**************************** * * * MANUAL.TXT * * * **************************** * Manual for Smooth Editor * **************************** Contents: --------- Chapter 1. Introduction to Smooth Editor. Chapter 2. Installing Smooth Editor. Chapter 3. Using Smooth Editor. Chapter 4. Scrolling and moving. Chapter 5. Block functions. Chapter 6. Wrapping. Chapter 7. Menu functions. Chapter 8. Key functions: Chapter 1. Introduction to Smooth Editor. ----------------------------------------- Smooth Editor is an ASCI-text editor, like DOS EDIT, that uses smooth scrolling. Smooth scrolling is a way of moving text over the screen with a speed that is synchronized with the frequency at which the image is built on the screen. For instance with VGA video cards, the screen image is refreshed 70 times per second. If the image on screen is moved one pixel every 1/70th of a second, what we see is an absolutely fluid motion. Apart from horizontal and vertical smooth (and smoothly accelerated) scrolling these features are incorporated in SE: - Usage of XMS memory when available, leading to virtually unlimited file lengths. - Multiple documents open at the same time. - Extensive Undo and Redo functions, number of Undo and Redo levels limited only by 32kB buffers. - Symbol table for inserting other than standard characters. - Cut/Copy/Paste functions using XMS when available. - Customizable scroll speeds and color usage. - Word-wrap functions. - Fades, growing and shrinking windows. Smooth Editor is released under the Shareware concept. For more information see README.TXT. Chapter 2. Installing Smooth Editor. ------------------------------------ To use Smooth Editor you need a PC with: - 80386 processor or higher. - VGA video card or higher. For editing large files you need: - At least 508 kB of free conventional memory. - Extended memory. - An XMS-driver (like HIMEM.SYS or QEMM). To install Smooth editor, you can copy the SE.EXE program to a directory that is part of the Path (that is mentioned after the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT). Or, if you use DOSKEY you can include it in a DOSKEY macro, for instance with this instruction in the AUTOEXEC.BAT: DOSKEY SE=C:\SE\SE.EXE $* If you want to use Smooth Editor under Microsoft Windows, the SE.PIF file should be in the same directory. The important settings are: XMS-memory kB limit: -1 Execution: Exclusive checked. If you use Smooth Editor from the command line within a DOS-box under Windows and you have a number of applications running, you may experience stuttering scrolling. To solve this you can close down the DOS-box (using the `EXIT' command), set the Execution: Exclusive checkbox in the DOSPRMPT.PIF and start a new DOS-box. Chapter 3. Using Smooth Editor. ------------------------------- When you first start up Smooth editor, you will be asked whether you would like to see the demo. This demo demonstrates a number of functions. If you want to see this demo again later, delete the SE.INI file before you start SE. To edit an existing text file, start SE with the name of the file after SE: SE MYTEXT.TXT You can use wildcards (* and ?). SE will open all matching files. Of course you can also just use SE. Smooth Editor will then start up with the File Open window. If you want to start with a new file you can press the Escape key to exit this window. What you see now is an empty screen with one line of information at the bottom. This is the status line. On the left, it shows the file name (at startup this displays: `Esc: Menu F1: Help'. When the arrow right key is pressed this will change into the file name). Next to that the flags are shown, five three letter abbreviations that indicate the state of the program. When a flag is white it indicates that that state is on, when it is dark gray it means that it is off. The five flags are: - MOD : Modified, this indicates that the file has been altered since the last load or save. - INS : Insert mode. Typing is inserted at the cursor position. - OVR : Overwrite mode. Typing overwrites the text under the cursor. The Insert button switches between insert and overwrite mode. - CLB : Data present in Clipboard (from Cut or Copy). - WRP : WordWrap mode (see menu option WordWrap). On the right side of the status line four numbers are displayed: S:xx : Indicates current scroll speed in lines per frame. C:xxx : Current Column. L: xxxx/ xxxx: Current Line / Total number of lines in the current file. In Smooth Editor you can use the Escape or Alt buttons to enter the menu. In the menu you can use the arrow keys and the Enter key to navigate through the items. You can also use the character keys to move to the items with the same characters highlighted. Many functions in Smooth Editor can be called with more than one key. This is done, so that if you are used to different hotkeys, you can use SE without having to learn new keys. To exit SE for instance, you can use F12, Alt+F4, Ctrl+q or use the menu option with ALT+F,X. You can get on-line help with the F1 key. Every change tot the document can be undone with Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+U or the Undo menu option with Alt+E,U. By repeatedly undoing you can trace back all your steps. The MOD (Modified) flag is updated when you undo, so you can see when the file is in the original state again. After you undo changes you can redo them with Ctrl+R, Ctrl+Shift+Z or the Redo menu option with Alt+E,R. Undo and Redo are both limited to 32 kB of data. Scroll speeds and color usage are set in the SE.INI file. When SE starts up, it checks the directory where SE.EXE is located for SE.INI. If it is not there SE will look for it in the path (that is mentioned after the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT). If it is still not found SE will create a new SE.INI in the directory where SE.EXE is located. In this file all parameters will be set to their default values. Other than standard characters can be inserted by typing Alt+0. A window will appear with all possible characters. You can choose a character by typing it's code or by moving