page 4-1

                          CHAPTER 4:  EDITING

In this chapter we will look at the many editing features of FREE &
EASY.  FREE & EASY can be used as a text editor if you wish (to produce
DOS batch files for example).  The edit features work on the cells and
ranges of the sheet as well as the text.  You will find that these
features allow you to make extensive modifications to a sheet without
much difficulty.  FREE & EASY also has complete search-and-replace
capabilities, allowing you to find text in the sheet and easily change
it.  The editing features are found in the "eDit" pull-down menu.


Edit Defaults

The cut-and-paste features of FREE & EASY (menu items "dElete", "cUt to
clipboard", "Copy to clipboard", "copY from clipboard") can work on
text, cells, ranges or any combination of these.  To choose which of
these the editing features will work on, use the "edit Defaults ..."
menu item.

On the "Edit Defaults" pop-up menu, you can also change the tab
settings of FREE & EASY.  If you press TAB, the cursor will go to the
next tab setting.  If you press shift-TAB, the cursor will go to the
previous tab settings.  The spacing between the tab settings can be
varied from 1 to 50.


Highlighting

On several menu items, you must highlight an area of the sheet before
doing the operation.  To highlight an area of the sheet, select the
"Highlight" menu item or press control-H.  This puts you in highlight
mode.  The highlighted area of the sheet always appears as a rectangle.
One corner of the rectangle stays anchored in the same spot, and the
opposite corner (corner with the cursor) moves and changes the box
size.  Use the regular cursor control keys (e.g. up, down, tab, page
up, etc.) to move the cursor in highlight mode.  F5 and F6 can be used
to change the corner of the highlighted box in which the cursor is
found.  If F7 is pressed, the mode of highlighting changes so that
instead of changing the size of the box, the cursor control keys change
the whole position of the highlighted box.

"Escape" can be pressed to cancel the highlighting operation, and the
highlighted box will disappear.  If Enter is pressed, the cursor
returns to the original position and the box stays highlighted.  At
this point if you press any key (except those used in calling up a
pull-down menu or a short-cut key combination to act on a highlighted)
the highlighted box will disappear.


The Clipboard

The clipboard is a temporary area of computer memory set aside by FREE
& EASY to store data.  This data can be text, cells, ranges or any
combination of these depending on the edit defaults.  The amount of
memory used by the clipboard expands and contracts depending upon what








                                                            page 4-2

is in it.  When using the clipboard, you may get an "out of memory"
error, especially if several sheets are loaded into FREE & EASY and you
are trying to put a large amount of data to the clipboard.


Delete

This command is used to delete a highlighted area of the sheet.  This
command will delete text, cells, ranges or any combination of the three
depending on the edit defaults.  Once the area of the sheet that you
want to delete has been highlighted, use the "dElete" menu item.  If
you attempt to use this menu item without a highlighted area, you will
get a "nothing has been highlighted" error message.  Once the area has
been highlighted, you can also hit the delete key to delete the area.
If nothing has been highlighted and you hit the delete key, only the
text at the cursor is deleted, and all text to the right of the cursor
moves left one space.  If you wish to delete a character without moving
text to the right of the cursor, use the space bar.

If you are deleting cells or ranges, the entire cell or range must be
within the highlighted area to be deleted.  Use this command with
caution since once something has been deleted there is no way to get it
back.


Copy to Clipboard

The "Copy to clipboard" menu item is used to make a copy of what is
highlighted on the sheet in the clipboard.  The sheet is not affected
by this command.  If you use this menu item and nothing has been
highlighted, you get a "nothing has been highlighted" error message.
This command will copy text, cells, ranges or any combination of the
three depending upon the edit defaults.  When you use this command,
whatever is presently in the clipboard is erased.  There is no way to
get this data back.  The new data is then put into the clipboard.

If you are copying cells or ranges, the entire cell or range must be
within the highlighted area in order to be copied to the clipboard.  If
an area of the sheet is highlighted, you can use the Insert key as a
short-cut key for this command.  If you press the Insert key and no
text has been highlighted, you just toggle between insert mode and
overstrike mode.


