Atari XL User Manual

The Last Word 3.0 Reference Manual

The Last Word

Professional Word Processing for the Atari XL/XE

With dual 40 and 80 column displays.

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Contents

1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1-5

1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE LAST WORD ......................................................... 1-5

1.2 ABOUT THE MANUAL ........................................................................... 1-6

1.3 STARTING LW ....................................................................................... 1-6

1.3.1 LOADING LW FROM SPARTADOS X ................................................ 1-6

1.4 BASIC OPERATION ............................................................................... 1-7

1.4.1 THE EDIT SCREEN ............................................................................. 1-7

1.4.2 TEXT BANKS ...................................................................................... 1-9

1.4.3 SAVING AND LOADING TEXT ........................................................... 1-9

1.4.4 THE FILE SELECTOR ...................................................................... 1-11

1.4.5 BASIC CONFIGURATION ................................................................. 1-11

1.4.6 LEAVING THE PROGRAM ............................................................... 1-12

2 EDITOR COMMANDS .......................................................................... 2-13

2.1 CURSOR MOVEMENT ......................................................................... 2-13

2.2 TEXT ENTRY MODES .......................................................................... 2-13

2.3 INSERTING AND DELETING TEXT ..................................................... 2-14

2.4 MOVING AND COPYING WITH TEXT BLOCKS .................................. 2-15

2.5 FINDING AND REPLACING TEXT ....................................................... 2-16

2.5.1 SEARCHING WITH WILDCARDS ..................................................... 2-17

3 ADDITIONAL EDITOR FEATURES ..................................................... 3-18

3.1 COUNTING WORDS............................................................................. 3-18

3.2 EDITED TEXT INDICATOR .................................................................. 3-18

3.3 TABULATION ....................................................................................... 3-18

3.3.1 TABULATION MODES ..................................................................... 3-18

3.4 BOOKMARKS ...................................................................................... 3-19

3.5 TEXT AND DOCUMENT MODES ......................................................... 3-19

3.6 USER OPTIONS ................................................................................... 3-20

3.7 EDITING MULTIPLE FILES .................................................................. 3-20

3.8 HANDLING LARGE FILES ................................................................... 3-21

4 DISK OPERATIONS ............................................................................. 4-23

4.1 DISK OPERATIONS FROM THE EDITOR ........................................... 4-23

4.2 THE DISK MENU .................................................................................. 4-23

4.2.1 ADDITIONAL COMMANDS .............................................................. 4-26

4.2.2 SUBDIRECTORY FEATURES .......................................................... 4-26

5 PRINTING WITH LW ............................................................................ 5-27

5.1 PREVIEWING TEXT ............................................................................. 5-27

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5.2 KEEPING TRACK OF PAGINATION .................................................... 5-27

5.3 EDITOR PRINT COMMANDS ............................................................... 5-27

5.4 EMBEDDED COMMANDS ................................................................... 5-28

5.4.1 STAGE 1 COMMANDS ..................................................................... 5-28

5.4.2 STAGE 2 COMMANDS ..................................................................... 5-32

5.4.3 CREATING HANGING INDENTS ...................................................... 5-33

5.5 OTHER PRINT FEATURES .................................................................. 5-33

5.5.1 INTERNATIONAL CHARACTERS .................................................... 5-33

5.6 CONFIGURING THE PRINT FORMATTER .......................................... 5-34

6 CONFIGURING LW FOR YOUR PRINTER .......................................... 6-35

6.1 PRINTER DRIVERS .............................................................................. 6-35

6.2 CREATING A PRINTER DRIVER ......................................................... 6-35

6.2.1 PRINT TOGGLES ............................................................................. 6-36

6.2.2 CONTROL STRINGS ........................................................................ 6-36

6.2.3 INTERNATIONAL CHARACTERS .................................................... 6-36

6.2.4 STYLES ............................................................................................ 6-37

7 MACROS ............................................................................................... 7-39

7.1 LOADING MACROS ............................................................................. 7-39

7.2 RUNNING MACROS ............................................................................. 7-40

7.2.1 AUTORUN MACROS ........................................................................ 7-40

7.3 WRITING AND EDITING MACROS ...................................................... 7-41

7.4 SPECIAL MACRO COMMANDS .......................................................... 7-41

7.4.1 DISABLING THE SCREEN FROM MACROS ................................... 7-44

7.4.2 SPECIAL CHARACTERS ................................................................ . 7-44

7.4.3 ENTERING OTHER COMMANDS FROM MACROS ......................... 7-45

7.4.4 THE SPECIAL MACRO FONT .......................................................... 7-45

7.4.5 KEYBOARD CONVENTIONS FOR MACROS .................................. 7-45

7.5 CREATING AND EDITING MACROS ................................................... 7-46

7.6 EXAMPLE MACROS ............................................................................ 7-47

8 CONFIGURING LW ............................................................................... 8-50

8.1 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS IN THE EDITOR .................................... 8-50

