.fo=/Scribble! 2.00 Changes - Page #/ Scribble! Changes for Version 2.00 In addition to the Spell Check and MailMerge functions, Scribble! has added many new features to make the program even more powerful and easier to use. The most noticeable are our new Scribble! program and project icons. These will be dealt with later. First off, we highly recommend KickStart and WorkBench 1.2 with use of Scribble!. In addition to increased system performance, some enhanced features are available only under 1.2 and are not accessible under KS or WB 1.1. These enhancements will be listed later. Search and Replace are now located under the Project menu and can be accessed with the Right-Amiga S and R keys, respectively. This allows any of the text actions (Cut, Paste, etc.) to be used with Search and Replace. Additional menu functions can now be accessed through the keyboard. These are: Project Archive Document Right-Amiga D Project Status Right-Amiga / Defaults Line-Length Right-Amiga L Defaults Tabs Right-Amiga T Text Copy Right-Amiga C Text Cut Right-Amiga K Text Paste Right-Amiga P Print Go Printer Right-Amiga G Spell Word Right-Amiga W "Word delete" has been added and is accessed with an ALT-W. Holding down the ALT-W will pull up words from the previous line (as long as the word fits on the line). End of line delete is an ALT-X and will not pull up previous lines. WordStar (tm) commands are also supported: Cursor-right Ctrl-D Cursor-left Ctrl-S Cursor-up one line Ctrl-E Cursor-down one line Ctrl-X Cursor-left one word Ctrl-A Cursor-right one word Ctrl-F Cursor-up a page Ctrl-R Cursor-down a page Ctrl-C Delete character Ctrl-G Delete word Ctrl-T Delete line Ctrl-Y Search again Ctrl-L "True backspacing" has been added. When you reach the left column, the cursor will wrap up to the end of the previous line. Scribble!'s status line window has been removed, allowing easier window sizing. Up to 4 open windows are still supported. Any "Text" selection will remain the same no matter what window you are in. If the mouse pointer is in Cut mode, it will stay that way as you switch from window to window. A close window gadget has been added. If using only one window, Scribble! will prompt you to quit the program. Scribble!'s default window size is now 16k. Scribble! uses dynamic file load allocation to determine window size when loading a file greater than 16k. In the rare event where Scribble! gives you an "Error getting file" message, close down your original window and open a new one with a greater file size than the document you are trying to load. This may happen when a document is full of carriage returns or empty lines and Scribble! cannot correctly estimate the amount of memory needed. This function has performed correctly when loading files of over 290k (using an expanded memory card). The pointers and gadget arrows now appear properly when using an expanded memory card. Improved cursor positioning prevents shifting when moving from one line to another during line re-formatting. Also moves with text when centering with the F3 key. Status line information reflects improved true line spacing, providing that it is consistent throughout the entire document. The ALT-J command is still the best way to determine true page breaks. The Shift-F9 key toggles the carriage return character on and off and can be saved under the Defaults Archive. This is useful for editing text files other than documents; source code, for example. Replace now highlights the search string. The "snooze" pointer and ghosting of menus occurs during any intensive Scribble! activity, such as printing, file saves, searches, etc. The Mouse pointer now changes to a paint roller when highlighting and also allows window scroll. This means you can Cut many screens of text by holding the right mouse key down and moving the paint roller to the top or bottom of the screen. The window will automatically scroll in that direction. To abort one of those functions, move the paint roller to any one of the four corners of the screen and the highlighted text will disappear without making any changes. In addition, the cursor position remains constant when any option under the "Text" menu is selected other than Edit. This means that if you Copy, Cut, Paste, Style or Spell using the mouse pointer, the cursor position will remain the same after the function has been completed. If you cut 10 pages of text from a Scribble! document, when you release the right mouse key, you will return to the original cursor position. Project Icons have been added and can be disabled or enabled through the Defaults Icon sub-menu and can be saved under a .FMT file. The default setting is to create the project icons. Project icons can be clicked on through WorkBench to automatically load Scribble! with that document. Use of Project Icons allows the copying of documents from one disk to another by "pulling" an icon from one WorkBench over to the other WorkBench. Both disk icons would have to be selected before performing this function. Consult your Amiga User's Guide for further instructions. Project Icons are only supported as long as you have not renamed Scribble! or changed the command ASSIGN SYS: : in your Startup-Sequence file. Scribble! is assumed to be located where SYS: has been assigned. This is not something you should have to concern yourself with but has been mentioned for those who have a need to re-configure their systems. In your Startup-Sequence file (in the S sub-directory), you will notice three ASSIGN statements. These not only tell the project icons where Scribble! can be found, but also where the DICTIONARY and USERDICT files are located. By changing the ASSIGN command (i.e. ASSIGN DICT: RAM:) and re-booting WorkBench, you have now told Scribble! to locate the DICTIONARY for Spell Check in your RAMdisk. Of course, you will first have to copy the file there before Scribble! can access it. ASSIGN UDICT: : will look for the USERDICT file on your Scribble! disk. In this manner, you can speed up the process of your Spell Check while at the same time insuring that any new words "Learned" will be saved to disk. The ASSIGN command can also be used to look for a specific drive name should you want your DICTIONARY and/or USERDICT located on another drive other than your Scribble! disk. ASSIGN DICT: DF1: or ASSIGN UDICT: DF1: will handle this nicely. This would be recommended only for two drive systems. If using only one drive, either use a RAMdisk or leave the DICTIONARY and USERDICT on the same disk as Scribble!. Scribble! has increased flexibility when loading from CLI. Entering "Scribble!