pedit Manual


written by

Paul Nevai

Paul Nevai

and edited by

Margret Rosenberg

[still under construction - and so is the manual]


Table of Contents



Abstract


Under construction...


Introduction to the pedit Family of Palm Text Editors


Dear peditor:

Thank you for having made such an intelligent decision. In case you are one of those self-assured people who never read manuals [just like yours truly], then go ahead and experiment on your own. I know you won't regret it. On the other hand, if you want to be a savvy, intelligent, and educated customer prior to immersing yourself into the limitless features of pedit, then please set aside a few minutes of your precious time to read this [relatively speaking] short introduction to pedit.

The word pedit stands for Palm editor, and/or Paul's editor, and/or programmers' editor, and/or whatever else you prefer. It must be spelled with a lower cased p as in pedit. If you are a certified peditor, then you pronounce pedit as a 3-syllable word as in pee-edit.

By definition, a peditor is a person who installed pedit on his or her Palm computing device. A true peditor duly REGISTERS pedit. In case you happen to have a shorter than normal attention span [just like yours truly], let me repeat that a true peditor...

pedit is based on Palm Computing's built-in Memo Pad and is meant to replace it [just like DateBk made "Date Book" obsolete]. It packs a myriad highly customizable features which makes it a perfect tool for anyone using the Palm for serious text editing.

pedit also imports and exports industry standard Palm-style DOC files so that it is a perfect replacement for all Palm based text editors known to mankind.

Even casual writers will appreciate its simple but rich and efficient interface.

Due to overwhelming popular demand, the pedit family of editors consists of several applications, namely, pedit [aka pedit04], pedit32, peditPro [to be released in August of 2000], and peditLight.

pedit [aka pedit04] is for those peditors who want a hassle free and super sophisticated Memo Pad replacement with 100% Memo Pad compatibility, and who don't want to be bothered and/or concerned with HotSync and DeskTop issues.

In what follows, sometimes we will refer to pedit as pedit04 since the word pedit is also used as a generic term for any member of the pedit family. If a specific feature relates to a specific pedit, then it will be emphasized.

pedit04 and pedit32 are essentially identical in practically every form and function with the exception that pedit32 breaks the infamous 4K barrier, and it works with memos of size up-to 32K [well, it is really 32K - 1, i.e., 0X7FFF, i.e., 2^15-1, i.e., 32767 bytes].

pedit32 is for those peditors who want to be able to create files which are bigger than the regular Memo Pad files are. Those peditors who want to access their pedit32 memos on the Desktop, will have to do some additional steps involving exportation [see here too] of pedit32 memos to pedit04 or DOC files, and importation of DOC files to pedit04.

Prior to installing pedit32, you should read the section pedit04 vs pedit32 so that you would be fully aware of the subtle and not so subtle differences between the two.

peditPro is the flagship of the pedit family. It combines pedit04 and pedit32 into one convenient application whose RAM demand is more than 200K less than that of pedit04 and pedit32 combined. peditPro has two modes. If it is in pedit04 mode then it looks like pedit04, smells like pedit04, and behaves like pedit04. Similarly, if it is in pedit32 mode then it looks like pedit32, smells like pedit32, and behaves like pedit32. If I may suggest so, use peditPro and forget all the other pedits.

If your Palm is short of free RAM, then you can save approximately 100K if you use peditLight instead of pedit04. peditLight is identical to pedit04 in almost all essential editing functions. However, many of the "high end" feature of pedit04 are unavailable in peditLight. More precisely, those "high end" features are visually indicated but are functionally disabled in peditLight. For instance, all menu items starting with ! are disabled. This way, based on your editing needs, you can decide whether or not you wan to upgrade to another pedit04.

pedit04 and Memo Pad can and do co-exist peacefully. Although pedit04 uses the Memo Pad database "MemoDB" with creator ID 'memo', it does not alter its structure in any way whatsoever so that the user can switch back and forth between the two with no harm done [see Clear History... and Clear Preferences...]. To be quite honest, once you try pedit04, you will probably never ever want to go back to Memo Pad. Still, if you wish, you may. In addition, deleting pedit04 from your hand-held device, does not remove the database MemoDB created by Memo Pad, although it will delete pedit04's own preference record and its own peditDB database. In particular, you don't need to worry about HotSync and conduit issues in conjunction with your memos since they all reside in MemoDB. The peditDB database holds the contents of your magiPad only and nothing else. For your protection, peditDB gets backed up by HotSync.

pedit32 and the Memo Pad can and do co-exist peacefully as well. However, pedit32 uses its own memo database which is called Memo32DB with creator ID 'pn32', and, therefore, pedit32 is almost 100% incompatible with everything imaginable which uses Memo Pad. Please see pedit04 vs pedit32 for more details.


Minimum Requirements


If your Palm's operating system is below 3.0 you are out of luck. I designed pedit to work with OS 3.0 and above. It was tested with all operating systems above 3.0 with the exception of 3.1 which I do not have. Some of the early Palm 3x and Palm V devices have OS 3.1. Some peditors use OS 3.1, and I have received no reports of compatibility problems yet.

There are many peditors with Visors and with TRGPros [including yours truly], and there seems to be absolutely no problem with using pedit on them. I believe that pedit will work flawlessly on all Palms and all Palm Powered handhelds as well as long as the operating system is at least 3.0.

There are a few pedit features which are available only on Palms with operating system 3.5 and above. However, they are minor features and I seriously doubt that you will miss them.

There is one feature of pedit which I like very much and which is only available if your Palm operating system is below 3.5. Namely, you can have inverted or black buttons only if your Palm OS is below 3.5.

If I may give you some unsolicited advice, as of July 7, 2000, my choice for a Palm OS is 3.3. It is the fastest and the most bug free [or least bug ridden]. Alas, it is a fact of life that all but the simplest computer programs have scores of bugs, and this includes the Palm OS as well.

If I may give you another unsolicited advice, as of August 25, 2000, I have been using Palm OS 3.5.2 on my Palm Vx and Palm OS 3.5.1 on my TRGPro for a couple of weeks now, and the only problem I encountered so far was that it takes longer than I wish to go to the Application Launcher.

Whether or not you want another piece of advice from me, here it is. If your Palm Powered handheld is upgradable, that is, it has a flash ROM, then please do not procrastinate and upgrade it.

I must admit that even pedit may have some bugs. If you find any, please e-mail a bug report to me.

pedit was written with a 100% compliance with the Palm software developers' general guidelines. It was built with the latest version of MetroWerks' and Palm's CodeWarrior on a Power Macintosh G3.

Well, I did improve upon the standard Palm interface on several occasions. For instance, my tips dialogs are more legible then Palm's. Another example is that even my simplest dialogs can take keyboard inputs and they even react visually to such inputs.

I also introduced a number of new concepts such as buttonPanel, instantHelp, magiPad, magiFind'n'Replace, and so forth.


Compatibility Issues


pedit was written with a 100% compliance with the Palm software developers' general guidelines.

Therefore, there are absolutely no compatibility issues whatsoever except the following.

First, the Palm OS itself is not entirely bug free, and therefore, pedit, just like any other Palm application is at the mercy of Palm's software engineers.

Second, there are a great number of applications which themselves are not exactly bug free and which may effect the behavior of other applications. Unfortunately, there is no way that pedit can defend itself against problems introduced into the Palm operating environment by other applications.

In particular, there are a number of hack extensions which are defective.

Moreover, there are a number of defective applications which behave like hacks even though they are not installed using the standard HackMaster mechanism.

Third, pedit itself is a rather complicated program, and, therefore, it also must contain a large number of bugs despite the fact that it passed tens of millions of gremlin test with various hardware and operating system configurations on the Palm OS Emulator [POSE].

pedit should work perfectly with every bug free hack extension as long as HackMaster is used as the hack installer application.

I have tried out at least one other hack installer application, and I found problems with it despite its fancy features and interface when compared with HackMaster.

Therefore, I recommend and endorse HackMaster only, and not any other hack installer application.

As long as the hack is bug free and it is flash ROM certified, pedit doesn't care whether your hack is installed into the regular RAM or the flash ROM.

Beware of applications which play tricks with your Palm's operating system.

Some users of pedit reported some problems with the following hack extensions and applications: AportisDoc, ClipHack, Clipper, EVPlugBase, GoType!'s keyboard driver, PPK's keyboard driver, TakeNote!, and TrapWeaver.

Please note that when I polled the peditors regarding the above mentioned hacks and applications, there were quite a few who have never experienced any problem with them whatsoever.

However, for instance, if you have ClipHack and the "wrong" Palm OS [newer than 3.0], then the following procedure, as described by David Sommers, leads to a guaranteed crash which has nothing to do with pedit.

1) Open a small memo in pedit.
2) Select a small amount of text.
3) Press the "
X" button in EditView's buttonPanel. to cut the selected text.
4) Press the silk-screened menu button.

You have a crash with a "HwrRes.c, Line:215, Menu rsrc not found" error message.

The author of ClipHack told me on June 16, 2000, that he is working on trying to figure it out how to fix the problem.

The problem with AportisDoc and TakeNote! is that they treat DOC files differently than all the other DOC related applications.

It is somewhat unfair to accuse AportisDoc with anything since Rick Bram invented the DOC format in the first place. Nevertheless, if you use AportisDoc to read a DOC file prior to importing it to pedit, then all bets are off. In practically all cases you will not experience any problem at all. Nevertheless, there are scenarios under which the import procedure may fail.

The problem with TakeNote! is more innocent but, at the same time, it is more serious. As of July 17, 2000, when TakeNote! opens a DOC file, it modifies it in such a way that the file may no longer be interpreted by any other DOC related application in the proper way. While TakeNote! has every right to do so, it should also leave a message that it modified the DOC file so that the other DOC applications would have a chance of re-reading the DOC file prior to interpreting it. For instance, TakeNote! could [should] change the creator ID of all DOC files it modifies. This would send a clear message to the other DOC applications.

I hope that TakeNote!'s authors will take note of this very unfortunate behavior of TakeNote!, and that they will take steps to fix their program. Although I have notified them of this problem, as of July 17, 2000, TakeNote! has not been fixed yet. As soon as I get notified by the TakeNote! people that the problem has been fixed, I will update this discussion.

At this point, it must be clear to you that resolving compatibility problems is more like a subtle excursion into fine art than a rigorous scientific exercise.


Downloading pedit


Although you may have found pedit in various excellent Palm forums such as PalmGear, Handango, ZDNet [search for pedit], and EuroCool [search for pedit], they are all linked to the official pedit web page which always has the most recent versions of all pedits.

Note. I recommend that you do not download the ".prc" files directly , but, instead, download the ".zip", or ".tgz", or ".tar.gz", or ".hqx" files, since some downloading software is not capable to deal correctly with ".prc" files.

You can download the latest version of this very same manual as pedit_man.zip right here, or you can read pedit_man.html on-line here.

You can download pedit.prc or pedit.zip or pedit.tgz or pedit.tar.gz right here.

You can download pedit32.prc or pedit32.zip or pedit32.tgz or pedit32.tar.gz right here.

For your convenience, pedit and pedit32 are available in one combination package as well. You can download peditCombo.zip or peditCombo.tgz or peditCombo.tar.gz right here.

You can download peditPro.prc or peditPro.zip or peditPro.tgz or peditPro.tar.gz right here.

You can download peditLight.prc or peditLight.zip or peditLight.tgz or peditLight.tar.gz right here.

You can download peditFixer.prc or peditFixer.zip right here. It is also included in all of the pedit packages.

If you are a Mac user, then you can download pedit.prc.hqx, pedit32.prc.hqx, peditPro.prc.hqx, peditLight.prc.hqx, and peditFixer.prc.hqx here.


Installation


All pedits install the usual way via a HotSync job. If you are not sure how to install Palm applications, please study the manual which came with your Palm.

pedit can run both from the regular RAM and from the flash ROM.

It may be useful to remind you that if you already have any of the pedits installed, and if they happen to be in the flash ROM, then please move them back to your regular RAM prior to installing the newer versions.

If you are a Mac user and if you don't have Florent Pillet's PalmBuddy, then you will be grateful to me for the rest of your life for recommending such an fantastic installation tool.

If you are about to install peditLight then use peditFixer first to delete pedit04, and then do a normal installation job. If you delete pedit04 using Palm's built-in deletion mechanism, then you will lose your magiPad.

If you are about to install a pedit over an older version of the same pedit, then there is no need to delete your pedit prior to installing the new version. Otherwise, you will lose your corresponding pedit preferences, including your pedit registration [see the Preferences... command in EditView's Options menu and the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu].

If you are installing a new version of pedit32 over an existing pedit32, then you must not delete your current pedit32 prior to installing the new version. Otherwise, you will lose your pedit32 memos.

If you are about to install peditPro then please read the following paragraphs very carefully.

It is safe [but not recommended] to use Palm's built-in deletion mechanism to delete pedit04 prior to installing peditPro, but you will lose your magiPad if you do so. In addition, you will also lose your pedit04 preferences, including your pedit registration [see the Preferences... command in EditView's Options menu and the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu].

If you have pedit32 memos then do not delete pedit32 via Palm's built-in deletion mechanism before you install peditPro. Otherwise, you will lose your pedit32 memos. In addition, you will also lose your pedit32 preferences, including your pedit registration [see the Preferences... command in EditView's Options menu and the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu].

If this is the first time you install peditPro, please install peditPro over your existing pedit and/or pedit32. Then run peditPro and the first thing to do is to use the Total Cleaner Upper command in ListView's Options to delete pedit and/or pedit32 without deleting your pedit04 memos and/or pedit32 memos.

QUESTION. What are pedit! [peditLauncher] and pedit32! [aka pedit32Launcher]?

ANSWER. Please see the truth about pedit! and pedit32! here.

QUESTION. Which flavor of pedit should I install?

ANSWER. I recommend peditPro although the truth is that all pedits are equallly powerful [except perhaps peditLight] and your own editorial needs should determine which one to pick. It may be useful for you to review the differences between pedit04 and pedit32. If you can't decide, get peditPro.


Registering pedit


Now a few words about the benefits of registering pedit.

If you shell out the registration fee then, in return, all updates will be made available to you for free on pedit's web page or here.

Please keep in mind that I will always notify the peditors Forum if there is an update [subscribe]. For some details about the peditors Forum see here.

If you wish, then we can work out a deal that I will always e-mail you the most recent updates.

Here is another excellent reason for registering pedit. If you do so, then you will never see my friendly reminders which, eventually, will make even the most stubborn conscientious objectors follow the directions in the next paragraphs.

Upon registration you will be issued a personal password which you should enter using the Register button in the About pedit... window.

Please note that you are not allowed to share registered versions of pedit and/or pedit passwords with anyone, including [but not limited to] your friends, relatives, colleagues, and neighbors.

However, your immediate family members [spouses, significant others, children, and parents living in the same household under the same roof] are allowed to use your registered pedit, as long as they agree to abide by the same rules as regular registered users.

If you have not registered pedit yet, then please do so without any delay.

Registering pedit and pedit32 will set you back by $US20, peditCombo and peditPro by $US32, whereas peditLight costs $US9.

You can always upgrade/downgrade/sidegrade from one pedit to another by contacting me. There is an upgrade fee, whereas downgrades and sidegrades are usually free.

For instance, if you are registered for peditCombo then peditPro is free for you, and vice versa, whereas, going from pedit to peditPro costs $US12.

If you cannot afford this but you must have pedit anyway, or if you are [and you can prove it] a [starving] student, or a mathematician, or a senior citizen, or a Palm programmer, or a vegetarian, or a runner, then please contact me for discount rates.

PayPal [secure version] is the easiest and fastest way to register pedit. Please register

at PayPal right now.

A working alternative is to mail a check to Paul Nevai, 3346 Mansion Way, Columbus OH 43221-1573, USA. Please include your e-mail or your mailing address if you have no e-mail.

You can also register pedit at PalmGear and Handango.

If you prefer registering pedit via PalmGear by phone or fax, then please use 1-800-741-9070 [phone], 1-817-640-6558 [phone], or 1-817-640-6614 [fax], respectively.

If you prefer registering pedit via Handango by phone or fax, then please use 1-877-469-7256 [phone], 1-817-280-0129 [phone], or 1-817-280-9262 [fax], respectively.

Please add

to your PalmGear shopping cart, or
to your Handango shopping cart right now.

QUESTION. I am a Palm-procrastinator, and I allowed my unregistered pedit to expire. Now I realize that I can't live without pedit, and I quickly registered it. However, I am unable to start up pedit since it refuses to run. What can I do? Am I doomed for good?

ANSWER. Do not panic! You did the right thing when you registered pedit. Now wait for your password to arrive. Once you have the password, download the latest release of pedit and then go ahead and run it on your Palm. It will allow you to register it even if your trial time has run out.


Technical Support


First, please read the section about troubleshooting.

Second, if the advice given in the section on troubleshooting did not solve your problem, then please contact me.

Please state clearly the name of your pedit, the version number of your pedit, the exact name of your Palm hardware, the version number of you Palm operating system, and please describe the problem you have experienced.

If you live in North America, please provide your phone number, your time zone, and the times which are convenient for you.

Please note that you can also obtain help by contacting the peditors Forum. In fact, as it turns out, the collective mind of all peditors works better than mine alone. Therefore, in most if not all cases, it makes sense to write to the peditors Forum prior to contacting me.


Troubleshooting


First, please read the section about compatibility issues.

Second, turn off all your hacks and see if the problem goes away. If it did, then turn on your hacks one by one and isolate the problem. Once you identified the guilty party, please contact their technical support and explain the problem. I know from personal experience that most Palm developers provide superior support.

However, there are some exceptions. If you happen to experience the latter, then please be persistent. It may help your case if you send a copy of your correspondence to the peditors Forum and to some of the Palm related newsgroups such as comp.sys.palmtops.pilot and alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot.

You may also try Calvin's PGHQ FAQ. Much of my Palm knowledge comes from studying this FAQ database.

Third, use the Clear History... and Clear Preferences... commands in ListView's Options menu.

Fourth, run peditFixer

peditFixer

and try to delete some or all pedit components. Then reinstall your particular version of pedit and reenter your password.

It is always safe to delete all pedit components except MemoDB and Memo32DB which contain your pedit04 and pedit32 memos, respectively. Delete the latter only if you did a HotSync job prior to running peditFixer.

WARNING. Please keep in mind that pedit04 memos and Memo Pad memos are exactly the same animals.

Next, check out the peditors Forum or write to peditors Forum since, as I mentioned it already, the collective mind of all peditors works better than mine alone.

If the problem still persists then contact pedit's Technical Support.

QUESTION. My pedit refuses to start up. When I tap on the icon, the screen looks for pedit but then returns to the launcher program I am running on my Palm. What is going on?

ANSWER. I don't have the faintest idea what is going on. This happened to three peditors only out of thousands. One of them disappeared from the pedit the scene before I could investigate it, whereas the second one, Elwood Matthews, solved the problem by deleting magiPad with peditFixer so that I never had a chance to be able to find out the reasons. I suspect that you may have a corrupted magiPad but I can't be sure until I am able to complete a case study. I told the third person what Elwood did, and I also told him to delete all the pedit preferences with peditFixer as well. It worked and I was again robbed the opportunity to investigate it.


The peditors Forum and Mailing List


Please check out Paolo Amoroso's peditors Forum for details [ subscribe].

You can post messages to the peditors Forum here.


For Palm Software Developers: the pedit SDK


The pedit Sofware Developer Kit [SDK] is available here.

In addition, all legitimate Palm software develpers can count on my absolute and enthusiastic cooperation in providing mutual support for each others' software.


Terminology


As I already mentioned it, the word pedit is used as a generic term for any member of the pedit family.

When pedit refers to the actual pedit application, then we will use the term pedit04.

In what follows, Palm refers to any Palm computing device or any clones thereof.

DeskTop refers to your computer which is used when you HotSync files. It is irrelevant whether it is a Macintosh or a PC or a Unix/Linux box. The only thing what matters is that it holds your backed up files after a HotSync operation.

When we refer to a keyboard, we mean an actual piece of hardware, and not Palm's built-in virtual keyboard.

A DOC file has nothing to do with dot.doc files which are used in the DeskTop universe in conjunction with some word processors. In the Palm universe, a DOC is a special file [or a file structure] which allows to install and view [large] text files on your Palm.

Quoting from Ron Tillotson: The Doc format is the de facto standard for large text documents on the Palm Computing Platform. It enjoys wide support in both software and content, but documentation is sparse.

I suggest that you read Ron Tillotson's The Doc Format [see also here] as an introduction.

A pedit04 memo refers to a memo created by pedit04 or peditLight as opposed to a pedit32 memo which is created by pedit32. Of course, peditPro can create either of these.

WARNING. Please keep in mind that pedit04 memos and Memo Pad memos are exactly the same animals.

When we refer to a memo created by any of the pedits and in the given context it is irrelevant which pedit was the particular pedit which created it, then we use the expression pedit memo as a generic term.

When I say sister pedit, then I am referring to the other pedit. In other words, if you are running pedit or peditLight then pedit32 is the sister pedit, whereas if you run pedit32 then pedit is the sister pedit.

If you are running peditPro then the sister pedit depends on the current mode you are in.

Also, in what follows, using the original Palm terminology, we call ListView the window with title p04Memos..., and we call EditView the other one with title p04 #xxx of yyy [more or less].

ListView separator EditView

If your run pedit32 then instead of p04Memos... you will see p32Memos... and so forth.

You can think of ListView as the table of contents, and of EditView where the actual editing takes place.

For our understanding of what a memo title is, please look here.


pedit and External Keyboards


pedit absolutely loves all external keyboards, including the Palm Portable Keyboard [aka PPK or Stowaway Keyboard] and GoType!, and greatly enhances their ability to enter text.

In response to many peditorial inquiries, I want to state it clear and loud that I think both GoType! and PPK are absolutely first rate, and I consider each an engineering marvel. I endorse both of them when used with pedit. However, please keep reading...

Even though the software drivers of some of the keyboards are less than prefect and more than buggy, it is totally irrelevant as far as pedit goes, since pedit uses its own internal mechanism to utilize the keyboards. As long as the driver of your keyboard is able to recognize the letters you type on the keyboard, you are set for good. If I may suggest so, please do write to the manufacturer of your external keyboard whenever you discover a bug. Otherwise, you may never see a bug fix.

In what follows, when we refer to a keyboard, we mean an actual piece of hardware, and not Palm's built-in virtual keyboard. So please do not try to use any of our tricks on the latter.

As it turns out. even some of the third party software implemented virtual keyboards behave as if they were a piece of hardware. This is good news for pedit users although there will be no performance benefits since every function can also be accessed via menus and/or tapping at the right time in the right place.

In almost all dialogs, unless there is a text field accepting alphabetical input, all buttons and check boxes can be activated by entering the lower cased version of the first letter of their label. This is the reason for ".Cancel" and why some labels are misspelled intentionally such as "K" standing for capitalization and "Qopy" for "Copy". When there is no text field, many times even the upper cased version of that letter works.

If there is a bold framed button in a dialog, then it can be activated by your keyboard's RETURN key or by the equivalent / graffiti character [stroke from NE to SW] or by "ESC RETURN". If there is a multi-line text field in the dialog such as the one activated by the "F" button then "RETURN" is no longer available for this purpose, and use "ESC RETURN" only. The explanation of the ESC key mechanism is an important basic concept so that please do not skip it. This default button concept is well familiar to all Macintosh and Windows users.

pedit has full GoType! keyboard support as well. If the installed keyboard driver version is at least 1.5, then all buttons can be activated by depressing the first letter of the button label while simultaneously depressing the "Command" and "Alt" keys on the GoType! keyboard.