8.2 .CFG CONFIGURATION FILES ............................................................ 8-51

8.2.1 THE DEFAULT DRIVE ...................................................................... 8-52

8.3 THE LW.SYS FILE ................................................................................ 8-53

8.3.1 CONFIGURATION USING A SUPPORTED DOS ............................. 8-53

8.3.2 CONFIGURATION USING OTHER DOS PACKAGES ..................... 8-54

8.3.3 THE SEARCH PATH ......................................................................... 8-55

8.3.4 THE KEYBOARD BUFFER ............................................................... 8-56

8.4 USING MULTIPE TEXT BUFFERS....................................................... 8-56

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8.5 CUSTOM FONTS .................................................................................. 8-56

8.6 CUSTOMISING THE KEYBOARD ........................................................ 8-57

8.6.1 THE KEYBOARD TABLE ................................................................. 8-57

8.6.2 REMAPPING COMMANDS USING MACROS .................................. 8-59

8.6.3 1200 XL KEYS .................................................................................. 8-60

9 DOS PACKAGES AND LW .................................................................. 9-61

9.1 MEMORY REQUIREMENTS ................................................................. 9-61

9.2 ATARI DOS 2.5 ..................................................................................... 9-61

9.3 ATARI DOS XE ..................................................................................... 9-61

9.4 MYDOS 4.5 ........................................................................................... 9-61

9.5 DISK-BASED SPARTADOS ................................................................. 9-62

9.6 SPARTADOS X .................................................................................... 9-62

9.6.1 THE SPARTADOS X “LWPATH” ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE ....... 9-63

9.6.2 SPARTADOS X MEMORY CONFIGURATIONS ............................... 9-63

10 LW COMMAND SUMMARY ............................................................ 10-65

10.1 EDITOR COMMANDS ........................................................................ 10-65

10.2 SPECIAL KEYS .................................................................................. 10-67

10.3 MACRO COMMANDS ........................................................................ 10-68

11 PRINT FORMATTING COMMANDS ............................................... 11-69

12 PROGRAMMER'S TECHNICAL NOTES......................................... 12-71

12.1 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE ADD-INS ................................................... 12-71

12.2 MEMORY USAGE .............................................................................. 12-71

12.3 PROGRAM DESIGN ........................................................................... 12-72

12.4 DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING ........................................................ 12-73

12.5 WHY LW CAME INTO BEING ............................................................ 12-73

12.6 DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................. 12-76

12.7 CORRESPONDENCE ......................................................................... 12-77

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE LAST WORD

Welcome to THE LAST WORD, the brand new 80 column word processor for Atari XL/XE computers, and one of the most powerful text editors ever written for the 8-bit Atari. The Last Word (LW) combines many of the innovative features found in public domain text editors like TextPro with capabilities of established commercial packages such as AtariWriter Plus and The First XLEnt Word Processor. This means LW offers:

 Full 80 column editing on-screen (switchable to 40 columns at any time)  Horizontally scrolling editing window of up to 240 columns  Editing of up 10 files simultaneously on a memory expanded machines  Sophisticated keyboard macro language  80 column print preview  Versatile cut and paste features  Search and replace, including reverse search  High speed editing, even at the top of large files  Comprehensive on-line help system  Feature-packed file selector/file management menu with up to 80 filenames in

a scrolling window and support for SpartaDOS X directories with time/date stamps

 Support for SpartaDOS X, MyDOS, DOS 2.5 and many DOS 2 derivatives  User-definable tab ruler  Customizable, plain-text printer drivers  Plain-text configuration files  Completely redefinable keyboard layout  All international characters visible on the screen  Comprehensive print formatting commands  Automatic heading levels  Indents, hyphenation, and much more...

First written in 1999 and completely revamped ten years later to use an 80 column display, LW is one of the few word processors to be written for the Atari XL/XE in the last twenty years.

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LW.SYS

System configuration file: sets up memory usage, keyboard buffer, keyboard redefinition and path for help and system files.

LW.CFG

Configuration file: contains editor settings, preferences, and default drive settings.

LW.FNT

Standard graphics 0 font which will be used in the editor and throughout the program.

