the kwrite handbook

this starts a new document in the editor. if there is a current document with unsaved changes the user is given a chance to save it.

this command opens a file. it does this by means of a dialog box which allows the user to navigate the file system. the dialog operates like a small file manager. clicking on directories displayed in the central window directs the dialog to enter that directory - displaying its contents. there is an entry/dropdown box which can be used to type in directly the location and name of the file or by clicking the arrow at the side choose from a dropdown list of recently used locations. below this is a filter which similarly may have data entered directly or chosen from a dropdown list of recent filter types. the filter facility lets only files that meet its specifications be displayed in the central window. if the filter contained text such as *.txt then only files with the txt extension would be visible in the selection window. below the filter is a status bar giving information about the number of files and subdirectories within the current directory.

the toolbar, which is located at the top of the dialog, has left and right arrow buttons that let the user move back and forth through previously selected directories as well as an up arrow button for moving up the directory tree. the button with the little house takes the user to his or her home directory and the one with the two arrows curved in on each other updates the view of the current directory. the flag button lets the user set a new bookmark at the current directory or go to one that was previously set. the last button on the toolbar allows you to create a new directory, and finally there is dropdown box with a list of some commonly frequented directories.

this is a shortcut to open recently saved documents. clicking on this item opens a list to the side of the menu with several of the most recently saved files. clicking on a specific file will open it in kwrite - if the file still resides at the same location.

this saves the current document. if there has already been a save of the document then this will overwrite the previously saved file without asking for the user's consent. if it is the first save of a new document the save as dialog (described below) will be invoked.

this allows a document to be saved with a new file name. this is done by means of the file dialog box described above in the open section of this help file.

opens a simple print dialog allowing the user to specify what, where, and how to print

this creates a new window, i.e. a new instance of kwrite. in this way the user can easily work on more than one file at a time with kwrite.

this creates a new view of the current document, i.e., a new instance of kwrite (as explained in the previous entry) but containing the same document.

this will close the editor window, if you have more than one instance of kwrite running, through the new view or new window menu items, those instances will not be closed.

this is used to eliminate or reverse the most recent user action or operation. just what constitutes such an action may be better understood by referring to the group undos portion of this help file.

this will reverse the most recent change (if any) made using undo

this will call a display box showing a list of the most recent actions on the left and another list of actions which have been 'undone' on the right. there are also three buttons at the right of the box labeled undo, redo, and close. clicking on the undo button will cause the action at the top of the undo list to be reversed which will place that particular action at the top of the redo list. likewise, clicking on the redo button will reinstate the reversed action and move it back to the top of the undo list. clicking on an item below the top item in either list will select all the items from the top down to that point. a subsequent click on the corresponding button will cause all the selected actions to be undone or redone accordingly. this would be particularly useful when the user knows precisely the point to which she or he would like to proceed - making it unnecessary to go through a series of single undo or redo actions.

this command deletes the current selection and places it on the clipboard. the clipboard is a feature of kde that works invisibly to provide a way to transfer data between applications.

this copies the currently selected text to the clipboard so that it may be pasted elsewhere. the clipboard is a feature of kde that works invisibly to provide a way to transfer data between applications.

this will insert the contents of the clipboard at the cursor position. the clipboard is feature of kde that works invisibly to provide a way to transfer data between applications.

this will select the entire document. this could be very useful for copying the entire file to another application.

this selects any unselected text while unselecting any selected text - effectively reversing the current state of selection.

this opens the find dialog which is used to specify the text to find in the document. there is small text box for entering the search pattern which also doubles as a dropdown box. clicking on the dropdown arrow at the side of the box makes available other recent search patterns. other parameters are included to make the search more efficient. selecting case sensitive will limit finds to entries that match the case (upper or lower) of each of the characters in the search pattern. find backwards directs the search to proceed in an upwardly direction. the selected text option keeps the search within currently selected text. checking whole words only prevents the search from stopping on words that contain the searched for pattern. the search from cursor option begins the search from the current position of the cursor within the document rather than from the beginning.

this repeats the last find operation, if any, without calling the find dialog box.

this command opens the replace dialog box. the replace dialog is almost identical to the above-mentioned find dialog. in addition to the features in the find dialog it contains a replace with: text entry/dropdown box. using this dialog the user can specify both the text to be found and text with which to replace it. the additional prompt on replace option allows the user to have kwrite ask for confirmation before each replacement.

