                     ķ
                       pE - The "perfect" Editor (tm)  
                                                       
                                     by                
                                                       
                        Just Excellent Software, Inc.  
                            All Rights Reserved        
                     Ľ
                      

                         Copyright (c) 1990 - 1993 by
                         Just Excellent Software, Inc
                        220 High View Lane, Suite 202
                               Media, PA 19063

                               pE - Quick Start
                               

        This file may be all you need to know to use pE.  There is
        more detail in pehelp.exe.  Registration provides a printed
        manual, quick reference card and telephone support.  It also
        provides the latest version of pE (or pEp) free of
        registration inducements.  We hope you enjoy pE enough to use
        it and therefore register.

        Print using 60 lines per page, 0 top and 0 bottom margin
        (Laser), or 66 lines per page and 3 top and 3 bottom margin.

        Ŀ
        1. Starting pE
        
        pE can be started simply by typing 'pe' (or 'pep' for pe
        professional).  There are many command line switches available
        for you to customize pE.  See the peuser.doc for a complete
        description.

        - Open a single file-->  pe filename
            if filename is non-existant, it is opened as a new file

        - Open a few files---->  pe file1,file2,file3

        - Open a list of files>  pe @list
            where list contains filenames with paths)

        - Open and position--->  pe filename nnn  [nnn is linenumber]

        - Open file chooser--->  pe *
            the '*' means all files, you can also say things like
            *.txt (show only .txt files)
            \path\sub\sub\*.* (show all files in \path\sub\sub
            dep*.* (show only files whose names start with 'dep')

        Ŀ
        2. Quitting pE
        
        The very easiest thing to do is type Alt-X (exit).  If you've
        made a change to the file, pE will ask if you wish to save it.

        If you just want to leave without saving anything, and you're
        in a big rush, type ^Q_L (that's Ctrl + Q, then L, case
        unimportant).

        Ŀ
        3. Accessing the Menu
        
        Alt+F,E,S,W,O,H, or just Alt will call attention to the menu bar.

        If the menu bar is visible, you may also click left with the
        mouse.  If invisible, position the mouse on the top row of the
        screen and press the right button; the menu will appear.

        To "pull down" a specific menu press enter on the menu that's
        highlighted or downarrow or press the first letter of the menu you
        wish to "pull down".

        Pressing the highlighted letter will execute the command specified
        in the menu.

        Alt H(elp) is pE's help file.  Some 40 pages of help organized by
        topic.  You can print a single page or the whole document from
        within help.


        Ŀ
        4. Saving Edited Files
        
        From the Menu choose F(ile) Save or F(ile) Save A(s) or;

        F3 will save the file to the current name without a prompt, like
        F(ile) Save and;

        F4 will save the file and provide you an opportunity to change
        the name, like F(ile) Save As.

        Alt-Q (Quick exit and save) Saves all files modified and exits.

        Each of these commands will first backup the original file to
        the "Backup Path" (defaults to \backup).

        Ŀ
        5. Command Menu
        
        Pressing F1 calls up the command menu.  The command menu is a
        listing of all of pE's commands, arranged alphabetically, with
        their current key assignment.  Selecting a command and pressing
        enter will execute the command directly from the menu.  You may
        also left click with the mouse.

        Ŀ
        6. Window Basics
        
        pE's windows can be tiled, cascaded, sized, moved, stacked and
        colored differently.  Windows can be bordered, or not.  If you
        use a mouse, it is recommended that you leave the borders on.

            To size a window:

            - with the mouse, click left on the size 'gadget' in the
              lower right hand corner of the window border.  Holding the
              mouse button down, move the mouse up and to the left.

            - letting go of the mouse button ends the size.

            - with the keyboard, press Alt-Home.  Use the arrow keys to
              move the bottom and right borders.  Pressing ESC ends the
              size.

            To move a window:

            - with the mouse, click left on the window title, enclosed
              in square brackets in the center of the top border.
              Holding the mouse button down, move the mouse and the
              window will move along as well.  Note that the window can
              only move within the confines of the screen, so it must be
              smaller than the full screen to move.  Leaving go of the
              mouse ends the move.

            - with the keyboard, press Alt-End.  Use the arrow keys to
              move.  As with Size, ESC ends the move.

            To close a window:

            - with the mouse, click left on the 'close gadget', the
              symbol '' in the upper left hand corner of the window
              border.

            - with the keyboard, press Alt-K.

            To stack windows:

            - Alt W(indow) + S(tack)

            To unstack windows:

            - Alt W(indow) + C(a)scade or T(ile)

            To jump to the next, prev window F2 and Shift F2.

        Ŀ
        7. Saving Memory
        
        When pE opens a Window, it saves the background of the window in
        memory.  The bigger the window, the more memory.  The more
        memory taken by windows, the less that is available for text.
        To increase the size of the file capable of being edited;

            1. Use few windows and keep the ones you're not using very
               small.  This is easy to do with the minimize window, zoom
               and other commands available to arrange and control the
               size and spacing of windows.

            2. Editing using 25 lines/screen uses less memory than
               editing with 50 lines/screen.

            3. Buy pEp, pE professional.  pE professional can use ALL
               the memory in your computer and consequently can open
               many more and bigger files.  You need a '286 and up
               processor to run pEp with a minimum of 2 Megs of memory.