LW.F80

Special 80 column font for 80 column editing mode.

LW.PDR

Plain-text printer driver file, which can be edited in LW.

LW.MAC

Macro file, containing automated, user-written command sequences. If a macro is defined for the "@" key, it will be run immediately. See section 6.

LW.EXT

Machine code extensions (expanded memory machines only). Contains extra program functionality such as character maps, calculators, etc.

1.2 ABOUT THE MANUAL

This manual assumes basic familiarity with the Atari screen editor and keyboard. Command keystrokes are enclosed in angle brackets ("<" and ">") which should NOT be typed in. Where two or more keys need to be pressed together, these keys are linked with the plus sign "+".

1.3 STARTING LW

Boot the computer with the LW disk in drive 1 while holding down the <Option> key. (If

you don’t hold down <Option> and the BASIC “Ready” prompt appears, type DOS and

press <Return>). The DOS menu will appear. LW should be started with Binary Load (option L) on the DOS 2.5 menu. Press “L” and type “LW.COM”, then press <Return>.

Note: unlike prior versions of the program, LW 3.0 is NOT compatible with DOS XE, nor with any DOS which uses RAM under the Operating System.

When LW loads, it looks on the default drive (“D:”) for the following files, and if it finds them, loads them. If a file isn't found, default "built-in" values are used.

1.3.1 LOADING LW FROM SPARTADOS X

Under SpartaDOS X, LW is launched by typing

X LW Note: LW 3.0 is NOT compatible with versions of SpartaDOS prior to SpartaDOS

X. Also, SpartaDOS X MUST be configured to use BANKED memory in order to

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work with LW. This means you can’t run SpartaDOS X and LW on a machine with less than 128K.

With SpartaDOS X, you can specify a file to edit on the command line after the program name, such as:

X LW LETTER.TXT

LW will attempt to load LETTER.TXT automatically. If the file isn't found, LW will present you with an empty file bearing the name that you typed on the command line.

1.4 BASIC OPERATION

You can begin using LW without reading this manual. If you get stuck, press the <HELP> key, then a number 1 to 9 or 0. If you don't read the manual, however, you'll be missing out on a huge amount of invaluable information.

1.4.1 THE EDIT SCREEN

To begin using LW, load the program as described above and take a moment to familiarize yourself with the editing screen. The first thing you’ll notice is that there are 80 columns of text on the screen.

LW defaults to an 80 column display, but you can get the 40 column display back at any time (and make the program default to 40 columns). To switch to a 40 column display, press:

<SHIFT+CTRL+W> At the lower left of the screen, you’ll see:

80 Columns [Y/N]?

Press the “N” key, and for the moment, just press <Return> when you see the “Width”

prompt. A 40 column display will then appear:

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You can get the 80 column display back by performing the same procedure in reverse:

type <SHIFT+CTRL+W>, type “Y” for 80 columns, then press <Return> at the “Width”

prompt.

In this manual, many illustrations depict LW’s 40 column display. This is merely for

reasons of clarity, and operation of the program is essentially identical in 40 and 80 column modes.

On both 40 and 80 column screens, you'll see a tab ruler line along the top (which scrolls horizontally if you define a screen wider than the limits of the display) below that a 20 line editing window, and, at the foot of the screen, two lines for status information. The flashing cursor indicates the current typing position.

Until you press a key, the first line of status information will be the title and version # of the program; thereafter it will default to the name of the file currently in memory. Until you load a file or give it a name, it will be called UNNAMED.TXT.

Entering text in LW is easy: just type as you normally would, pressing <RETURN> only at the end of a paragraph and letting the program wrap words at the ends of lines. Cursor keys, <DELETE/BK SP>, and <INSERT> keys behave exactly as you would expect.

In 80 column mode, you’ll notice the editor works more slowly than in 40 column mode.

However, LW still keeps up with your typing and doesn’t “drop” keystrokes. This is

because it has its own type-ahead keyboard buffer. Note that if you’re using SpartaDOS X and the DOS keyboard buffer (KEY.COM) is turned on when you run LW, the SpartaDOS keyboard buffer will supersede LW’s built in buffer. To force use of the LW keyboard buffer (which doesn’t buffer auto-repeated keys, preventing the

cursor from “running away”), simply ensure the SDX keyboard buffer is turned off

(“KEY OFF”) before running LW.

When you're ready to save your text, you can follow one of two procedures, outlined below.