Cut to Clipboard

The "cUt to clipboard" menu item copies the highlighted area of the
sheet to the clipboard and then deletes the highlighted area from the
sheet.  In effect, this command does the "Copy to clipboard" operation
followed by the "dElete" operation.  All aspects of these two menu
items thus apply to this menu item as well.  If an area of the sheet
has been highlighted, you can use the shift-Delete as a short-cut for
this menu item.











                                                            page 4-3

Copy from Clipboard

The "copY from clipboard" menu item puts a copy of the contents of the
clipboard at the present cursor position.  The contents of the
clipboard remain intact.  This means that you can make copies of the
same clipboard contents at several locations in the sheet, or even in
other sheets.  You can also use the shift-Insert key to do this
command.

If you attempt this menu item and the clipboard has no contents, then
you get "the clipboard is empty" error message.  If, when you use this
menu item the clipboard contents will go off the edge or bottom of the
sheet, then you will get a "text cannot fit at this location" error
message.

This command puts whatever is in the clipboard on the sheet at the
current cursor position regardless of what the present edit defaults
are.  For example, if you used the "Copy to clipboard" menu item with
"include cells" set to "yes", and then you set "include cells" to "no"
and used this command, the cells in the clipboard would still be copied
to the sheet.

If necessary when you use this command, FREE & EASY will remove text or
cells to make room for the data being copied from the clipboard to the
sheet.  If this is the case, FREE & EASY will warn you that data will
be lost and ask for confirmation that you want to proceed.  Cells only
partially within the block where the clipboard contents will be copied
to will also be removed.  Ranges are not removed by this command.

If there is a cell in the clipboard with a name the same as that of a
cell already on the sheet, when FREE & EASY copies the cell in the
clipboard to the sheet, it will not copy the cell's name.  This is
because two cells in the sheet cannot have the same name.  If there is
a range in the clipboard with a name the same as that of a range
already on the sheet, FREE & EASY will not copy that range to the
sheet.  That is because two ranges in the sheet cannot have the same
name.

Remember that sheet locations in cell contents can be relative to the
cell location or absolute.  Thus if you move or copy the cell, the
sheet location which is relative in the cell contents changes according
to that new location of the cell.  If because of the new location of
the cell, the cell contents have a location which is off the sheet, the
location in the cell contents that is shown will be off the sheet.  An
evaluation error will occur for this cell when it is evaluated.  (The
location can come back onto the sheet if the cell is moved again).

When cells are copied from the clipboard to the sheet, they are not
automatically evaluated.  You must use one of the cell evaluation
commands to do this.


Clear Clipboard

The "cLear clipboard" menu item removes all the contents of the
clipboard.  If the clipboard contains a large amount of data (the








                                                            page 4-4

entire contents of a sheet could be in the clipboard if the entire
sheet is highlighted before using "cUt to clipboard" or "Copy to
clipboard" menu items) and an "out of memory" error message is given,
this menu item can be used free up more memory.  Once this command has
been given, there is no way to recover what was in the clipboard.


Clear All Text

The "clear all Text" menu item removes all text from the sheet.  Cells
or ranges are not affected.  FREE & EASY asks for confirmation that you
really want to do this before proceeding.


Clear All Text, Cells and Ranges

The "clear All text, cells, ranges" menu item removes all data from the
sheet.  Only the file name remains.  FREE & EASY asks for confirmation
that you really want to do this before proceeding.  This command is
useful if you want to start from scratch on a sheet.


Inserting or Deleting Rows or Columns

The "Ins/del rows or columns ..." menu item leads to a pop-up menu
which allows you to insert or delete a desired number of rows or
columns on the sheet.  These commands are useful if you want to make
room for more data on the sheet or eliminate a large amount of data.
Use these commands with care since all the affected parts of the sheet
are not necessarily seen on the monitor.

