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Lesson 4: Intermediate Document Editing

The Dictionary Window

Examine the user dictionary window to see the user dictionary(4- 7): Initially, the user dictionary contains errata from the various dictionaries, as well as examples of various types and modes of entries. You can add entries which will be searched each time the word and phrase dictionary is searched. Note the area at the end, which is where the Translate | Add Selection to User Dictionary command places new entries. You can move and arrange these entries as you like. The order is not important, and you can have multiple entries with the same pronunciation.

The Dynamic Glossary Window

Like the user dictionary(4- 7), the Keyboard | Add Selection to Dynamic Glossary command places new entries at the end. You can move and arrange these entries as you like. We recommend inverse frequency order (the most-used at the top). Although you can have multiple entries with the same key, only the last entry is active, and the other entries with the same key are ignored.

Deleting Chinese Characters

If you have entered the wrong characters by mistake, you can change or delete the characters without retyping their pronunciation. Depending on how much word and character spacing you are using to display the document, hyouji is quite close to the end of the line. If a portion of the expanded pronunciation exceeds the margins, that portion will wrap to the next line, making it hard to work with.

Joining Objects

The pronunciation object hyouji was split into separate hiragana objects in the word we deleted. Rejoin them so we can look them up as a word. If you had double clicked with the mouse, or otherwise selected the notes gloss before the pronunciation, you would be seeing a mess as the pronunciations were joined to the English gloss! If that happened, press Ctrl+Z to UnDo, and try again. Hint: first position the insertion point after the gloss as indicated by the hidden characters window. You can use Alt+Left to move the insertion point precisely. Join Objects is also useful when converting text from one type to another. The selected text becomes the type of the first selected object.

Ctrl Keys Split Existing Text Objects

Use Ctrl+ key input mode shortcuts carefully. Pressing a control key not only changes the input mode, it also splits an existing text object at the insertion into two objects, and changes the type of the text in the second object to the input mode type. You earlier used this effect to change hiragana to katakana. You can also convert between notes, English, and wide ENGLISH. If you inadvertently split an object while typing, just press BackSpace or select Edit | UnDo to restore the object. Otherwise, use Join Objects.

Extended Dictionary Searches

When typing or moving the insertion point, Smart Characters makes a simple guess of a possible dictionary lookup key based upon the current object type: the text in the object to the left of the insertion point becomes the dictionary lookup key. By selecting text, you can create more sophisticated keys. When text is selected, the Translate menu changes to indicate that extended lookups are active. When both kanji and kana are selected, Query ignores the pronunciation of the kanji, and looks for the combination of kanji plus in-line kana. Besides notes and kanji, Query also ignores syllable separators, works over line breaks, and is otherwise quite versatile. This comes in handy when hand annotating text imported from other word processors.

Editing Glosses

When pronunciations or notes are displayed Above or Below the text, the main insertion point does not move, and new text will interfere with other pronunciations or glosses on the line. Redraw the line as necessary for a clear display. Practice changing the toki ni gloss time to when. The Same mode is perfect for editing, where you do not want to have to constantly fiddle with setting a different input mode when editing Japanese, English, pronunciations, and glosses. Along with the unwanted gloss, the word and phrase dictionary always inserts a ^D word separator to begin a new word. Words in Smart Characters consist of a notes object followed by any combination of pronunciation and characters objects. When notes placement (set by Format | Annotations) is Above or Below, you can access only the end of a notes object using BackSpace (which also deletes).

Deleting a Gloss

If you are deleting an entire gloss, you can do it in one step. Delete the gloss Shaw from the next word.

Deleting and BackSpace

BackSpace and Delete work completely differently. BackSpace deletes a character from the object to the left of the insertion point. The character may be part of the in-line text, or it may be part of an annotation.

Delete deletes the in-line object to the right of the insertion point and other objects between the insertion point and the next character. An object is in-line if it occupies space on the line. Typically, the Delete key deletes several objects at a time: one in-line character plus associated pronunciations, and sometimes notes glosses. In addition, the LeftShift+Delete combination deletes the single byte current character, and the RightShift+Delete combination deletes a single hidden object beginning with the current character.

Review Notes Behavior

Notes glosses when displayed above or below the line can also occupy variable word spacing(4- 14) on the line. As long as variable word spacing is not zero, you can delete a gloss by pressing the Delete key. However, when annotations are off, variable word spacing is automatically set to zero, and glosses can be deleted by only by deleting the following character, or by selecting the gloss using the Shift+Alt+Right key, then pressing Delete. Although the insertion point does not move on the display, the hidden characters window displays the object being deleted.

Glosses in the first word on the line and pronunciation objects do not occupy space (word spacing is zero on the left margin, so that the margin lines up). Delete them using the Shift+Alt method above.

Pasting and Deleting

Copy and paste the Chinese sentence into the existing Gundam.jp0 lesson document. The basic steps are: select the text, select the copy or cut command, position the insertion point, then select the paste command.

