happens. You may also want to Paste the Selected Text to/from another Application using Edit Menu Commands referring to the Window's ClipBoard. If you usually don't run more than one application with Windows 95 this may be a good moment to change this habit. Press the "F1" key in order to get Help on WINEDT. Help is a different application. Your WINEDT window is (partially) covered by the Help Window but it is still there exactly as it was before. You can press "Alt+Tab cool switch" to return back (now Help Window is in the background). Windows 95 also provide the Task Bar for easy switching between applications. Now is the moment to read the On-Line Help. After appropriately resizing or maximizing the Help Window each topics should fit on one screen. It is well worth to invest an hour or so (depending on your experience with Windows 95 Applications) to read the information and try different WINEDT features described there. Learning how to use Windows Help will make you a survivor and (if you don't already know it) you are NOT wasting your time getting familiar with it. Hint: Leave the Program Setup Help Topic for the end! You may want to leave certain details for later. That's fine. At this stage it is important to remember that certain features exist and you can return to them later. The more you know about WINEDT the more likely you'll be able to use it efficiently, allowing you to focus on your work, while WINEDT is performing routine tasks for you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Running Applications from WINEDT 95 ====================================== You should first install any utility that you plan to use on your system. Most of the TeX related software and packages are available on CTAN servers (such as ftp.shsu.edu) and you can select from a variety of [La]TeX(s), DVI Drivers and Spell Checkers. After you install the utilities that you would like to use you can define them in the WINEDT's initialization file in order to run them from WINEDT. WINEDT does much more than just starting an application. It can also pass the appropriate parameters and make sure that all the modified files get saved before invoking the application. WINEDT also detects if the file was modified by another Application (for example by Spell Checker) and asks you whether to update the file from the disk or not (as long as the Update Files Option is enabled). WINEDT can also put the (selected) contents of the current window into the ClipBoard and thus make it available to the application that is about to be started. The user has many options to choose from. For details concerning the installation of Utilities and Documents See: Help / Program Setup... and a sample file "winedt.dat". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. TeX Mode =========== WINEDT's behaviour is (to big extend) determined by the initialization file. By default WINEDT assumes the file "winedt.ini" on the PATH directory to be the initialization file. However, if the FIRST parameter invoking winedt is "-E=myfile.ini" then the file "myfile.ini" is read as the initialization file. This distribution contains a file "wedtex.ini" that defines WINEDT to run in TeX Mode. You will probably only make minor changes regarding the installation of the utilities and documents on your system and leave the default values of other parameters. In the case when your utility is not properly installed you'll likely encounter the message: "Cannot find the file. Ensure that the path and the filename are correct." You should modify the line containing the definition of the utility and then restart WINEDT. You can create more initialization files suitable for Text Input/Output applications on you system. Note that WINEDT's ability to pass parameters and take care of modifications is likely going to prove sufficient in almost any situation. This release of WINEDT 95 supports Syntax Highlighting. The list of reserved words and special symbols is determined in the group %Highlighting in the initialization file. The file "wedtxt.ini" contains a suggested Text Mode and the file "winedt.dat" contains examples and comments on how to customize WINEDT 95. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Hints ======== If you are writing papers or thesis using TeX you may create a folder containing the documents you are currently working on. Windows 95 also lets you create SHORTCUTS to a utility. Using this Windows Explorer's feature you can add WINEDT to your TeX (or any other Start Menu group). When defining a shortcut you can also change an ICON for different modes of WINEDT. Examples: ========= winedt.exe -E=wedtex.ini -C=WINEDT_-_TEX:_Thesis thesis.tex winedt.exe -E=wedtex.ini -C=WINEDT_-_TEX:_Article paper.tex winedt.exe -E=wedtex.ini -C=WINEDT_-_TEX winedt.exe If you decide to use WINEDT as a text editor it is useful to associate it with the files having certain extension. This way WINEDT can be activated by double-clicking the associated file while browsing your computer. Windows Explorer lets you associate WINEDT with certain file types through the View / Options... /File Type Command (an improved equivalent of File Manager's Associate Command in Windows 3.1). First decide which file types should be opened with WINEDT and define "winedt.exe" as the application to perform the action (for example INI, TXT, TEX, LTX, SLI, ELM...). Then edit the file types that should be opened in a special mode (for files of type TEX add the following qualifiers: " -E=wedtex.ini -P -C=WINEDT_-_TEX" following "winedt.exe" in order to ensure TeX Mode for documents of this type). You can also change the ICON that will be displayed with such a file when browsing your computer. Unfortunately, Windows 95 does not accept a SHORTCUT as a definition of the application. Observe that -G and -S qualifiers enable the Inverse Search. This way WINEDT can be invoked and positioned to a particular line in the text that can be selected by any other application (such as TeX when it encounters an error or DVI Driver supplied with "src specials"). The -C= qualifier can be used to prevent more than one instance of WINEDT editing the same file... See: Help / Command Line Parameters If you want to customize WINEDT (Utilities, Syntax Highlighting, e.t.c.) please consult the file "WINEDT.DAT" and On-Line Help on how to set certain default parameters. Most of the Accelerators (Shortcut Keys) are displayed next to the appropriate Menu Command. The exceptions are the keys decribed in Help / Moving (Selecting) (Arrows,...) and the keys described in Help / Delimiters (F7, F6...). You should quickly check these two Help Topics if you want to take advantage of certain features. Note that the Accelerator Table has been sligtly modified in Release 1.c in order to avoid complications with non-US Keyboards. --------------------------------------------------------------------------