There is is similar approach if you use the Palm Portable Keyboard, although, as of July 8, 2000, the current software driver for PPK is not yet able to recognize all buttons on the screen.

Therefore, we find the ESC key approach preferable to trying to use the particular keyboard's built-in functions.

If in a dialog all the text fields are numeric only, then entering either a space or a tab character rotates the focus between the fields. In addition, if underlined letters are visible, then entering on eof them makes the cursor jump to the corresponding field.

If in a dialog there is more than one text field, then entering either "ESC space" or "ESC tab" rotates the focus between the fields.


The Escape Key Mechanism


The user defined escape character ESC [the default value is the backquote character "`"] allows the peditor to activate almost any button and check box from external keyboards and/or via graffiti input.

It is very important to understand that in pedit's terminology ESC is NOT a hard key on your keyboard such as one labelled with Ctrl, or Alt, or Cmd or whatever, but it is an ordinary key playing the role of ESC . By default we call the backquote key "`" the ESC key although you can change it in the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu to any other key.

The way it works is as follows. First you hit ESC and then the required letter. Do it consecutively and not simultaneously. Of course, this is a very familiar concept to emacs, vi, and joe users, and to others as well.

EXAMPLE. "ESC ." activate the ".Cancel" button.

EXAMPLE. "ESC h" = "ESC H" = "ESC ?" = "ESC i" = "ESC I" invokes HELP in most dialog even if there is no HELP button present on the current screen.

Did you notice that there is a visual confirmation when you use ESC to activate a button? Isn't that cool?

To use ESC itself as a regular character in the text, just enter ESC twice as in "``".

You can determine if a menu command has an ESC key equivalent by examining the command in the dropped down menu. All the equivalent ESC keys are listed next to the command.

ESC keys in Menu

On GoType! and on almost every other standard keyboard, "`" is an ideal choice for ESC. On the Palm Portable Keyboard, I recommend using "1" or TAB for ESC, although, I must admit that neither are perfect choices from the ergonomic point of view.


Common ESC Commands


In addition to

"ESC h" = "ESC H" = "ESC ?" = "ESC i" = "ESC I" = help

both ListView and EditView share the following ESC commands.

"ESC =" = drop menu

"ESC C" = menu command

"ESC F" = SilkScreen FIND

"ESC L" = BackLight


pedit vs pedit32


It is crucially important to understand clearly and fully that pedit works with the built-in Memo Pad memo database which is called MemoDB with creator ID 'memo', and, therefore, pedit is 100% compatible with everything imaginable which uses Memo Pad.

On the other hand, pedit32 uses its own memo database which is called Memo32DB with creator ID 'pn32', and, therefore, pedit32 is almost 100% incompatible with everything imaginable which uses Memo Pad.

One important consideration is that pedit32 loses some of its snappiness when editing files whose size approaches 32K.

By the way, Palm's built-in SilkScreen FIND button works perfectly with both pedit and pedit32, and so does Florent Pillet's FindHack.

Further good news is that, if you choose to install both, then pedit and pedit32 can simultaneously co-exist on your Palm. They share the same magiPad database called peditDB, but otherwise they have their own creator IDs, preferences, and so forth. So go ahead and install both pedit and pedit32.

However, if I were you, I would rather have peditPro on my Palm than pedit and pedit32, since the former saves approximately 200K is RAM real estate.

Additional good news is that, after you did a HotSync job, if you wish, you can open up your huge pedit32 memos residing in Memo32DB on your DeskTop computing device with any competent text editor such as emacs, vi, joe, BBEdit, and so forth. I leave the rest to your imagination and creativity.

Of course, you should follow this advice only if you are the kind of person who does not follow any advice anyway. On the other hand, if you want to access your pedit32 memos in a professional and elegant manner then please keep reading.

QUESTION. How can I move a large text file from my DeskTop computer into pedit or pedit32?

ANSWER. Convert your text file to DOC format using one of the many widely available utilities [see, for instance, MakeDoc at Aportis, PalmGear or Handango]. Then HotSync it to your Palm. Then import it to pedit or pedit32 using the Import Doc File... command in ListView's Record menu.

QUESTION. How can I move a memo [and its sister segments] from my beloved pedit or pedit32 to my DeskTop computer?

ANSWER. Open up your memo [or one of its sister segments] using the Export Memo command in EditView's Record menu. Then export it to a DOC file. After your next HotSync operation, you will find your memo [as a DOC file] in the backup directory on your DeskTop computer. Now use your DOC converter to turn it into a humanly readable text file.

Note. You may want to check peditDesk, a DOS utility by Jerry Skelley for extracting pedit32 memos from the Memo32DB.pdb database, which is available at the Files section of the peditors Forum.

Note. EXpedit is a similar Windows utility by Casper Lassenius which is currently [as of November 3, 2000] under closed testing. A public Beta version will be available soon. In the meantime, you may peek at a screen shot at the Links section of the peditors Forum. Once EXpedit becomes available, you will find it at the Files section of the peditors Forum.

So far, I have received no reports whatsoever of any problems with pedit32 which were not present in pedit [with the exception of some performance degradation with large memos]. In fact, the great news is that, at least in principle, pedit and pedit32 should share the same bugs, no more and no less.

But, as we all know, even if theory and practice are the same in theory, they are definitely different in practice. [I thank the author of pedit for allowing me to include this deep thought, and Daniel D. for taking time to polish it].

Note. Of course, pedit is 100% bug-free. It just may have some unexpected, undocumented, and perhaps inexplicable features. [smiley]


Which pedit is my pedit?


Since there are several pedits, it is not at all simple to keep track of them. If you want to figure out which pedit is the pedit which you are running at the moment, please examine the title bar.

If the title starts with the letter p, then your are in pedit04.

If the title starts with the letters .p, then your are in pedit32.

If the title starts with the letters !p then you are in peditPro.

If the title starts with the letters :p then you are in peditLight.

In addition, you can also find out if your current memo in EditView is a 4K or 32K memo. Just look at title bar. If the title has p04 in it then your memo is a pedit04 memo. If the title has p32 in it then your memo is a pedit32 memo.

If you are in EditView and if you are running stats in the title bar, then look carefully at the upper right area of your Palm's screen just below the title bar. If you see a small black square [2*2 pixels], then you have a pedit32 memo. Otherwise, it's a pedit04 memo.

Similarly, if you are in ListView, look for p04 or p32 in the tiltlebar, and you will know which mode you are in.

These considerations are especially relevant if you are running peditPro where you can switch between pedit04 and pedit32 memos.


The truth about pedit! and pedit32!


The peditPro package includes two tiny applications called pedit! [aka peditLauncher] and pedit32! [aka pedit32Launcher]. In order to differentiate between them and the pedit/pedit32 package, they both have an exclamation mark "!" at the end of their titles.

Think of them as "aliases" for peditPro. You can use them to start up peditPro in either pedit or pedit32 mode. You can assign them to hard buttons, and to GoType! and PPK function keys as well.

I use the word alias with quotation marks since the concept of aliases is unknown in the Palm universe, at least as of July 18, 2000. It is a shame since aliases work perfectly in the Macintosh and PC environments. In unix, the concept of soft and hard links goes way beyond the concept of Mac and PC aliases.

For the technically oriented, pedit! and pedit32! fakes soft link to peditPro, and peditPro behaves like, for instance, vi in unix. Here is a part of our /bin directory which shows the edit, ex, vedit, vi, and view are, in fact, the same application.

  78088 -r-xr-xr-x   5 root       206948 Jan  5  2000 edit
  78088 -r-xr-xr-x   5 root       206948 Jan  5  2000 ex
  78088 -r-xr-xr-x   5 root       206948 Jan  5  2000 vedit
  78088 -r-xr-xr-x   5 root       206948 Jan  5  2000 vi
  78088 -r-xr-xr-x   5 root       206948 Jan  5  2000 view

Of course, here we have hard links, but they are functionally equivalent to soft links as in our /opt/local/bin

 150230 lrwxrwxrwx   1 root            5 May 19 12:37 ftp -> ncftp
 150224 -rwxr-xr-x   1 root       213588 May 31 07:55 ncftp

I hope that Palm will seriously consider the implementation of aliases and/or links in its upcoming OSs.

The installation of pedit! and pedit32! is optional.


About pedit...


Start out with our About pedit... dialog which can be accessed from the Options menus in both ListView and EditView.

Among others, you will see the expiration date of your particular copy of pedit. Of course, if your pedit has already expired, then a clever dialog will inform you of your next moves prior to having a chance to see the About pedit... box. Please explore the Credits, Abstract, and Register buttons, and please tap i in the upper right corner.

If you have a keyboard, then you can use the first letters of the buttons.

Please use this occasion to enter your pedit password via the Register button.

Once you invoke Register, just type your password as it was given to you. Make sure that you enter the right lower/upper case letters, and that you do not add additional space or tab characters.

Before you contact me that the password did not register, please make 100% sure that you are entering the password of your particular pedit into the correct pedit, and not into another pedit. It may sound incredible, but about 5% of the registered peditors try to enter their password into the wrong pedit.

As a registered user, you will get periodic [but not at all obnoxious] friendly reminders of the expiration date but panic no more since you will have the option of continuing using your copy of pedit even if it expired, and even if it became 100% obsolete, and even if it is full of bugs. Of course, if you were smart enough to register, then you are also smart enough to make sure that you always download the freshest and practically bug free version of pedit.


buttonPanels


Upon entering ListView or EditView you will see a row of buttons on the bottom of the screen. They constitute the ListView and EditView buttonPanels [© copyright Paul Nevai 1999-2000 & all rights reserved].

ListViewButtons separator EditViewButtons

Think of them as the instrument panel in your Palm's cockpit and that you are the pilot of your Palm.

If your operating system is below 3.5, then the buttons are always displayed in black. If you are one of those very few individuals who are not struck by the beauty of the view, then please use the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu, and please check the white buttons... box.

All buttons in the buttonPanels are tied to an ESC key to facilitate activation via keyboards.

I hope the buttonPanel concept will become standard in all Palm applications. Any interested party should contact me regarding licensing questions and the buttonPanel SDK.


editPanels


The editPanel [© copyright Paul Nevai 1999-2000 & all rights reserved]

editPanel

is a cluster of several buttons which allows access to the basic editing operations both by tapping the buttons on the screen or by using ESC keys.

For instance, "ESC c" copies the selected text, and "ESC g" brings up Graffiti Help.

Isn't it cool? I hope the editPanel will become standard in all Palm applications. Any interested party should contact me regarding licensing questions and the editPanel SDK.


The FIND SilkScreen button


Now let's talk for a little while about Palm's built-in FIND SilkScreen button and its interaction with pedit.

As you will see soon, I put a twist on the search process via Palm's built-in FIND SilkScreen button.

First, FIND can be invoked by typing "ESC F" [capitalized "F"] in both ListView and EditView.

Second, FIND can find any string in your memos via pedit unlike via the built-in Memo Pad where it finds the beginnings of words only.

Note. peditLight does not allow FIND to search its memos.

Third, whether you initiate the FIND process inside or outside pedit, you can add modifiers [options] to your search string to change the behavior of the search process of pedit memos.

These modifiers work whether or not you have Florent Pillet's highly recommended FindHack installed in your Palm.

Note. These modifiers will have no effect on your search of databases created by applications other than pedit. Simply put, they will not recognize these modifiers.

Here is how it works. You can add one or more of the modifiers

'!' [exclamation mark]

'.' [period]

'^' [caret]

'+' [plus sign]

':' [colon]

to the beginning of the search string [in an arbitrary order].

The exclamation mark '!' means that your string will not be processed [successfully] by Memo Pad or any other application except for pedit so that you get no duplicate matches by both pedit and Memo Pad. By the way, there are some exceptions to this rule, so that if you find one, please smile and do not demand your money back. We, mathematicians, like to use '!' to indicate that some object is unique. This option is not likely to influence the speed of your search.

The period '.' means that the search in pedit is performed only in your current category. I borrowed '.' from unix where it refers to the current directory [unlike in pattern matching where '.' means exactly one character which is not a line terminator]. This option is likely to speed up your search.

The caret '^' means that the search in pedit is restricted to the first line of the memos. I borrowed '^' from pattern matching where it refers to the beginning [well, it's the beginning of a line and not that of a file, but it is still a good way to remember it]. This option is likely to speed up your search significantly.

By the way, many peditors like to refer to the first line of a memo as its title, so that you could say that '^' searches the table of contents.

The plus sign '+' means that the search in pedit is not case-blind, unlike the search in Memo Pad which always ignores cases. This option is likely to slow down your search significantly.

The colon ':' means that the search in pedit is no longer restricted to the beginnings of words as in Memo Pad, and partial words can be found as well. This option is likely to slow down your search significantly.

I want to emphasize that if you use either of the options '+' or ':', be prepared to be patient if you have many large memos.

Having pointed out the superiority of our implementation of "FIND" as opposed to Memo Pad, here are some examples:

"!^.pedit" finds in pedit but not in Memo Pad all memos in the current category which contain in their first line [the title] one of the words "pedit", "Pedit", "pEDit", and so forth.

On the other hand, "!+^.pediT" does the same for the word "pediT" but not for "pedit", "Pedit", and so forth.

".^" gives you the titles of all your memos in the current category. Try it in ListView. What a cool navigational tool!

If you don't care for these fancy FIND features, and you wish you could turn them off so that the FIND button would regain its pre-pedit [lack of] functionality, worry no more! In fact, for the fancy mode to be active you need to turn it on by opening up the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu, and by checking the SilkScreen "FIND" is fancy box.


ListView


If you are in EditView, then you can enter ListView by pressing the "OK" button, or by using the "OK" & ".C" buttons" command in the Record menu.

What you see is your pedit's table of contents. Many peditors will refer to what you see as the titles of your memos.

I beg to differ. What you see is [a perhaps abbreviated version of] the first line of your memo. As a matter of fact, there is no such concept as the title of a memo in the Palm universe. Although some memo editors do create titles, these title are stored separately from the memo database, and, therefore, extra bookkeeping is required which can slow down ListView's startup significantly.

Nevertheless, for the lack of better terminology, we will refer to what you see as the title of your memo.

Once you graduate to segmented memos, you will realize that ListView makes a smart decision when displaying titles of such memos. I have no doubts that you will appreciate pedit's native intelligence.


Navigating ListView


In addition to ListView's Navigate Menu, we have a number of other ways of exploring it.

As expected, the PageUp and PageDown buttons help you to navigate in ListView.

In addition, please memorize this table and you will no longer have any problems in finding the memo you are looking for.

PageUp = up-arrow = back space character = page up

left-arrow = one line up

PageDown = down-arrow = space character = page down

right-arrow = one line down

Please look up in your graffiti reference how to enter the left-arrow and right-arrow characters. Basically, they consist of a left-right or a right-left job.

For additional tricks, please see the information about the SilkScreen FIND button.

Let us discuss the menus in ListView now.


ListView's Record Menu



New Memo


This command creates a new memo.


Open Memo


This command is just a way to get out of the batcher modes which are defined as the Preview Memo, Delete Memo, Categorize Memo, Privatize Memo, Beam Memo, and Print Memo commands.


Go to Memo...


This brings up a small dialog where you can enter the index of a memo you want to open.


The Batchers Modes


Preview Memo, Delete Memo, Categorize Memo, Privatize Memo, Beam Memo, and Print Memo commands share the same underlying interface.

Namely, they all look like the regular ListView on the surface, but when you are in one of the batcher modes and if you hit the title of the memo then you are placed into a special dialog where on one hand you can preview the current memo and perform certain operations, and on the other hand, you can navigate between memos via the arrows and/or the page up|down key and/or via keyboard action.

Please look at the tips in the dialogs which can be invoked via the "i" button in the upper right corner of the screen or by entering one of the letters 'h', 'H', '?', 'i', and 'I'.

For your convenience, the title of the batcher dialogs shows the size of the current memo.

Navigation in the Batchers

Button "<=" = 'p' or 'P' or space characters = left or up arrow keys on keyboard = scroll up hard key = preview previous memo in current category

Button "=>" = 'n' or 'N' or backspace characters = right or down arrow keys on keyboard = scroll down hard key = preview next memo in current category

Note. When privatizing or printing then 'p' and 'P' are used for [de]privatizing or printing so that use 'b' and 'B' instead for switching to the previous memo.


Preview Memo


In this mode tapping on the title of the memo brings up the memo previewer dialog from which you can easily decide which memo to open up.


Delete Memo


In this mode tapping on the title of the memo brings up the memo deleter dialog where you can decide whether or not to delete the selected memo and its sister segments as well.

When deleting memos, the save archive copy on PC option will store deleted memos in an archive file on your DeskTop at the next HotSync operation.

Note. In pedit32 archiving of records is not implemented and it is not necessary since there is no DeskTop conduit associated with it.


Categorize Memo


Strictly speaking, this is not a batcher operation since there is no batcher dialog associated with it. Nevertheless, it also allows a batch job on changing the categories of your memos. When in this mode, then tapping on the title of the memo makes the category list drop down, and thereby you can do quick change of category without the need of opening up the memo whose category is being changed.


Privatize Memo


In this mode tapping on the title of the memo brings up the memo privatizer dialog where one can decide whether or not to change the private property of the selected memo and its sister segments as well.

Note. A private memo can be seen and edited only when your Palm is set to show private records. The latter can be set from the Security... item in ListView's Options menu, or via Palm's built-in Security application.

Note. If your Palm's OS is at least 3.5, then you have a third option. Namely, in addition to hiding and showing private records, you can also mask them so that they will show up in ListView but you will not be able to peek at them. Just between us, in my humblest opinion, this third option does not seem to be too useful.

Note. The concept of private records is useful only if your Palm's password has been assigned. The latter can be set from the Password... item in ListView's Options menu, or via Palm's built-in "Security" application.

Note. I should point it out to you that Palm's security is not something I would count on. I will probably not break news if I tell you that any hacker worth her salt would find any of your hidden records in a jiffy as long as your Palm is turned on and is unlocked. Depending on the circumstances, you can think of this as good news since forgetting your password is no big deal as long as you do not lock your Palm when you turn it off.


Beam Memo


In this mode tapping on the title of the memo brings up the memo beamer dialog where one can decide whether or not to beam the selected memo and its sister segments as well.

Note. All beaming operations require that both the beaming and the beamee Palm have the same type of pedit installed.

Of course, if you want to beam a 4k memo, you can always use Palm's built-in Memo Pad.


Print Memo


If you have Stevens Creek Software's PalmPrint, or TealPoint's TealPrint installed in your Palm, then pedit provides a number of customizable ways of printing your memos and/or parts of it to any device which is supported by your print software.

In the Print Memo mode tapping on the title of the memo brings up the memo print dialog where one can decide whether or not to print the selected memo and its sister segments as well.

You can also decide whether the headers of segmented memos should be printed.

In addition, the number of copies to be printed can be determined by entering any number between 1 and 9. You can enter the number either via Graffiti or an external keyboard, but not by using the built-in virtual keyboard.


Beam Category


As opposed to Beam Memo, this command allows you to beam an entire category of memos to another Palm in one fell swoop. When selected then all memos in ListView's currently visible category get beamed. If ListView shows all categories, then all memos get beamed.

Note. All beaming operations require that both the beamer and the beamee Palm have the same type of pedit installed.


Export Category...


Exporting provides a means to communicate between your pedit and its sister pedit. You can move memos back and forth with minimal effort.

The analogous Export Memo... command in EditView's Record menu also allows to export your memos to DOC files.

Although the Export Category command is pretty much self explanatory, it is worthwhile to summarize it.

First, this command allows exporting either all memos which are in ListView's currently displayed category or all your memos in one fell swoop from one pedit to its sister pedit.

There are only two exceptions to this rule.

  • (i) If a memo is segmented then it will not be exported from pedit32 to pedit.
  • (ii) If a memo is segmented and the total size of all its segments is greater than 32K then it will not be exported from pedit to pedit32.

    Well, there are two more exceptions. Namely, the sister pedit's memo database must be installed, and sufficient free RAM real estate must be available for performing the export operation.

    Note. If a pedit32 memo is segmented but it consists of one single segment only, then you can delete its segment header so that it would become exportable from pedit32 to pedit. However, you will loose the information which was kept in the segment header.

    In order to be able to manage both pedit and pedit32 simultaneously, and in order to keep pedit32 memos apart from pedit04 memos, please keep the export segmented memos only box checked all the time when exporting from pedit to pedit32. This way your regular pedit04 memos will never end up in pedit32.

    If you choose to delete exported memos and if you are in pedit04, then the $ave archive copy on your PC option will store deleted memos in an archive file on your DeskTop at the next HotSync operation.

    Exporting is as smart as it [or, should I say, yours truly] could be. In particular, it will place the exported memo in the same category where it resided originally. If that category name does not yet exists in the sister pedit and if the will clone category names too box is checked, then it will create one. If the sister pedit has no vacancies for new category names, then the exported memo will go into the Unfiled category.

    If a memo is segmented, then exporting it from pedit to pedit32 will assemble your memo and its sister segments into one pedit32 memo.

    A pedit32 memo will turn into a segmented memo in pedit04 after an export operation unless your memo is less than 4K and you check the no segmenting if less than 4K box.

    Each segment will fill up only 75% of pedit's 4K capacity so that you will have plenty of capacity avaliable for changes and further additions.

    Note. I should point out that the exported memos get deleted from pedit only after the export operation went flawlessly so that your precious data are as safe as possible.

    Here is a neat hint for you. If you want that all of your memos show up in your DeskTop Palm application, then do an export job of all of your pedit32 memos, then HotSync, then work on your memos on your DeskTop, then HotSync again, then export all your segmented memos from pedit04 back to pedit32. Just make sure that you always choose to delete your exported memos. Otherwise, you may end up with multiple copies.


    Import Doc File...


    Importing DOC files provides a means to move your pedit memos from the DeskTop to pedit with minimal effort. Using DOC files is especially recommended if your pedit memo, together with its sister segments, is longer than 4K so that using the standard route via your DeskTop Palm application becomes cumbersome since it was not designed the handle large memos.

    The commmand Export Memo... in EditView's Record menu allows you to export your memos to DOC files.

    Although the Import Doc File command is pretty much self explanatory, it is worthwhile to summarize it.

    Invoking Import Doc File takes you to magiPad where all your installed DOC [including TealDoc] files are listed.

    Once you familiarize yourself with EditView, you will be able to navigate here using all the powerful tools in it.

    In order to speed up the operation, the list is not alphabetic. It tells you the title of your DOC files [with the card number and the uncompressed size listed as well].

    You can think of a card as a hard drive. We can all foresee the near future when we will have dozens of cards sitting in our Palm computing devices providing zillions of bytes of available memory. Although no two different Palm files sitting on the same card can have the same name, files on different cards do not need to have uniquely defined names. Therefore, it is essential to know which card is the host of your file to be able to identify it uniquely.

    It is interesting to note that many Palm aplications ignore this fact and, unlike pedit, they are hardcoded to use card #0 no matter what. As of July 11, 2000, all Palms have one built-in card only.

    If you see an exclamation mark ! before the title of a DOC file, it means that the file is read-only and it cannot be deleted after you complete the import operation.