Selecting Text

You can also make a keyboard selection without using the Shift key at all:

Copy and Paste

Typing Replaces a Selection

The lesson document is ruined! To fix it, delete it all at once:

Un-Doing

OOPS! Didn't mean it! You spent hours constructing that sentence, don't let it be annihilated by a stray `g' key.

Drag and Drop

Move the sentence fragment at the beginning of the first paragraph to the end of the paragraph, in blatant disregard of the author's intentions. Although you could use standard cut and paste, we will experiment with drag and drop editing. For this, you must use the mouse: Observe that the text has been cut from the beginning and pasted into the end of the paragraph. Also note that the paragraph does not reform itself automatically to the margins. To reform the paragraph: The drag and drop editing function uses the internal clipboard for cutting and pasting, which means you can paste the item you just moved. You can continue to paste until you run out of room in the current window.

Pasting from the Windows Clipboard

There are two ways to paste text and objects between applications. The first simply uses the Windows clipboard to transmit text or graphics. The second uses a special feature of Windows, Object Linking and Embedding. Experiment with simple copying and pasting.

Launching a Task

First, launch Windows Write:

Copying Text from Write

One of the oxymorons of Windows is that all applications work alike, so that if you learn to use one, you can use them all: The package works to launch Smart Characters 2.9 installed on drive c: only. You can use the Object Packager to change the drive. The linked object can be changed by selecting Write's Edit | Links | Change.

Switching between Tasks

You can switch tasks by clicking on a task's window, however, sometimes you cannot see the window, or the mouse is too much trouble, and Alt+Esc doesn't work (out of memory). Instead:

Pasting Text with Paste Special

Because Paste pastes text from the Smart Characters internal clipboard, we have to use the Paste Special command:

Apply Paragraph Formatting

Paste Special | Text | Paste pastes "text" as plain text, without formatting or word wrap. Make the pasted text into a paragraph:

Page Size, Margins, and Indenting

The way the document looks on the page is controlled by the Page Size and Margins and Paragraph formatting controls.

Default and Local Formatting

Some kinds of formatting can be changed on a paragraph or character by character basis. As you switch between these groups, note the changes to the values in the dialog box. For example, the default point size(D- - 6) for English and Chinese characters is 12 points, while it is half that, 6 points, for notes and pronunciations. Note that Apply Format can be set to Default (from the beginning of the document), From Cursor (onward from the insertion point through the text), or to a Block (around selected text).

Global Formatting

Page Setup and Annotations formatting apply to the document as a whole, and remain constant throughout the document. You are already familiar with Format Annotations, so try Page Setup: You may not have seen a Writing Direction control before. It is now set to LR-TB, which means left to right, then top to bottom. Experiment with vertical writing by selecting a vertical form: You can create your own forms by simply entering a new form name. The new form takes its initial properties from the previously current form.

Formatting with the Ruler

Sometimes it is more convenient to use other controls to format a document, so that you can see the effects of your changes instantly. Tabs are a type of paragraph formatting that can be applied to one of three levels. However, the ruler applies paragraph tab and indent formatting only around a selection (highlighted text) if one exists, or from the insertion point forward if there is no selection. Global tab stops and indenting are applied using the Format menu. Apply a larger indent to the recently pasted English paragraph:

Create a Hanging Indent

Add A Bullet

Hanging indents don't look so great by themselves, so add a bullet: Hanging indents cause tricky insertion point behavior. Initially, the paragraph starts out indented the same as the previous paragraph. Next, the indent formatting we just added moves the text to the left. Finally, text displays to the right, overlapping the original starting point, so that two parts of the text display in the same position. The mouse does not attempt to decide when clicked in the area. The Arrow keys will move through the text, and jump over the format codes. The Home key alternates between the beginning of the line before and after the indent format codes.

Viewing Format Codes

Because Smart Characters formats documents by adding format codes(D- - 3) to the text, you can view, edit, and define your own codes for special purposes.

Adding Character Formatting

Try adding some character formatting, like bold, italic, and a new typeface. Note that the point size(D- - 6) exceeds the line height. It is acceptable to interfere with the previous line.

Removing Formatting

"Ugly, ugly, ugly! Shame on you! Eighteen typefaces in the first paragraph alone! Don't you know anything about graphics design?" screams the designer.

Extracting Glosses

Sometimes it is useful to be able to annotate a document and then extract the glosses. With Chinese text, the result is almost readable, but with Japanese, the word order is so different, it is nearly impossible to read. Nonetheless, give it a try.

Create a New Document

Pasting Smart Characters Text

Break Time with Instant Vocabulary

Any time you see a Chinese character that arouses your curiosity, take some time to explore it using Query, and Instant Vocabulary:

Resize the Window

Launch some other application and do something completely different (i.e., get back to work). Every few minutes, do another few rounds with the vocabulary lesson.

Saving Instant Lessons As...

Turn Hidden Characters On

If you are not quitting, have turned off the hidden characters window, and want to enter text, select View | Hidden Characters to reinstate the window.


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