=100 DF1:" will load Scribble! with a 100k buffer and automatically log into drive DF1: when performing an Archive Documents. If you enter a filename after the drive/volume designator, Scribble! will load the document for you. Scribble!, of course, is compatible with KickStart and WorkBench 1.2. Some improvements of KickStart 1.2 have been taken into consideration for Scribble! 2.00. They include: An input prompt within a requester no longer must be clicked on with the left mouse key. You will automatically be able to enter information from the keyboard. All requesters accept first letter commands instead of having to click on the individual icons. If a requester is looking for an "OK" or "CANCEL", the letters, "O" or "C" will be accepted from the keyboard. In addition, "Y"es or "N"o are also acceptable responses from the keyboard in some instances. Pressing any key for a requester that is looking for an "OK" will cancel the requester and return to the edit mode. When using requesters with Scribble!, you should be aware that there are several Amiga keys that will enhance your use of requester prompts. The most important are: Clear Requester Line Right-Amiga X Move To Begin. Line Shift Left-Arrow Abort Requester Entry Right-Amiga Q Consult your Amiga User's Guide for more information concerning requester prompts. The newest release of Scribble! now contains a flexible and easier to use Archive requester. Some changes incorporated are: Alphabetically sorted directories Directory Scroll gadget Ability to Get, Store or Replace a file while Scribble! is still reading through the directory Easily switch drive/directories When you select Archive Documents, Scribble! starts displaying the filenames in the order that they're found on the disk. When all are read, the directory automatically appears in alphabetical order. Remember, the only difference between Archive Documents and Archive General is that Documents displays only those filenames that end in ".doc", and General displays all filenames. While the directory is displaying in the requester, you will see the scroll gadget on the right side of the requester move in proportion to it's position in the listing. Even while the directory is being read, you can use the scroll gadget to move up and down through the directory. As you move the scroll gadget, the directory listing will adjust its display accordingly. As such, no up and down scroll gadget arrows are required. The Archive Requester also has a new look. At the top of the requester you see the word "Directory:", with an input line to the right. This will contain the volume name of your Scribble! disk. The Directory line contains the drive or volume name of the disk that you wish Scribble! to access, along with a sub-directory if one is specified. Some examples: If you enter "DF1:" then Scribble! will automatically start reading the directory of any disk that is in your external drive, aborting whatever directory listing it is currently working on. If you entered "DOCUMENTS:" then Scribble! looks in any drive that contains the diskette with the volume name of "DOCUMENTS". Make sure you enter an ending colon, for without it, Scribble! will log into a sub-directory that does not exist. Any attempt to Store a file will result in an "Error storing file" message. If you want to log into a sub-directory, enter the sub-directory name after the colon. For instance, "DF1:FILES" will cause Scribble! to log into the external drive and the sub-directory "FILES". To utilize a sub-directory, you must first create it with the AmigaDOS MAKEDIR command. With the new requester, you do not have to wait for the entire directory to appear before selecting another drive or sub-directory name. While a directory is currently displaying, enter a new drive/path and hit the key. Scribble! will abort listing the current directory and start listing the new one. The last input prompt you have to know is the one called "Selection:", which appears right below the directory listing. "Selection:" contains the document name you are currently working with or have selected by clicking the left mouse key on a document name. If you enter a specific filename while the directory is displaying and click on the Get button, Scribble! searches immediately for that particular filename and loads it. If the filename is incorrect, an "Error getting file" message will appear. File replacing is handled in a slightly different way now: If you try to Store a document that is the current selection, a "File exits, replace?" requester will appear. In this manner, we have improved on the old Replace function; the likelihood of erasing the wrong file has been decreased dramatically. We hope these new features make using Scribble! a real pleasure. Many of these enhancements have come about through the suggestions we have received through the mail. At Micro-Systems Software, we always consider suggestions made by our user community. If you have comments about any of our software products, please feel free to contact us.