The "insert Row(s) ..." menu item is used to insert rows (or lines) on
the sheet.  You are asked to specify the number of rows to insert.  The
number of rows specified will be inserted at the present cursor
position.  All text, cells and ranges at or below the cursor are pushed
down on the sheet the number of rows specified.  A range with its top
above the cursor is not affected (i.e.  it is not stretched out by this
operation).   It is possible that some data can get pushed off the
bottom of the sheet by this operation.  If this is to occur, the
warning "data will be lost" is given and confirmation to proceed is
requested.  If the bottom of a range is off the sheet but its top is
still on the sheet, the range is lost (i.e.  range is not resized to
fit the sheet).  If you only want to insert one row you can use the
control-L key as a short cut key.

The "insert Column(s) ..." menu item is used to insert columns on the
sheet.  You are asked to specify the number of columns to insert.  The
number of columns specified will be inserted at the present cursor
position.  All text, cells and ranges at or to the right of the cursor
are pushed right on the sheet by the number of columns specified.  A
range with its left side or cell with its left side to the left of the
cursor is not affected (i.e.  the cell or range is not stretched out by
this operation).  It is possible that some data can get pushed off the
right edge of the sheet by this operation.  If this is to occur, the
warning "data will be lost" is given and confirmation to proceed is
requested.  If the right side of the range is off the sheet but the








                                                            page 4-5

left side is on or if the right side of the cell is off the sheet but
the left size on the sheet, the range or cell is lost (i.e. The range
or cell is not resized to fit the sheet).

The "delete roW(s)" menu item is used to delete rows (or lines) on the
sheet.  You are asked to specify the number of rows to delete.  The
number of rows specified will then be deleted at the present cursor
position and below.  All text, cells and ranges below the deleted rows
are moved up on the sheet the number of rows specified.  For a range to
be deleted by this operation, it must be completely within the rows to
be deleted.  (i.e.  It is not shrunk by this operation.)  If data will
be lost, no warning is given.  If you simply want to delete one row,
you can use the control-Y key as a short-cut key.

The "delete coLumn(s)" menu item is used to delete columns on the
sheet.  You are asked to specify the number of columns to delete.  The
number of columns specified will then be deleted at the present cursor
position and to the right.  All text, cells and ranges to the right of
the deleted columns are shifted to the left by the number of columns
specified.  For a cell or a range to be deleted by this operation, the
cell or range must be completely within the columns to be deleted (i.e.
the cell or range is not shrunk by this operation).  If data will be
lost, there is no warning given.


Cursor Control Keys

FREE & EASY provides several ways to move the cursor around the sheet.
These are summarized as follows:  If the cursor is at the edge of the
window, the sheet will scroll up, down, left or right to keep the
cursor in the window.

up:          Moves the cursor up one row.

down:        Moves the cursor down one row.

right:       Moves the cursor right one column.

left:        Moves the cursor left one column.

pagedown:    Moves the cursor down one window height and scrolls the
             sheet up.

pageup:      Moves the cursor up one window height and scrolls the
             sheet down.

control-page down: Moves the cursor to the right one
             window length and scrolls the sheet to the left.

control-page up:  Moves the cursor to the left one window length and
             scrolls the sheet to the right.

home:        Moves the cursor to the start of the row if the cursor is
             not already there. If the cursor is at the start of the
             row, moves the cursor to the top left corner of the
             window.  If the cursor is at the top left corner of the








                                                            page 4-6

             window, moves the cursor to the top left corner of the
             file.

end:         Moves the cursor to the end of the row if the cursor is
             not already there.  If the cursor is at the end of the
             row, moves the cursor to the end of the last row of the
             row in the bottom window.  If already there, moves the
             cursor to the end of the last row in the sheet.

control-right:  Moves cursor to the start of the next word.

control-left:  Moves the cursor to the start of the previous word.

tab:         Moves the cursor to the next tab stop (see edit defaults
             to adjust the tab stops).

shift-tab:   Moves the cursor to the previous tab stop.