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1.4.2 TEXT BANKS

If you have a machine with at least 128K of RAM running SpartaDOS X, DOS 2.5 or MyDOS, LW will try to use the extra banks of memory for additional text buffers for the editing of up to ten files at once. You can switch between these banks with:

<SHIFT+CTRL+n> where “n” is one of the number keys, with “0” denoting the tenth bank. The program is

smart enough not to overwrite any RAMdisks which are installed, so even if you have extra memory, LW may still present you with only one text banks if there are RAMdisks active.

You can see how many text banks are active by pressing: <SHIFT+CTRL+?> Will display: n banks (n), using [low/banked], n reserved. This command reports how many text buffers are available, how many free banks in

total are detected on the computer, whether the program has its internal buffers in

main (“Using Low”) or extended (“Using banked”) memory, and how many (if any) of

the selected memory banks are reserved for use by extensions. See “Setting up Multiple Text Buffers” in Chapter 8 for more information.

1.4.3 SAVING AND LOADING TEXT

To save the text in memory to disk for the first time, press <CTRL+S> Save text. A prompt will appear with a default filename. Either press <RETURN> to accept this name, or type a new one: the old one will disappear automatically. After you press <RETURN>, your text will be written to disk. If an error occurs, you'll be informed. To abort the save operation, just press <Esc>.

If you type no extender, LW will append one of your choosing before opening the file. The default extender and that defined in the supplied configuration file "LW.CFG" is ".TXT". You can change this, however, or disable it altogether by using the configuration editor.

The first time you save a file, the name you give it becomes the default for subsequent save operations. Once the file has been saved once, pressing <CTRL+S> subsequently will “silently” save the file to disk with the original name it was saved under. To save the file with a different name or to a different folder on disk, use

<SHIFT+CTRL+S> Save As which always brings up the Save As> prompt. When using “Save As”, if LW finds a file on disk of the same name, you will be

warned. The program will ask: [Filename] exists: Overwrite [Y/N]?

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If you type “Y”, the existing file will be overwritten. Typing “N” will return you to the

editor without doing anything. To load previously written text, press: <CTRL+L> Load text A prompt will appear with a default drive specifier. Type the name of the file you wish

to load (you needn’t type a drive specifier), and press <Return>.

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1.4.4 THE FILE SELECTOR

What if you can’t remember which files are on the disk? LW has a file selector which is accessible from any filename input dialogue. Just press the <Tab> key when the program is waiting for a filename, and the file selector will appear, listing all the files in the current folder on disk.

Just highlight the file you want and press <Return> to load it. See “THE DISK MENU” in Chapter 4 for more information about the file selector.

1.4.5 BASIC CONFIGURATION

You can configure LW to suit yourself. Pressing: <SHIFT+CTRL+Q> Save configuration will allow you to save the configuration to disk. The file will automatically be given the

default extender CFG, and you should call the file LW.CFG if you want your new preferences to be available the next time you boot the program.

As described above, LW normally wraps words to the next line if they don't fit as you type. You can turn this feature off with:

<CTRL+W> Word wrap toggle

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By default in LW, <RETURN> characters appear as curved arrows. You can make them invisible with:

<SHIFT+CTRL+CLR> Toggle visible returns These are just a few of the settings saved in the configuration. For further information

on configuring LW, see section 7.

1.4.6 LEAVING THE PROGRAM

To finish using LW and go to DOS, type: <CTRL+X> Exit to DOS and respond "Y" to the prompt. If any text in memory hasn’t yet been saved, you’ll be

offered the chance to save before the program shuts down.

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2 EDITOR COMMANDS

LW's commands are all accessed by key combinations. Once you become familiar with LW's keystrokes, a huge number of commands becomes instantly available.

2.1 CURSOR MOVEMENT

The following commands allow rapid cursor movement around the text: <CTRL+LEFT ARROW> Cursor left

<CTRL+RIGHT ARROW> Cursor right <CTRL+UP ARROW> Cursor up <CTRL+DOWN ARROW> Cursor down <Tab> Next tab stop (if in Over-Type Mode) <CTRL+A> Start of line <CTRL+Z> End of line <SHIFT+LEFT ARROW> Previous start of word <SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW> Start of next word <SHIFT+UP ARROW> Previous start of paragraph <SHIFT+DOWN ARROW> Start of next paragraph <SHIFT+CTRL+UP ARROW> Screen up <SHIFT+CTRL+DOWN> Screen down <CTRL+H or START> Top of screen, then top of file <CTRL+E> End of file

2.2 TEXT ENTRY MODES

These commands affect various setting in the editor:

<SHIFT+CTRL+INS> Toggle Insert and Over-type modes. In Insert mode, text after

the cursor is pushed along as you type, and closes up when you press <DELETE>. In Over-type mode, new text overwrites existing text. Notice that the operation of the <TAB> key differs depending on which mode the editor is in: in Over-type mode, the <TAB> key simply skips to the next tab stop, whereas in Insert mode, <TAB> inserts spaces up to

the next tab stop. <CAPS> Toggle upper/lowercase. <CTRL+CAPS> Forced control key mode toggle. Allows entry of control codes

without pressing <CTRL+ESCAPE> or <SHIFT+ESC> first.

