A WRITING TOOL FOR CONTRIBUTORS TO MEGADISC 'A Review of EdWordPro V4.1' by Ron Upton 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39  INTRODUCTION At the time of writing the 'Fine Art' series of articles for Megadisc, it became apparent that I needed a good text editor. My economic circumstances determined that the program had to come from the PD. The yardstick for such a text editor was QEdit, a program I have used on a PC. I looked at QED, Annotate and TKEd before I discovered EdWordPro, the program which is ideal, well almost ideal, for the purpose to which I put it. Daniel Rutter's review of EWP in ACAR, January 1994,confirmed my view that I had found something special. Given that the cost of the registered version is approximately $20.00 (plus $8.00, the cost of a bank cheque to be sent to the author, Martin Reddy, who lives in Scotland), I think it is a bargain.  IN THE CONTEXT OF WRITING AN ARTICLE, WHAT FEATURES ARE USEFUL? I will comment on the various features of EWP in the order in which you will find them in the pull-down menus.  PROJECT  Erase This simply clears the file from the screen and memory.  Opening and Saving of Files Daniel Rutter referred to the file requester as being rather stupid - I can only assume that his look at the program was of a cursory nature. The default requester can be set up to reflect the way you have partitioned your hard drive and show your drive names. I changed DF1: to SYS: and DHO: to WORK: in Utilities> Definitions and saved the changes in Utilities> Preferences. If you prefer to use the asl file requester, it can be selected in Utilities> Preferences. In situations where you have a huge number of files in a directory and you are not sure of the name of the file you are seeking, you can type in a word that you think is part of the name and EWP will search the directory and present you with the name of a possible file.  Iconify At any time during a work session, EWP can be iconified as opposed to moving the current screen to the back by activating the depth gadget. This may prove to be useful if the user wishes to conserve memory.  FILE  Insert File A whole file can be inserted into a document at the position of the cursor. The cursor needs to be at the beginning of a clear line.  Print The 'Print Current File' requester provides the user with a full range of options including numbering of pages.  Tab Size The requester can be reached from either the pull-down menu or by simply clicking on the 'Tab:' at the bottom of the screen. Don't use tab key when the document is to be read using Fullview.  EDIT  Blocks and Clipboard Blocks of text can be marked by either dragging with the mouse or using the pull-down menus. Cut and copied text goes to the clipboard of which there is only one. Pasting text is the act of inserting the clipboard. Lists of words held in the clipboard can be sorted. (Refer to Tools> Sort Clipboard)  Centre Line It could be useful when placing a major heading in a document.  SEARCH All the menus here are self-explanatory and have a role to play, particularly when working with large documents. Find, Find/Replace, Set Bookmark and Go to Bookmark can save the writer a lot of time.  UTILITIES  User Commands This facility allows the user to use a spell checker or the help utility directly from a pull-down menu. It is a simple matter of entering the appropriate command in the Define Commands requester and allocating a suitable name to one of the three User Command menu entry boxes. If you wish to have these commands available to you each time you open EWP, you must save them in Utilies> Preferences.  Examples:  EdWordHelp Utility Define Commands Type: AmigaGuide Work:EdWordPro/EdWordHelp User Command Type: Help Spell Checker Define Commands Type: Run Work:AZSpell/AZSpell User Command Type: AZSpell  Note re spell checkers As part of the exercise of exploring the full potential of EWP for the purpose of writing articles for Megadisc, I tested AZSpell (Misc 134) and attempted to test AmigaSpell (B of F 05), MicroSpell (B of F 08), ISpell (F 774) and D-Spell (UT 309). AZSpell is uncomplicated and very efficient. It is a pity that it does not have a file requester. Words can be added to the dictionary either during normal operation or by means of a text editor. When adding words during normal operation, the user must not forget to double click on AZmerge. * John Knight's article, Spell-Check, in MD 28a provides detailed information relating to AZSpell. Attempts to test the other spell checkers resulted in failure. It is my intention to follow up some of the problems I struck when attempting to use these recalcitrant programs. I am not unduly concerned about my failures as AZSpell works well and the dictionary does not require a major overhaul for the purpose of converting words from American to English. By integrating a spell checker into a text editor and making it available by means of a pull-down menu, the user can proceed in much the same way as one would in an expensive wordprocessor. A suggested procedure for using AZSpell from the pull-down menu: 1 Save current document 2 Select Utilities> AZSpell 3 Enter pathname of document 4 Click on OK 5 Move EdWordPro screen to back or pull screen down with mouse 6 Check spelling of document 7 Return EdWordPro screen to front (pull screen up with mouse) 8 Select Project> Erase 9 Select Project> Open to load corrected document  Define F-Keys Words or phrases which you are likely to repeat on a number of occasions in a document can be allocated to a function key. Every time you hit the appropriate key, the text allocated to it will be inserted in the document at the position of the cursor.  