    Tapping on the title of a DOC file brings up a dialog which is also self-explanatory except for the no segmenting if fits one memo check box.

    If you choose the no segmenting if fits one memo option then your pedit will try to place the DOC file into one memo. Otherwise, it will break the file up into segments where each segment will occupy roughly speaking 75% of the maximum available memo size. This way you will have plenty of real estate left for editing your memos.

    After you initiate the import operation you can sit back and relax. Depending on the size of your DOC file, the operation may take longer than you wish it did. For instance, a 1Mb DOC file import job on my Palm Vx takes about 60 secs.

    Depending on your DOC file, you may end up being confronted by another dialog starting with "Hmm...". If you ever see it, I have no doubts that you will know what to do.

    In case you end up never seeing this dialog, here is what it says: I believe that this file uses a unix [DOS] style end-of-line notation. Would you like me to convert it to the one used by the Palm OS?


    ListView's Options Menu



    Font...


    This command allows you to change the display font in ListView.


    Security...


    This command allows you to Show and Hide your private memos on the fly. If you use OS 3.5 then you will also have yet another option which allows you to mask off your private records without removing them from ListView.

    Palm's built-in Security application can also accomplich the same task.

    Use the editPanel while entering your Palm password.


    Password...


    This command allows you to change and/or delete your Palm password on the fly provided that you are a registered user of pedit and you know your pedit password.

    Use the editPanel while entering your passwords.


    Clear History...


    If you edited any of your memos with a program other than this particular pedit, whether on the Palm or on the DeskTop, it may be a good idea to clear the history of recently visited memos since pedit keeps track of information which may have been altered by the other programs such as cursor position and so forth. If you fail to clear your pedit's history, you may face unpredictable consequences such as incorrectly selected text or even a crash now and then.

    If you experience a crash which you think may be related to your pedit's history file, and if you are unable to start up pedit after the crash then use peditFixer which can do the same Clear History job and more...

    For the technically inclined, the history of pedit04 and pedit32 memos is kept in the Palm database called MemoHIST and Memo32HIST, respectively.


    Clear Preferences...


    If you edited any of your memos with a program other than this particular pedit, whether on the Palm or on the desktop, it may be a good idea to clear pedit's preferences since they keep track of information which may have been altered by the other programs such as cursor position and so forth. If you fail clear your pedit's preferences, you may face unpredictable consequences such as incorrectly selected text or even a crash now and then.

    If you experience a crash which you think may be related to your pedit's preferences, and if you are unable to start up pedit after the crash then use peditFixer which can do the same Clear Preferences job and more...


    Clear Deleted Records...


    Regarding this command we note that you want to use it only if you do not use a DeskTop conduit for your pedit04 memos. If you do then the conduit takes care of removing the footprints of your deleted pedit04 memos.

    Otherwise, these footprints keep accumulating in your database, and it is a good spring house-cleaning practice to remove them periodically.

    Please note that Clear Deleted Records... has no effect on pedit32 memos since there is no DeskTop conduit associated with them, and, therefore, whenever you delete a pedit32 memo, it's gone for good.


    Total Cleaner Upper...


    This command operates on peditPro only it performs duties similar to peditFixer [see troubleshooting].


    Palm System Info...


    This command does precisely what it promises. Among others, it gives the exact time and yields quintessential information about the battery status.

    The battery info may be refreshed by entering the letter "r". With enough patience, one can watch the voltage tank go from full to empty. With a rechargeable Palm device, one can also play with the cradle and refreshing the display after each movement.

    I will spare the reader from the details of the game.


    Preferences...


    This is ListView's Preferences... dialog.

    ListView Preferences

    Sort by Manual [order] allows manual sorting of memos by dragging them up and down the list. To drag, first pen down on a memo, then drag it to the desired order, and, finally, lift up the pen.

    Sort by Alphabetic [order] sorts all the memos alphabetically. This sort order will overwrite the current sort order.

    If the category of myNotes is fixed box is unchecked, then 000.myNotes inherits the current category in ListView every time it is invoked via the myNotes button. Otherwise, the category 000.myNotes remains fixed.

    If the date stamped myNotes box is checked, then 000.myNotes gets a new date'n'time stamp every time it is invoked via the myNotes button.

    If the top starting myNotes box is checked, then every new entry in 000.myNotes is placed in the beginning of the file if it is invoked via the myNotes button.

    If the SilkScreen "FIND" is fancy box is checked, then the search routine via the SilkScreen FIND button allows to use certain options as described here.

    If your Palm's OS is below 3.5, and if the white buttons under memos box is checked, then the buttonPanels are displayed in white. Otherwise, they are black.

    As of OS 3.5, the buttonPanels are always displayed in the default color.

    Note. There is another Preferences... dialog which is located in EditView's Options menu.


    About pedit...


    This command is explained here.


    ListView's Navigate Menu



    Visit Top


    This is self-explanatory, isn't it? It takes you to the top of ListView.


    Jump To...


    This command allows you to jump to memos very quckly in ListView. You enter a number between 0 and 99, and upon activating the OK button, you will be taken to that area of ListView which corresponds the the entered number interpreted as a percantage of the total number of currently displayed memos.


    Visit Bottom


    This is self-explanatory, isn't it? It takes you to the bottom of ListView.


    Find...


    This command brings up Palm's built-in silkscreen "FIND" dialog.

    I provided this command for keyboard users.


    Recent...


    This command takes you to magiPad where all your recently visted files are listed in reverse chronological order.

    Once you familiarize yourself with EditView, you will be able to navigate here using all the powerful tools in it.

    This command is the same as the Switcher [">"] button in EditView's buttonPanel.

    pedit keeps track of the last 25 memos you have visited since you last cleared pedit's history.

    Tapping on any of the memo titles, pedit transfers you to the selected memo instantaneously.

    Please see the Switcher for more details.

    As a related and very convenient shortcut, if you enter "ESC }" in ListView then you are immediately taken to the memo which you visited most recently.


    Switch


    This command is functional on peditPro only. It switches between pedit04 memos and pedit32 memos.

    Please note that there is an even easier way to invoke Switch. Namely, tap in the left 1/8th of ListView's title bar, to the left from the small pixel visible just under the title bar.


    ListView's buttonPanel


    ListViewButtons


    The New Button


    You start a new memo by tapping on the New button.

    This command is the same as the New Memo command in ListView's Record menu.

    You can also start a new memo by simply entering any printable letter which becomes the first letter of your new memo.


    The myNotes Button


    In addition, ListView displays the myNotes button which takes you immediately to a memo called 000.myNotes. If such a memo doesn't exist yet, then it will be created upon tapping on the myNotes button. Once inside 000.myNotes", you can add quick notes to it.

    Please keep in mind that peditPro has two modes, and the those two modes operate independently of each other. Therefore, you have two separate 000.myNotes". One in pedit04 mode and one in pedit32 mode.

    The variety of uses of myNotes is limited only by the peditor's imagination. I use it for making quick reminders on how to improve pedit, for jotting down some really deep thoughts which come to my mind, and for keeping track of important world events such as how many Ann Landers messages deal with the quintessential toilet tissue in or out problem.

    A great feature of myNotes is an optional date'n'time stamp which can be configured through the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu.

    You can also decide in the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu whether you want your new entry added to the top or to the bottom of your 000.myNotes".

    If your 000.myNotes gets filled up, simply rename it, say 001.myNotes, and then the game starts all over again.


    The Export Button


    This button is the same as the Export Category... command in ListView's Record menu. Another way of accessing it is via the "ESC e" command.


    The Docs Button


    This button is the same as the Import Doc File... command in ListView's Record menu. Another way of accessing it is via the "ESC i" command.


    The Recent Button


    This button is the same as the Recent... command in ListView's Navigate menu. Another way of accessing it is via the "ESC r" command.


    EditView


    When entering a memo from ListView, you will notice that the cursor is located at the beginning of your memo so that it is visible as opposed to Memo Pad where it is always blinking at the end, and, therefore, it is invisible much of the time.

    I have removed Memo Pad's "feature" that the PageUp and PageDown buttons move to the previous and the next memo, respectively. I personally found this "feature" quite annoying but who am I to judge? Wheteher this was annoying or not, the issue is moot since these buttons have been assigned new roles which is explained here and here.

    I have also added a useful feature that the characteristics of a particular memo such as cursor position, text selection, and scrollbar position are preserved when switching back and forth between pedit and other applications [why didn't they think of this?].

    As soon as you enter EditView, please visit the Preferences... dialog which is located in the Options menu.


    instantHelp


    Let us discuss a new concept which I named instantHelp [© copyright Paul Nevai 1999-2000 & all rights reserved].

    Use EditView's ? button or "ESC ?" to invoke instantHelp.

    instantHelp

    Once instantHelp is active, tap any button for an explanation of its function. Tapping "ESC ?" again terminates instantHelp and you are back to regular EditView.

    Tapping anywhere while an instantHelp message is diplayed, terminates the message. Therefore, you don't need to wait until the countdown in the title bar reaches 0.

    I hope the concept of instantHelp will become standard in all Palm applications. Any interested party should contact me regarding licensing questions and the instantHelp SDK.


    Navigating EditView


    Here is a short summary of the appropriate navigation commands in EditView

    PageUp = ESC up-arrow = ESC chrBackspace = page up

    buttonShifted PageUp = ESC left-arrow = one line up

    PageDown = ESC down-arrow = ESC chrSpace = page down

    buttonShifted PageDown = ESC right-arrow = one line down

    and within your memo use these shortcuts

    jump to the beginning of current word = "ESC j b w" = "ESC s w left-arrow" = "ESC W left-arrow"

    jump to the end of current word = "ESC j f w" = "ESC s w right-arrow" = "ESC W right-arrow"

    jump to the beginning of current sentence = "ESC j b z" = "ESC s z left-arrow"

    jump to the end of current sentence = "ESC j f z" = "ESC s z right-arrow"

    jump to the beginning of current ScreenLine = "ESC A" = "ESC j b s"

    jump to the end of current ScreenLine = "ESC E" = "ESC j f S"

    jump to the beginning of current line = "ESC j b l" = "ESC s l left-arrow"

    jump to the end of current line = "ESC j f l" = "ESC s l right-arrow"

    jump to the beginning of current paragraph = "ESC j b l" = "ESC s l left-arrow"

    jump to the end of current paragraph = "ESC j b p" = "ESC s p right-arrow"

    Please look up in your graffiti reference how to enter the left-arrow and right-arrow characters. Basically, they consist of a left-right or a right-left job.

    Please note that buttonShifted PageUp and buttonShifted PageDown are sticky, that is, until the next buttonShift, they do not change their currently assigned behavior unless you quit EditView. Isn't this cool?

    For other methods of jumping from one place to another, please see the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu or the "J" button in EditView's buttonPanel.

    In addition, you can find some useful navigational macros here too.


    buttonShifts


    Let me speak for a moment of a revolutionary concept which I named buttonShift [© copyright Paul Nevai 1999-2000 & all rights reserved]. Using buttonShifts, some of the buttons in the buttonPanel can perform double duty roles. The way it works is as follows.

    The bottom right corner area of the EditView screen, where the graffiti shift indicator resides, just right to the buttonPanel, is the sweet spot for initiating a buttonShift.

    Once you tap there, a black rectangle shows up for a short period of time, and then a 2*2 pixel sized tiny black square indicates that buttonShift is on. You will see that a number of buttons will get inverted and remain inverted for approximately 2.5 seconds. Congratulations. You have just performed a buttonShift.

    buttonShift

    If you don't press a button for which the buttonShift is functional for 2.5 seconds or you perform an unrelated action, then the buttonShift gets deactivated until you activate it again. However, if you do press a buttonShift friendly button, then, as explained at the appropriate button descriptions, the action associated with that particular button will correspond to the shifted state.

    Please note that once buttonShifted, the PageUp and PageDown hard keys are sticky.

    I hope the concept of buttonShifts will become standard in all Palm applications. Any interested party should contact me regarding licensing questions and the buttonShift SDK.


    doubleTaps


    The Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu allows you to activate doubleTaps and to determine the time period during which the doubleTap indicator remains activated after the first leg of a doubleTap [100 ticks are equal to 1 second].

    If doubleTaps are allowed, then, after each tap on a portion of the text, a small indicator shows up right above the scrollbar, and, while this indicator is active, a second tap activates the Select... comand in EditView's Options menu with the location of the taps properly filled in.

    If you have MagicText installed in your Palm, then you can avoid undesired tap conflicts by performing the second tap sufficiently far away from the first one so that MagicText would not process it, and, therefore, pedit can take care of the double tap. In the latter case, you should study the ins and outs of MagicText so that you would know precisely if and when MagicText hijacks double taps.


    The Titlebar Statistics


    The displayable statistics is a summary of the state of your memo's capacity, the total number of bytes, the current cursor location, the coordinates of the current selection, if any, and the location of the cursor within the current line. The stats are displayed in EditView's title bar.

    Here is an example:

    Stats

    means that 8% of your memo's capacity is filled, there are 346 bytes in your memo, the text between bytes 104 and 109 is selected, and the cursor is at position 4 in the current line.

    The statistics can be toggled via the Stats on|off command in EditView's Options menu, or, even better, by tapping in the left 1/8th of the title bar [to the left from the small pixel visible just under the title bar].

    While in magiPad, the statistics are always displayed, and, therefore, the above described pixel is invisible.

    If there are more than 10,000 bytes in your memo [which only happens in pedit32] then pedit is running out of real estate in the title bar, and, therefore, the capacity information is omitted.

    Maybe I should explain that if there is no current text selection, then both the beginning and the end of the selection are defined as the coordinate of the current cursor position.

    If the statistics are hidden, then pedit looks like the good old Memo Pad so that, for instance, the current memo's category can be changed directly via the category trigger in the title bar [in addition to EditView's D button].

    By the way, pedit is 100% MenuHack friendly. MenuHack users should tap the title area to the right from the above mentioned pixel. The same goes for the built-in MenuHack support in OS 3.5 and up.

    As an experienced Palm operator, you know that MenuHack allows you to access the menu bar by tapping on the title of your memo, don't you?


    Segmented Memos


    Whether you use 4K memos or 32K memos, eventually you will find out that they fall short of your expectations of being able to edit [or write] "War and Peace" on your Palm.

    Unfortunately, as of September 25, 2000, the Palm operating system allows no larger than 32K text fields, and, to make matters worse, [a little less than] 64K is the size of the largest record you can create.

    In terms of a memo and in terms of a "newbie's" terminology, this means that the largest memo you could create can have no more than 64K characters in it, and even if you have such a huge memo, you can only view it. In order to be able to edit it, your memo must have no more than 32K characters.

    Even if you managed to create a large memo, after a HotSync job, your Palm DeskTop application would butcher [truncate] the poor soul.

    There are several options to circumvent this limitation.

    The best and most challenging solution is to write a text editor from scratch without relying on the Palm OS tool box. This a doable task although most likely this is not going to happen unless a dedicated professional text processor aficionado goes into action [she must be much better than I am].

    Another solution is to create "virtual" memos. Such memos are, in fact, a collection of a number of memos which appear to be one from certain, but not all, points of view. This is the approach taken by all the DOC editors. This works but, alas, all the current DOC editors are low on both features and speed, and they all fall short of [my admittedly not low] minimal expectations.

    EXAMPLE. Open up a large DOC file with either a DOC editor or a DOC reader, and try to select the entire text. Did you succeed?

    Enter pedit. Just like DOC editors, pedit can create "virtual" memos of practically arbitrary size, but, unlike DOC editors, pedit does not completely hide the technical details of such memos from the user.

    I call such "virtual" memos segmented memos, and I call the memos making up a segmented memo, its sister segments.

    Another way of conceptualizing such "virtual" memos is to think of them as a book with individual chapters, or sections, or pages.

    Timeout: Segments vs Chapters

    Even though from the purely technical point of view segments and chapters of a memo refer exactly to the very same concept, I will still use both words in conjunction with segmented memos.

    Once you learn pedit's export/import [see also here] business, and you start to examine your segmented memos, you will realize that the files have been split up without taking into consideration logical pauses in the text such as paragraphs, new lines. or spaces.

    Such operations allow you to move your memos between pedits, and between your Palm and the DeskTop.

    I will refer to such memos as segmented memos.

    On the other hand, when you write your great Aborigine novel, and you decide to start a new section or chapter, then you will use the New Chapter command in EditView's Edit+ menu. This will place you into a new memo which is a logical continuation of your previous memo and which will be treated as such by many of pedit's functions.

    When you are sitting on an important presentation, and you are taking notes with SkyIsLimit engaged, then your memos will be split up when you type a space or add a line.

    The resulting segments are more structured. You could say that you started a new page.

    In order to not confuse the situation even further, I will refer to the latter type of memos as consisting of segments.

    End of Timeout

    Just like chapters in a book have headers, so do segmented memos.

    A Segmented Memo

    Some peditors will view this as an annoyance, and some even asked me to hide such details from the user. Let me explain [some would say "rationalize"] my approach.

    Just like with the entire Palm OS, one of pedit's underlying philosophy is that speed and efficiency are essential. Very few peditors will read "War and Peace" patiently while their Palm and pedit are processing their precious memos.

    Therefore, pedit takes the approach that the segment information is kept with the memo itself in form of a segment header. This allows to minimize time spent on bookkeeping.

    For instance, when starting up pedit, there is practically no time spent on searching various sister files where bookkeeping information is kept, and there is no need to update such information.

    Note. There are two exceptions. First, pedit's preferences are loaded every time pedit is started. Second, pedit keeps track of the last 25 memos you have visited since you last cleared pedit's history [see the Recent... command in ListView's Navigate menu].

    Of course, if pedit gave up Memo Pad compatibility, then each memo could easily store extra information hidden from the user right with the memo itself. However, the rules of the game are set by Memo Pad and new rules can be defined only in accompanying sister files such as MemoHIST for pedit and Memo32HIST for pedit32.

    The structure of a segment header is as follows.

    
    123456... #segment.0020#
    2000/04/08 11:54:42 00DB2152
    Title: [and here come the first 64 letters of the first line of your memo].
    Category: [here is the category of your memo]
    !DO NOT TOUCH THIS LINE OR ABOVE!
    

    Here "123456" are the first 6 letters of your segmented memo, the four digit non-negative integer "0020" is the segment index, and "2000/04/08 11:54:42 00DB2152" is the timestamp which shows the creation date, time, and the unique ID number of the first member of your segmented memo.

    Note. The segment index must be a four digit non-negative integer. For instance "0000", "0001", and "1776" are valid, whereas "999" is invalid.

    pedit relies on the correctness of the information stored in the segment header. Therefore, I beg you that under no circumstances change anything in it.

    However, if you are a technically oriented peditor, then I tell you that you could change the title and the category in the header as long as you don't exceed the length limitations. If you do, then please keep in mind that in most operations pedit uses the title and category as defined in the very first segment of a segmented memo.

    Note. As of Palm OS 3.5, Palm file names can have no more than 31 characters, whereas Palm category names can have no more than 15 characters [plus a null terminator].

    You can also change the first 6 letters ["123456" in the above example] but if you do then you better change it in all the sister segments to the same.

    The following diagram, created by Paolo, is a visual representation of the structure of a segmented memo.

       ___________
      | <header1> |
      |           |
      | sister #1 |
      | ......... |
      | ..text... |
      |___________|
    
       ___________
      | <header2> |
      |           |
      | sister #2 |
      | ......... |
      | ..text... |
      |___________|
            .
            .
            .
       ___________
      | <headerN> |
      |           |
      | sister #N |
      | ......... |
      | ..text... |
      |___________|
    

    Tip. If you have a segmented memo and you want to disassociate one or more of its sister segments from the memo, just change the header a little bit. For instance, you could change "00DB2152" to "tmp 00DB2152" in the above example.

    Tip. If you have a segmented memo and you want to re-segment it [in order to even out the segment sizes], the easiest way to do it via exporting it and its sister segments to a DOC file, and then re-importing it.

    Tip. If you want to combine several of your pedit04 memos into one pedit32 memo, or several memos into one DOC file, then please read here.

    Tip. If you want to combine existing memos by adding segment links to them, then please read here.

    Tip. For the most convenient way to transport your segmented memo from pedit to your DeskTop and vice versa, please read here.

    Among others, segmented memos are used in exporting pedit32 memos to pedit04 memos [see the Export Category... command in ListView's Record menu, and the Export Memo... command in EditView's Record menu], in importation [see ListView's Record menu] of DOC files to pedit, and in the SkyIsLimit command in EditView's Edit+ menu.


    magiPad


    The MA button, that is, the M and A buttons in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] are a story on their own. Hence, I will discuss them separately from the general description of EditView's buttonPanel. They allow you to enter magiPad [© copyright Paul Nevai 1999-2000 & all rights reserved] and asciiPad, respectively. The latter is the same as magiPad with an added ASCII table.

    magiPad separator asciiPad

    Think of magiPad as a giantic scratch pad which can save [almost] up-to 32767 [2^15 - 1] characters. You can keep anything you wish in magiPad. It is always at your fingertips, and it allows you to paste anything from it back to your current memo. The way it works is as simple as possible.

    Here are the details. First, you enter magiPad either through EditView's M or A buttons. Entering via M shows a plain-vanilla scratch pad, and upon subsequent re-entries the state of the previous M visit will be restored, whereas the A button also adds a handy ASCII table, and puts the cursor to the very beginning of magiPad. In every other respect, the two methods are identical.

    Once in magiPad, either you position your cursor just before a character and hit the Qopy'n'Paste button, or you select any text, and then do the Qopy'n'Paste job. You will be instantaneously transferred back to your current memo, and the newly pasted item will be shown highlighted. If, prior to entering magiPad, you already selected some text, then upon returning via a Qopy'n'Paste job from magiPad, your selected text gets replaced by the new newly pasted item.

    Note. When doing a Qopy'n'Paste job, the usual 1000 character limit of the Palm OS on the size of copying to the clipboard does not apply.

    Note. Right after a Qopy'n'Paste job, the Undo command in EditView's Edit menu and its sister "U" button in EditView's buttonPanel are not functional.

    Note. If you change your mind after having accomplished a Qopy'n'Paste job, you can always undo it by using the Restore Memo... command in EditView's Record menu.

    Of course, you should keep your favorite phrases in magiPad so that they are always available for instant pasting into your memos.

    For instance, you could keep a short dictionary in it, or a thesaurus, or your publication list, or your CV, and so forth. The opportunities are limitless, up-to 2^15-1.

    Some peditors go even further. For instance, Margret has a magiPad category in her pedit which allows her to have the functionality of multiple magiPads.

    The ".C", that is, the ".Cancel" button enables you to leave magiPad without any further action except for possibly saving its contents.

    Both the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu and magiPad's "D" button allow you to decide whether or not to save the contents of magiPad upon exiting it. If you are bold enough to save the contents of magiPad, then the D button is displayed in bold font while in magiPad.


    EditView's Fonts


    The PopUp Font Trigger in the bottom right corner of EditView's screen and the Font..., command in EditView's Options menu allow you to change the display font in EditView.

    Note. You can switching between the last two display fonts in EditView [even while in an editable magiPad] via the buttonShifted "U" button in EditView's buttonPanel or by "ESC U" [upper case "U"].

    Thanks to Rick Bram, Steve C. Gilardi, Carl Osterwald, Ken Hancock, Harry Konstas, and Andrew Welch who allowed me to use their fonts and/or font utilities, pedit [except peditLight] has a number of custom fonts.

    fonts separator more fonts

    I strongly recommend using the mono-spaced fonts for regular text editing.