The current case is saved when you save the configuration

(see later), and becomes the default next time you load the

program. <SHIFT+CAPS> Uppercase lock. <INVERSE> Toggle inverse video on and off.

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<CTRL+ESCAPE> Allow subsequent control key to be entered as normal text (same

as pressing <ESCAPE> in the normal Atari screen editor. Also

de-selects a marked block of text. <SHIFT+ESCAPE> Alternative to <CTRL+ESCAPE>. <CTRL+W> Turn word-wrap on and off. Saved in config file. <SHIFT+CTRL+W> Set screen editing width. Using this command, you can select the

display mode (40 or 80 characters), and type the number of

characters per line you want - anything from 5 to 240. If the line

length becomes longer than the physical width of the screen, the

screen will become a horizontal as well as a vertical window onto

your text. Setting the editor line length to the same length as

printed lines means you can set tables out almost exactly as they

will print. You can skip setting the number of columns by just

pressing <Return>, and the value will be set to match the

physical width of the screen. The screen mode is saved in the

config file.

2.3 INSERTING AND DELETING TEXT

The following commands allow simple insertion and deletion of text: <DELETE> Delete character to left of cursor <CTRL+INSERT> Insert a space at the cursor <TAB> Insert spaces to next tab stop (if in Insert Mode) <CTRL+DELETE> Delete character to right of cursor <SHIFT+DELETE> Displays the prompt: Delete Word, Line, Sentence, Paragraph? Respond by pressing the highlighted letter, or <ESCAPE> to

cancel. Pressing <RETURN> defaults to DELETE LINE. Deleted text will fill up the paste buffer from the beginning. Paste the text back into the main buffer with <CTRL+P> or

<SHIFT+INSERT>. <SHIFT+INSERT> Insert previously deleted text <CTRL+P> Paste, or insert previously deleted text (same as above) <CTRL+CLEAR> Erase all text <SHIFT+CLEAR> Erase all text (same as above)

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2.4 MOVING AND COPYING WITH TEXT BLOCKS

The following commands allow blocks of text to be marked, then moved, copied or deleted:

<CTRL+M> Mark or highlight block. Before a block can be copied, moved or

deleted, it must be marked. Use this command to define the starting point of your block. Subsequently, as you move the cursor, the text between the marked beginning and the cursor position will be inverted. You can also mark the end of a block, then cursor back to the beginning. Several other block commands only work once a block has been defined in this way. To un-mark a highlighted block of text, press <CTRL+ESCAPE>.

<CTRL+C> Cut block. Use this command once a block has been marked as

outlined above. The marked text will be copied from the main buffer to the paste buffer, providing the block is not too large. Note that any text already in the paste buffer will be overwritten. The text will then be erased from the main buffer, and block mode is cancelled. You can paste text back with the Paste command.

<CTRL+O> Copy block. This copies text to the paste buffer exactly like the

Cut option, but the text also remains in the main buffer, still highlighted.

<DELETE> Delete block. This deletes a marked block without copying it to the

paste buffer. Because text deleted this way is irretrievable, you are first asked for confirmation. Note that the block to be deleted may be of any length, regardless of paste buffer size.

<SHIFT+CTRL+I> Write block to a file. Supply a filename at the prompt and the block

- which may be of any length - will be written to disk. The file will have the extension "BLK" unless you supply a different one. This option, along with the merge command, allows for the transfer of large blocks of text between different files.

<CTRL+I> Insert, or merge, file. Allows a file to be inserted into the middle of

the text in memory. The filename you type will have the usual text file extender appended to it unless you supply another. If the file you attempt to insert exceeds in size the available space, the text will remain unchanged.

<CTRL+N> Displays size of file, cursor position, and the number of words and

bytes in the file (or the block if any text is marked) <CTRL+Y> Convert block to lowercase <SHIFT+CTRL+Y> Convert block to uppercase <CTRL+[> Un-invert text in block <CTRL+]> Invert text in block

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2.5 FINDING AND REPLACING TEXT

LW has extensive search features which work both forwards and backwards through the text. Searches can be either case sensitive or insensitive. Search and replace operations can be performed either individually or on the whole file, with or without confirmation.

