241 PART Macintosh Software 242 Editors’ Poll: What Programs Do You Use All the Time? MEC: Eudora: I need my e-mail. ClarisWorks: It does most of what I need it to do. BBEdit: I write a lot of code, and BBEdit really doesn’t suck. JH: MS Word 5.1a: I use it because I can’t stand Word 6. Claris Emailer: It handles all my e-mail needs—I really use all of its features. Right now it’s picking up messages containing a particular subject, filing them in a folder, mailing an automatic reply, and forwarding a copy to someone else! Netscape Navigator. Compuserve Navigator: I use it because off-line is the only way to work! ML: Microsoft Word: I am a writer. QuarkXPress: Peachpit makes me lay out the books I write. Photoshop: I need to crop and otherwise manipulate screen shots I put in my books. ScreenShot: I need to take screen shots for my books. PageMill: I maintain several Web sites and have grown tired of manually coding in HTML. StuffIt Expander & DropStuff: When sending files online, they’ve got to be small. TL: Netscape: I use it because I am on the Web all the time, maintaining my own Web site and checking on others. Claris Emailer: I use it because when I am not on the Web, I am checking my e-mail or writing to people (such as sending Mac Bible editors this poll). Microsoft Word 5.1: It’s still what I use to do all of my serious writing. Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact: It keeps track of what I would otherwise forget. ClarisWorks: I use it for just about anything else I need to do. It’s versatile and easy to use. SiteMill: I am currently using it a lot to design my Web site. KT: CompuServe Information Manager: I use it because it makes it easy to chat with forum members if need be and has good tools for marking and capturing messages and other information. Microsoft Word 5.1: I use it because I’m a writer and always have something approaching (or past deadline). PageMaker and/or QuarkXPress: I use them because I need to create new projects, or because I also do my correspondence, invoicing, and so on in these programs (I can’t stand the wretched typographic control in Word). QuickDEX II: I use it because I always need to phone someone or look up something (I use it for stashing all sorts of information, not just names and addresses). ATM and Suitcase: Of course. 243 Working 8 With Words Text is everywhere on the Mac—on the desktop, in dialog boxes, in desk accessories, and even in many graphics programs. It’s comforting to know that the basics of text entry and editing work in every one of these places. But when you think words and computer, you think word processor—that ultimate writer’s tool. The ease of editing in a word processor, whether it’s reorganizing sentences and paragraphs or letting the Mac correct your spelling, can make anyone a better writer. 244 Chapter 8: Working With Words Contributors Contents Sharon Zardetto The Basics of Text Handling..........................................245 Aker (SZA) is the chapter editor. Text Entry and Selection ..........................................................245 Formatting and Special Characters ..........................................247 Elizabeth Castro (EC) fell in love with the Mac while living in Bar- Word Processors............................................................249 celona, and founded The Features ............................................................................249 the publishing house Pagina Uno. She was this The Programs ..........................................................................251 chapter’s editor for the fifth edition. Writing Tools.................................................................255 Rick Casreen (RC) is a Spelling and Grammar.............................................................255 writer and the source of Other Tools..............................................................................257 The Pelorian Press. Word 6 Tips ...................................................................260 Basics .......................................................................................260 Find and Replace .....................................................................262 Tables and Columns.................................................................263 Styles .......................................................................................263 Customizing ............................................................................264 The Basics of Text Handling 245 The Basics of Text Handling The basics of handling text are the same everywhere on the Mac, no matter where you’re working. But many programs go beyond the basics (like, say, triple-clicking to select a sentence or paragraph), so make sure you check the details of each program. Text Entry and Selection (SZA) Entering text is just a matter of typing, keeping in mind this basic rule: Everything happens at the insertion point. The insertion point is the vertical bar that blinks on and off in the text you’re working on. Typing or using ∂ takes place at the insertion point; if you paste text, it appears at the insertion point. Clicking with the mouse repositions the insertion point, although for small moves using the arrow keys (© ƒ † √) is more convenient. Selecting and deselecting. The basic way to select text is to simply drag across it. Take the shortest route from the beginning to the end of the selection, dragging down across lines of text. Keep in mind that you can drag backwards, too. To select large, irregular segments of text, click at the beginning of the text block and shift-click at the other end. Just as on the desktop, a shift-click also modifies the selec- tion, adding to or subtracting from it. Double-clicking selects a whole word; it also usually selects the trailing space, too, so that if you press ∂, you’re not left with two spaces between the adjacent words. Control Panels and Text (SZA) Basic text-entry settings are scattered through three different control panels: • Set the blink rate for the insertion point in the General Controls control panel. • Set the key repeat rate (how fast repeated characters are typed when you keep a key pressed down) and the repeat Adjust the blink rate (top) in the General Controls control delay (how long you have to hold down a key before the panel. The key repeat controls repeating starts) in the Keyboard control panel. (bottom) are in the Keyboard • Choose the highlight color in the Colors control panel. control panel. 246 Chapter 8: Working With Words To deselect text, click someplace that won’t select anything, or select something else. Typing to replace the selection leaves you with unselected text, too. But often the most convenient way of deselecting text is pressing ƒ or © to move to the beginning HOT TIP or end of the selection. Selection units. Using a shift-click to extend a selection (that is, holding down s and clicking at a spot in the text to add to the original selection) usually works in the “unit” of the original selection. So, if you double-click to select a word, shift-clicking HOT TIP someplace else selects up to and including the nearest whole word, even if the shift- click spot is in the middle of a word. A simple drag operation for the original selection doesn’t define a unit for this shift-click operation. But if you use a special function to select another unit of text (command-clicking for a sentence works in some word processors, for instance, or triple-clicking to select a paragraph), a shift-click will select to the end of that unit. l is not s lock. On a typewriter, locking down s gives you the shifted character for every key, so that if you hit 8, for instance, you get an asterisk. But the l on a keyboard is just that: It locks for capital letters, and all other keys you hit still type their unshifted characters. The Don’ts of Word Processing (SZA) You’ll find that some habits you’ve brought to the Mac from your old typewriter days (if you’re old enough to have had typewriter days, that is) just don’t cut it in the computer age. • Don’t press r at the end of a line unless you’re ending a paragraph. • Don’t use double spaces after a sentence (or semicolon). That spacing requirement— which made things easier to read in the days of typewriting monotype—is unnecessary with word processors. • Don’t press t to indent the first line of a paragraph. Instead, set a first line indent for the paragraph so that it’s automatically indented. • Don’t use tabs to center a title on the page; use a center paragraph alignment. • Don’t use multiple spaces instead of tabs. If you change the size or font of the text, the size of the spaces also change, disrupting the alignment you wanted. (And repositioning tabbed text is so much easier than working with spaces!) • Don’t use multiple tabs to get somewhere on a line: Set a tab where you need it. The only exception: When you’ve set tabs for columns of text and you have to leave a blank in one of the rows, you use two tabs to get past the blank column. The Basics of Text Handling 247 Formatting and Special Characters It’s hard to believe now, more than ten years after its creation, the Mac was not only the first computer to let you use different fonts, it was the first to let you see character formatting on the screen—genuine underline, bold and italics, instead of some combi- nation of slashes, brackets, and codes to indicate the formatting. Character and paragraph formatting (SZA). Formatting characters means applying a font, a size, and a style (like bold, underline, or italic) to text. You can apply formatting “after the fact” to selected text, but the easiest way to format small chunks of text is on the fly, using keyboard commands to Type zB here to Type zB here to turn character formatting on and off as turn on bold formatting.