    The only [some would say fatal] flaw of the original Profont family of mono-spaced fonts is that they are almost completely screwed up when it comes to non-standard characters, including the international characters [ASCII 128 and up, and even some between 1 and 31].

    The reason for this defect is that that they were designed originally for the Macintosh, and then they were converted to the Palm as an afterthought. So, if you have a pre-4.09 version of pedit, please do not blame the creators of Profont.

    As of September 10, 2000, and as of version 4.09, I have great news for all Profont lover peditors. Michael J. Rider got fed up with the above described situation, and, with the generous permission of Steve C. Gilardi and Carl Osterwald, he fixed all of them.

    Hence, the Profont family in all current pedits is as perfect as the other mono-spaced fonts, that is Monaco, Courier, and TinyFont [aka HKFont] are.

    I am not in the font designing business. Therefore, please do not expect me to create new fonts for pedit.

    On the other hand, you are more than welcome to volunteer your services to the peditor community...


    Finding and Replacing Text


    I have invented [discovered?] and incorporated the [yet another] revolutionary magiFind'n'Replace and select'n'Search technologies. In addition, I put a twist on the search process via Palm's built-in FIND SilkScreen button. The latter is discussed here.

    All find functions in pedit are unrestricted as opposed to Palm's built-in SilkScreen "FIND" which matches the beginnings of words only.

    One enters the magiFind'n'Replace dialog either via the magiFind... command in EditView's Options menu or by tapping the "F" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].

    magiFind'n'Replace which has two text fields.

    magiFind'n Replace

    The top one displays Please enter search string... or, if your memo in EditView has a text selction, then it displays that particular text, or, if a search string has already been defined, then it displays that search string.

    For pedit's purposes, a string is any combination of characters in the 256 character ASCII table [excluding the '\0' character], including carriage returns and so forth (see magiPad).

    Once you are magiFind'n'Replace, you can create an arbitrary search string of length not exceeding 255.

    First, I tell you how to use the magiFind component or magiFind'n'Replace.

    Once you finished composing your search string, and after the Ign[ore] Case, Top Start[er], and Wrap check boxes have been appropriately set, hit the FindIt button.

    If the second text field in magiFind'n'Replace was left untouched or it is empty, then magiFind'n'Replace assumes that you initiated a search only operation and no automated replacement will take place.

    Thus you will be transported back to your memo in EditView, and then magiFind finds the first occurrence of the search string in your memo.

    Then use either the Find More command in EditView's Options menu or the "G" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] to find more occurrences of the same search string.

    Please note that magiFind works in context in the sense that the found string always shows up in the middle of the text field. GNU aficionados will see the similarity betweeen this and "grep --context".

    I will not insult your intelligence by explaining the meaning of the Ign[ore] Case check box except that I note for the benefit of non-native [broken] English speaking peditors that "case" refers to lower and/or upper case as in "pedit" as opposed to "pEdIt".

    In case [no pun intended] you did not figure it out yet, the Top Start[er] check box allows you to decide whether to start the search at the beginning [top] of your memo, or at the current cursor position.

    Similarly, Wrap means that the search continues at the beginning [top] once it had reached the end [bottom].

    There is also a straightforward plain-vanilla way to search without entering the magiFind'n'Replace window, namely via the double duty select'n'Search Find More command in EditView's Options menu or the "G" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].

    Just select a string and invoke Find More or hit the "G" button. This action will find the first occurrence of the same string in your memo located after the selected string. This can be repeated as many times as one wishes. When the end of your memo is reached, the search starts at the beginning of your memo again unless the Wrap option has been deselected.

    Please note that both Ign[ore] Case and Wrap can be controlled from both EditView's Options menu (see Case yes|no and Wrap yes|no) and from magiFind'n'Replace as well.

    So far I explained the case when the second text field in magiFind'n'Replace was left untouched or was empty so that you searched your memo only.

    On the other hand, if you entered a replacement string into this second text field, then magiFind'n'Replace assumes that you want to conduct a full featured magiFind'n'Replace operation, that is, a "global search and replace" operation in professional lingo, and, assuming that there is at least one proper match, it takes you to the magiFind'n'Replace View where a row of buttons on the bottom gives you full freedom whether to find [Find], replace [Peplace], replace and find [R & F], or replace all [All R].

    magiFind'n Replace View

    The "H" button is there for help.

    Just hit the Done button when you are finished to get back to your memo in EditView.

    If your search string has no match in your memo, then, instead of magiFind'n'Replace View, you are taken back immediately to your memo in EditView.

    In addition, the the bottom row of buttons, magiFind'n'Replace View also displays the usual stats on the top, and gives you a summary of the search [F:] and replacement [R:] strings right above the buttons at the bottom.

    If you initiated a replace all [All R] operation, you can always interrupt it by tapping anywhere either on the screen or the Graffiti input area of your Palm.

    Note. If the replacement string is defined as "\0" then the matched string will be deleted from the memo.

    Here is a neat trick. First copy a string, say "replace with" with the "C" button. Then select another string, say "replace me". Now use the "G" button to find occurrences of "replace me" and then hit the "P" button to replace it with "replace with". This can be repeated as many times as one wishes. The "G" button keeps searching for "replace me" and the "P" button keeps replacing it with "replace with". This is addictive!

    However, the same can be accomplished in a more professional way via the "F" button.

    Let me add that if you decide to turn off Ign[ore] Case then the "F" button is displayed in bold font. Similarly, if Wrap is turned off then the "G" button is displayed in bold font.


    EditView's Record Menu



    New Memo


    This command saves your current memo, and then it creates a new one.


    Delete Memo...


    This command allows you to delete your current memo and its sister segments. It is the non-batch version of the Delete Memo command in ListView's Record menu. Please see Delete Memo for further details.


    Beam Memo


    This command allows you to beam your current memo to another Palm. Even if your memo is segmented, it will beam only the currently displayed segment of your memo.

    For a more sophisticated beaming operation of individual memos, whether segmented or not, please see the Beam Memo command in ListView's Record menu for further details.

    The Beam Category command in ListView's Record menu is also related to this operation.


    Print Memo...


    This is the non-batch version of the Print Memo command in ListView's Record menu.


    Print Selection


    If you have Stevens Creek Software's PalmPrint, or TealPoint's TealPrint installed in your Palm, then this command prints out the currently selected text of your memo.

    It is related to the Print Memo command in EditView's Record menu and the Print Memo command in ListView's Record menu.


    Export Memo...


    This command operates similarly to Export Category... command in ListView's Record menu except that (i) it exports memos individually, (ii) it also exports to DOC format, and (iii) it allows you to create an export header.

    For the latter, please see the Add a Header command in EditView's Edit+ menu.

    When you see this dialog

    Export to pedit

    then you are in the pedit export mode. Please see the Export Category... command in ListView's Record menu for a detailed discussion.

    When you see this dialog

    Export to doc

    then you are in the doc export mode. This mode is the inverse of the Import Doc File... command in ListView's Record menu.

    First, select a title [file name] for your DOC file.

    Second, decide if you want to delete your memo and its sister segments after the export operation has completed.

    Third, if your memo is a pedit memo, then decide if you want to have an archival copy left on your PC.

    Once you have made these decisons, hit the export this memo + all its segments button and pedit takes care of the rest.

    For your convenience, pedit is smart enough to pick a proposed DOC file name. If the memo originated from a DOC file, then the original name is shown, or else the current text selection is used as the basis of a proposed name.

    QUESTION. Why can't I export my memo into a compressed DOC file?

    ANSWER. Quoting one of the US presidents, it is the speed, stupid. Simply put, crunching your memo into a compressed DOC file would take too much time.

    HINT. If you want to combine several of your pedit04 memos into one pedit32 memo, or several memos into one DOC file then proceed as follows.

    First, open up the intended first segment of your memo in pedit.

    Second, create an [export] header using either the create export header button in this Export Memo... command, or the Add a Header command in EditView's Edit+ menu.

    Third, copy this header into those memos which you want to export to as one single memo. Adjust the segment number 0010 appropriately.

    Finally, export one of them to pedit32 or a DOC file.

    Note. I should point out that the exported memo gets deleted from pedit only after the export operation went flawlessly so that your precious data are as safe as possible.


    Save Memo


    When you open up your current memo, a copy of it is saved automatically in a temporary file. That temporary file contains what we call last saved state of your memo.

    Such a saving takes place every time you open your current memo, that is, it also includes the times when you return from magiPad or you switch to your memo [see the Switcher (aka ">") command in EditView's buttonPanel].

    As you edit your memo, there is absolutely no need whatsoever to use this command to save your memo, since when you quit pedit, or switch to ListView, or open up another memo, your current memo is automatically saved.

    This is different from DeskTop applications where you must make decisions whether or not to save your files.

    However, it happens occasionally that you want to save your current memo after a few editing steps so that later on you could restore it to its last saved state.

    You can restore your current memo to its last saved state with the Restore Memo... command EditView's Record menu.

    This command is related to the BackUp button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].


    Restore Memo...


    This command restores your current memo to its last saved state.

    Please see the Save Memo command EditView's Record menu for further details.


    Insert Memo...


    This command allows you to insert into your current memo text from any other pedit04 or pedit32 memo or a selection thereof.

    The way it works is as follows.

    First, place your cursor in your current memo to the position where you want to insert text from another memo.

    Note. If you wish, you can also select text in your current memo and then the inserted text will overwrite your selection.

    Second, invoke the Insert Memo... command.

    This will place you into ListView where you can see p04Insert... or p32Insert... depending on what pedit you are currently running.

    Third, go to the memo you want to insert into your current memo. You can use any of the navigational tools, including the Switch command in ListView's Navigate menu which allows you to visit memos in the sister pedit.

    Fourth, either hit the Insert Memo button [aka "ESC i"], or make a text selection, and then hit the Insert Selec'n button [again aka "ESC i"].

    Note. In addition, to the Insert Memo or Insert Selec'n buttons, the title bar also reminds you that you are in the midst of an insertion operation.

    That's all. You will be taken back to you original memo where the insertion operations gets autoMagically completed right in front of your eyes.

    Note. pedit makes sure that you do not overstep the size limits of your current memo, and depending on the circumstances, it will warn you if you decide to insert too much text.

    Note. If you change your mind and you want to abort the insertion operation at any time, just go to ListView, and hit the bottom button labelled .Return to the Open Memo Mode, or pick any of the batcher commands in ListView's Record menu with the exception of the Preview Memo command which can assist you in finding the memo you want to insert into your current memo.

    Note. If you change you mind after the facts, then you can always use the Restore Memo... command in EditView's Record menu to alleviate the situation.


    "OK" & ".C" buttons


    If you are in EditView [but not in magiPad] then it takes you to ListView.

    If you are in magiPad then it takes you to EditView.

    This command is especially handy when EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] was removed via the Buttons on|off command in EditView's Edit+ menu.

    For you convenience, if you are in EditView, then "ESC return" also activates this command.

    In addition, if your current memo is empty, then "ESC ." takes you to ListView as well.


    EditView's Edit Menu



    Undo


    This is Palm's built-in undo operation. It undoes [reverses] some of your most recent editing operations such as typing, backspaces, delete, Paste, and Cut.

    Note. Palm's undo capabilities are rather limited. As of October 22, 2000, when 3.5.2 is the latest version of the Palm OS, the undo bufffer still holds no more than 100 characters.

    Note. When undo doesn't work, sometimes you can save the situation by using the Restore Memo... command in EditView's Record menu.

    This command is the same as the "U" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].


    Cut


    This is Palm's built-in cut operation. It copies the current selection to the text clipboard, and deletes the selection from the field.

    This command is the same as the "X" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].


    Copy


    This is Palm's built-in copy operation. It copies the current selection to the text clipboard.

    Note. The usual 1000 character limit of the Palm OS on the size of copying to the clipboard has been removed.

    This command is the same as the "C" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].


    Paste


    This is Palm's built-in paste operation. It replaces the current selection in the text, if any, with the contents of the text clipboard.

    This command is the same as the "P" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].


    Select All


    This command selects the entire text in your memo.


    Select...


    As of October 11, 2000, this has replaced the original Select... command in EditView's Edit menu.

    Text Selector

    It has been my experience that it is usually the sophisticated peditor [as opposed to "newbies"] who uses this command. Therefore, many of the text selector commands are quite sophisticated themselves in nature. If you are willing to invest a little extra time to get acquainted with them, they will provide for you an easy way to select text within your memo very fast and very efficiently.

    It may be a good idea to study carefully the description of the various text selector commands since not all of them operate in a completely self-evident fashion.

    I also recommend that you study the Select... and Jump to... commands [see EditView's Options menu] simultaneously since they share many features.

    Please do not forget to read this either. It explains how to repeat the last text selection.

    First, let us discuss the top line in the pedit ... selector dialog.

    When you start up the pedit ... selector dialog, you will see two numbers displayed in the vrom [from] and to fields. They represent the location of the first and last characters of the text which was selected [highlighted] just before entering the pedit ... selector dialog. If no text was selected, then these numbers coincide with the current cursor location.

    Note. Please do not forget to read about doubleTaps which help you to fill in the vrom and to fields fast and efficiently.

    Pressing the Select button ["ESC s"] takes you back to EditView and selects a range of characters in your memo starting with the value of the vrom field, and ending with the value of the to field.

    The vrom [from] field allows you to enter a non-negative integer which will be used as the location of the first character of the text selection to be performed when pressing the Select button.

    You may also pick the value of vrom field by pressing the vrom button [lower case "v"] which takes you back to EditView. Now you can either place your cursor anywhere in your memo, or make a text selection manually. Upon getting back into the pedit ... selector dialog again via the normal invocation of the dialog, the vrom field will be changed to the current location of your cursor in the former case, whereas in the latter case the value of the vrom field will be the beginning of the text selection you made in your memo.

    Note. This may sound more complicated than it is. Just go ahead and try it. I am pretty sure that after the first experiment it will become rather self-evident.

    Homework. Why did I spell from as vrom?

    Hint. Enter "f" and watch carefully.

    Similarly, the to field allows you to enter a non-negative integer which will be used as the location of the last character of the text selection to be performed when pressing the Select button.

    Again, you may also pick the value of to field by pressing the to button ["lower case "t"] which takes you back to EditView. Now you can either place your cursor anywhere in your memo, or make a text selection manually. Upon getting back into the pedit ... selector dialog again via the normal invocation of the dialog, the vrom field will be changed to the current location of your cursor in the former case, whereas in the latter case the value of the vrom field will be the end of the text selection you made in your memo.

    Note. The current values shown in the vrom and to fields are used by the various commands in the pedit ... selector dialog as the values of the start and the end of the current text selection in your memo.

    Note. Although you can enter any [at most 5 digit] non-negative integer in the vrom and to fields, pedit is smart enough to recognize when the number in the vrom field is greater than the number in the to field. If the latter happens, then, prior to any action, the to numbers are switched. In addition, pedit also recognizes if these numbers are greater than the size of your memo. If this is the case, then again, prior to any action, the numbers are reduced to the size of your memo. In other words, in what follows, we may assume without loss of generality that the number in the vrom field is no greater than the number in the to field, and that the number in the to field is at most the size of your memo.

    EXAMPLE. When you learn to use the Home button, you will see that the selection in your memo will end at the current value of the to field instead of the last highlighted character which was selected just prior to entering the pedit ... selector dialog. Of course, if you did not change the number in the to field, then the latter two values are the same.

    Next, let us discuss the second line in the pedit ... selector dialog.

    The Repeat # field allows you to enter a non-negative integer which will be used as the number of times the selected command will be performed.

    Note. Just to make your pedit experiences more pleasant, entering "V", "T", or "R" [upper case "V", "T", and "R"] always selects the number displayed in the vrom, to, or Repeat # fields, respectively, and makes that field focused. In addition, please don't hesitate to use the following shortcuts.

    PageUp = up-arrow = increases the number in the field which is focused

    PageDown = down-arrow = decreases the number in the field which is focused

    Note. Just to make your pedit experiences even more rewarding, entering SPACE or TAB will rotate the focus between the three number fields.

    EXAMPLE. For instance, if the Repeat # field contains the number "5" and the abs => push button is highlighted, and then you select the Word button, then the fifth word of your memo will be selected counting from the home position, that is, from top of your memo.

    EXAMPLE. For instance, if the Repeat # field contains the number "5", and you select the bWord button, then you will end up selecting the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, five more words will be selected backward counting from the character whose position is equal to the number in the vrom field.

    This may sound somewhat complicated and intimidating. However, just a few taps will convince you that it is easy and natural.

    Note. If you are an experienced peditor, then it is self-evident to you that the ESC key version of the above two examples are

    ESC s R 5 a w

    and

    ESC s R 5 b w

    respectively.

    Homework. What should and will happen if you enter

    ESC s f V 0 T 10 R 5 w

    as an ESC key shortcut?

    Note. When wanting to use the ESC key mechanism, please keep in mind that there is no need for an ESC key within the pedit ... selector dialog since there is no text field in it accepting alphabetical input [see here].

    Now we will discuss the Home and End buttons.

    The Home button selects all the text between the top [beginning] of your memo and the end of the current text selection as defined by the to field.

    ESC s h = selects from the beginning of your memo to the end of the current text selection

    ESC s T NUMBER h = selects from the beginning of your memo to the character whose location is "NUMBER"

    ESC s ST ST NUMBER h = selects from the beginning of your memo to the character whose location is "NUMBER"

    where ST stands either for a SPACE or TAB character. Note. In this case the value in the vrom field is irrelevant.

    EXAMPLE. "ESC s T 13 h" selects the first 13 characters of your memo.

    The End button selects all the text from the start of the current text selection, as defined by the vrom field, to the bottom [end] of your memo.

    ESC s e = selects from the start of the current text selection to the end of your memo

    ESC s V NUMBER e = selects from the character whose location is "NUMBER" to the end of your memo

    ESC s ST NUMBER e = selects from the character whose location is "NUMBER" to the end of your memo

    where ST stands either for a SPACE or TAB character.

    Note. In this case the value in the to field is irrelevant.

    EXAMPLE. "ESC s V 13 e" selects from the 13th character to the end of your memo.

    Next, let us discuss the groups of triplet buttons in the pedit ... selector dialog.

    Looking at the pedit ... selector screen, you can see three columns of five buttons each with labels bP%, P%, and fP%.

    In each of the rows the buttom labels are very similar, except that the buttons in left column start with the letter "b" [backward], and in the right column they start with the letter "f" [forward].

    In fact, typing the letter "b" once, puts you into a backward mode, whereas typing the same letter "b"again, takes you out of the backward mode and places you back to the default symmetric mode.

    Simlarly, typing the letter "f" once, puts you into a forward mode, whereas typing the same letter "f" again, takes you out of the forward mode and places you back to the default symmetric mode.

    In addition, there are two push buttons in the bottom right corner of the pedit ... selector screen called abs => and x <=>.

    Pushing abs => or typing "a" puts you into the absolute mode, whereas pushing x <=> or typing "x" puts you into the symmetric mode.

    Another way of changing modes is by typing "b", "f", or "a" [absolute], or "x" [symmetric] in any order you wish.

    The title bar of the pedit ... jumper screen always tells you which mode you are in.

    Note. If you use your stylus to tap buttons on the screen then you don't need to be concerned about the above described backward and forward modes although you still need to be able to differentiate between the absolute and symmetric modes. For the latter, just use the abs => and x <=> push buttons.

    If you are in the symmetric mode, then the middle column allows you to perform various text selections in a symmetric direction, that is, both left and right, starting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. This is what I define as a text selection in symmetric mode.

    If you are in the absolute mode, then the middle column allows you to perform various text selections starting from the home position, that is, from top of your memo. This is what I define as a text selection in absolute mode.

    Note. The home position of your memo is always the beginning [top] of your memo and the end is the very end of it [bottom].

    The left column allows you to to perform various text selections backward starting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. This is what I define as a a text selection in backward mode.

    The right column allows you to to perform various text selections forward starting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. This is what I define as a a text selection in forward mode.

    Notation. In the following discussion and tables "#" stands for the number which you entered in the Repeat # field. If the Repeat # field is empty or contains the number "0", then, depending on the function of the selected button, you may get a warning dialog reminding you to enter a number into that field.

    Notation. In addition, we also use the notation "x" and "y" for the values of the vrom and to fields, respectively.

    Now let us discuss the buttons themselves.

    The three "Character" buttons bChar, Character, and fChar allow you to select "#" characters counting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. The details are as follows.

    The bChar button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" characters backward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the vrom field.

    If you are in the default symmetric mode, then the Character button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and in addition, "#" characters are selected backward and forward counting from the characters whose positions are equal to the the numbers in the vrom and to fields, respectively.

    If you are in the absolute mode, then the Character button selects "#" characters counting from the beginning of your memo.

    Note. In this case the values in the vrom and to fields are irrelevant.

    The fChar button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" characters forward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the to field.

    ESC s NUMBER b c = selects from "x - NUMBER" to "y"

    ESC s NUMBER c = ESC s NUMBER x c = selects from "x - NUMBER" to "y + NUMBER"

    ESC s NUMBER a c = selects from the beginning of your memo to the character whose location is "NUMBER"

    ESC s NUMBER f c = selects from "x" to "y + NUMBER"

    where "x" and "y" are defined here.

    The three "Word" buttons bWord, Word, and fWord allow you to select "#" words counting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. The details are as follows.

    The bWord button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" words backward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the vrom field.

    If you are in the default symmetric mode, then the Word button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and in addition, "#" words are selected backward and forward counting from the characters whose positions are equal to the the numbers in the vrom and to fields, respectively.

    If you are in the absolute mode, then the Word button selects "#" words counting from the beginning of your memo.

    Note. In this case the values in the vrom and to fields are irrelevant.

    The fWord button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" words forward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the to field.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select word backward [bWord], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current word to the end of the current selection. Similarly, if the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select word forward [fWord], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current selection to the end of the the current word.

    EXAMPLE. If there is no current text selection in your memo, that is, "x" = "y" [see here] then

    ESC s 0 f w = selects at most one [partial] word from the current cursor to the end of the current word

    Note. However, there is a [useful] exception to the above rule when the repeat number "#" is equal to "0". Namely, if both the beginning and the end of the selected text happen to be inside the very same word gap, then that particular word gap is selected. This can be used to delete word gaps, that is, to join words.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" then the Word button is not functional.

    Note. See also here for the effects of the status of the Smart [select] check box.

    ESC s NUMBER b w = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" words backward from "x"

    ESC s NUMBER w = ESC s NUMBER x w = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" words backward from "x" and "NUMBER" words forward from "y"

    ESC s NUMBER a w = selects "NUMBER" words from the beginning of your memo

    ESC s NUMBER f w = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" words forward from "x"

    ESC s 0 b w = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one word backward from "x" [the last word is the selection may be partial]

    ESC s 0 f w = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one word forward from "y" [the first word is the selection may be partial]

    where "x" and "y" are defined here.

    Note. Typing the number "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    The three "Sentence" buttons bZent, Zentence, and fZent allow you to select "#" sentences counting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. The details are as follows.

    The bZent button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" sentences backward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the vrom field.

    If you are in the default symmetric mode, then the Zentence button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and in addition, "#" sentences are selected backward and forward counting from the characters whose positions are equal to the the numbers in the vrom and to fields, respectively.

    If you are in the absolute mode, then the Zentence button selects "#" sentences counting from the beginning of your memo.