<SHIFT+CTRL+F> Define find string. This option allows you to type in the text you

wish to search for (up to 30 characters).

<CTRL+F> Find string. This will move the cursor to the next occurrence of the

previously defined string.

<CTRL+U> Upwards find string. Searches backwards for the previously

defined string.

<CTRL+R> Replace string. Once a string has been "found" with <CTRL+F> or

<CTRL+U>, this command will change it to the "replace" string. <SHIFT+CTRL+R> Define replace string <CTRL+G> Global search and replace. Allows you to type a search string and

a replace string, then attempts to replace each occurrence of the

search string with the replace string. Unless the command is run

from a macro, the first time the string is found, a menu will appear,

asking if you wish to

Change, All, To End, Skip?

Press the highlighted letter of the option you want, or <ESCAPE>

to cancel. "Change" replaces the string and moves to the next

occurrence. “All” will change all occurrences of the string

throughout the entire document, looping around to the start of the

document when it reaches the end. “To End" does a global

replace, but without looping around to the top of the document.

“Skip” simply ignores the text and moves on to the next

occurrence of the string. LW always returns you to the original point in the document after a

global replace operation. When a global replace is in progress, the

display is not updated to show each replacement. However, you

can cancel the operation at any time with the Break key. Whether or not search/replace operations are case sensitive is one option set with the

<SHIFT+CTRL+U> set options command. If “Match Case” is false (“N”), LW will not

differentiate between upper and lower case when searching. You can also deselect the

use of wildcards using this command, allowing for literal searching for the inverse “?”

character.

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2.5.1 SEARCHING WITH WILDCARDS

In find strings, the inverse question mark (?) will match any character, just as in DOS filenames:

Find>TH?S?

will match both "THESE" and "THOSE". Wildcards in replace strings leave the relevant characters in the text unchanged, so:

Find>(?) Change to>(?.)

will place a dot after any single, unknown parenthesized character. Search strings may be surrounded by spaces to ensure that only whole words are

matched. In the case of words followed by punctuation symbols, a macro to perform multiple search/replaces through the text could be written. See macros (section 6).

Note that in order to search/replace the inverse question mark literally, you must turn wildcard searching off with the “Set Options” command (see above).

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3 ADDITIONAL EDITOR FEATURES

LW includes many features to aid in the editing of text, such as place markers, pagination guides, and tabulation. The range of facilities available makes LW one of the most complete word processors for the Atari.

3.1 COUNTING WORDS

LW's fast word count will instantly tell you how many words are in the current document.

<CTRL+N> Will display the position of the cursor in the file and the number of

bytes in the file (in the form n of n). It also displays the number of

words in the file and a byte count (if text is marked, it will display

the number of words and bytes in the marked text). Unlike many other word processors, LW's word count only counts actual text and not

embedded printer commands. Anything typed in reverse video is ignored by the word count. Unfortunately this does mean that header/footer definitions and filename arguments are still counted, since these are typed in normal video, so you will need to allow for this when counting words.

3.2 EDITED TEXT INDICATOR

If text in any LW memory bank has been changed without being saved, an asterisk will appear to the left of the filename on the message line. This is to remind you to save any vulnerable work. The reminder will vanish once your text has been saved.

3.3 TABULATION

LW's tab ruler can be set up with your own tab stops, which can then be saved with the configuration file. These are the commands for editing the tab ruler:

<SHIFT+TAB> Set tab at cursor position. <CTRL+TAB> Clear tab at cursor position. <SHIFT+CTRL+TAB> Reset default tab stops. <SHIFT+CTRL+E> Erase ALL tab stops.

3.3.1 TABULATION MODES

In insert mode, the <TAB> key will insert as many spaces as necessary to get to the next tab stop. In over-type mode, <TAB> will just skip over existing text and on to the next tab stop.

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3.4 BOOKMARKS

LW has a system of invisible markers which make navigating your text simplicity itself. If you're working on a section of text which you want to leave but will need to return to later, mark it with a place marker.

<CTRL+B> Set bookmark at cursor position. Asks for which bookmark (1-4) to

set.

<SHIFT+CTRL+G> Go to bookmark. Asks for number of the bookmark to find.

Providing the marker has been set, and doesn't reside in text which has been deleted, the cursor will jump to the position of the relevant marker.

Bookmarks are saved with the file if you’re working in document mode.

