25

Edit Text Files

25.1

Character Sets and Encodings

25.2

General Features

Text File Editor window

25.2.1

File Menu

New

Selecting this option clears the editing canvas and opens a new text file. If you are editing a text file at the time you click on New, a Verify window asks if you wish to save the old text in a file before creating a new one. Select Yes to save the text, No to discard the text, Cancel to return to editing the text, or Help to open a standard Help window.

Open

This option opens the Select File window so you can select an existing regular text file to edit. If you are already editing a text file when you select the Open option, a Verify window asks if you wish to save the existing text file before opening a different file. Select Yes to save the text, No to discard the text, Cancel to return to editing the present text, or Help to open a standard Help window. Unless you select Cancel, the Select File window opens. Choose the text file that you wish to open (see the section on file selection in the Basic System Operations volume for more information).

Multilingual Text File Selection

If the encoding scheme shown in the Encoding text field is incorrect, press the Encoding button to open the Encoding window. The scrolling list in this window shows the encoding schemes presently supported by TNT products. Select the encoding scheme that applies to the file you are opening. Then press OK to return to the Select File window.

The text file you open has to use one of the encoding schemes listed in the Encoding window. If you select the incorrect encoding scheme, the characters in your text file are replaced by those having the same code in the selected, incorrect encoding scheme.

Press OK to return to the Text File Editor window after you select a text file and encoding scheme. The text of the opened file is now ready to be edited.

Encoding window

Open Text Object

This option opens a Select Object window where you select an existing .RVC file text object to edit. If you are already editing a text file or text object when you select this option, a Verify window opens and asks if you wish to save the present text before opening a different file / object. Answer Yes to save the text, No to discard the text, Cancel to return to editing the present text, or Help to open a standard Help window. After you save or discard the existing text file, the you can select text objects or subobjects in the Select Object window and click on OK to open the object in the Text File Editor window.

Save

This option opens the Select File window so you can save the file that you are editing as a text file. You can give the file a new name and select a different encoding scheme or use an existing name and encoding scheme.

Save As

This option saves the file that you are editing as a text file, whether it is a text file or a text file object. Choosing this option opens the Select File window, where you select a file name and encoding scheme. You can give the text file a new name and, if you wish, a different encoding scheme. You can also overwrite an existing file; a Verify window opens so that you can confirm your decision to overwrite an existing file. The .txt file extension is automatically given to files when you use the Save As option.

Save Text Object

This option opens the Select Object window so you can either save the changes to the same object or save them to a new object with a different name. To update the changes to the text object you opened, select an object by double clicking on the name. You can also highlight the name, press the OK button at the bottom of the Select Object window, and then click the Yes button in a Verify window to confirm that you want to overwrite the existing object. To save an object for the first time or to save it with a different name, choose an existing project file or name a new file, click the New Object icon, and enter a name and description for the object in the New Object window that opens. You can also use this option to save a text file as a text object in an .RVC file.

Exit

This window closes the Text File Editor window and returns you to the main menu. If you did not save your file prior to exiting, you are asked if you would like to do so.

25.2.2

Edit Menu

Copy

This option copies the selected text into a buffer where it is temporarily saved. It does not modify the original selected text. The text is saved in the buffer until it is replaced by a later Copy or Cut operation. This feature is used with the Paste feature to place text from one part of your text file or object to another. The keyboard equivalent is to hold down the Control key and press the Insert key after the text has been highlighted.

Cut

Choosing Cut removes the selected text and places it into a buffer where it is temporarily saved. The text is saved in the buffer until it is replaced by a later Copy or Cut operation. This feature is used with the Paste feature to move text from one part of your file to another. The keyboard equivalent is to hold down the Shift key and press the Delete key after the text has been highlighted.

Paste

The Paste option inserts a copy of the paste buffer text at the cursor's location in the text file. The Paste selection is only active if text is present in the buffer. You can place text in the buffer with the Copy or Cut selections. The keyboard equivalent is to hold down the Shift key and press the Insert key after the cursor has been placed at the destination. Text held in the buffer remains there after a Paste operation, so it can be pasted more than once.