    Note. In this case the values in the vrom and to fields are irrelevant.

    The fZent button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" sentences forward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the to field.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select sentence backward [bZent], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current sentence to the end of the current selection. Similarly, if the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select sentence forward [fZent], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current selection to the end of the the current sentence.

    EXAMPLE. If there is no current text selection in your memo, that is, "x" = "y" [see here] then

    ESC s 0 f z = selects at most one [partial] sentence from the current cursor to the end of the current sentence

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" then the Zentence button is not functional.

    Note. See also here for the effects of the status of the Smart [select] check box.

    ESC s NUMBER b z = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" sentences backward from "x"

    ESC s NUMBER z = ESC s NUMBER x z = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" sentences backward from "x" and "NUMBER" sentences forward from "y"

    ESC s NUMBER a z = selects "NUMBER" sentences from the beginning of your memo

    ESC s NUMBER f z = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" sentences forward from "y"

    ESC s 0 b z = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one sentence backward from "x" [the last sentence is the selection may be partial]

    ESC s 0 f z = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one sentence forward from "y" [the first sentence is the selection may be partial]

    where "x" and "y" are defined here.

    Note. Typing the "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    Note. I am sure you know that "Sentence" is spelled as "Zentence" above because "z" is the activator letter.

    The three "LineFeed" buttons bLine, LineFeed, and fLine allow you to select "#" lines counting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. The details are as follows.

    The bLine button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" lines backward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the vrom field.

    If you are in the default symmetric mode, then the LineFeed button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and in addition, "#" lines are selected backward and forward counting from the characters whose positions are equal to the the numbers in the vrom and to fields, respectively.

    If you are in the absolute mode, then the LineFeed button selects "#" lines counting from the beginning of your memo.

    Note. In this case the values in the vrom and to fields are irrelevant.

    The fLine button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" lines forward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the to field.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select line backward [bLine], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current line to the end of the current selection. Similarly, if the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select line forward [fLine], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current selection to the end of the the current line.

    EXAMPLE. If there is no current text selection in your memo, that is, "x" = "y" [see here] then

    Note. See also here for the effects of the status of the incl[ude] EOL check box.

    ESC s 0 f l = selects at most one [partial] line from the current cursor to the end of the current line

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" then the LineFeed button is not functional.

    ESC s NUMBER b l = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" lines backward from "x"

    ESC s NUMBER l = ESC s NUMBER x l = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" lines backward from "x" and "NUMBER" lines forward from "y"

    ESC s NUMBER a l = selects "NUMBER" lines from the beginning of your memo

    ESC s NUMBER f l = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" lines forward from "y"

    ESC s 0 b l = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one line backward from "x" [the last line is the selection may be partial]

    ESC s 0 f l = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one lines forward from "y" [the first line is the selection may be partial]

    where "x" and "y" are defined here.

    Note. Typing the "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    Note. Please do not forget that lines and ScreenLines are not the same objects.

    The three "Paragraph" buttons bPar, Paragraph, and fPar allow you to select "#" paragraphs counting from the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields. The details are as follows.

    The bPar button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" paragraphs backward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the vrom field.

    If you are in the default symmetric mode, then the Paragraph button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and in addition, "#" paragraphs are selected backward and forward counting from the characters whose positions are equal to the the numbers in the vrom and to fields, respectively.

    If you are in the absolute mode, then the Paragraph button selects "#" paragraphs counting from the beginning of your memo.

    Note. In this case the values in the vrom and to fields are irrelevant.

    The fPar button selects the range of characters as defined by vrom and to fields, and, in addition, "#" paragraphs forward counting from the character whose position is equal to the the number in the to field.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select paragraph backward [bPar], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current paragraph to the end of the current selection. Similarly, if the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you select paragraph forward [fPar], then you will end up selecting from the beginning of the current selection to the end of the the current paragraph.

    EXAMPLE. If there is no current text selection in your memo, that is, "x" = "y" [see here] then

    ESC s 0 f p = selects at most one [partial] paragraph from the current cursor to the end of the current paragraph

    Note. However, there is a [useful] exception to the above rule when the repeat number "#" is equal to "0". Namely, if both the beginning and the end of the selected text happen to be inside the very same paragraph trailer, then that particular trailer is selected. If EOLs are not included then the first linefeed is deselected. This can be used to delete trailer, that is, to join paragraphs, with or without joining lines.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" then the Paragraph button is not functional.

    Note. See also here for the effects of the status of the incl[ude] EOL check box.

    ESC s NUMBER b p = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" paragraphs backward from "x"

    ESC s NUMBER p = ESC s NUMBER x p = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" paragraphs backward from "x" and "NUMBER" paragraphs forward from "y"

    ESC s NUMBER a p = selects "NUMBER" paragraphs from the beginning of your memo

    ESC s NUMBER f p = selects from "x" to "y" and "NUMBER" paragraphs forward from "y"

    ESC s 0 b p = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one paragraph backward from "x" [the last paragraph is the selection may be partial]

    ESC s 0 f p = selects selects from "x" to "y" and at most one paragraphs forward from "y" [the first paragraph is the selection may be partial]

    where "x" and "y" are defined here.

    Note. Typing the "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    Note. Please do not forget to check what paragraphs really are.

    If the Smart [select] box [upper case "S"] is checked, and you are selecting words or sentences, then all trailing strict spaces are also included in the selection. A strict space is defined as a regular SPACE or TAB character and a few additional exotic space-like characters which may depend on the particular Palm operating system.

    If the Forth w[ord] box [upper case "F"] is checked then, by definition, words are separated from each other by white spaces only unlike in regular spoken languages where punctuation signs also separate words. For instance,if Forth rules,then this sentence contains ten words only.

    If the incl[ude] EOL [EOL means "end-of-line"] box [lower case "i"] is checked, and you are selecting lines, then the text selection will also include the nearest trailing carriage return characters. This is is useful when selecting text which extends over several lines.

    If the incl[ude] EOL box [lower case "i"] is checked, and you are selecting paragraphs, then the text selection will also include the nearest paragraphs trailers. This is is useful when selecting text which extends over several paragraphs.

    Note. What the heck is a paragraphs trailer? It refers to the stuff you cannot see between paragraphs. It consists of SPACE, TAB characters squeezed between linefeeds [carriage returns].

    The .Cncl [.Cancel] button ["ESC s." - but why] aborts the text selection operation and takes you back to EditView.

    The Marker button ["ESC sm"] selects text in your memo depending on the current text selection, as defined by the vrom and to fields, and the marker [see the Set Marker command in EditView's Edit menu].

    The rules are as follows.

    If there is no text selection in your memo, that is, both the vrom and to fields have the same value, then tapping the Marker button selects text between the marker and the current cursor location as defined by the vrom field.

    EXAMPLE. If both the vrom and to fields contain the number 1918 and the marker is located at position 1939, and you enter "ESC sm" then the text selction will contain all the characters from 1918 to 1939.

    Homework. What will happen if you enter "ESC sV1945T1945m" instead of "ESC sm" in the above example?

    When there is a text selection in your memo then the situation is a little more complicated.

    If the marker position is outside the range of the selected text, as defined by the vrom and to fields, then tapping the Marker button extends the selection of the text to the marker.

    EXAMPLE. If the vrom field contains the number 1914 and the to field contains the number 1918 and the marker is located at position 1939, and you enter "ESC sm" then the text selction will contain all the characters from 1914 to 1939.

    Homework. What will happen if you enter "ESC sV1945T1956m" instead of "ESC sm" in the above example?

    If the marker position is inside the range of the selected text, as defined by the vrom and to fields, then tapping the Marker button has no effect.

    If you have a better idea what should happen in the latter case, please let me know.

    EXAMPLE. If the vrom field contains the number 1914 and the to field contains the number 1945 and the marker is located at position 1939, and you enter "ESC sm" then the text selction will contain all the characters from 1914 to 1945.

    Note. All the text selection commands are sticky in the sense that the last text selection command can be repeated by simply either doing a buttonShifted "S" job in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], or by entering "ESC S" [capitalized "S"]. Of course, once you quit your memo or magiPad, the last text selection becomes history.


    The original version of "Select..."


    As of October 11, 2000, this has been replaced by the brand new Select... command in EditView's Edit menu.

    I kept the old version of "Select..." in this manual for two reason. First, there are many peditors who are somewhat slow in upgrading their pedits. Second, this gives a chance to see pedit in progress.

    This command brings up the text selector window which allows a myriad customizable text selections.

    Text Selector

    All buttons and check boxes can be activated by entering the first letters of their labels. Switching between the number fields can be achieved by entering SPACE or TAB.

    Here is a neat example. Perform a doubleTap with the consecutive component taps in two different areas of your text. This brings up the text selector window where you hit the Word button. Voila, the words containing the two taps and, in addition, all the words between the two taps become selected.

    If the smart select box is checked then all trailing strict spaces are also included in the selection. A strict space is defined as a regular space or tab character and a few exotic space-like characters which may depend on the particular Palm operating system.

    If the Forth word box is checked then, by definition, words are separated from each other by white spaces only unlike in regular spoken languages where punctuation signs also separate words.

    If the include EOL [EOL means "end-of-line"] box is checked then the text selection will also include the nearest trailing carriage return character. This is is useful when selecting text which extends over several lines.

    As a convenient shortcut, in EditView "ESC S" selects all text in the memo just like the Select All command in EditView's Edit menu so that there is no need to open up the text selector window for this operation [which, by the way, responds to "ESC s"].

    Another time saving shortcut in EditView is "ESC W" which selects the word surrounding the cursor.


    Set Marker


    Use this command to set the marker at the current cursor position.

    If you have some text selected while you use this command then the marker is set to the beginning of your selected text.

    Once a marker is set, you can always jump back to it from an arbitrary location via a tap on the "J" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], and then selecting the Marker button, or simply by entering "ESC jm".

    In this case the marker will move to the current cursor, and the cursor moves to the original location of the marker. In other words, the marker and the cursor exchange their coordinates.

    Once a marker is set, you can always select text from the marker by tapping the "S" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], and then selecting the Marker button, or simply by entering "ESC sm".

    Please see here in the description of the Select... command in EditView's Options menu for more details about selecting text from the marker.

    Note. If the text of your memo changes, then the marker is deselected automatically, and, therefore, it becomes history.


    Visit Marker


    If you have already set the marker, then use this command to visit it. It takes you to the marker, blinks it for a couple of fractions of a second, and then takes you back to your current cursor location.

    Note. This command is different from jumping to the marker [see the Set Marker command in EditView's Edit menu].


    Keyboard


    This command pops up Palm's built-in virtual keyboard so that you can edit your memo while pretending that you are in fact typing.


    Graffiti Help


    This command pops up the Graffiti Reference Dialog.


    Help...


    This command opens the help dialog which is mostly [but not always] context sensitive.


    magiPad in|out


    This command is the same as the "A" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], and it is described in details where magiPad is discussed.


    EditView's Edit+ Menu



    Auto Indent...


    This command brings up the Auto Indent and Shift Preferences window.

    Auto Indent

    Auto indenting and shifting allow your Palm to be used as a serious program source code editing tool, and the opportunities outside the scope of programming are limited by your imagination only.

    If you are a programmer, you don't need any explanation whatsoever. If you aren't, then let me just say that after you adjusted your preferences here, and if you enabled automatic indentation, then every new line inherits the indentation [the white space characters] of the previous line as long as neither Palm's built-in virtual keyboard nor pasting is used for entering text.

    Since it is much easier to explain this on an example, here is one.

    For instance, typing

    # comment
    

    the next line will have an autoMagic "# " ["#" and "SPACE"] in the beginning of it as long as you check the space character is white space and the extra white space character boxes and define the latter character as "#".

    If you enter a carriage return after the word "comment" and then you enter "pedit" then you will have

    # comment
    # pedit
    

    Did you get it? If not, please try it.

    We will define the collection of characters which get reproduced by entering a carriage return to be the line indentation header.

    In the example above the line indentation header consists of "SPACE" and "#".

    If the allow automatic indentation box ["ESC a"] is checked then auto indentation in enabled.

    QUESTION. How do I know if I enabled auto indentation?

    ANSWER. Look for the small 2*2 pixel sized black square just above EditView's scroll bar.

    If the space character is white space box ["ESC s"] is checked then auto indentation assumes that the SPACE character is part of the line indentation header.

    If the tab character is white space box ["ESC t"] is checked then auto indentation assumes that the TAB character is part of the line indentation header.

    If the extra white space character box ["ESC e"] is checked then auto indentation assumes that the character in the field next to the check box is part of the line indentation header.

    The SPACE, TAB, and XTR push buttons determine which character gets added in front of the shifted line once you perform a right-shift [see EditView's Edit+ menu].

    The two number fields below the push buttons determine the number of shift charaters which are added or deleted when performing right-shifts or left-shifts, respectively [see EditView's Edit+ menu].

    Note. Just to make your pedit experiences more rewarding, entering SPACE or TAB will rotate the focus between the three entry fields. In addition, please don't hesitate to use the following shortcuts.

    PageUp = up-arrow = increases the number in the field which is focused

    PageDown = down-arrow = decreases the number in the field which is focused

    as long as the focused field expects a number input.


    Shift Left


    This command is related to what many programmers would call block indentation.

    I recommend that you use one of the mono-spaced fonts while shifting so that you would have a perfect visual feedback of what you have accomplished.

    If no text is selected in the current memo, then this command (i) selects the line where your cursor is currently located, and (ii) shifts the entire line to the left.

    If there is a text selection in the current memo, then this command (i) selects all the lines surrounding your current text selection, and (ii) shifts those lines to the left.

    The quality and quantity of the shift depend on the definition of white space characters and the size of left shifts which are defined in the Auto Indent... dialog in EditView's Edit+ menu.

    Please keep in mind that a line is not necessarily what you think a line is. Please check out the definition of lines here.

    The analogous right shifts are performed by invoking the Shift Right command in EditView's Edit+ menu.


    Shift Right


    This command is related to what many programmers would call block indentation.

    I recommend that you use one of the mono-spaced fonts while shifting so that you would have a perfect visual feedback of what you have accomplished.

    If no text is selected in the current memo, then this command (i) selects the line where your cursor is currently located, and (ii) shifts the entire line to the right.

    If there is a text selection in the current memo, then this command (i) selects all the lines surrounding your current text selection, and (ii) shifts those lines to the right.

    The quality and quantity of the shift depend on the definition of right shift character and the size of right shifts which are defined in the Auto Indent... dialog in EditView's Edit+ menu.

    Please keep in mind that a line is not necessarily what you think a line is. Please check out the definition of lines here.

    The analogous left shifts are performed by invoking the Shift Left command in EditView's Edit+ menu.


    SkyIsLimit on|off


    If SkyIsLimit is on then a "*" [sky => star] appears right next to the "H" button in EditView's Button Panel.

    SkyIsLimit allows you to create 4Mb and 32Mb virtual memos in pedit and pedit32, respectively. Please note that I am referring to "Mb" and not "Kb". Of course, as most of you will find out, 32Mb is rarely reachable unless your sister works for one of those companies which make Palm clones.

    This feature was primarily created for those peditors who hook up their Palm to an external keyboard [or the other way around, depending one's outlook on life], and then they pretend that they have a full featured laptop computer. Boy, they are right!

    With SkyIsLimit you can take notes at meetings lasting hours and hours and/or you can write the great American [or any other nation's] novel right on your Palm.

    The way this works is as follows.

    If you are typing into a memo [except for the built-in virtual keyboard], and

    and and

    then a new memo

    A Segmented Memo

    is created autoMagically which starts like

    
    123456... #segment.0020#
    2000/04/08 11:54:42 00DB2152
    Title: [and here come the first 64 letters of the first line of your memo].
    Category: [here is the category of your memo]
    !DO NOT TOUCH THIS LINE OR ABOVE!
    

    and then you can continue typing where the cursor is.

    Here "123456" are the first 6 letters of your memo.

    When you fill up segment.0020, then segment.0030 is created, and so forth. It is easier to experience this than to describe it, so please go ahead and play with it.

    Since each of your memos is filled up to 75% of its maximum capacity, you have plenty of real estate for additions, corrections, editing, and so forth.

    QUESTION. How do I know if my 75% limit is approaching?

    ANSWER. Turn on the displayable statistics.

    When you do a HotSync job, you can join your segments on your DeskTop any way you want it.

    Of course, you can also export your segmented memo and its sister segments into a DOC file using the Export Memo... command in EditView's Record menu, and then, by the time it hits your DeskTop, it will be a single DOC file.

    Needless to say, this process is reversible.

    I can almost guarantee you that you will love SkyIsLimit. Here is a tip. If you don't care for it, then don't use it.


    New Chapter


    We use the word chapter and segment interchangably. If you are writing a novel, then chapter is the right word. If you take notes, then segment [or even page] is perhaps more appropriate.

    There is a subtle difference between chapters and segments. Usually, but not always, chapters are broken at logical interruptions, whereas segments may be broken anytime whenever pedit decides that it is time to start a new segment.

    Please see here for a more detalied discussion of segments vs chapters.

    With this command, whether or not SkyIsLimit is active, you can always force the creation of a new segment whose segment index will be right after the segment index of your current memo.

    If your current memo is not yet segmented then it will be given a header prior to placing you into a new segment.

    Whenever you use this command, the segment indices of your memo and its sister segments get automatically readjusted so that if you added some segments manually to your memo then the new segment indices will be again in multiples of ten.


    Go to Prev Chap


    If your current memo is segmented and the current segment is not the first one, then this command takes you to the bottom of the previous segment of your memo.

    If you are at the top of your memo then hitting the PageUp button has the same effect as this command.

    Note. If the previous segment was already visited and it is invoked via the segmentSwitcher ["V" aka "$"] button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], then the previous memo vitals are restored.


    Go to Next Chap


    If your current memo is segmented and the current segment is not the last one, then this command takes you to the top of the next segment of your memo.

    If you are at the bottom of your memo then hitting the PageDown button has the same effect as this command.

    Note. If the next segment was already visited and it is invoked via the segmentSwitcher ["V" aka "$"] button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], then the previous memo vitals are restored.


    Reindex Chaps


    With this command, if your current memo is segmented, then the segment indices of your memo and its sister segments get automatically readjusted so that if you added some segments manually to your memo then the new segment indices will be again in multiples of ten.


    Add a Header


    A memo header

    A Header

    contains all the essential information regarding your memo which is used both in the SkyIsLimit feature and in exporting several memos into one pedit32 memo or DOC file. The details are explained here.

    QUESTION. Why do I need to create header?

    ANSWER. So that you can create segments manually which can be combined into one pedit32 memo or DOC file via an export job.

    Once you have a header, you can use it as a template to paste it to the top of other memos so that they would create one family of segmented memos.

    Please make sure that you adjust the segment number appropriately in each of the segments so that they would be ordered exactly the way you want it. Any (exactly) 4 digit number can be used such as 0002 and 1976.


    Add a DateStamp


    This command inserts a date'n'time stamp of the form

    2000/04/08 11:54:42

    into your memo at the current cursor location if there is no current text selection in your memo, and replaces the latter by a date'n'time stamp if there is one.


    Buttons on|off


    This command allows you to toggle EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] on and off.

    When it is off, that is, when you are in the full screen edit mode, then the text editing field is slightly larger which seems to please many pedit aficionados.

    I personally love the buttonPanel [see also here] and would never turn it off.

    This selection is sticky in the sense that it survives visits to ListView and to other applications.


    EditView's Options Menu



    Font...


    This command yields another way of changing fonts in EditView. Please see EditView's Fonts for more details.


    Visit Top


    This command allows you to examine the beginning of your memo. The location of the cursor remains unchanged. If you want to move your cursor as well, then please use the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu.


    Jump to...


    As of September 11, 2000, this has replaced the original Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu.

    Jumper

    It has been my experience that it is usually the sophisticated peditor [as opposed to "newbies"] who uses this command. Therefore, many of the jumper commands are quite sophisticated themselves in nature. If you are willing to invest a little extra time to get acquainted with them, they will provide for you an easy way to navigate within your memo very fast and very efficiently.

    It may be a good idea to study carefully the description of the various jumper commands since not all of them operate in a completely self-evident fashion.

    I also recommend that you study the Select... [see EditView's Options menu] and Jump to... commands simultaneously since they share many features.

    Please do not forget to read this either. It explains how to repeat the last jump.

    The Repeat # field allows you to enter a non-negative integer which will be used as the number of times the selected command will be performed.

    Note. Just to make your pedit experiences more pleasant, entering "r" always selects the number displayed in the Repeat # field. In addition, please don't hesitate to use the following shortcuts.

    PageUp = up-arrow = increases the number in the Repeat # field

    PageDown = down-arrow = decreases the number in the Repeat # field

    For instance, if the Repeat # field contains the number "5", and you select the Word button, then your cursor will jump to the fifth word of your memo counting from the home position, that is, from top of your memo.

    If the Forth w[ord] box [upper case "F"] is checked then, by definition, words are separated from each other by white spaces only unlike in regular spoken languages where punctuation signs also separate words. For instance,if Forth rules,then this sentence contains ten words only.

    Looking at the pedit ... jumper screen, you can see three columns of six buttons each and another set of three buttons under them with labels bP%, P%, and fP%.

    In each of the rows the buttom labels are very similar, except that the buttons in left column start with the letter "b" [backward], and in the right column they start with the letter "f" [forward].

    In fact, typing the letter "b" once, puts you into a backward mode, whereas typing the same letter "b"again, takes you out of the backward mode and places you back to the default absolute mode.

    Simlarly, typing the letter "f" once, puts you into a forward mode, whereas typing the same letter "f" again, takes you out of the forward mode and places you back to the default absolute mode.

    Another way of changing modes is by typing "b", "f", or "a" [absolute] in any order you wish.

    The title bar of the pedit ... jumper screen always tells you which mode you are in.

    Note. If you use your stylus to tap buttons on the screen then you don't need to be concerned about the above described backward, forward, and absolute modes.

    The middle column allows you to jump to various cursor positions starting from the home position, that is, from top of your memo. This is what I define as a jump in absolute mode.

    Note. The home position of your memo is always the beginning [top] of your memo and the end is the very end of it [bottom] with the exception of ScreenLine jumps when home and end refer to the top and bottom of the currently visible screen on your Palm.

    The left column allows you to jump backward to various cursor positions starting from the current position of your cursor. This is what I define as a jump in backward mode.

    The right column allows you to jump forward to various cursor positions starting from the current position of your cursor. This is what I define as a jump in forward mode.

    Note. If there is a text selection in your memo, then, in the context of jumping, the current cursor position depends on the direction of your jump. If you jump backward, then we define the current cursor position as the beginning of your text selection, whereas otherwise the current cursor position is defined as the end of your text selection.

    Note. As of September 25, 2000, the only exception to this rule is when you perform ScreenLine jumps. As soon as we figure out a meaningful implementation of ScreenLine jumps with text selections, we will update this rule as well.

    EXAMPLE. For instance, if the Repeat # field contains the number "5", and you select the bWord button, then your cursor will jump backward to the fifth word of your memo counting from the current cursor position.

    EXAMPLE. For instance, if the Repeat # field contains the number "5", and you select the fWord [no pun intended whatsoever] button, then your cursor will jump forward to the fifth word of your memo counting from the current cursor position.

    Note. If you are an experienced peditor, then it is self-evident to you that the ESC key version of the above two examples are

    ESC j 5 b w

    and

    ESC j 5 f w

    respectively.

