The text editor creates or modifies a frame's text. To access this editor only one frame may be selected in the active document and this frame must either be empty or already contain text. There are three ways to open the editor: through the first button of the text manager's horizontal tool bar, through the empty frame's contextual menu, or through the text frame's contextual menu.

Screen shot: Text Editor

• The "Edit" menu contains three entries pertaining to the clipboard:

  

  1. "Cut" saves the selected text zone to the clipboard then deletes the original text from the editor.
      
  2. "Copy" saves the selected text zone to the clipboard without deleting the original text from the editor.
      
  3. "Paste" affixes the saved text block from the most recent "cut" or "copy" command at the location of the text cursor.
      
• The "Options" menu offers different text management options:

  

  1. "Insert Font" has the same function as the second "Ins" button.
      
  2. "Insert Paragraph" has the same function as the first "Ins" button.
      
  3. "Return" has the same function as the first button on the bottom tool-bar.
      
  4. "Frame Break" has the same function as the second button on the bottom tool-bar.
      
  5. "Set Mark 1" or "Set Mark 2" tags the cursor's position in the text with one of these two marks. The marks cannot be seen but they indicate the position of the cursor.
      
  6. "Go to Mark 1" or "Go to Mark 2" positions the text cursor on the spot where the two respective marks have been placed.
      
  7. "Unset Mark 1" or "Unset Mark 2" removes the respective marks.
      
  8. "Export text..." calls up the 'Export text' file selector, allowing the text in a file to be saved separately.
      

Text Areas:

The text field containing the selected frame's text. Text enrichments (font styles, specifications, frame breaks, returns and paragraph endings) appear in the editor as tags but are not displayed in the frame. A tag acts as a single character: to delete it, position the cursor in front of it and push the "Del" key.
To insert tags, use the menu bar or the buttons on the bottom tool-bar.
The Selected area is like all other text fields, notably in that it is possible to use accented characters from the ISO Latin 1 character list, whether using the corresponding keyboard keys or the composed characters.

Lower Control Bar:

• The first button on the bar inserts a return without changing paragraphs in the text. This is reflected in the Selected area by inserting the "[CR]" tag. This "Line Return" is different from the return and enter keys because it does not signal the end of a paragraph; this command makes it possible to justify the last line of a paragraph or a single line of a title.
   
• The second button on the bar inserts a frame break in the text. This is reflected in the selected area by the "[Frame Break]" tag. When several frames are linked it is not necessary to wait for a frame to be filled before allowing the text to flow to the next frame in the chain if a "frame break" is used.
   
• The "Format" roll-down menu contains the list of specifications defined in the 'Format' dialog box. Clicking on the first button, "Ins", just to the right of the list, or in the "Options / Insert format" menu selects formatting to be inserted in the text. When the text editor is opened, the format selected from this list will be effective from the beginning of the text.
   
• The first "Ins" button inserts the selected format from the roll-down menu into the text. This is reflected in the selected area by insertion of the "¶[R:format name]" tag. A format specification forces a paragraph break because it acts on one or more paragraphs in their entirety.
   
• The "Style" roll-down menu contains the font style list defined in the 'Font Style' composition dialog box. Clicking on the second "Ins" button just to the left of the list or in the "Options / Insert Style" menu selects the font to be inserted in the text. When the text editor is opened, the font selected from the menu will take effect from the beginning of the text.
   
• The second "Ins" button inserts the selected font in the text from the roll-down menu. This is reflected in the selected area the "[S:style name]" tag. A font is applied from the point of insertion to the following style.
   

Lower portion of the editor:

• "Ok" confirms all changes in the text and closes the editor.
   
• "Cancel" closes the editor and keeps the initial text.