3.5 TEXT AND DOCUMENT MODES

LW can save files is two different formats: Text files (.TXT) and Document files (.DOC). While TXT files are plain text files, DOC files contain the tab line and any place markers which have been set. You won’t see the header information in LW because it is always hidden, and LW can sense on loading whether a file is a DOC or TXT file regardless of its file extension. If you want to use LW to edit source code files for compilers, etc, you should always save files as plain text (TXT) files.

When you save a file, LW will include the DOC header information only if the program

is in “Doc” mode. You can tell by looking at the status bar which mode the program is

in, and you can toggle between Doc and Text mode with the Editor Options command (see below).

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Option

Meaning

Default

Match case [N] (Y/N)?

Differentiate between upper and lowercase characters when searching

Off

Warnings [Y] (Y/N)?

Display warning before abandoning file edits or overwriting an existing file

Wildcards [Y] (Y/N)?

Use “?” as a wildcard

character in search and replace operations

False spaces [N] (Y/N)?

Display false spaces in the editor

Doc mode [N] (Y/N)?

Operate in document mode

Off

3.6 USER OPTIONS

Several options and toggles are accessed using: <SHIFT+CTRL+U> User Options This command presents a list of options which are either switched on or off. The

current state of the item appears to the right of the prompt.

To leave an option as it is and step on to the next, press <Return>. Press <Y> to switch the option ON, <N> to switch it off, and <Esc> to return to the editor at any point.

3.7 EDITING MULTIPLE FILES

On expanded memory machines, LW allows you to edit several files at once. Setting up LW for your memory configuration is explained later in Configuring LW (section 8). Using DOS 2.5, MyDOS or SpartaDOS X without a custom LW.SYS file which sets up expanded memory, LW will use any RAM banks not in use by RAMdisks. You can control which and how many banks LW uses by creating a suitable LW.SYS configuration file. This step is essential when using a DOS not directly supported by LW: with an unsupported DOS, LW will work out how much memory is attached to the

machine, but won’t use any banks unless told to do so. This way, you can set up a

RAMdisk to use certain banks, and tell LW to use the rest. The supplied SYS files incorporate various sample memory set-ups. To use them, rename the config file you want to use to LW.SYS and reload LW from DOS. If you use one of the supported DOSes, however, LW does all the work for you.

You can access extended text banks with: <SHIFT+CTRL+n> Select memory bank where <n> is a number from 1 to 9, or 0, which denotes 10. Note that banks beyond 5

can only be accessed when LW is configured for machines expanded to 192K and beyond (see section 7: Configuring LW). Bank 1 (main memory) is ALWAYS the main bank, so you can see that a maximum of 9 banks of expanded RAM can be made

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available. Each bank has the same 16K capacity and its own set of place markers and its own filename. You can cut and paste between banks with ease, and by keeping all the files of a large document in separate banks and by using the include bank print commands from the main file, you can keep track of pagination as if you were editing a single, contiguous file.

If your Atari XL/XE has no extended RAM (or you chose not to use extended memory), you’ll only have one 16K text bank and the paste, macro, and disk directory buffers will all be very small (only about 1K each).

3.8 HANDLING LARGE FILES

Although the largest text buffer LW can provide is around 19K when using a machine with extended memory (as well additional banks which are fixed at 16K in size), it’s still possible to handle much larger files by splitting them across banks. Text banks can therefore hold separate files, different segments of the same large file, or a mixture

thereof. Even if you’re using a machine with no extended memory and only one 16K bank, it’s still possible to edit larger files.

When you load a file into a text bank, the message “Linked Load” will display if the file didn’t fit completely into memory. The buffer will contain as much of the file as would

fit, together with 255 bytes of free space for editing (Note: because of the way LW works, any file longer than the total buffer size minus 255 bytes will be classed as a “Linked Load”, even if the file would otherwise have fit into the buffer).

To protect against accidental obliteration of the original file on disk when only the first

segment has been loaded, linked segments will not “Auto” save with <CTRL+S>. Instead, <CTRL+S> ALWAYS brings up the “Save As” prompt, as does

<SHIFT+CTRL+S>. Thus the user will always be warned before overwriting an existing

file. Beyond that, it’s up to the user to ensure that segments are saved in the correct

order. So – having loaded the first part of a segmented file, we can proceed in one of two

ways:

1. Edit the first segment, save it under a new name, then repeat the process until all segments of the original file have been loaded, edited, and appended to a new file.

2. Load all segments of the original file into separate banks, edit them simultaneously, then save the segments in order, either to a new file or overwriting the original.