    Homework. What should and will happen if you enter

    ESC j 5 w

    as an ESC key shortcut?

    Note. When wanting to use the ESC key mechanism, please keep in mind that there is no need for an ESC key within the pedit ... jumper dialog since there is no text field in it accepting alphabetical input [see here].

    Notation. In the following discussion and tables "#" stands for the number which you entered in the Repeat # field. If the Repeat # field is empty or contains the number "0", then, depending on the function of the selected button, you may get a warning dialog reminding you to enter a number into that field.

    Now let us discuss the buttons themselves.

    The three "Character" buttons allow you to jump backward [bChar] or forward [fChar] exactly "#" characters from your current cursor position, or to jump to the "#th" character [Character] counting from the top of your current memo.

    ESC j NUMBER b c = jump the cursor backward by "NUMBER" characters relative to the current cursor position

    ESC j NUMBER c = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" characters counting from the top of your memo

    ESC j NUMBER f c = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" characters relative to the current cursor position

    The three "Word" buttons allow you to jump backward [bWord] or forward [fWord] exactly "#" words from your current cursor position, or to jump to the "#th" word [Word] counting from the top of your current memo.

    ESC j NUMBER b w = jump the cursor backward by "NUMBER" words relative to the current cursor position

    ESC j NUMBER w = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" words counting from the top of your memo

    ESC j NUMBER f w = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" words relative to the current cursor position

    Note. Typing the number "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    The three "Sentence" buttons allow you to jump backward [bZent] or forward [fZent] exactly "#" sentences from your current cursor position, or to jump to the "#th" sentence [Zentence] counting from the top of your current memo.

    ESC j NUMBER b z = jump the cursor backward by "NUMBER" sentences relative to the current cursor position

    ESC j NUMBER z = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" sentences counting from the top of your memo

    ESC j NUMBER f z = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" sentences relative to the current cursor position

    Note. I am sure you know that "Sentence" is spelled as "Zentence" above because "z" is the activator letter.

    Note. Typing the number "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    The three ScreenLine buttons are perhaps the trickiest components of my beloved pedit.

    Note. If you don't yet know what a ScreenLine is, please read about it here before you continue.

    If you are brave enough to explore, you will be amazed to find out that, in fact, these three buttons hide no less [and no more] than six buttons. Namely, each of the three is spilt into two buttons.

    The reason is simple. Each ScreenLine has two ends, namely, a left end and a right one. Since the Palm screen real-estate is at a premium, I had to do a splitter-upper job to be able to accommodate jumping to both the right and left ends of a ScreenLine.

    ESC j NUMBER b s = jump the cursor to the beginning of the ScreenLine which is by "NUMBER" ScreenLines backward relative to the current ScreenLine

    ESC j NUMBER s = jump the cursor to the beginning of ScreenLine number "NUMBER" relative to the top of the current screen.

    ESC j NUMBER f s = jump the cursor to the beginning of the ScreenLine which is by "NUMBER" ScreenLines forward relative to the current ScreenLine

    Note. Typing the number "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    Identical commands allow you to jump to the "end" of ScreenLines except that you have to replace the lower cased "s" by the upper cased "S". Namely,

    ESC j NUMBER b S = jump the cursor to the end of the ScreenLine which is by "NUMBER" ScreenLines backward relative to the current ScreenLine

    ESC j NUMBER S = jump the cursor to the end of ScreenLine number "NUMBER" relative to the top of the current screen.

    ESC j NUMBER f S = jump the cursor to the end of the ScreenLine which is by "NUMBER" ScreenLines forward relative to the current ScreenLine

    Note. Typing the number "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    QUESTION. How come that if the cursor is at the beginning of a ScreenLine and the previous ScreenLine does not end with a linefeed [carriage return], and I want to move to the end of the same ScreenLine, then I end up at the end of the previous ScreenLine instead of the current one? There is a similar problem if I use a repeat number "#" different from "1".

    ANSWER. The Palm OS does not differentiate between the beginning of a ScreenLine and the end of the previous ScreenLine if the previous ScreenLine does not end with a linefeed [carriage return]. All peditors can verify this by turning on the stats in the title bar, and then by going to the beginning of a ScreenLine and entering a left arrow-character or a backspace Graffiti character. You will see that, if the previous ScreenLine did not end with a linefeed, then the stats remain unchanged, that is, the cursor position remained the same.

    SOLUTION. Move your cursor to the right, and then do the jump.

    The three "Line" buttons allow you to jump backward [bLine] or forward [fLine] exactly "#" lines from your current cursor position, or to jump to the "#th" line [LineFeed] counting from the top of your current memo.

    ESC j NUMBER bl = jump the cursor backward by "NUMBER" lines relative to the current cursor position

    ESC j NUMBER l = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" lines counting from the top of your memo

    ESC j NUMBER f l = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" lines relative to the current cursor position

    Note. Typing the number "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    Note. Please do not forget that lines and ScreenLines are not the same animals.

    The three "Paragraph" buttons allow you to jump backward [bPar] or forward [fPar] exactly "#" paragraphs in your memo starting from your current cursor position, or to jump to the "#th" paragraph in your memo [Paragraph] counting from the top of your current memo.

    Note. Please do not forget to check what paragraphs really are.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you jump backward [bPar], then you will end up at the beginning of the current paragraph. Similarly, if the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you jump forward [fPar], then you will end up at the end of the current paragraph.

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is equal to "0" and you are not inside a paragraph, then jumping backward [bPar] or forward [fPar] is not allowed,

    Note. If the repeat number "#" is positive and you jump backward [bPar], then you will end up at the end of the chosen paragraph. Similarly, if the repeat number "#" is positive and you jump forward [fPar] or you are in the absolute mode [Paragraph], then you will end up at the beginning of the chosen paragraph.

    ESC j NUMBER b p = jump the cursor backward by "NUMBER" paragraphs relative to the current cursor position

    ESC j NUMBER p = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" paragraphs counting from the top of your memo

    ESC j NUMBER f p = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" paragraphs relative to the current cursor position

    Note. Typing the number "NUMBER" above is optional. If you leave it out then its default value "1" is used as the "NUMBER".

    The three "Percent" buttons allow you to jump backward [b%] or forward [f%] exactly "#" percent of the total number of characters in your memo starting from your current cursor position, or to jump to the "#th" percent of the total number of characters in your memo [%] counting from the top of your current memo.

    ESC j NUMBER b % = jump the cursor backward by "NUMBER" percent relative to the current cursor position

    ESC j NUMBER % = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" percent counting from the top of your memo

    ESC j NUMBER f % = jump the cursor forward by "NUMBER" percent relative to the current cursor position

    The Home and End buttons ["ESC j h" and "ESC j e"] move the cursor to the top and the bottom of your current memo, respectively.

    The .Cncl [.Cancel] button ["ESC j ." - but why] aborts the jumper operation and takes you back to EditView.

    The Gursor [Cursor] button ["ESC j g"] makes you jump directly to the current location of the cursor. This is especially useful when you visited another part of your [huge] memo, and you wish to get back to your current editing position.

    The TopLeft button ["ESC j t"] jumps the cursor to the top left corner of the currently visible screen.

    The Marker button ["ESC j m"] jumps the cursor to the marker location [see the Set Marker command in EditView's Edit menu].

    In this case the marker will move to the current cursor, and the cursor moves to the original location of the marker. In other words, the marker and the cursor exchange their coordinates.

    Note. When jumping, the cursor always ends up where one jumps to. This is in contrast to the Visit Top and Visit Bottom commands in EditView's Options menu which only visit the corresponding locations without actually moving the cursor there.

    Note. Here are three convenient shortcuts [a la emacs] which can be used directly from EditView.

    ESC A = jump the cursor to the beginning of the current ScreenLine

    ESC E = jump the cursor to the end of the current ScreenLine

    ESC N = jump the cursor to the top of the currently visible screen

    Note. Whenever it is feasible, the jumper functions work in context in the sense that the cursor shows up in the middle of the text field.

    Note. Please keep in mind that the enumeration starts with "1". Hence, for instance, if you wish to jump the cursor to the beginning of the second line on the currently visible screen then you need to enter "2" into the Repeat # field. The corresponding keyboard command is "ESC j2bs".

    Note. All the jumper commands are sticky in the sense that the last jumper command can be repeated by simply either doing a buttonShifted "J" job in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], or by entering "ESC J" [capitalized "J"]. Of course, once you quit your memo or magiPad, the last jump becomes history.


    The original version of "Jump to..."


    As of September 11, 2000, this has been replaced by the brand new Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu.

    I kept the old version of "Jump to..." in this manual for two reason. First, there are many peditors who are somewhat slow in upgrading their pedits. Second, this gives a chance to see pedit in progress.

    This command needs no explanation, except that the myriad fields can be rotated by entering SPACE or TAB, and, in addition, a la Windows style, they can also be accessed directly by entering the underlined letters.

    Jumper

    When jumping, the cursor always ends up where one jumps to. This is in contrast to the Visit Top and Visit Bottom commands in EditView's Options menu which only visit the corresponding locations without actually moving the cursor there.

    A handy shortcut is "ESC N" which places the cursor to the top of the currently visible screen.

    The cursor button makes you jump directly to the current location of the cursor. This is especially useful when you visited another part of your [huge] memo, and you wish to get back to your current editing position.


    Visit Bottom


    This command allows you to examine the end of your memo. The location of the cursor remains unchanged. If you want to move your cursor as well, then please use the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu.


    magiFind...


    This command is the same as the "F" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].

    Please go to here for more details.


    Find More


    This command is the same as the "G" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].

    Please go to here for more details.


    Case yes|no


    This is just a handy shortcut to toggling the Ign[ore] Case check box in the magiFind'n'Replace dialog which is explained here where the magiFind... command in EditView's Options menu is discussed.

    In a nutshell, this controls whether all find and search operations are case sensitive.


    Wrap yes|no


    This is just a handy shortcut to toggling the Wrap check box in the magiFind'n'Replace dialog which is explained here where the magiFind... command in EditView's Options menu is discussed.

    In a nutshell, this controls whether all find and search operations are going to stop once they reach the end of your memo, or else, they will go back to the start of your memo and continue what they are engaged in.


    Stats on|off


    This command toggles the statistics displayed in the title bar.


    Phone Lookup


    This command calls Palm's built-in Address Book application to lookup a phone number.

    If there is some selected text in your memo and if there is a match, then the selected text will be replaced with the phone number.

    If there is no selected text and there is a match, then the phone number is placed to the current cursor location.

    If there is no match, the function displays the Address Book short list.


    Preferences...


    This is EditView's Preferences... dialog.

    EditView Preferences

    The first two check boxes are explained where doubleTaps are discussed.

    The allow double taps in the text box can also be activated by entering "a".

    If the capitalization is automatic box ["c"] is checked then each sentence will automatically start with a capital letter.

    Note. Due to the nature of the Palm OS, as of September 6, 2000, automatic capitalization only works in conjunction with text input via graffiti. Neither the built-in virtual keyboard nor external keyboards are affected by it.

    If the display statistics in title bar box ["d"] is checked then the stats are on.

    If the escape character is box ["e"] is checked then the ESC key mechanism is activated, and the character following this check box is your ESC character.

    Note. If you want either SPACE or TAB to be the ESC character, then please enter "P" [capitalized "P"] or "T" [capitalized "T"], respectively.

    Note. If the ESC character is either SPACE or TAB, then it will not show up in the text field following the escape character is check box since it is invisible. However, you can highlight it, and then it becomes visible.

    If the ignore case during search box ["i"] is checked then the magiFind... and Find More operations are case blind. Please see the magiFind... command in EditView's Options menu for more details.

    The linefeed is considered invisible option ["l"] is used by the visibilator. Please see the "V" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] for more details.

    Regarding the save text in magiPad option ["s"], pelase see magiPad for more details.

    Note. Just to make your pedit experiences more rewarding, entering SPACE or TAB will rotate the focus between the two entry fields. In addition, please don't hesitate to use the following shortcuts.

    PageUp = up-arrow = increases the number in the field which is focused

    PageDown = down-arrow = decreases the number in the field which is focused

    as long as the focused field expects a number input.

    Note. There is another Preferences... dialog which is located in ListView's Options menu.


    About pedit...


    This command is explained here.


    EditView's buttonPanel


    EditViewButtons


    The "U" Button


    This command is the same as the Undo command in EditView's Edit menu.


    The "X" Button


    This command is the same as the Cut command in EditView's Edit menu.


    The "C" Button


    This command is the same as the Copy command in EditView's Edit menu.


    The "P" Button


    This command is the same as the Paste command in EditView's Edit menu.


    The buttonShifted "P" Button


    If you have Stand Alone's Clipper installed, then a buttonShifted tap on the "P" button sends Clipper into action.

    Ain't that cool? You will feel even more exhilarated when you realize that if Clipper is installed then the "P" button is displayed in bold to remind you that Clipper is at your disposal.

    I am pretty sure that fans of Silkyboard will like that Clipper and Silkyboard can co-exist inside pedit. If you use Silkyboard, then please un-check the Enable Clipper Menu in Clipper.

    By the way, normally you paste with "P" which also gets invoked by "ESC p", so that it should be easy to remember "ESC P" which is yet another way of activating Clipper.

    A word of caution. Some peditors reported a few sporadic and unreproducible crashes when Clipper was installed.


    The "S" Button


    This command is the same as the Select... command in EditView's Edit menu.


    The buttonShifted "S" [aka "s"] Button


    This command is explained where the Set Marker command in EditView's Edit menu is discussed.


    The "J" Button


    This command is the same as the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu.


    The buttonShifted "J" [aka "j"] Button


    This command repeats the last jump. It is explained here, where the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu is discussed.


    The "F" Button


    This command is the same as the magiFind... command in EditView's Options menu.

    Please go to here for more details.


    The "G" Button


    This command is the same as the Find More command in EditView's Options menu.

    Please go to here for more details.


    The "Q" Button


    I use this command for testing, debugging, and other goodies. Programmers will find it useful too.

    Among others, it tells you all the characteristics of the first character which is either in a selected text or is right after the cursor.

    You can also find out the serial number of your Palm if it exists, information about the sister segments of your memo, and so forth.

    Amazingly, not all Palms have a serial number. Some clones do not have one. I wonder why.


    The "H" Button


    "H" stands for Help which is mostly context sensitive. This command is the same as the Help... command in EditView's Edit menu.

    Please note that EditView's instantHelp, that is, the "?" button is related to the H button.


    The "OK" Button


    This command is the same as the "OK" & ".C" buttons command in EditView's Record menu.

    It allows you to quit EditView and to go to ListView.


    The "D" Button


    If you are in the regular EditView and not in magiPad, then this command serves three functions.

    First, this command allows you to change the category of your current memo [see EditView's Category Changer].

    Second, it allows you to privatize your current memo Please see the Privatize Memo command in ListView's Record menu for further details.

    Third, it allows you to delete your current memo. Please see the Delete Memo command in ListView's Record menu for further details.

    If you are in magiPad, then this command allows you to decide the contents of magiPad should be saved. Please see magiPad for further details.


    The "WC" Button


    This command brings up the word count dialog and it requires almost no explanation except for the definiton of what characters, words, and lines are.

    Word Count

    The definition of characters is obvious except that it also includes carriage returns which are called linefeeds in the Palm universe. For the technically inclined, chrLineFeed = ^J = 10 = 012 = 0x0A.

    The definition of words is also more or less obvious, except that the total of the words up to the cursor or selection PLUS the selected words PLUS the words from the cursor or selection may add up to more than the total number of words since the cursor or selection may split words.

    A word is defined as a group of characters not containing word separators. The latter are the space character, the horizontal and vertical tabs, the linefeed, the formfeed, and the carriage return characters.

    EXAMPLE. pedit;memo is one word even if we suspect that there is a typo and we meant pedit; memo which is two words.

    The definition of lines is also obvious except that it is somewhat different from the common sense definition, since it only counts linefeeds. Hence, for instance, a line may be counted as zero lines if it does not end with a linefeed.

    More precisely, using the REGEX terminolgy, a line is defined as "^.*$".

    It is a common misconception among inexperienced Palm users that a line is what you see as a line on your Palm's screen. Please keep in mind that what you think is a line is, in fact, only a "virtual" line which depends on factors such as what font is used to display your memo and how wide the text field is. We call such objects ScreenLines.

    It may be better, although not entirely correct, if you think of a line as a paragraph. In the "virtual" sense this is closer to the truth than the above described ScreenLines.

    The above seem to be in accordance with the generally accepted rules such as the ones used by unix wc (GNU or not).

    As opposed to lines, we define ScreenLines as the "virtual" lines which are displayed across the screen of your Palm handheld device.

    Since we talked about lines and ScreenLines, this is the right place to define paragraphs as well.

    First we need to define WhiteLines. A WhiteLine is a line consisting of space, horizontal tab, and vertical tab characters only.

    More precisely, using the REGEX terminolgy, a WhiteLine is defined as "^[\space\htab\vtab]*$".

    As opposed to lines, we define Paragraphs as collection of lines which does not contain WhiteLines and which start either at the beginning of your memo or after a WhiteLine, and which ends either at the end of your memo or before a WhiteLine.

    I hope that you will like the myriad pieces of information it yields.

    This button was named in honor of the venerable unix command wc.


    The "R" Button


    With this command EditView's ruler can be toggled on and off.

    QUESTION. What is the ruler?

    ANSWER. The ruler is what 99% of the non-experts would call underline. It looks like underline, it smells like underline, but it ain't no underline!

    If you think about, you realize that nothing is underlined. The ruler simply gives a visual reference where the lines are separated from each other.

    The rule state is preserved until it is changed again. Try it. I prefer no underline [oops, I meant ruler] whatsoever but please feel free to make your own choice.

    Please note that magiPad has its own ruler settings independently of EditView.

    pedit and Neal Bridges' ClearHack are 99% compatible [after yours truly spent days to figure out how to do it].

    The reason that I say 99% and not 100% is that a hack is a hack, and, no matter what, there can be no guarantees that a hack will work under all circumstances whatsoever, especially since operating systems keep changing and many hacks fall behind in their maintenance schedules as their authors' priorities change. This should be understood as a general statement and not as a claim specifically about ClearHack.

    I am sure you know that ClearHack removes those annoying rulers in text fields, don't you? If you didn't know it then probably they don't bother you.


    The "L" Button


    This command changes the case of the selected text to lower case.

    If there is no text selected, then the case of the character right after the current cursor position is changed to lower case.


    The buttonShifted "L" [aka "["] Button


    This command is the same as the Shift Left command in EditView's Edit+ menu.


    The "T" Button


    This command changes the case of the selected text to title case.

    Of course, the process of Title Casing is subject to heated debate, and not even the greatest minds amongst us seem to agree what constitutes a properly title-cased expression. For instance, how should select'n'Search be title-cased?

    As a time saving shortcut, and this is one of the most appreciated features in pedit, if there is no text selected, then T title-cases the word surrounding the current cursor.


    The "K" Button


    This command changes the case of the selected text to upper case.

    If there is no text selected, then the case of the character right after the current cursor position is changed to upper case.

    Just think of this command as capitalization, that is KAPITALIZATION.


    The buttonShifted "K" [aka "]"] Button


    This command is the same as the Shift Right command in EditView's Edit+ menu.


    The "?" Button


    This command brings up instantHelp.

    Please note that EditView's H button is related to the ? button.


    The "M" Button


    This command is the sans ASCII table version of the "A" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here]. It is described in details where magiPad is discussed.


    The "A" Button


    This command is the ASCII table enriched variant of the "M" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], and it is the same as the magiPad in|out command in EditView's Edit menu. It is described in details where magiPad is discussed.


    The "B" Button


    This command backs up either the current memo or, if there is a text selection, the selected text in the current memo [as long as it is not too long], and puts a date'n'time stamp on the backed up copy.

    Backed up memo

    Most users will never experience a situation that their memo is too long to be backed up, but, if they do, then a clever dialog will pop up which explains why the operation cannot be accomplished.

    If I may suggest, use the buttonShifted ">" button [aka Switcher] after a back up job to return to your original memo.


    The "V" Button


    This button invokes the visibilator command.

    Have you ever wondered if that gap thing right there in your text is two spaces, or three spaces, or, maybe, is it a tab or a combination thereof? Worry no longer! Just invoke the visibilator and it shows you the spaces and tabs by replacing them with "·" [middle dot] and "»" [right pointing double angle quotation mark, similar to ">>"], respectively.

    The Visibilator

    Feel free to edit your invisible characters as you wish. Then hit the "V" button again, and you are back to "normal".

    If you want to see the carriage returns [linefeeds] too then please set the linefeed is considered invisible check box in the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu, and you are all set.

    The next time you invoke the visibilator, all your carriage returns will show up as [the pilcrow or paragraph sign, similar to the mirror image of "P"].

    QUESTION. When my invisible characters were shown, I edited my memo, and now I have a mixture of spaces, tabs, linefeeds, and their visibilator equivalents in my memo. What a mess. How can I get my memo back to normal?

    ANSWER. Just hit "V" twice. That should fix your memo.


    The buttonShifted "V" [aka "$"] Button


    The buttonShifted "V" button activates the segmentSwitcher which allows you to survey all the sister segments of your current memo, and to jump to either of them.

    The segmentSwitcher can also be activated by "ESC 0" [zero] This command takes you to magiPad where all sister segments of your current memo are listed.

    The segmentSwitcher

    The first line tells you the total size of your combined segments. This number does not include the size of the individual header files.

    The number in front of the title tells you the segment index of the memo segment.

    An exclamation mark "!" instead of a colon ":" after the segment index and the sign "<=" at the end of one of the line refers to your current memo.

    A number at the end of a line indicates that that segment was already visited, and the number itself tells you how recently it was visited, where 01 refers the most recenty visited segment.

    Tapping on any of the segment titles transfers you to the selected segment instantaneously.

    HINT. Use the "F" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] to locate your memo and then enter a carriage return [the return key on your keyboard]. It's a no-brainer.

    Note. The segmentSwitcher is inactive if you are in [the genuine] magiPad, or if your current memo is not segmented.

    Please see Segmented Memos for further details.


    The ">" Button


    This button is the same as the Recent... command in ListView's Navigate menu.

    This command activates the Switcher which allows you to jump back to a large number of previously visited memos.

    The Switcher can also be activated by "ESC 0" [zero] and by "ESC >".

    The Switcher restores the state of your previous visits such as cursor position, text selection, scroll position, and so forth.

    pedit keeps track of the last 25 memos you have visited since you last cleared pedit's history.

    This command takes you to magiPad where all your recently visted files are listed in reverse chronological order.

    The Switcher

    Tapping on any of the memo titles, pedit transfers you to the selected memo instantaneously.

    HINT. Use the "F" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] to locate your memo and then enter a carriage return [the return key on your keyboard]. It's a no-brainer.

    Note. The Switcher is inactive if you are in [the genuine] magiPad, or if you have not yet visited another memo prior to entering the current memo.

    WARNING. If you edited any of your memos with a program other than this particular pedit, whether on the Palm or on the DeskTop, it may be a good idea to clear both the history of recently visited memos and pedit's preferences. For further details, please see the Clear History... and Clear Preferences... commands in ListView's Options menu.


    The buttonShifted ">" [aka "<"] Button


    This command is the quickSwitcher which is a complement to the Switcher [">"] button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here].

    A buttonShifted tap on the Switcher [">"] button takes you instantaneously back to your most recently visited memo.

