Over the last few weeks I have been talking about some of
the new features that will be available in Version 2. Last
week I discussed the new Page Layout system and rulers. The
article is available at: issue52top3. The week before I discussed
the new Visual Table editor. That article is available at: issue51top3
Although the text editor is available in Version 1, it has
undergone significant enhancements in Version 2. We have
actually spent as much time and encountered more problems
than on any other single enhancement. Many of the new
features will not be immediately apparent when you first
open the editor but it will probably not be long before you
start to notice them.
I have posted an examples of the editor at is53fig1
One of the first things you will notice is the red wavy
underline when a misspelt word is entered. This feature was
specifically included for my benefit but we decided to make
it available for everyone. The spell checker itself is
pretty standard and used in many text editors. Simply right
click on the word to view some of the most common
corrections or select the Tools -Spell Check menu to check
all words in the document. As with most good spell checkers
you will be able to set numerous personal preferences and
options.
A unique feature in the new text editor is the link editor.
As you type a recognized link, the editor will automatically
construct a hyperlink tag. Although this in itself may not
be unique, the ability to expand and contract them probably
is. Select the Link Button with the Spy Glass and the hyper
links will be displayed in HTML format. Select the button
again and they will be displayed as seen in the Browser. By
left clicking the link, the program will attempt to activate
it if possible. Right click the Link and the Link Editor
will open allowing you to edit the Link, Link Text and Title
or to access a predefined link to another page either in the
current project or imported from an external source such as
your mail program.
The text editor includes many other features. An Obvious one
is the ruler (still in development in the example). This
display's and sets the editor's width. In Version 1 the
dimensions of the Text Object are set by dragging it's
bounding box. This works in version 2 but the editor will
also display the text within it at the same width. When
exiting the editor, the program will calculate the height of
the Text Bounding Box based upon its width. A more valuable
benefit of the text ruler is the ability to set the width
of a text Object when used within a Table.
Other features include a Filter editor to convert special
characters such <, > and spaces to their equivalent HTML
special characters. This will prevent these characters from
being interpreted as tags. Using a backslash will maintain
the character in it entered form so that tags can still be
entered in Rich Text format is desired.
Finally, numerous additional editing features are now
included such as Find, Replace, Select All, Date and Time
and a Font selection dialog amongst many others.
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