.IF DSK1.C3

     TEXTWARE, SOFTWARE && ELSEWHERE
      by Jack Sughrue 

     

     

      TIW III

     

     Coming back to the T.I.Writer
 Word Processor in an investigative
 frame of mind is good for the soul.
 I always manage to uncover some
 little goodie or two; something I had
 forgotten or had never used or had
 missed along the way.

     For example, I have had TIW since
 1982, and have done all my writing
 on it almost exclusively: all my
 school work (as a teacher and as a
 student), all my freelance writing,
 all my very extensive correspondence
 (I am one of those people who 
love
 to write and receive letters.), all
 my household writing, all my poetry.
 A day seldom goes by when I am not on
 the TIW for at least an hour.  I
 don't think 2000 total logged hours
 would be an exageration.

     And, in all that time, I never
 used the S command.

     [AUTHOR NOTE: In the four years
 since I wrote this column, I confess
 to using S at least 5,000 times.
 Whenever I use the FS or RS commands
 I first do S then 1 to get to the
 very beginning.  An S followed by an
 E here will take you to the very end.
 Very handy.]

 
     First I press FCTN/9 to get in
 the COMMAND/ESCAPE mode. 

     Next I type S.

     Then I type the line I want to
 view (27) and ENTER.

     Voila!

     Line 27 (in my single-window
 formatting structure there is only
 one screen width) - "I will now." -
 appears at the top of the screen
 where something else had been.  The
 cursor is there with it.  Very fast.
 I'll have to think of a use for that,
 I'll have to think of a use for that,
 as I will for CTRL/5 (which just
 repeated the line "I'll have to think
 of a use for that" when I typed it
 in.  I suppose it would be great for
 lyricists.  (Though to be perfectly
 honest I use it all the time when I
 use Templates to make boxes and lines
 and TL graphics with the PLUS! disk.
 There it is a VERY handy tool.)

     Have you ever used your Word Tab?
 That's CTRL/7 or CTRL/W (which makes
 sense).  [
Be patient a bit.]  I'm
 going to run my cursor back to the
 beginning of this paragraph (CTRL/6
 or CTRL/H) and try out the Word Tab.

     Oops!  The CTRL/6 took me back to

 the previous paragraph.  No problem.
 I just typed CTRL/4 (or CTRL/J) to
 leap me back to the next paragraph,
 which is where I wanted to be
 (starting with "Have you ever").
 Now I'll try the Word Tab.

     That was fun!  It leaped from
 
Have to 
you to 
ever  and on to
 the end of the screen line (the word
 "Tab?") and stopped dead against an
 invisible wall.

     I was forced to take control of
 the cursor, move it to the next line,
 and begin again with the CTRL/W.

     I hardly ever use the regular
 Tab (FCTN/7 or CTRL/1) in the kind of
 writing I usually do.  As a matter of
 fact, I don't use it at all (though I
 vaguely remember trying it out once).
 For me, it's just so much easier
 using the cursor in the repeat mode.

     So any of the Tabs (after I have
 set the 1/L, 5/I, 38/R when I first
 enter the EDITOR) are really wasted
 on me.

     There's even a Back Tab (CTRL/T)
 which I know I've never used until
 right this second.  It leaps back the
 defaulted tabs.  If you hold the keys
 down the cursor whizzes around so
 fast there appear to be four or five
 cursors on the screen at the same
 time.  Wow!  I wish I'd used this
 before.

        

     I DO remember using the Home
 Cursor before (CTRL/L) but, again,
 not often.  This leaps the cursor
 back to the first space in the upper
 left of the screen.

     I'm more apt to use Beginning of
 Line (CTRL/V).  I use it often, as I
 do CTRL/K which wipes out everything
 to the right of the cursor on the
 same line.  That and Delete Line
 (FCTN/3 or CTRL/N) are two most often
 used by me.  All the proofreading as
 I go along, I guess.  Which is why I
 know FCTN/2 (or CTRL/G) so well.
 That is how I insert characters and
 eventually lines and paragraphs.
 CTRL/R brings it all together as
 Reformatter.  CTRL/2 does also, if
 you think of FCTN/2 as separating the
 words for insertion and CTRL/2 as
 pulling them all back together in
 reformatting.  It may seem easier
 that way, though I ALWAYS use CTRL/R
 for no intelligent reason.

     Changing the screen colors is fun
 (CTRL/3), but I don't find it as
 soothing as Screen Color 7 from the
 FUNLWRITER menus: black lettering
 on dark green.  Unfortunately, this
 is not available from the EDIT mode
 and will be lost forever if you Show
 Directory, so be careful.

     I find New Page (CTRL/9 or
 CTRL/P) extremely useful for a lot of
 the stuff I do for school or for
 poetry.  It's so 
convenient to pop
 in a New Page mark whenever you want.

     The only time I use Next Window
 is when I'm screen-reading someone
 else's stuff.  It's one of the few
 FCTN keys (5) that doesn't have a
 corresponding CTRL key somewhere.

     I do find essential, however, the
 Insert Blank Line key (FCTN/8 or
 CTRL/O), as I'm always needing to run
 up to the beginning of something to
 add a heading or code or an
 explanatory line or two.  Very handy.

     The Roll-Up/Roll-Down keys and
 Arrow keys and Toggle Line Number
 key and Left-Margin Release key are
 probably used so much by most TIWers
 that a mention isn't necessary.

     But the most important key (for
 me, at least) is CTRL/U.  That is the
 key that opens up your printer to
 some extraordinary adventures.
 Through the EDITOR for some things,
 but through the FORMATTER for the
 real goodies.

     As I never PRINT from the EDITOR,
 anyway, I'm probably a terrible
 person to tell you how wonderful the
 PRINT options of the EDITOR is.  It
 is wonderful.

     However, the FORMATTER is the
 thing!  It lets YOU do the driving
 and the CTRL/U key is the scenic
 route.

     The next time you hop aboard your
 TIW take a few side trips along your
 keyboard.  You'll be astounded at the
 power of the environment.  And we've
 only touched on the screen control of
 the CTRL and FCTN keys, not on
 anything about the TL or about
 LOADing, PRINTing, SAVEing, FINDing,
 WHATEVERing.

 If you have PLUS! download the docs,
 keep those reference and mnemonic TL
 and Boxref charts out in front of you
 and discover the fun of learning
 again.  This time the learning will
 have immediate rewards: mastery of
 one of the most powerful tools ever
 created for the thinking person - a
 magical word processor.

     Using the version 4 series of
 FUNNELWEB (from your user-group
 library) will be as close as a TI
 word-processing user will get to
 paradise.
     After seven years I still love
 wordprocessing.  My wife's getting
 terribly jealous.  I hope I don't
 have to decide between the two.

     

     (Just kidding, Elaine.)

     

     [Jack Sughrue, Box 459,
 E.Douglas, MA 01526]

     

     **************

     

     If any newsletter editor prints
 these articles, please put me on your
 mailing list.  Thanks - JS

 
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