    The quickSwitcher can also be activated by "ESC }".


    The "»" or ">>" Button


    This command activates the Launcher which allows you to jump fast to "pedit friendly" applications.

    Such applications include but are not limited to Arranger, Clipper, HackMaster, HotPaw Basic, LispMe, Magic Text, Memo Pad, Memo PLUS, NoteTaker!, OnBoardC, pedit, pedit32, PocketC, Quartus, RsrcEdit, Safe, Secure Memo Pad, and StartFavorites.

    This command takes you to magiPad where all "pedit friendly" applications are listed.

    Tapping on any of the application names, pedit transfers you to the selected application instantaneously.

    HINT. Use the "F" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here] to locate your application and then enter a carriage return [the return key on your keyboard]. It's a no-brainer.

    I point out that if I define an application as "pedit friendly", it does not necessarily imply that the developers of that particular application have displayed a friendly attitude towards pedit. Although in the great majority of cases Palm application developers were cooperative and helpful, there were a few instances when I received cold shoulders while trying to clarify some issues.

    I consider an application "pedit friendly", if it has anything to do with text editing or with programming on the Palm, and if peditors requested that it be added to the list.

    I hope that the developers of the above mentioned applications will return the favor by providing a similar feature in their products.

    The Launcher can also be activated by "ESC 1".


    The buttonShifted "»" or ">>" [aka "«" or "<<"] Button


    If you have Bozidar Benc's PopFavorites installed, then a buttonShifted tap on the "»" button pops it up.

    How does one know if PopFavorites is installed? It's elementary, my dear peditor, and probably you have already guessed it: "»" is displayed in bold.

    Otherwise, that is, if "»" is not displayed in bold, then a buttonShifted tap on the "»" button activates the quickLauncher.

    The quickLauncher takes you to your most recently visited pedit friendly application [if there is such an application already].

    PopFavorites can also be invoked by "ESC 2".

    The quickLauncher can also be invoked by "ESC 3".

    Another way of activating quickLauncher really fast is by tapping the upper left corner of the title bar in EditView [a 5*5 pixel area].


    The ".C" Button


    This command is the same as the "OK" & ".C" buttons command in EditView's Record menu.

    It allows you to quit magiPad and to return to EditView.


    The "Qopy'n'Paste" Button


    This command is described in details where magiPad is discussed.


    EditView's Category Changer


    This command allows you to change the category of your current memo.

    In addition, you can also edit [add, rename, and delete] the names of your categories.


    pedit Memos and Text Files on the DeskTop (for "newbies")


    By the time you get to this section, there is an excellent chance that you will know of several ways of moving your pedit memos to your DeskTop computer and vice versa [see, for instance here and here].

    Nevertheless, I have the example of at least one aspiring peditor who could not figure it out from the manual, and, therefore, he put together a cookbook style approach to the task. The rest of this section is based on Doug Boulter's advice. I am sure that many "newbies" will be grateful to him.

    If you want to move your pedit memo to the DeskTop and the explanation here was insufficient, then please follow these steps.

    Step #1. Open your memo in your pedit in EditView Open the pull down Record menu. Select the Export Memo... command. A shortcut for the latter is either using "ESC e" or the Palm command stroke and "e".

    Step #2. Make sure the second line from the top in the pedit export... dialog says Export from pedit[32] to doc.

    Export to doc

    If it says Export from pedit32 to pedit or Export from pedit to pedit32,

    Export to pedit

    tap the doc push button in the lower right corner to get the correct screen.

    Note. pedit remembers the previous state of this screen. Thus, if you do not ever export to the sister pedit, you will never see that option screen again unless you select it.

    Step #3. If you want to delete your memo after you export it, check the delete memos after exporting box. Enter the name you want the DOC file to have. You do not need to give it a ".pdb" extension. For example, this file could be called 00test.

    Note. For your convenience, pedit is smart enough to pick a proposed DOC file name. If you have a current text selection in your memo then it is used as the basis of a proposed name.

    Step #4. Once you have done all this, tap the export this memo + all its segments button.

    Step #5. Do a HotSync job between your Palm and the DeskTop. On the DeskTop, look in the backup folder under your user name. You will see the file 00test.pdb. Note. On the Macintosh, this backup folder is called "Backup", in Windows it may be at "C:\Palm\USER\Backup" where "USER" is your user name, and under unix or linux it is probably "~/???" [but who cares anyway, since, if you use unix or linux, then you will never need to read this "newbie" tutorial in the first place].

    Step #6. Use your "doc <=> text" converter (not included with pedit) to convert this DOC file to an ASCII text file. You may then word process it to your heart's delight.

    Note. Doug's favorite "doc <=> text" converter is DocInOut. I use MakeDoc.

    If you want to move a text file from the DeskTop to pedit and the explanation here was insufficient, then please follow these steps.

    Step #1. Using your "doc <=> text" converter, convert your ASCII text file to a Palm DOC file with a ".pdb" extension. Make sure that you remember the name of your .pdb file.

    Step #2a. If you are a Windows user then from the DeskTop, select this ".pdb" file for installation. Click the install button, then click the add button to select the file. When you have added all the ".pdb" files you want, click "Done". If you are using DocInOut, you can skip this step by clicking the box that says "Install After" which will then perform this step automatically.

    Step #2b. If you are a Macintosh, unix, or linux user then simply follow the usual Palm rules of installing ".pdb" files. I have not yet met a Macintosh, unix, or linux user who did not know how to do this. If you are one of those, then please let me know, and then I will provide detailed instructions.

    Step #3. Perform a HotSync job. This will load the .pdb file to your Palm handheld.

    Step #4. Open your pedit. Go to ListView.

    ListView

    A trick here is to choose the correct memo category (located in the upper right corner of the screen) into which you want the freshly loaded DOC file to go. That saves you the step of categorizing the new memo which you are about to import. Tap the Docs button in ListView's buttonPanel [see also here]. A shortcut for the latter is either using "ESC d", "ESC i", or the Palm command stroke and "i". This tap takes you to magiPad and presents you with a list of DOC files which you can import to pedit.

    Step #5. Tap the file you want to import from the list that comes up in magiPad. If the DOC file is writable, that is, it is not in the flash ROM, then decide whether you want to delete it after you have imported it to pedit. If yes, then check the delete doc file after importing box. Decide whether you want no segmenting if the doc file fits one memo. If yes, then check the no segmenting if fits one memo box. Then tap import this doc file button.

    Step #6. Now your DOC file has been transformed to a memo, and you can put it in a memo category and/or [p]edit it to your heart's delight. Note. Please read about segmented memos in general, and about segment headers in particular, if you are curious about those odd lines

    A Segmented Memo

    which appear at the beginning of your memo. If your memo consists of one single segment, then you can delete the segment header if you don't want it with no ill effects in pedit except that subseqent exportation back to DOC files will be much simpler if you leave it alone.


    Bits and Pieces


    Here are a few bits and pieces of fun and pratical ways to use pedit that you might not have thought of.

    BookMarks

    Just make an index of the words or expressions you want to visit on a regular basis either at the beginning [I prefer this] or at the end of your memo. Then select the appropriate words and hit the "G" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here]. Voila, your memo scrolls to your selected expression.

    iambic Reader [contributed by Edward Faith]

    Write HTML (HyperText Markup Language) code using pedit, then export to DOC format and read it with iambic Reader.

    EXAMPLE. Writing "I absolutely love <b>peditPro</b>" will come out as "I absolutely love peditPro" in iambic Reader.

    For your convenience, you can find a list of HTML tags with their definitions that are supported by iambic Reader here.

    Note. A word of caution. As of September 29, 2000, I contacted iambic Reader's technical support by e-mail twice and they have not cared to respond yet. Therefore, I have some doubts about the degree of their dedication to their users. Hopefully, they will contact me soon, and then I will re-evaluate my opinion.

    Arranger [contributed by ???]

    The clipboard. If you think your clipboard is too small, you may want to try one of these.

    ClipHack [http://www.deskfree.com/ClipHack.html]
    [Note. ClipHack has a couple of bugs when ran on systems newer than 3.0, see here.]

    Clipper [http://www.standalone.com/palmos/clipper/]
    [Note.Some users reported a few crashes when Clipper was installed.]

    MultiClipHac [http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?&prodID=1628]
    [Note. I have no personal experience with it.]

    MagicText [http://www.synsolutions.com/software/magictext/]
    [Note. Make sure you have the latest version.]

    Note. When you are in pedit, I removed the Palm Operating System's clipboard limitation of a maximum 1000 characters when using either the "C" button in EditView's buttonPanel [see also here], or the Copy command in EditView's Edit menu, or the Qopy'n'Paste button in magiPad.

    EditView's Fonts. [based on advice by Jacques Turbi]

    Use the standard fonts for browsing memos, Profont12 or Monaco for keyboard entry, Profont14 if without clean glasses, Profont10 for proof reading, Profont7 or TinyFont to get an overall document feeling, Profont18 to prompt key words when delivering a lecture, Profont24 to try to check if the escape "`" is really backwards or if the accents have the right slope (that's after "un repas bien arrosi").


    More Bits and pieces


    A MYSTERY. Some of you have noticed that after unzipping or untarring the pedit package, one's prying eyes can see real some really old files such as

    -rw-r--r--   1 nevai      110539 Sun Mar 03 02:00:26 1996 pedit.prc
    

    [I am not making this up], and wondered what the heck was going on. Stop torturing yourself. Here is the explanation.

    I develop pedit on my Macintoshes but then the rest is done on unix. Now, on unix machines, the universe started on January 01, 1900, whereas the Mac Big Bang was on January 01, 1904. Hence, adding 4 years to what you see is what you get. Well, this is almost true. I leave it up to you to figure out the rest. Here is a hint: the above pedit.prc was created on March 2, 2000.

    Of course, pedit is not perfect. For instance, it can't tell the time and the date. Oops, bad example. In fact, it can, and does so in more than one way. Well, then what is it that pedit cannot do? The truth is that the list would fill maybe at least half a page or less so that I will leave this to the gentle peditor's imagination who is hereby requested to communicate to yours truly all the shortcomings of pedit with no delay whatsoever.

    Speaking of dates, the careful peditor will note that I write dates in the form 1976/08/10. To be honest, I ain't no pervert, and in every day life I would write this as 08/10/76 but then people outside the US would think that I am patronizing them by not writing 10/08/76. Is this August or October anyway?

    Turning serious, I find the YEAR/MONTH/DAY format the most logical way of writing dates which, on one hand, is completely free of any Y?K bug, and, on the other, makes comparison of dates a trivial matter.

    By the way, 1976/08/10 is the most precious date of my life. If you guess why [and your guess is correct], then you may win a special prize.

    QUESTION. Why is pedit so big?

    ANSWER. Under its skin, pedit may be one of the most sophisticated Palm application ever. The full keyboard entry support and the myriad features make the program rather complex. Do you realize that pedit, in conjunction with a Palm computing device and an external keyboard, may make your laptop obsolete? If you must have a leaner version of pedit, please try out peditLight.

    A MYSTERY. As Marv Waschke reported on October 15, 2000, when the display looks like this

    xx32
    xxxxxxx|1xxx
    
    and the cursor is at "|", then hitting the up-arrow from an attached keyboard moves the cursor to the end of the previous line like this.
    xx32|
    xxxxxxx1xxx
    
    So far so good. However, when you use the left-arrow then nothing happens. In fact, you have to hit the left-arrow several times to move the cursor backward like this
    xx3|2
    xxxxxxx1xxx
    
    EXPLANATION. As of version 3.5, this is a bug in the Palm OS, and it can be reproduced reliably both inside and outside pedit. I bet you can easily find out the reason for the bug if you count the number left-arrows you have to enter so that the cursor started to move.


    Frequently Asked Questions [which have not yet been dealt with]


    QUESTION. Why can't pedit edit DOC files directly?

    ANSWER. Under construction...

    QUESTION. Why can't the segment headers be hidden from the user?

    ANSWER. Under construction...

    QUESTION. What is this !p04 and !p32 at the top of the screen? Why can't you replace it with a more user friendly expression such as "PeditPro (single-page memo)"?

    ANSWER. Under construction...

    QUESTION. Why can't I customize pedit and decide which buttons should be visible in the buttonPanel?

    ANSWER. Under construction...

    QUESTION. Why can't the memo fonts be sticky?

    ANSWER. Under construction...

    QUESTION. Why can't I add line numbers to my memo in pedit?

    ANSWER. Under construction...

    QUESTION. Under construction...

    ANSWER. Under construction...


    Useful Macros


    Many macros were contributed by Jerry Skelley. Jerry's macros can be downloaded from the files area of the peditors Forum.

    Note. If the version of your pedit is below 4.17, please do not embed "ESC W" strictly inside a Palm shortcut since this command generates an "EvtEnqueueKey ('W', 0, 0)" job and Palm shortcuts generate "EvtEnqueueKey ()" jobs as well. The two "EvtEnqueueKey ()" jobs may interefer with each other resulting in weird scenarios, as Jerry has discovered. However, it is perfectly all right to define a Palm shortcut ending with precisely "ESC W".

    Under construction...


    Disclaimer and Legal Statement


    I guess, this is the right place to declare that you should install and use all members of the pedit family of Palm text editors at your own risk since neither I nor PaulComputing are responsible for any damage and/or loss of data caused by pedit. Please keep in mind the three most important actions one may, could, can, should, and must do on at least a daily basis, are as follows: HotSync, HotSync, and HotSync.

    FOR LEGAL REASONS, LET ME STATE IT VERY EXPLICITLY AND VERY CLEARLY THAT THE USE OF ALL MEMBERS OF THE PEDIT FAMILY OF PALM TEXT EDITORS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO PEDIT AND/OR PEDIT32 AND/OR PEDIPRO AND/OR PEDITLIGHT AND/OR PEDITFIXER, CONSTITUTES A CONTRACT BETWEEN THE USER AND ME, AND THAT THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITH NO WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR TASK. THE USER ASSUMES ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS USE.


    Acknowledgement


    It was Bozidar Benc who started me on this project, and who helped me out while I was learning the basics of Palm programming. I am sincerely grateful to Bozidar. Let me confess that I offered Bozidar co-authorship of pedit which he politely declined [I wonder if he knows something I don't]. I use this opportunity to draw attention to his marvelous Palm programs.

    I thank Margret Rosenberg, the Editor of this manual, who volunteered for this project and who relentlessly kept advising me on how to make it more readable, more informative, and more user friendly.

    I am also grateful to Alan Pinstein for sharing with me the source code of a MagicText plug-in, and, thereby, helping me to accelerate my original caseless search function.

    Special thanks to Roger Lawrence for his RsrcEdit which is one of the handiest and greatest programming tools available for the Palm platform.

    I also thank Rick Bram, Steve C. Gilardi, Carl Osterwald, Ken Hancock, Harry Konstas, Michael J. Rider, and Andrew Welch who allowed me to use their fonts and/or font utilities.

    I also thank the CodeWarrior and Palm guys at Metrowerks and Palm OS and the mac guys at Apple started it all, especially the creators of the NeXT OS.

    In particular, I borrowed extensively from the source code of Palm's Memo Pad, and I used the Palm SDK as well.

    I am sincerely grateful to all the peditors who flooded me with bug reports, suggestions and recommendations for improving pedit. I hope I will not offend them if I mention by name a selected few only who for one reason or another contributed more to pedit's development than the others: Paolo Amoroso, Jennifer A. Brinn, Marshall Cline, Dafydd Gibbon, Monika Goehmann, Peter R. Grierson, Michael D. Hensley, Rick Hopkins, Carl Jacobsen, Jesse Jacobsen, Peter Korman, Casper Lassenius, Mark A. Mandel, John Newell, Margret Rosenberg, Jerry Skelley, Dirk Spackman, Howard Veit, and Jeff Wilder.


    Closure


    Finally, please feel free to inform me of your wish list, suggestions, recommendations, [gentle] criticism, and so forth.

    
    Sincerely,
    Paul Nevai
    peditor-in-Chief
    

    Paul Nevai
    E-mail: 2me@PaulComputing.com
    Web:    http://www.PaulComputing.com
    


    Index


    Under construction...


    Index of ESC keys


    Under construction...


    More from PaulComputing


    Under construction...


    pedit's Development History


    December 10, 1999. Started work on pedit.

    February 1, 2000. Released version 1.00 of pedit.

    February 2, 2000. Started working on version 1.01 of pedit.

    February 1, 2000. Starting up EditView from ListView with a graffiti stroke or a letter typed from a keyboard places the cursor after the just entered character [this was fixed one more time on February 10, 2000]. Thanks Adrian and Mike for your bug report.

    February 1, 2000. Tapping the upper left corner of the title bar in EditView [a 5*5 pixel area] launches PocketC immediately [if it is installed]. I deactivated this on February 9, 2000 [see the Launcher ["»"] button in EditView's buttonPanel].

    February 3, 2000. Better interaction between doubleTap and text selection.

    February 4, 2000. Created two versions of pedit. The regular pedit and the bigger [but not necessarily better] pedit32.

    February 4, 2000. The cursor no longer disappears after changing the underline mode of the text field with the "R" button in EditView's buttonPanel]. Thanks, Carl, for your bug report.

    February 4, 2000. magiPad can be entered either through both the "M" and "A" buttons in EditView's buttonPanel.

    February 5, 2000. If pedit is assigned to a hard key then in EditView that key switches to ListView, and, if in ListView, then it changes categories.

    February 5, 2000. Added smart selection of words [see the Select... command in EditView's Options menu].

    February 5, 2000. Aligned some labels in the Select... dialog in EditView's Options menu. Carl and Harry couldn't stand how it looked like.

    February 5, 2000. pedit.README was renamed pedit.txt. Phil wanted it since the ".txt" extension was more convenient for non-Macintosh users, so I did it.

    February 7, 2000. Fixed a minor bug in the Security... dialog in ListView's Options menu when selecting text with no field focused.

    February 7, 2000. Improved the "SHOW|HIDE" process [see the Security... command in ListView's Options menu].

    February 9, 2000. Added the Launcher ["»"] button in EditView's buttonPanel. Thanks to all who requested it.

    February 9, 2000. Streamlined the text selection procedure [see the Select... command in EditView's Options menu].

    February 9, 2000. Cleaned up EditView's interface.

    February 9, 2000. Added the Cursor button in the Jump to... dialog in EditView's Options menu.

    February 10, 2000. Fixed the alignment of some items in some dialogs.

    February 10, 2000. Optimization for saving the preferences [see the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu].

    February 10, 2000. Updated the Help... dialog in EditView's Edit menu.

    February 10, 2000. pedit and pedit32 have their own individual icons.

    February 10, 2000. Fixed a cosmetic blemish in pedit32 when switching off the stats in the title bar in a memo with greater or equal than 10,000 characters.

    February 10, 2000. Starting up EditView from ListView with a graffiti stroke or a letter typed from a keyboard places the cursor after the just entered character [fixed it the 2nd time, see February, 1, 2000].

    February 10, 2000. It is possible to have a registered version of pedit without the "added bonus" activated. Note. As of version 3.00, the "added bonus" has become obsolete.

    February 10, 2000. Enabled the encourager [nagger] to register pedit.

    February 10, 2000. Registration is confirmed in the Register[ed] button in the About pedit... window.

    February 11, 2000. Added the Launcher ["»"] button in EditView's buttonPanel.

    February 11, 2000. Added the Switcher [">"] button in EditView's buttonPanel, and removed the previous operational mode of tapping in the Graffiti shift area.

    February 11, 2000. Reduced nagging: unregistered users are encouraged to register once out of every three times only when they open up a new memo.

    February 12, 2000. The existence of a 2*2 pixel sized black square just below the title bar in the upper right corner of the screen indicates that the current memo is a pedit32 memo as opposed to a pedit04 memo [see Which pedit is my pedit?].

    February 12, 2000. The user can enable/disable the escape character usage, and the escape character itself is user defined [see the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu].. Great suggestion, Carl!

    February 12, 2000. The user can enable/disable the automatic capitalization of sentences [see the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu]. Great suggestion, Carl!

    February 14, 2000. Fixed some incompatibility issues with MenuHack [see Titlebar Statistics]. Thanks, Marshall, for your persistent bug reports!

    February 14, 2000. Fixed some incompatibility issues with ClearHack [see the "R" button in EditView's buttonPanel]. Thanks, Marshall, for your persistent bug reports!

    February 15, 2000. Invisible characters [space, tab, and, optionally, linefeed] can be displayed or hidden via the "V" button in EditView's buttonPanel. Great suggestion, Carl!

    February 17, 2000. Added support for Bozidar Benc's PopFavorites.

    February 17, 2000. Added the Top Start[er] option to the magiFind'n'Replace dialog. Great suggestion, Carl!

    February 17, 2000. Released version 1.08 of pedit.

    February 18, 2000. Started working on version 1.09 of pedit.

    February 19, 2000. Added the myNotes button in ListView's buttonPanel. with an optional date'n'time stamp feature.

    February 22, 2000. Added a full featured memo Switcher [">"] command in EditView's buttonPanel This was requested by a large number of peditors. This is in addition to the quickSwitcher which was already implemented in pedit.

    February 23, 2000. Entering "ESC S" in EditView selects the entire memo [as opposed to the key sequence "ESC s" which opens up the text selector window in EditView's buttonPanel].

    February 23, 2000. Added support for Stand Alone's Clipper [see the buttonShifted "P" button in EditView's buttonPanel]. Great suggestion, Howard.

    February 24, 2000. Added the optional [very sexy] inverted or black buttons Great suggestion, Francois.

    February 24, 2000. Fixed a Switcher [see the ">" command in EditView's buttonPanel] related harmless bug which caused a "fatal exception". Danke schön, Monika, for finding the bug.

    February 25, 2000. Fixed a Switcher [see the ">" command in EditView's buttonPanel] related harmless bug which caused to display incorrectly the number of memos in the category in the title bar after a switcher job. Merci beaocoup, Francois, for finding the bug.

    February 26, 2000. Introduced buttonShifts for the "P", ">" and "»" buttons in EditView's buttonPanel. Clipper and PopFavorites users should especially rejoice. Toda raba, Yaakov, for the idea.

    February 27, 2000. Released version 1.09 of pedit.

    February 28, 2000. Development of version 1.xx was frozen with version 1.09 except for bug fixes.

    February 29, 2000. Fixed a bug whereby all text selections made in the Launcher and the Switcher [see the ">" command in EditView's buttonPanel] were saved in the preferences database, and, thereby, caused some errors under certain circumstances.

    February 29, 2000. Released version 1.10 of pedit.

    February 29, 2000. Released version 1.11 of pedit.

    March 1, 2000. Fixed a bug when magiPad was entered via the "A" button instead of the "M" button, and then if some text was selected in magiPad, then the vitals were saved in the preferences database. This caused some errors under certain circumstances.

    March 2, 2000. Fixed a minor bug related to the array "myLauncherList[]".

    March 2, 2000. Released version 1.12 of pedit.

    March 3, 2000. Fixed a minor bug related to "EditViewInit ()".

    March 3, 2000. Fixed a minor bug related to the standard editing functions "U", "X", and "P" in magiPad's buttonPanel

    March 3, 2000. After pedit's expiration date, the user is given a grace period to install the latest version of pedit.

    March 4, 2000. pedit 1.13 passed two sets of all 1000 POSE gremlins 1000 times without a single error. For the tests I used rom30dbg.rom and the Macintosh version of the "Palm OS Emulator 3.0a4".