In either case, the procedure for LOADING the second and subsequent segments of a linked file is to follow the filename with the “/C” switch (without quotes). For example:

Load>REPORT.DOC/C

This simply loads the next segment of the file, providing (obviously) that the filename

given is always that of the original file. The name of the “Last File Loaded” can be

obtained on the input line with <CTRL+L>, which is useful shortcut when loading successive segments of the same file. The final segment of a file, when loaded, will not

display the “Linked Load” message and thereafter the “/C” switch will simply cause an

end of file error.

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The “/A” switch should be appended to the filename when saving all but the first segment of a linked file. For example:

Save As>D:REPORT.DOC/A

This will cause the contents of the buffer to be appended to the file on disk (the “/A” switch also works with file copying on the disk menu). As a time saver, the “/A” switch

will automatically be appended to filenames when saving all but the first segment of a linked file. And to assist further with the saving sequence of segmented files, the filename on the message line is followed by the number of the loaded segment. For example:

2:D:THESIS.TXT[2]

This denotes bank 2, containing the second segment of THESIS.TXT. In this case,

even if the contents of buffer 2 are saved under a new name (without the “/A”) switch,

the [2] suffix will remain until another file is loaded into that bank or the text buffer is cleared.

Although the linked file feature of LW offers a partial solution to the problem of editing large files, the best way to organize your files is to keep them small enough to fit comfortably into the text buffers. With the include file feature of the print formatter, it’s easy and good practice to keep files below 16K and link them together when printing. The main reason for including segmented file support in LW was to enable the conversion of large, unmanageable files into smaller ones. There’s a macro called SPLIT.MAC on the distribution disk which will perform precisely this task.

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4 DISK OPERATIONS

LW allows full manipulation of files and directories, and has support for many different DOS packages. The mini DOS menu allows viewing, loading, deleting, renaming and copying of files at the touch of a key. The menu displays a paged window, showing up to 80 filenames at a time. Files can be previewed on screen just as they appear in the editor without being loaded into memory.

4.1 DISK OPERATIONS FROM THE EDITOR

In addition to the <CTRL+L>oad, <CTRL+S>ave and <SHIFT+CTRL+S>ave As... commands, the following file handling features are available from the editor:

<CTRL+I> Insert, or merge, file. Allows a file to be inserted into the middle of

<SHIFT+CTRL+I> Write block to a file. Supply a filename at the prompt and the block

<CTRL+J> View file. From the editor, this allows you to enter a filename and

view the file in a scrolling window on the screen, complete with word-wrap. Pause the listing with <CTRL+1> or by holding down one of the three console keys. Viewing can be aborted at any time

with the <Break> key. If you include the “/P” switch after the

filename, the text will be displayed in paged rather than scrolling format.

4.2 THE DISK MENU

The functions of the disk menu are accessed by pressing the highlighted keys on the menu at the foot of the screen. The highlight bar is moved with the cursor keys, pressed either with or without <CTRL>. When you reach the limits of the screen in any direction, the display will “page” to the next screen of files.

<CTRL+D> Call up the disk menu from the editor screen. The program will

read in the current directory and display up to 80 filenames (if in 80 column mode) on the screen.

<SHIFT+CTRL+H> As above, but allows the user to specify the directory file mask

before calling the disk menu.

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The following options are available on the menu, selected by pressing the highlighted letter:

Spec Set the directory search mask. Use this to narrow or expand the

criteria for the directory search.

Ret If the disk menu was called with <CTRL+D> from the editor,

<Return> will load the file under the cursor. If the disk menu was called with <Tab> while entering a filename on the input line, <Return> will return the highlighted filename for use in the current load or save operation (if you were currently saving or outputting a

file, you’ll be returned to the original input line with the selected

filename replacing the originally displayed filename).

View View the file under the selector bar. Same as view from the editor

without the “/P” switch.

Note: You can also obtain a paged listing (same as from the

editor using the “/P” switch) by pressing <CTRL+V>.

^Del Delete the file under the selector bar. If the deletion is successful,

the filename is removed from the list. Press <CTRL+D> to delete all tagged files.

Ren Asks for a new name and renames the highlighted file. The entry

in the list is changed to the new name. Wildcards are supported.

^Copy Asks for the name of the new file into which you want to copy the

contents of the highlighted file. You can type a new drive number, add a subdirectory path if your DOS supports them, and include wildcards. If you want to make a copy of the file under the same name but on a different drive, type the drive identifier, then "*.*". Files of any length may be copied, even those which won't fit into the LW editor. NOTE: The copy operation utilizes the unused part of the current text bank as a buffer. The more unused memory

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