Editing a file
You can edit the contents of a text file using the Edit
option in the Manager menu.
When you select Edit, a listing of the files in your
current directory appears, as explained in the section,
``Looking at a file''.
Select the file(s) that you want to edit.
Once you select a file, the first screen of text
appears.
To edit a text file, use the Edit Mode commands available for editing text in form fields. The following table gives a brief introduction to the editing commands.
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Command Description
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Arrow keys Moves the cursor up and down through the file, and
to the right or left on each line.
<PgUp> or <PgDn> Use <PgUp> to jump back to the previous page, or
<PgDn> to jump forward to the next page. A
``page'' is one screen of lines.
<Home> Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current
line.
<End> Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
<Esc> Switches between editing the file and using the
Edit menu.
<Ctrl>G↑ Moves to the top of the document.
<Ctrl>G↓ Moves to the bottom of the document.
<Ctrl>N Moves the cursor to the next word.
<Ctrl>P Moves the cursor to the previous word.
<Ctrl>W Deletes the word the cursor is on, if the cursor
is on the first character of the word.
<Ctrl>Y Deletes the current line (the line the cursor is
on).
<F8> Pastes a deleted line back into the file. The
Edit program stores the last 10 lines you deleted.
When you press <F8>, the last line you deleted
reappears. If you press <F8> again, the next to
last line you deleted reappears, and so on.
<Ctrl>O Inserts a blank line above the current line.
<Ctrl>V Switches between Insert and Overstrike mode. You
are in Insert mode to start. If you move the
cursor to some existing text and begin typing, the
new words are inserted between the existing words.
If you press <Ctrl>V to change to Overstrike mode,
the words you type replace (overstrike) any
existing words on the same line. Press <Ctrl>V
again to return to Insert mode.
<Ctrl>Z Calls up the pop-up list of extra file-editing and
formatting options. This is the same as pressing
<F9>.
<F5> Prompts you to enter a word, then searches for the
next occurrence of that word in your file.
When you press <F9> in Edit mode, a list of extra editing commands appears on the screen, like this:
To choose a command from this list, position the highlight bar over the command that you want and press <Enter>. To use the Format Paragraph, Delete Line, and Join Lines commands, you must position the cursor on the line or paragraph that you want before pressing <F9>.
The following table describes the commands on the Extra Commands list:
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Command Description
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Format Paragraph Reformats the paragraph that the cursor is on.
This command fills each line with text out to
the margin, moving text up from subsequent
lines as necessary.
Join Lines Joins the line the cursor is on with the text
of the next line. If both lines together are
too long to fit within the file margin, only
part of the text from the second line is
joined to the first.
Margin (set) Resets the line length for this file. The
default line length appears in a box. Type in
the new line length and press <Enter>. If you
type in new text now, the text automatically
breaks to a new line after reaching the line
length that you set. To reformat existing
paragraphs to the new line length, use the
Format Paragraph command. To reset the
default line length for all editing, use the
Preferences command in the Manager Menu.
Delete Line (^y) Deletes the line that the cursor is on. This
option is the same as pressing <Ctrl>Y.
Paste (undelete, <F8>) Pastes deleted lines back into the file. When
you choose Paste, the last line that you
deleted reappears. If you choose Paste again,
the next to last line that you deleted
reappears, and so on, up to a maximum of 10
lines. Choosing Paste is the same as pressing
<F8>.
From within the editor, other functions are available;
to use these other functions, press <Esc> while editing a file.
The Edit menu appears, with the following options:
The options in the menu are described briefly in the following table:
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Option Description
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Edit invokes the Auto Editor
Include includes a file in the current document
Transfer moves items to and from the Clipboard, and deletes items
from the Clipboard
Quit optionally saves your work, exits the editor, and
returns to the Manager menu
If you choose the Edit option, the text of the file appears,
and you can edit it using the Auto Editor. When you access the editor,
you will, by default, use a built-in editor; however should you wish to
use a different editor, you can configure your system so that you can use
your own favorite editor. This is known as the Auto Editor;
you can choose an Auto Editor by selecting:
Manager Select the Include option to include another file in the file that you are currently editing. When you select Include, a pop-up window appears listing the files in the current directory. Use the cursor movement commands to select a file. The file is inserted after the cursor position.
The Transfer option allows you to access the Clipboard while you are editing a file. You can use the Clipboard to transfer text and other forms of data between different applications. See ``Using the clipboard from the Manager menu'' for more information about using the Clipboard.
The Quit option exits the Edit Mode and returns you to the Manager menu. Quit also saves your latest changes to the current file.