    ### Gremlin_Search_Progress.dat ####
    gCurrentDepth=9
    gCurrentGremlin=999
    gGremlinHaltedInError=0 [1000 times]
    gGremlinSaveFrequency=0
    gGremlinStartNumber=0
    gGremlinStopNumber=999
    gMaxDepth=1000
    gStartTime=313929
    gStopTime=34803697
    gSwitchDepth=100
    ### EOF Gremlin_Search_Progress.dat ###
    

    March 5, 2000. Fixed minor bug related to text selection when entering magiPad.

    March 5, 2000. From now on if magiPad is saved then even the contents of a blank magiPad is saved as opposed to previous behavior when only a non-empty magiPad was saved.

    March 7, 2000. pedit 1.13 passed one set of all 1000 POSE gremlins 2000 times without a single error. For the tests I used PalmOS33-en-iii-dbg.rom and the Macintosh version of the "Palm OS Emulator 3.0a4".

    ### Gremlin_Search_Progress.dat ###
    gCurrentDepth=0
    gCurrentGremlin=999
    gGremlinHaltedInError=0 [1000 times]
    gGremlinSaveFrequency=0
    gGremlinStartNumber=0
    gGremlinStopNumber=999
    gMaxDepth=2000
    gStartTime=196141418
    gStopTime=302766727
    gSwitchDepth=2000
    ### EOF Gremlin_Search_Progress.dat ###
    

    March 7, 2000. Fixed a minor bug [a memory leak] when cancelling the BackUp ["B"] command in EditView's buttonPanel

    March 7, 2000. Released version 1.14 of pedit.

    February 28, 2000. Started working on version 2.00 of pedit.

    March 2, 2000. Moved the entire pedit project from Palm SDK 3.1 to SDK 3.5.

    March 5, 2000. Added Memo Pad 3.5 updates to pedit.

    March 5, 2000. Implemented multi-segmented code in the pedit project.

    March 9, 2000. Implemented the Security... [a la OS 3.5] and Password... commands in ListView's Options menu, and removed the "Security..." button from the "I" button in EditView.

    March 9, 2000. Streamlined the registration validation.

    March 9, 2000. Implemented automatic indentation [see the Auto Indent... dialog in EditView's Edit+ menu].

    March 10, 2000. Implemented the Clear History... command in ListView's Options menu.

    March 10, 2000. Fixed "Search ()" and "GoToItem ()" discrepancies between OS 3.3 and OS 3.5.

    March 11, 2000. Introduced extra incentives for registering pedit. Non-registered users cannot save pedit's preferences.

    March 13, 2000. Beaming now works properly with all Palm OSs between 3.0 and 3.5.

    March 13, 2000. Implemented 4Mb [pedit] and 32Mb [pedit32] virtual memos [see the SkyIsLimit command in EditView's Edit+ menu].

    March 15, 2000. Implemented left and right block shifts [see the Shift Right and Shift Left commands in EditView's Edit+ menu].

    March 16, 2000. Fixed some scrollbar related bugs if switching between memos via the Switcher [">"] command in EditView's buttonPanel. Thanks, John, for being persistent in pointing out the bugs to me.

    March 17, 2000. Fixed a major bug inherited from Memo Pad 3.5 which crashed the Palm under certain reproducible circumstances after using the new Security... command in ListView's Options menu. Memo Pad 3.5, as shipped in 03/2000, is defective! Danke schön, Monika, you did it again. You are an superb beta tester.

    March 17, 2000. The FIND SilkScreen button now finds any string via pedit unlike via Memo Pad where it finds only beginnings of full words.

    March 17, 2000. Fixed a bug related to "ctlSelectEvent" when I forgot to set "Boolean handled = true;" after doing a "CtlGetValue ()" job for a number of "CheckBox" items [sorry for being so technical]. Carl and Monika, you did it again.

    March 18, 2000. In order to avoid screen update conflicts, if the Palm OS is at least 3.5 then the buttons are always displayed in the default color.

    March 20, 2000. The greatly improved FIND SilkScreen button now can do a fancy searching job using the modifiers '!', '.', '^', '+' and ':'.

    March 20, 2000. The "Title Casing" Button In Editview's Buttonpanel Now Works Just Like It's Supposed To Work In Emacs' Text Abbrev Mode.

    March 21, 2000. The BackLight can be invoked by "ESC L" in both ListView and EditView [see Common ESC Commands].

    March 21, 2000. The MENU SilkScreen button can be invoked by "ESC C" in both ListView and EditView [see Common ESC Commands].

    March 21, 2000. The FIND SilkScreen button can be invoked by "ESC F" in both ListView and EditView [see Common ESC Commands].

    March 23, 2000. The Launcher and Switcher commands in EditView's buttonPanel work in conjunction with a search via magiFind [see here] and then entering a carriage return [linefeed].

    March 23, 2000. The fancy features of the FIND SilkScreen button can be turned off via the Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu.

    March 24, 2000. Major improvements in displaying the stats in the title bar.

    March 24, 2000. Fixed a bug whereby if in magiPad the selection exceeded the clipboard's limit then there was no warning and the Qopy'n'Paste operation resulted in error.

    March 24, 2000. One step closer to 100% Palm OS 3.5 compatibility [in terms of proper display of various graphical elements].

    March 25, 2000. Fixed a bug whereby after a right-shift the text selection was incorrect if the shifting operation did not succeed because the shifted memo ran out of real-estate.

    March 25, 2000. Fixed a bug where the stats did not update if deleting more than undoBufferSize characters [as of August 31, 2000, undoBufferSize is equal to 100]. Thanks, Paolo, for finding this bug.

    March 26, 2000. Fixed a minor display glitch involving the buttonShift indicator rectangle.

    March 26, 2000. One more step towards a mature buttonShift concept.

    March 26, 2000. New navigation commands in ListView and EditView [see Navigating ListView and Navigating EditView].

    March 26, 2000. magiFind [see here] works in context now in the sense that the found string shows up in the middle of the text field.

    March 26, 2000. The jump to cursor feature in the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu works in context now in the sense that the cursor and/or the start of the text selection shows up in the middle of the text field. Thanks, John, for being persistent in demanding this.

    March 27, 2000. The Switcher [">"] command in EditView's buttonPanel works in context now in the sense that the cursor and/or the start of the text selection shows up in the middle of the text field. Thanks, John, for being persistent in demanding this.

    March 27, 2000. The speed of the search via the SilkScreen FIND is improved.

    March 29, 2000. A myNotes related bug was fixed. This bug caused a crash if the memo "titled" 000.myNotes was hidden and the myNotes button in ListView's buttonPanel. was tapped.

    March 29, 2000. Fixed a bug which consisted of the following. If in EditView a left-arrow, or a right-arrow, or an up-arrow, or a down-arrow were entered while the cursor was invisible, then the scrollbar did not update correctly. This is a bug in Memo Pad too. Thanks, John, for noticing it.

    March 29, 2000. Completed the transition to SDK 3.5 and incorporated the new features of Memo Pad 3.5 into pedit.

    March 29, 2000. Improved handling the built-in expiration date of pedit.

    April 1, 2000. Implemented the Clear Preferences... command in ListView's Options menu.

    April 1, 2000. Released versions 2.00 of pedit and pedit32.

    April 1, 2000. Started working on version 2.01 of all pedits.

    April 1, 2000. If pedit is registered, then the About pedit... dialog shows "Registered" instead of "Register".

    April 1, 2000. The fonts in recently visited memos are now sticky. Thanks, Nick, for the idea.

    April 2, 2000. If there is no text selected, then the "L" and "K" buttons in EditView's buttonPanel do the appropriate caser job for the character right after the current cursor position. Thanks, Yaakov, for the idea.

    April 2, 2000. Fixed a minor bug where if pedit was terminated while in magiPad then the appropriate memo vitals were not properly remembered.

    April 3, 2000. Fixed a minor bug whereby if there was no MemoDB present, then pedit had to be launched twice.

    April 3, 2000. Nag reduction for un-registered users.

    April 7, 2000. Added the feature that the GoType! ALT upArrow and ALT downArrow keys work the same way as the PageUp or PageDown buttons.
    Note. Neither Memo Pad 3.5 nor its older versions cooperate with GoType! in this matter.

    April 9, 2000. Full interaction between pedit and pedit32 via the Export Memo... command in EditView's Record menu, and the Export Category... command in ListView's Record menu.

    April 10, 2000. Iimplemented the Clear Deleted Records... command in ListView's Options menu.

    April 19, 2000. Fixed a GoType! bug which activates invisible buttons [e.g., "Command-Alt-b" activated "B" while in magiPad]. Thanks, Monika, for finding this bug.

    April 27, 2000. Fixed an "index out of range" bug related to the Clear Deleted Records... command in ListView's Options menu.

    April 30, 2000. Fixed a bug whereby if one entered magiPad from a blank memo, then upon leaving magiPad one could face a situation where pedit wanted to select text in a blank memo resulting in a crash.

    May 2, 2000. Fixed a SkyIsLimit [see EditView's Edit+ menu] related bug whereby in pedit32 the memo splitting took place too soon. Thanks, Margret, for finding this one.

    May 4, 2000. Fixed a bug where the screen occasionally froze when quitting the Auto Indent... dialog in EditView's Edit+ menu. Thanks to Carl, Paolo, and yours truly for finding this one.

    May 4, 2000. Added the quickLauncher ["»" aka "«" or "<<"] button in EditView's buttonPanel].

    May 11, 2000. Segment enumeration is incremented by multiples of 10 so that intermediate segments could easily be added.

    May 18, 2000. Added the segmentSwitcher ["V" aka "$"] button in EditView's buttonPanel.

    May 18, 2000. Added batch deletion of segments in EditView [see the Delete Memo... command in EditView's Record menu and the "D" button in EditView's buttonPanel].

    May 18, 2000. Added full interaction between pedit or pedit32 and DOC files via the Export Memo... command in EditView's Record menu, and the Export Category... and Import Doc File... commands in ListView's Record menu.

    May 20, 2000. Added the New Chapter command in EditView's Edit+ menu with fully automated segment enumeration.

    May 21, 2000. Added batch changing of attributes [category name and private] of segmented memos via the "D" button in EditView's buttonPanel.

    May 21, 2000. The PageUp or PageDown buttons at the beginning or at the end of a segmented memo, respectively, activates the segmentSwitcher ["V" aka "$"] button in EditView's buttonPanel [deactivated on 06/17/2000, see below].

    May 23, 2000. Added the Reindex Chaps command in EditView's Edit+ menu.

    May 24, 2000. Added the Navigate menu in ListView.

    May 25, 2000. The default buttons [the ones surrounded by bold framed] can be activated by RETURN or "ESC RETURN" [see pedit and External Keyboards].

    May 30, 2000. Introduced new help via the "H" button in EditView's buttonPanel

    May 27, 2000. Added many new ESC commands.

    May 28, 2000. Fixed a bug related to graffiti shifts when opening a memo via entering its first letter. This bug was present only if the OS is below 3.5. Thanks, Jirka, for noticing it.

    May 30, 2000. Added batch deletion of segments, and change of categories and private attributes via ListView.

    June 1, 2000. Added batch beaming and preview of memos in ListView.

    June 4, 2000. Unofficially released version 3.00.

    June 4, 2000. Started working on version 3.01 of all pedits.

    June 5, 2000. Fixed a minor display bug in ListView when using the menu command to activate batch processing of memos [added a "MenuEraseStatus (CurrentMenu)" command].

    June 5, 2000. Fixed a bug related to importing DOC files when the RAM is low. Thanks, Maxime, for finding it and for helping me with testing the fix.

    June 6, 2000. Running out of code real estate - started segment #3.

    June 6, 2000. Added the Go to Memo... command to ListView's Record menu.

    June 6, 2000. Open the most recently visited memo via "ESC }" from ListView.

    June 6, 2000. Fixed a bug related to entering magiPad when low on memory. Thanks, Maxime, for finding it.

    June 7, 2000. Fixed a minor inconsistency when entering the Switcher via the Recent... command in ListView's Navigate menu or via the Recent button in ListView's buttonPanel, and then exiting it via the ".C" button. Thanks, Dafydd, for finding it.

    June 7, 2000. Fixed a bug related to DOC files which had been visited by AportisDoc and/or TakeNote! prior to being imported to pedit.

    June 7, 2000. Introduced a simplified registration of trial and expired versions of pedit.

    June 8, 2000. Released version 3.02 of pedit and pedit32.

    June 8, 2000. Started working on version 3.03 of all pedits.

    June 8, 2000. Save and restore memos via the Save Memo and Restore Memo... commands, respectively, in EditView's Record menu. These commands are 100% optional to use. It is not necessary at all to save a memo since it is done automatically both when entering and when exiting EditView. However, Restore Memo... can always bring back the last saved state of the current memo.

    June 8, 2000. If no selection is made and the "T" button in EditView's buttonPanel. is activated then the word surrounding the cursor is Titlecased. Thanks, Steve, for this great suggestion.

    June 8, 2000. EditView's buttonPanel can be removed [see the Buttons on|off command in EditView's Edit+ menu].

    June 10, 2000. Started to add printing capabilities to pedit [see the Print Memo command in ListView's Record menu].

    June 10, 2000. Brand new ListView for segmented memos.

    June 15, 2000. The "?" button in EditView's buttonPanel is displayed in bold when your memo is a pedit32 memo.

    June 17, 2000. The PageUp or PageDown buttons at the beginning or at the end of a segmented memo, respectively, opens up the previous or next segment, respectively [see the Go to Prev Chap and Go to Next Chap commands in EditView's Edit+ menu].

    June 17, 2000. Added an optional top starting feature to the myNotes button in ListView's buttonPanel. Thanks, Doc, for the idea.

    June 18, 2000. The Switcher [">"] command in EditView's buttonPanel no longer shows the titles of hidden private memos. Thanks, Doc, for noticing this security breach.

    June 24, 2000. If text is selected in a memo then the BackUp ["B"] command in EditView's buttonPanel backs up the selected text. Thanks, Dafydd, for the suggestion.

    June 27, 2000. Added autoMagic magiFind'n'Replace [see here for more details]. Thanks, David, Kevin, and Peter, for the many subtle suggestions.
    Note. If the replacement string is defined as "\0" then the matched string will be deleted from the memo.

    June 27, 2000. Addded visual feedback of most "ESC" commands via inverted buttons.

    June 29, 2000. Support for "Forth" style word definition in selecting text [see the Select... command in EditView's Edit menu].

    June 29, 2000. "ESC N" places the cursor to the top of the current screen [see the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu].

    June 29, 2000. "ESC W" selects word surrounding the cursor see the Select... command in EditView's Edit menu].

    June 29, 2000. Added "ESC return" = "OK" button in EditView. Also, "ESC ." = "OK" button in EditView if the current memo is empty [see the "OK" & ".C" buttons command in EditView's Record menu]. Thanks, Duncan, for the suggestion.

    July 5, 2000. Implemented set marker, select from marker, and jump to marker [see the Set Marker command in EditView's Edit menu].

    July 7, 2000. Fixed a bug which did not allow to turn on the Palm with the pedit-assigned hard button and then to remain in EditView. Thanks, Dafydd and Margret, for noticing it.
    Note. Memo Pad in Palm OS at least up-to 3.5 still has this bug.

    July 7, 2000. In peditPro, the Switch command in ListView's Navigate menu can be activated by tapping in the left 1/8th of the title bar [to the left from the small pixel visible just under the title bar].

    July 7, 2000. Printing up-to 9 copies is allowed [see the Print Memo command in ListView's Record menu]. Thanks, Jim, for the idea.

    July 9, 2000. Fixed a stats display bug which happened while switching from magiPad back to EditView . Thanks, Bodo, for finding it.

    July 11, 2000. Added printing info to pedit's manual with links to PalmPrint and TealPrint [see the Print Memo command in ListView's Record menu].

    August 22, 2000. Fixed a bug whereas exporting to a DOC file crashed if the memo was segmented and one of the segments was empty.

    August 22, 2000. Released version 4.05 of all pedits and released peditPro "officially".

    August 22, 2000. Started working on version 4.06 of all pedits.

    August 25, 2000. Added the Visit Marker command in EditView's Edit menu.

    August 26, 2000. Updated the recognized battery types in the Palm System Info... command in ListView's Options menu. Thanks, Norbert, for suggesting this.

    August 30, 2000. Added the Insert Memo... command in EditView's Record menu.

    August 30, 2000. Added the New Memo command in ListView's Record menu.

    August 30, 2000. Released beta version 4.06 of all pedits.

    August 30, 2000. Started working on version 4.07 of all pedits.

    September 2, 2000. Fixed a bug in the Insert Memo... command [see EditView's Record menu] whereby if the current memo was empty then the insertion operation took place in the most recently visited memo instead. Thanks, Dirk, for finding it.

    September 4, 2000. Fixed a bug in selecting sentences when the cursor was at the end of the sentence right before the sentence ending character [see the Select... command in EditView's Edit menu]. Thanks, Steven, for finding this bug.

    September 5, 2000. Fixed a Switcher [see the ">" command in EditView's buttonPanel] related scrollbar bug in ListView whereby the scrollbar was not properly updated when switching between different categories. Amazingly, this bug went unnoticed for such a long time and it was I who found it.

    September 5, 2000. Started working on the brand new Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu.

    Note. Entering "ESC A" in EditView jumps the cursor to the beginning of the ScreenLine, whereas "ESC E" in EditView jumps the cursor to the end of the ScreenLine [still beta!!!].

    September 5, 2000. Released beta version 4.07 of all pedits.

    September 5, 2000. Started working on version 4.08 of all pedits.

    September 6, 2000. Continued working on the brand new Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu.

    September 10, 2000. The Palm version of the Profont family has been fixed by Michael J. Rider [see EditView's Fonts].

    September 12, 2000. Released beta version 4.09 of all pedits.

    September 12, 2000. Started working on version 4.10 of all pedits.

    September 14, 2000. Released beta version 4.10 of all pedits.

    September 14, 2000. Started working on version 4.11 of all pedits.

    September 16, 2000. Michael J. Rider completed version 1.02 of his Palm version of the Profont family [see EditView's Fonts].

    September 18, 2000. Added paragraph jumps to the Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu. Thanks, Jesse, for suggesting it.

    September 18, 2000. Released beta version 4.11 of all pedits.

    September 18, 2000. Started working on version 4.12 of all pedits.

    September 19, 2000. Added brackets to the date'n'time stamp in myNotes. Thanks, John, for the idea.

    September 20, 2000. The Jump to... command in EditView's Options menu was made sticky. Thanks, Jerry, for suggesting it.

    September 20, 2000. The role of "ESC J" was changed from initiating a jump to the marker [see the Set Marker command in EditView's Edit menu] to repeating the last jump [see here and the Jump to... command in EditView's Options].

    September 20, 2000. Released beta version 4.12 of all pedits.

    September 20, 2000. Started working on version 4.13 of all pedits.

    September 20, 2000. Added double blinking to buttons invoked by ESC equivalents of their buttonShifted versions.

    September 20, 2000. Released beta version 4.13 of all pedits.

    September 20, 2000. Started working on version 4.14 of all pedits.

    September 21, 2000. Fixed a bug which caused the destruction of the current memo if a right shift [see EditView's Edit+ menu] was performed while in magiPad.

    September 21, 2000. Released version 4.14 of all pedits.

    September 21, 2000. Started working on version 4.15 of all pedits.

    September 22, 2000. Started working on the brand new Select... command in EditView's Options menu.

    Note. While under construction, the new selection window will be invoked via "ESC G".

    September 28, 2000. Released version 4.15 of all pedits.

    September 28, 2000. Started working on version 4.16 of all pedits.

    October 1, 2000. Entering myNotes via ListView's buttonPanel capitalizes the first graffiti character if the capitalization is automatic box is checked in the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu. Thanks, Dan, for the idea.

    October 2, 2000. Released version 4.16 of all pedits.

    October 2, 2000. Started working on version 4.17 of all pedits.

    October 5, 2000. Fixed a bug whereby there was a crash on POSE if the Palm OS was 3.5 (debug) and pedit was started up via a sysAppLaunchCmdGoTo launch code. The reason for the crash was that in OS 3.5 the function FldScrollField () should not be used prior to FrmDrawForm (). Needless to say that this is undocumented in the Palm SDK. Thanks, Fred, for helping me to find this bug.

    October 5, 2000. Released version 4.17 of all pedits.

    October 5, 2000. Started working on version 4.18 of all pedits.

    October 7, 2000. Removed the Palm Operating System's clipboard limitation of a maximum 1000 characters when using either the "C" button in EditView's buttonPanel, or the Copy command in EditView's Edit menu, or the Qopy'n'Paste button in magiPad. Thanks, Jesse, for the suggestion.

    October 7, 2000. Released version 4.18 of all pedits.

    October 7, 2000. Started working on version 4.19 of all pedits.

    October 9, 2000. Fixed a bug whereby, if (i) a marker was selected in a memo, (ii) a new memo was created, and (iii) one tried to use the marker set in the previous memo, then it resulted in a crash.

    October 10, 2000. The marker is deselected automatically if the text of the memo changes.

    October 13, 2000. Fixed a bug whereby pedit crashed if "ESC i" was invoked during a memo insert process [see EditView's Record menu] while EditView's buttonPanel was off [see the Buttons on|off command in EditView's Edit+ menu]. Thanks, Jesse, for the bug report.

    October 17, 2000. The entry fields in all dialogs can be controlled by

    PageUp = up-arrow = increases the number in the field which is focused

    PageDown = down-arrow = decreases the number in the field which is focused

    as long as the focused field expects a number input.

    October 18, 2000. Released version 4.20 of all pedits.

    October 18, 2000. Started working on version 4.21 of all pedits.

    October 20, 2000. Added an optional fixed category feature to the myNotes button in ListView's buttonPanel. Thanks, Jennifer, for insisting on this feature.

    October 21, 2000. Added a date'n'time stamper [see the Add a DateStamp command in EditView's Edit+ menu]. Thanks, Rick, for the idea.

    October 21, 2000. Released versions 4.21 and 4.22 of all pedits.

    October 21, 2000. Started working on version 4.23 of all pedits.

    October 21, 2000. Switching between the last two fonts in EditView via the buttonShifted "U" button in EditView's buttonPanel or by "ESC U". Thanks, ???, for the idea.

    October 23, 2000. Found and fixed three bugs in conjunction with the fancy feature of the FIND SilkScreen button.

    October 23, 2000. Released versions 4.23 of all pedits.

    October 23, 2000. Started working on version 4.24 of all pedits.

    October 30, 2000. Either SPACE or TAB can be picked as ESC character [see the Preferences... dialog in EditView's Options menu].

    October 30, 2000. Released versions 5.00 of all pedits.

    October 30, 2000. Started working on version 5.01 of all pedits.

    October 31, 2000. Fixed a bug in the right shift command [see EditView's Edit+ menu] which caused improper screen display refreshment if no shifting took place. In addition, I also did a minor optimization of the shifting process. Thanks, Kim, for discovering this really odd bug.

    November 10, 2000. Released versions 5.01 of all pedits.

    November 10, 2000. Started working on version 5.02 of all pedits.

    December 7, 2000. The "ESC" character can be any character of the extended 256 character ASCII coode with a few exceptions in the "a-z" and "A-Z" range [I am not sure that this will work on all international Palms]. Thanks, Mark, for the suggestion.