===========================================                                                   =======---- Professional V6.0.1 ----======= GENERAL INTRODUCTORY TEXT MARTIN REDDY, 1997 INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ EdWord is an extremely powerful, general purpose text editor which offers a host of useful and helpful facilities. It was initially released as a Share- ware program, but since that time it has undergone a myriad of improvements and updates resulting in the current version which provides an indispensable aid for every Amiga user. As you might expect, the basic function of EdWord is to edit text and in this role, it offers all the rudimentary facilities which any text editor might offer, but what makes EdWord that bit more special are the extra options which it provides. The following is a list of some of the more notable functions which are supported by version 6.0: · Multiple Documents: you can edit up to 15 documents at once (memory permitting, of course) with a split screen option to view two of them together. · A Macro Facility: lets you record any sequence of keypresses/ mouse clicks and menu selections, and then play them back. This is very useful for automating small repetitive jobs. · An ARexx port offering an extensive and comprehensive range of commands to provide full automation of EdWord; with the ability to enter these commands directly (without using ARexx), as well as run any ARexx script from within the editor. · PowerPacker Support: EdWord will (optionally) decrunch any data files which have been packed with this cruncher · A new few feature called Auto Suggest whereby if you type in a filename which doesn't exist when loading, then EdWord will make an intelligent suggestion as to what you actually meant to type in! · AppWindow Support: When running EdWord on a WorkBench screen, it is possible to load a file by simply dragging its icon into the editor's window · Uses the clipboard device for all block operations · Functions to reformat paragraphs of text, giving either left or full justified text. · A calculator which lets you perform basic arithmetic as well as convert numbers between different bases including decimal,hexa- decimal,octal and binary · An auto indenting facility as well as a symbolic indenting facility (i.e. EdWord can automatically indent your source code as you enter it) · Text Casing of language keywords. i.e. certain keywords can be forced into a certain case (Uppercase,Lowercase or Capitalised) or colour. This can be useful to maintain a consistent look to a piece of source code. · Access to AmigaDOS to allow the user the ability to run any DOS command (This could be used to run a compiler or assembler through the editor) · Save backups and auto save files to a specified directory. · The ability to use either the standard EdWord file requester or the ReqTools or Asl library ones · An ASCII table of printable character codes with the ability to insert any such character into the current text (from ASCII code 0 to 255) · The ability to sort a block alphabetically - this could be used for arranging a list of names, games etc. · checks RAM for any viruses or suspicious programs when it first loads up and alerts the user if it finds anything strange. · Various screen resolutions are supported including PAL and NTSC standards, custom or WorkBench screen and the ability to work in interlace mode and upto 8 colours. · Powerful printing options including the setting of margins, the page length, the ability to include page numbers and to specify the print pitch and quality. · On-line help texts available from within the editor. THE EDWORDHELP DOCUMENTATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The purpose of this text file is not to explain how to use EdWord, it is merely a short introductory document. There is however, a program which is supplied with the text editor which is called EdWordHelp - This program offers explanatory texts on all aspects of using EdWord and if you have any difficulties or queries about any particular area of EdWord, it will most probably be explained by this program. The program uses the standard Commodore AmigaGuide(TM) program to view the hypertext data and so provides a consistent interface which will work under any version of WorkBench. These help scripts can also be accessed from within EdWord via the Help menu bar. There are an awful lot of features offered by EdWord which may never be discovered by the casual user. If you intend to get the most out of this excellent text editor, then it would be a good idea to have a quick glance through some of the help texts offered by EdWordHelp. (An example being that the string gadget used by EdWord is not the standard Intuition one and, although it emulates the Intuition gadget perfectly, it also offers a number of improvements and added features). I would also suggest looking up entries on "Direct Ascii Value Entry", "Document Text Insertion", "Shell Usage" and "Control Keys". TEXT EDITOR OR WORDPROCESSOR - WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE ANYWAY? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The term "text editor" has certainly proved to be a rather confusing point for many people and a text editor is often described as being "a sort of wordprocessor". Although, in a general sense, this is a fair description and will suffice for most cases, there are a few subtle differences between the two and I will try to explain these presently. A "wordprocessor" is a program which is used to compose texts which will ultimately be output to a printer, such as a letter or an essay. It is primarily concerned with the layout of the text and its aesthetic value, allowing you to set text styles such as bold or italic or even use different sized and shaped fonts. In order to do this, the wordprocessor will insert various embedded codes into your text to signal when to use a certain font or a certain style or justification. Most wordprocessors use different codes to represent each of these changes and so a piece of text written in one wordprocessor will not normally be recognised