the blue cursor to it. Chapter 4. Scrolling and moving. -------------------------------- The following keys are used for scrolling and moving through the file: With the arrow keys, the cursor can be moved through the text. The text scrolls when necessary. The PageUp and PageDown keys can be used in two ways. When they are tipped shortly the text scrolls one page quickly with smooth acceleration and deceleration. When they are kept down the acceleration stops at a lower speed. When the Ctrl key is kept down, the Arrow up and down keys accelerate the text scrolling. In this way you can control the scrolling speed. With the Ctrl key kept down, the PageUp and PageDown key accelerate the text scrolling at a faster rate. Ctrl+arrow right and Ctrl+arrow left move the cursor to the next / previous word, scrolling when necessary. Ctrl+Home moves to the beginning of the text, Ctrl+End moves to the end. The scroll speeds can be changed by editing SE.INI. This is a menu option in the File menu. The long vertical scrolls can be sped up by pressing the Escape button. Chapter 5. Block functions. --------------------------- When the position of the cursor changes with the shift key pressed, the text between the old and the new cursor position will be selected. This is indicated by the fact that this text becomes inverted. With the menu function Cut, or the keys Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete the selected text will be copied to the clipboard and deleted from the text. The CLB flag at the bottom of the screen will turn white to indicate that there is information on the clipboard. With the menu function Copy, or the keys Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert the selection will only be copied to the clipboard. If the functions Cut and Copy are used when there's no selection, the whole current line will be cut or copied. With the menu function Paste, or the keys Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert the text on the clipboard will be copied to the cursor position. If there is a selection this text will be overwritten, otherwise it will be inserted before the cursor position. If the Delete key is pressed while there is a selection, the selection will be deleted. Ctrl + -(minus key) types a character from the previous sentence. F9 copies the current line. F10 cuts the current line. F11 pastes before the current line. Chapter 6. Wrapping. -------------------- With the Wrap Document menu function, or with Ctrl+D, all lines in the document longer than 80 characters will be split in shorter lines. The lines will be split at spaces, so that all the words remain intact. With the Toggle WordWrap menu function, or with Ctrl+W, the WordWrap mode is enabled or disabled. If it is enabled the WRP flag in the status line will be white. With this mode, if you type in a line longer than 80 characters, it will be split in two lines, moving the last word to the next line. Chapter 7. Menu functions. -------------------------- File menu ------- New -Deletes text in memory and starts with new file. ------ Open -Opens the File Open Window. Here you can navigate through the directories and choose a file you want to edit. ----- Save -Save current file. ---- Save As -Opens the File Save Window. --- Print -Prints current file. If there is a selection you will be asked whether you want to print the selection or the whole file. -- Edit SE.INI -Opens the file SE.INI for editing. In it you can change the scrolling speeds and the color usage. - Exit -Quits SE and returns to the OS (for instance DOS). Edit menu -------- Undo -Undoes last action. ------- Redo -Undoes last undo. ------ Cut -Cuts selection or line (see chapter @). ----- Copy -Copies selection or line (see chapter @). ---- Paste -Pastes over selection or before cursor position (see chapter @). --- Clear -Deletes selection. -- Symbol -Opens the symbol table window. With it you can insert any character. - Select All -Selects whole file. Wrapping menu -- Toggle WordWrap -Sets/clears WordWrap mode (See Chapter @). - Wrap document -Splits long lines (See Chapter @). Search --- Find -The program will ask for a search string. It will then search the document from the cursor for that string. -- Find Previous -Searches from the cursor upward for the last entered search string. - Find Next -Searches from the cursor downward for the last entered search string. Help menu -- Help -Shows three screen of useful information. - About -Shows some information about Smooth Editor. Chapter 8. Key functions. ------------------------- Escape, Alt : Enters menu. F12, Alt+F4, Ctrl+q : Exit Smooth Editor. F1 : This on-line help. Alt+ : Insert symbol, by number or from table. Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+U : Undo. Undo levels limited only by 32k buffer. Ctrl+Shift+Z, Ctrl+R : Redo. Redo levels limited only by 32k buffer. PageUp, PageDown : - Only tipped shortly: A quick one-page scroll. - Sustained : Scroll with constant speed. Ctrl + Up,Down : Accelerate scroll slowly. Ctrl + PageUp,PageDown : Accelerate scroll fast. (With this accelerated scrolling the cursor position does not change until it reaches the screen border. Scrolling stops when Ctrl is released.) Ctrl + Right,Left : Move to next/previous word. Ctrl + Home,End : Move to begin/end of file. Shift+ cursor movement : Selection. Ctrl+X, Shift+Delete : - With selection : Cut selection. - Without selection: Cut current line. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+Insert : - With selection : Copy selection. - Without selection: Copy current line. Ctrl+V, Shift+Insert : - With selection : Paste, overwriting selection. - Without selection: Paste before cursor position. Delete(with selection) : Delete selection. Ctrl + - (minus key) : Type from previous line. Ctrl+D : Wrap document. All lines longer than 80 characters will be split at spaces between words. Ctrl+W : Toggle WordWrap mode. When the line length exceeds 80 in this mode, the last word will be moved to the next line. Other key combination are mentioned in the menu functions between square brackets.