There are in fact eight possible screen modes, and VIEW will work in any of them. In practice most people use MODE 3 since its 74-character line is very suitable for laying out typewritten material.
Mode | Characters | Lines | Mode | Characters | Lines |
MODE 0 | 74 | 31 | MODE 1 | 34 | 31 |
MODE 2 | 34 | 31 | MODE 3 | 74 | 24 |
MODE 4 | 34 | 31 | MODE 5 | 16 | 31 |
MODE 6 | 34 | 24 | MODE 7 | 34 | 24 |
You should be aware of the computer's memory if you are to use VIEW effectively, and the mode you are in affects the amount of memory available for text. Switch to command mode by pressing ESCAPE and you will see the amount of free memory shown in the form Bytes free ...
This shows the amount of memory left for you to use after the text already there is taken into account. A byte is a unit of memory, equivalent to a single character on the screen. However, the different screen modes themselves take up different amounts of memory.
If you start in MODE 7, you have about 25000 bytes of memory to play with, whereas MODE 3 only allows you about 10000 and in MODE 0 you are down to about 6000 words before you start.
On balance MODE 3 probably offers the most useful compromise. As a rough guide, a typical A4 page takes about 2000 bytes.
FJ .......*.......*.......*.......*.......*.......*.......*.......*.......*.<
_
*****************************************************************************
The ruler you see when you first switch on is the default ruler, ie it is the ruler the system gives you unless you request something different. In fact you may insert a ruler into your text whenever you wish, up to a maximum of 128 rulers in any one document, and you may make them all up differently.
As we mentioned in chapter 3, the dots in the ruler are there mainly to remind you that the line is a ruler; the asterisks are TAB stops, and the angle bracket on the right is the margin stop.
Try calling up a default ruler yourself, by holding down CTRL and pressing function key f7 for DEFAULT RULER.
Modifying the default ruler can be done in much the same way as modifying text. You place the cursor on it by means of the arrow keys, and use such commands as INSERT CHARACTER (to lengthen the ruler) or DELETE CHARACTER (to shorten it).
Try the following to show how this works.
Get into MODE 3 by returning to command mode and typing
MODE 3 RETURN
Switch to text mode and call up a default ruler (function key f7 with CTRL ).
Now type the following paragraph:
Formatting relates the length of the text lines to the current ruler.
Press FORMAT MODE to turn on (F is displayed at top left). Press FORMAT
MODE again to turn off (nothing is displayed). In format mode, when text
is typed in, any word which overflows the right margin is transferred
whole to the following line.
Having typed this (or anything else if you prefer) move the cursor up to your default ruler and shorten the ruler. You can do this with DELETE CHARACTER (function key f9 ) but make sure you leave the right margin intact - this is the < at the end.
Now move the cursor on to the top line of the paragraph and press FORMAT BLOCK (function key f0 ). Suddenly the whole paragraph is reset to a different line length, like this:
Formatting relates the length of
the text lines to the current
ruler. Press FORMAT MODE to turn on
(F is displayed at top left). Press
FORMAT MODE again to turn off
(nothing is displayed). In format
mode, when text is typed in, any
word which overflows the right
margin is transferred whole to the
following line.
This method works equally well with justified and unjustified text. Try a few more line lengths for yourself.
Whatever you do with the rulers, remember the basic rule: the system obeys the last ruler above the line that the cursor is on.
Copying the current ruler can be done quite simply by holding down SHIFT and pressing COPY . The copy ruler will appear on the line where the cursor is.
Alternatively if you want something quite unlike the default ruler you may find it easiest to make up your own ruler. To do this first place the cursor on the line where you want it; then hold down CTRL and press function key f8 (MARK AS RULER). Two dots appear in the margin and you can make up your own ruler to the right of these.
Whenever you are making up your own ruler or modifying an existing or default ruler, you should always make sure that the finished product actually looks like a ruler. For example, it would be possible to make a perfectly valid ruler consisting simply of two dots in the left margin and a margin stop on the right, but it would also be fatally easy to delete such a ruler by mistake, spoiling all the text under it. So fill it in with dots at least.
We also suggest that you do not alter the left margin except for a special purpose which will be mentioned later in this book.
If you then type in text, as the cursor reaches the right-hand edge of the screen, the text to the left disappears and you find yourself typing on into blackness.
What has happened is that the screen has moved to the right over the 'page', as described in the last chapter.
In fact you may construct a ruler which is up to 132 characters wide. However you should remember that the end product of word processing is printing words onto paper, so you have to make sure that your printer can handle a line of this length.