this opens the file open dialog box whereby the user can insert a complete file in the open document. the the contents of the file will be entered at the position of the blinking text cursor.

this opens the goto line dialog box which is used to have the cursor jump to a particular line (specified by number) in the document. the line number may be entered directly into the text box or graphically by clicking on the up or down arrow spin controls at the side of the text box. the little up arrow will increase the line number and the down arrow decrease it. there is also a slide control to the right of the text box which allows the user to move the goto point in the document in an analog manner.

this creates a marker in the document at the line where the cursor is located and places it at the bottom of the list of markers located at the bottom of the go menu.

markers are points within a kwrite document marked for easy return. if the user thinks (s)he may need to return to a specific point (s)he may by way of this feature instruct kwrite to remember it.

this creates a marker in the document at the line where the cursor is located, and allows the user to choose its position in the list of bookmarks which is appended at the bottom of this menu item.

this command will remove all the markers from the docucument as well as the list of markers which is appended at the bottom of this menu item.

this initiates the spell checking program - a program designed to help the user catch and correct any spelling errors. clicking on this entry will start the checker and bring up the speller dialog box through which the user can control the process. there are three text boxes lined up vertically in the center of the dialog with their corresponding labels just to the left. starting at the top they are:

on the right side of the dialog box are 6 buttons that allow the user to control the spell check process. they are:

located horizontally along the bottom of the spell check dialog is a progress bar. as the checking process proceeds the bar will fill from left to right providing a graphical representation of how far along in the document the process has reached. in addition, the progress is displayed numerically in the center of the progress bar.

two more buttons are located below the progress bar. they are:

when checked, this displays a movable toolbar containing buttons used to initiate frequently used commands. when unchecked the toolbar is hidden.

when checked, this displays a small bar at the bottom of the editor containing information about the status of the current document. when unchecked the statusbar is hidden.

when selected, this displays in the title bar the path (its location in the file system) of the current document. when unchecked the path is hidden.

this command opens a dialog box whereby the key bindings may be changed. a display window at the top of the dialog box shows the list of commands (actions) that can have keyboard shortcuts. below the display are three radio buttons. the user may choose between no key, default key, and custom key. (note that a set of radio buttons only allows the selection of one of the offered items - in the way that buttons on a car radio only offer the selection of one preset station. also, the default key selection is only available for those commands that actually have a 'default' shortcut.) selecting the custom key option activates the three check boxes and key button at the bottom of the dialog. the user may then select a key combination for the command in question by means of the check boxes and key button. for example, with the about kde command selected in the display window, the user could select ctrl and alt, click on the key button, and then press the k key on the keyboard. this would mean that anytime he or she held down the ctrl and alt buttons and pressed k (while using kwrite) the about kde display box would be called.

this will open the dialog whereby the toolbar configuration may be changed. the user can choose which shortcut buttons should appear on the toolbar. a display window on the left lists the commands available to placed on the toolbar. a display on the right lists those commands already on the toolbar. a set of four arrow buttons between the two displays manipulates the selections. the right pointing arrow places any command selected in the left pane onto the right pane, i.e., it is added to the toolbar. the left arrow does just the opposite, removing any action selected in the right window from the toolbar. the up and down pointing arrows change the position of an action selected in the right window which changes the position of its button in the toolbar.

this menu item opens a dialog whereby several different settings may be adjusted.

opens a dialog box allowing configuration of the syntax highlighting. the dialog is described in Chapter 5. highlighting.

this is used to turn on or off the vertical selection feature. vertical selection allows text to be selected by column as well as by row. in other words with this feature the user is able to select text contained in only particular contiguous columns and rows. in affect the user can select a rectangular area of text anywhere in the document.

this allows the user to choose the style of color highlighting which the editor uses to display the text. the styles are selected by programming language. the font/color information is not stored with the document.

this opens a sub-menu from which the user can select the type of ‘end of line’ code for kwrite to use, i.e., the accepted standard used by unix, mac® or msdos/windows® systems.

this invokes the kde help system starting at the kwrite help pages (this document).

this changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. clicking on items within kwrite with this arrow will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.