Clear

Choose Clear after you highlight text that you want to remove. The text is removed.

Insert File

You can insert a text file into the file you are editing. Place the cursor where you want to insert the text. Then select Edit / Insert File to open the Select File window. Choose the text file you want to insert and click the OK button at the bottom of the Select File window. The selected text file is inserted into the text file you are editing.

Find

Select Find and then type the characters, word, or phrase in the Find window that you want to search for. Click the OK button and the Text Editor finds and highlights your search item. in the Text File Editor window. Note that the search is case-sensitive. For example, if you are searching for a phrase with initial upper case letters, you must type the phrase with initial upper case letters in the Find window.

Find Again

Choose Find Again when you want to do a one or more additional searches for the characters, word, or phrase that you typed in the Find window.

25.2.3

Editing Canvas

Inserting and deleting text

To insert text, move the mouse cursor to the desired location and press the left mouse button. An I-beam is placed in the text at this point, which is now an insertion point. Any text that you type is inserted at the insertion point (the I-beam moves to the right of the inserted text as you type). Text can be deleted by pressing either the <Delete> or the backspace key. Pressing the Backspace key deletes the first glyph (symbol) to the left of the insertion point. Pressing the Delete key deletes the first glyph to the right of the insertion point.

Moving around the canvas

You can move the insertion point around the canvas by using the arrow keys or the mouse cursor. You can also move the insertion point between tab stops by using the <Tab> key or the left and right arrow keys. The <Home> and <End> keys move the insertion point to the beginning and end respectively of the line where the insertion point is located.

Selecting, cutting, copying, and pasting text

You can select blocks of text for editing. To select text, move the mouse cursor to either the beginning or end of the text block. Press and hold the left mouse button and, with the button depressed, move the mouse cursor to the opposite end of the text block. The text you are selecting is highlighted. Release the left mouse button when the desired text block is highlighted. You can also highlight a single word by double clicking on the word. The highlighted text is now defined and can be cut or copied by choosing the appropriate selection from the Edit menu. These menu selections also have keystrokes assigned to them. The keystrokes are given in the preceding section and are also listed in the Edit menu beside the option. Holding down <Ctrl> and pressing <Backspace> deletes the string of characters, such as a word or a number, that lie behind the cursor (for example, if you are typing text from left to right, the character string to the left of the cursor is deleted).

   <Home>          Moves the cursor to the  beginning of the current 
                   line.
   <End>           Moves the cursor to the end of the current line.
   <Insert>        Used with the <Shift> key to paste text.
   <Delete>        Deletes the glyph to the right of the insertion 
                   point.
   <Backspace>     Deletes the glyph to the left of the insertion 
                   point.
   <Space bar>     Inserts a space at the insertion point and moves 
                   the insertion point one column to the right.
   <Page Up>       Moves the cursor up multiple rows; the number of 
                   rows depends on the size of your Text File Editor 
                   window.  For example, if fourteen rows are visible 
                   in the window, the cursor is moved up 14 rows.
   <Page Down>     Moves the cursor down multiple rows; the number of 
                   rows depends on the size of your Text File Editor 
                   window.  For example, if fourteen rows are visible 
                   in the window, the cursor is moved down 14 rows.



   Left arrow      Moves the insertion point one column to the left.
   Right arrow     Moves the insertion point one column to the right.
   Up arrow        Moves the insertion point one row up.
   Down arrow      Moves the insertion point one row down.



   <Tab>           Moves the insertion point to the next tab point to 
                   the right.
   <Caps Lock>     Locks on/off upper case glyphs.
   <Shift>         Selects upper case glyph.
   <Enter>         Places an end-of-line marker and moves the insertion 
                   point one row down.



   <Ctrl+Home>     Moves the cursor to the beginning of the text file 
                   or object.
   <Ctrl+End>      Moves the cursor to the end of the text file or 
                   object.
   <Ctrl>+left arrow   Moves the cursor one word to the left.
   <Ctrl>+right arrow  Moves the cursor one word to the right.