Find

The "Find ..." menu item is used to search the sheet(s) for a certain
piece of text.  The "Find ..." menu item in the "Edit" pull-down menu
leads to the "Find" pop-up menu.   Here you enter the text to find, as
well as the search conditions.  If you highlight a piece of text on the
sheet before you call up this menu and the highlighting is only on one
line, you will note that this text is in the text to be found.  If you
have previously used the find menu, you will see the previous text in
the text to be found.  In any case, you can accept or change the text
to be found.  Any text up to 1000 characters long can be entered here.

After inputing the text to find, you set the search conditions.  The
"Match upper/lower" menu item tells FREE & EASY whether to match the
upper and lower case of the text to find with the text in the sheet.
If, for example, the text to find is "Free" then if "Match up/lower" is
set to "yes" then "free" in the sheet would not be found, but if set to
"no" it would be found.

The "Whole word" menu item is used to tell FREE & EASY to find the text
by itself if set to "yes" or within another word if set to "no".  If
the find text is "free" then the "free" in "freedom"  will be found if
"Whole word" is set to "no" but will not be found if set to "yes".  If
"Whole word" is set to "yes," the text to find must be bounded by the
edge of the sheet, a space or one of the following characters- . , ? !
; + - * / ^ .

The "Scope" menu item tells whether FREE & EASY should search the
"active file" only (sheet the cursor is in) or "all loaded files" for
the find text.

The "Direction" menu item tells FREE & EASY whether it should be
looking "forwards" or "backwards" in the file.

Once everything in this menu is as you desire, choose the "Go" menu
item.  If no find expression has been inputed, an error message "No
search expression inputed" will occur.  The search is always started at








                                                            page 4-7

the cursor position and goes forwards or backwards in the sheet
depending on which you have chosen.  The search continues until the
text is found.  When the text has been located, the cursor goes to the
found text and it is highlighted.  If no text is found to match the
find text by the time the start or end of the sheet (depending on what
the "Direction" is set to) is reached, the message "No text found" is
given.  If the search "Scope" is set to "all files loaded", the next or
previous sheet will be searched.  While FREE & EASY is searching, it
displays the name of the sheet it is searching and the line number it
is searching.


Find Next

The "find Next (forwards)" and "find next (Backwards)" menu items are
used to find the next occurrence of the find text most recently
specified in the "Find" menu item.  The short-cut keys F3 and shift-F3
can be used respectively.  These can be useful in stepping through a
sheet and looking at all occurrences of a certain text.  The find
defaults used are those last set in the "Find" menu.  If nothing has
been specified for find text a "no search expression is inputed" error
is given.  The same find options (whole word, match up/lower, etc.) as
specified by the last find operation are used.  If no find text is
specified, the "no search expression inputed" error message is given.
If you highlight some text before using find next and the highlighting
is one line, then the text searched for is the highlighted text.


Replace

The "Replace" menu item in the "Edit" pull-down menu leads to the
"Replace" pop-up menu.  This feature is used as a quick way to change
one occurrence of a certain text with another occurrence.  The "Find"
text is replaced with the "Change to" text.  Several of the menu items
in the "Replace" pop-up menu are the same as in the "Find" pop-up menu.
These include find, match upper/lower, whole word, scope and direction.
These options work the same way as they do in the find feature.  There
are two additional options in "replace."

If the "Verify" menu option is "yes" then FREE & EASY asks for
confirmation before making each replacement.  This is the safest way to
use replace as it lets you see each item that is being replaced.  If
"Verify" is set to "no" then all occurrences of the find text are
replaced without question.  You should only use this option with
caution as it is possible to change something in the sheet which you
did not intend to change.

If the "Keep line length" menu option is "yes" then the length of the
line where the expression is replaced is kept the same, even if it
means overlapping text which is not meant to be replaced.  If this
option is "no" the line length is adjusted if the "Find" text and
"Change to" text are not the same length.  This can lead to data being
pushed off the edge of the sheet if the "Change to" text is longer than
the "Find" text.  In either of these cases, if replacement will result
in data being lost, a "data will be lost replacing this expression"
warning will be given and confirmation asked in order to replace the
text.