this calls a dialog box to help the user help the kde team to track down and solve any problems(bugs) in the program. the dialog attempts to do this by means of email using the information given by the user.

this will display version and author information

this displays the kde version and other basic information.

here the user can specify a color for the general background of kwrite.

this is used to set a particular color to display in the background of those areas of the document containing text.

this allows the user to select a color to be used for indicating selected (or highlighted) portions of the document.

this specifies the preferred color with which to mark text encountered as the result of a find operation.

this sets the color for text that has not only been found as in the previous entry above but that has also been selected.

this causes new lines to begin with the same indentation level as the previous line.

this replaces tabs with the number of spaces selected in the tab width window in the edit section of the preferences dialog.

this allows the backspace key to be used to indent.

this allows the tab key to be used to indent.

this retains current indentation settings for future documents.

indentations of more than the selected number of spaces will not be shortened.

this prevents key input or cursor movement by way of the arrow keys from causing the elimination of text selection.

any keyed character input or paste operation will replace the selected text.

any text selected with the mouse will be automatically copied to the clipboard.

not implemented yet.

this activates the vertical selection option.

not yet implemented

word wrap is a feature that causes the editor to automatically start a new line of text and move (wrap) the cursor to the beginning of that new line. kwrite will automatically start a new line of text when the current line reaches the length specified by the wrap words at: option.

if the word wrap option is selected this entry determines the length (in characters) at which the editor will automatically start a new line.

kwrite will replace any tabs with the number of spaces indicated in the tab width: entry.

if the replace tabs by spaces option is selected this entry determines the number of spaces with which the editor will automatically replace tabs.

kwrite will automatically eliminate extra spaces at the ends of lines of text.

when the user types a left bracket ([,(, or {) kwrite automatically enters the right bracket (}, ), or ]) to the right of the cursor.

groups of similar actions are to be considered a single undo step by kwrite. in other words, a series of regular character keystrokes (words or expressions) would be considered one step and therefore be removed by a single undo operation. if the series of character entries were interrupted by a non-character entry operation (such as a backspace), invoking undo would only remove the entries made since that operation. the next undo would then reverse that operation and so on.

when this option is not selected kwrite considers each keystroke to be a single step. so if the user (with this option active) were to type several words or even sentences without having to make corrections or cut or paste or some other non-character entry operation then a click of the undo button would eliminate all that had been typed since the last non-entry operation. a second click would eliminate that operation and a third any operation or series of entries that occurred before the operation and so on. when not selected three clicks of the undo button would only remove the last three letters typed, or the last three operations.

the editor will display a symbol to indicate the presence of a tab in the text.

not yet implemented

this option changes the behavior of the cursor when the user presses the page up or page down key. if unselected the text cursor will maintain its relative position within the visible text in kwrite as new text becomes visible as a result of the operation. so if the cursor is in the middle of the visible text when the operation occurs it will remain there (except when one reaches the beginning or end.) with this option selected, the first key press will cause the cursor to move to either the top or bottom of the visible text as a new page of text is displayed.

when this option is chosen, moving the cursor with the arrow keys off the end of a line (to the right) causes it to jump down to the beginning of the next line. likewise when the cursor is moved past the beginning of a line (to the left) it jumps up to the end of the preceding line. when this option is not selected, moving the cursor right past the end of a line merely causes it to continue horizontally in the same line and trying to move it left past the beginning does nothing.

here the user may specify the number of steps kwrite will retain in memory for purposes of undoing entries and actions. this means that the higher the number of steps set the more memory kwrite will use for this. setting this entry to 10 would mean that the user would be be able reverse the last ten operations, i.e.i>, click the undo button 10 times and obtain results.

selecting this option allows the spell checker to register as 'correct' combinations of root words with suffixes or prefixes even if the particular combination is not listed in its dictionary data base of words.

selecting this will cause the spell checker to register as 'misspelled' two or more correctly spelled words that are 'run-together', i.e., that do not have spaces separating them.

depending on the user's installation one or more different language spelling dictionaries may be available. this drop down box allows the user to choose which language the spell checker should use.

there are different coding systems used to associate particular codes with particular characters and symbols. if the user knows which code he or she is using this drop down box allows this code to be specified so that the spell checker can do its job correctly.

since kwrite does not contain its own spell checker, an external one must be chosen. this is where the user may specify which spell check program to use.