Uppercase Word This facility is handy when converting mixed text to uppercase headings.  Preferences Options relating to such things as Auto Indent, Save Icon, Wordwrap and Back Ups are chosen here. Also, this is where you save preferences relating to every option, not only those shown in this requester. If your copy of EWP does not have a configuration file (my copy didn't), make one called 'EdWord.config' and place it in the EdWordPro drawer.  Example: Config Dir Work:EDWordPro/   Definitions This is where the user sets the file requester drive names to suit the configuration of the Amiga concerned. It should be noted that the 'Asl Requester' can be selected in Preferences as an alternative to the default requester - like all the other options, this can be saved. The wordwrap cut-off figure is established here too.  TOOLS  Number of words etc Information relating to numbers of words, lines, bytes and such are available on demand. Choose Tools> Word Count as required.  Calculator A very good calculator is included in the Tools menu. Even though it has features such as CE, cancel entry, and ^, power, I will continue to use CalcKey (UT174) for simple calculations as I have it running in the background and it allows me to insert results of calculations directly into documents.  Sort Blocks can be copied to a clipboard and, if required, sorted alphabetically both A -> Z and Z -> A.  Screen Mode Tools> Screen Mode enables the user to set the resolution of the screen.  Auto Save Users can choose to save documents at chosen time intervals in the same way as one would do it in an expensive wordprocessor. Files saved in this manner have a '.save' extension.  Colours Screen colours can either be made by the user or chosen from various workbench options. I chose workbench and, as a result, work with the colour scheme I set for my workbench.  Split Screen Writers who like to record ideas in the form of notes prior to preparing the final document will like this facility. If the paragraph layout for notes is the same as that for the final document, then text can be moved from one file to another without fuss. Varying the length of a screen is a simple matter of dragging the dividing line with the mouse. I run with the 'final document' file on the top of the screen and an 'ideas' file on the bottom. The advantage of this approach is that the notes can be scrolled against the final document giving me the opportunity to see what the the amended document would look like in advance of cutting and inserting clipboard.  Undo If you change your mind or make an error when handling text in a given line, you can change the line back to its original state by choosing Tools> Undo or pressing Help key. Already, I have used this facility on a number of occasions when inadvertently going too far with the backspace key when reformatting a file.  MACRO   Macro A writer who like to place his/her name and address in exactly the same position in relation to the line(s) when writing letters will find that this facility saves time. The registered version comes with a number of macros ready for loading.  ARexx EWP allows the user to have 10 ARexx scripts available from a pull-down menu, or keyboard, at any one time. The full pathname must be typed into the requester. The registered version comes with a number of useful ARexx scripts including MoveBlock-->, MoveBlock<--, CentreBlock and SortBlock.  GENERAL COMMENTS   Note for users of IBM compatibles I frequently use an IBM compatible notebook, running MSDOS, for the purpose of drafting notes etc. I usually use an excellent text editor called QEdit (yes, it is PD software) as it possesses all the features I require, including a very direct system for selecting files. QEdit's split windows facility makes it possible to work with a 'final document' file and an 'ideas' file in the same way as I work in EWP. Also, QEdit has paragraph reformatting, a feature that I regard as essential. I use PCPatch (UT 155) to move files backwards and forwards between my Amiga and the IBM compatible.  The future of EWP Martin Reddy has assured me that he will write an ARexx script to handle paragraph reformatting. When this feat has been accomplished, I will be prepared to state that I have the ideal tool for the purpose of preparing text for MD, letters and documents which will be developed on both my Amiga and IBM compatible.  Apropos EWP as a Tool for Programmers Given my background, the visual arts, I am not qualified to comment on the relative value of EWP to the programmer. The following quote from Daniel Rutter's above-mentioned review might throw some light on the subject: '....if I didn't already have the far more expensive CED and EdWord didn't have a rather stupid file requester I'd be tempted.'  CONCLUSION Martin has kindly acceded to my request for a copy of the most recent demo version to accompany this article. Demo V4.1, an update to V4.0 (F 924), is exclusive to MD for the moment. EWP is powerful, reliable, a joy to use and affordable. And, it is going to get better. Keep those MD articles rolling in. Ron Upton 17 Mooney Road Yarrambat Victoria Australia 3091  39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39 +-+ 39