by another wordprocessor which promotes a situation of incompatibility. Whereas, a "text editor" is a program which is used to create texts which will be stored on disk to be used by another program. A common example is that of writing a program - programmers often write their masterpieces in a certain programming language (such as C, Pascal or Basic) but the computer does not understand these languages so a program called a compiler is used to convert the programmer's code into machine language which can then be executed by the computer. The program will be written in a text editor and then saved to disk in order to be used by the compiler. In such a case, the actual look of the text is not of any concern in that it is irrelevant whether the text is in bold or italic or blue or pink because the compiler does not have any artistic tastes and does not care how pretty your text looks. So a text editor is not concerned with setting font styles or margins instead it tries to make the task of entering and manipulating text as easy and fast as possible - e.g. moving, inserting, searching and duplicating pieces of text. Therefore, a text editor does not use any special embedded codes - it displays every byte of a file whether it is letter a number or a control code. My reasons for trying to explain this difference are largely because it is a query that I have encountered on numerous occasions and so I feel that a lot of people would be interested. However, it should be noted that these are general properties and it would be quite possible to use a text editor in the role of a wordprocessor and, to a certain extent, vice versa. Although EdWord is classed as a text editor and I make no claims to call it a wordprocessor, it does offer a number of functions which help to merge the two types of programs. For example, it offers a Centre Line facility and although it does not format your text by setting margins and page numbers, these options are available for you when you want to print your text out. TEXT EDITOR | WORDPROCESSOR --------------------------------+------------------------------------- | Used to create a file on disk | used to create a printed page | can edit any file and normally | Normally has its own file format allows modification to any byte | and will only accept those files | Concerned with creating plain | Concerned with aesthetic value by ASCII files | using embedded codes for italics etc. | Useful for programming | Useful for business (letter writing) | Tends to be faster because does | Slower because of various fonts, not have to decipher embedded codes | styles etc. | Does not format the text into | Sets out the text as it will be pages or use margins | displayed on the printed page | THE EDWORD PROFESSIONAL WEB PAGE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have recently developed a set of World Wide Web pages for EdWord. If you have a WWW browser (e.g. Netscape, Mosaic etc.), then you may want to take a look at the following URL. http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/mxr/edword Note: EdWord is now sold through F1 Software: 31 Wellington Road, Exeter, Devon, England, EX2 9DU. Telephone: (UK) 01392 493580 (+44 1392 493580). E-mail: . If you wish to contact me (the author) directly via e-mail, then you can send mail to: . PLEASE NOTE HOWEVER THAT V6.0 IS THE FINAL RELEASE OF EDWORD. After this I will no longer have access to my Amiga (as I have now moved country and had to restrict the stuff I took with me), and so it will not be possible to implement any changes to EdWord beyond V6.0. THE LEGAL STUFF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EdWord Professional V6.0 is NOT shareware or public domain. It is copyright Martin Reddy, 1993-7 and may not be copied or transmitted in any form or part without the prior expressed permission of Martin Reddy. EdWord Professional is provided "as-is", and although it has been extensively tested and remains a robust and reliable program, Martin Reddy will not be held responsible for any loss of information incurred by the direct or indirect usage of this program. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I would like to take this opportunity to thank some of the people who have helped me during the development of EdWord and have put up with my constant ravings about what totally excellent new feature I've added to it. Firstly, to Sandy McNair without whom EdWord probably wouldn't exist because it was him who challenged me to write it in the first place and he has given me buckets full of help in debugging it. In the same vein, thanks to a certain Graham Lynch for all of his comments along the lines of "I bet that EdWord doesn't do this ..." which promptly forced me to incorporate it just so that I could say yes. Thanks also to Keith Sharp for his invaluable aid in finding bugs (which he seemed to take great pleasure in doing!) and for letting me test the program on a WorkBench 2.0 machine. Thanks to Lesley Stronach (I spelt it right this time!) and Merle Stevenson for keeping me sane and just for being there. Thanks to my mum for the last twenty years and for being totally brill. Thanks to all the nice people who actually registered for the shareware release of EdWord - much appreciated guys. (In particular, many thanks to Simon Dick for all of his help in testing EdWord and also for his help with AppWindows and ARexx and his general suggestions for improvement. I' ve no doubt that EdWord wouldn't offer as much power today if it wasn't for his aid). Thanks to the music of Bon Jovi Gun, Sisters of Mercy, U2 and Dire Straits and of course, thanks to Michelle Pfeiffer just for being a totally gorgeous and desirable woman. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my little band of Beta Testers who provided lots of helpful criticism & suggestions prior to this release of EdWord. Thanks to their dilligent efforts, I feel a lot more confident about the stability and robustness of this package. The Beta Testers for EdWord Professional V6.0 were (in alphabetical order): · David Smith · Jen Allen · Magnus Johnson · Simon Dick Cheers, Martin.