        Ŀ
        8. Marking, Cutting & Pasting
        
        One of the joys of using a computer to manipulate text, is the
        ability to freely move text around easily.  pE makes this easier
        than any other product you've tried!  Either the mouse or the
        keyboard can be used.

        First some definitions:

            - Marking means to select an area of text.  Marked areas are
              called 'blocks'.

            - Cutting means to move the selected text to the 'Scrap'
              Some programs refer to it as a 'Clipboard'.  In any event
              it is simply a holding place (invisible) to hold selected,
              moved text.

            - Pasting means to move text from the 'Scrap' back into the
              editing window.  It is exactly the opposite of cutting.

        Now the keys used;

            - Grey- to Cut.  'Grey' refers to the numeric keypad keys.
            - Grey+ to Paste.

            If nothing is marked, pressing cut will cut the current line
            to the scrap.  Pressing paste will copy it back.

            Pasting can be done over and over.  Until the next 'cut' the
            contents of the 'Scrap' remains the same after a paste.

            There are three kinds of blocks, or selections;

            1. Alt-L, Lines - whole lines are marked
            2. Alt-B, Rectangular Areas - also known as column blocks
            3. ^K-K,  Stream blocks - from any character to any character.
               Also shift+grey cursor keys on 101 key keyboards.

            To end any mark press the same key you started with.

            To unmark, Alt-U or click twice with the mouse in the same
            spot, i.e., without moving.

            If you are working on line oriented material, such as
            programs, tables, or line drawings, you probably want to use
            Alt-L for lines.

            If you want to shift a columnar block of text or a drawing
            around, then you want to use Alt-B.

            If you want to delete a sentence that spans several lines,
            and perhaps move it elsewhere, then use ^K-K; or with the
            mouse, hold the Ctrl key down as you drag.

            Note that the documentation tells you how to set up pE to
            use whatever keys you are familiar with.  See KEY.TXT

        Marking with the MOUSE

            Pressing and holding down the left mouse button while moving
            the mouse will mark lines (just as Alt-L).

            Pressing and holding down the right mouse button while
            moving the mouse will mark a rectangular area of the screen,
            (just as Alt-B).

            Pressing and holding down the left mouse button AND the Ctrl
            key will mark a 'stream' (just as ^K-K)

            Releasing the mouse button depressed, ends the mark.

        Pasting with the MOUSE

            You can paste the contents of the 'Scrap' anywhere by
            positioning with the mouse and clicking first the left, then
            the right buttons (without moving) in the spot you wish to
            paste in.  This takes a little practise, but gets easier.

        Ins/Replace

            When you cut and paste columnar (rectangular) blocks, you
            must be aware that a different effect will result depending
            upon which mode you are in, Insert or Replace (overtype).
            In Insert mode, when you cut a rectangular block, the area
            to the right of the block will shift left to fill in the
            vacated area of the cut.  In Replace mode, the area cut is
            replaced immediately with blanks, so the appearance is to
            leave a 'hole' where the text was.

            Similarly, when you paste a rectangular block in Insert
            mode it will 'push' all the text right as it inserts itself
            line for line.  In Replace mode it will OVERWRITE or OVERLAY
            any text occupied by the area it is being pasted into.

            You must try this in each mode to become facile.

        The easiest way to indent or outdent a section of lines

            Mark with Alt-L, and press TAB to indent each line exactly
            one tab stop, or Shift Tab to outdent each line.

            This can be done to a whole file at once to adjust a left
            margin.

            Note that tab stops can be adjusted to be wherever you want.

        Ŀ
        9. Drawing Boxes & Lines
        
        Now that you know all about marking, drawing a box is very easy.
        Mark a rectangular block with Alt-B, or use the mouse.  See
        above.  Then press Alt-1 through Alt-9 for 9 different Box
        styles.  That's all there is.

        If you want to see all nine box styles at once, press Alt-G.
        You can also draw a box by clicking on the box style you want in
        this display after marking the block.

        Alt-G is a 'toggle'.  Pressing it again turns graphic key
        mapping off.

        A line is simply a box having only one dimension.  So mark
        either a single column or a single row and press Alt-1 for a
        single line, Alt-2 for a double line, etc...

        Ŀ
        10. DRAG & DROP
        
        One of pE's unique features is its ability to move text around
        on the screen with mouse or keyboard.

        Mark a rectangular block (Alt-B) and with the mouse click and
        hold down the left button while the mouse is anywhere in the
        highlited area.  The block will change color and begin to move
        as you move the mouse.  Pressing F7 will 'break' the box loose
        and allow you to use the cursor keys to shift it around.  Press
        the Paste key (Grey+) to 'Drop' the Box.  Letting go of the
        mouse button will also end the Drag & Drop.

        Of course, you can do the same thing with cut and paste (or
        move, which combines a cut and a paste), but this is much more
        fun and for small movements, much more useful. Try it!

        Please note that being in Insert or Replace mode will affect the
        text around the block differently.

        Ŀ
        11. Searching for Text
        
        With pE you can search for text whether you've loaded the file
        into pE or not!  Lets start by showing you the search and
        replace Dialog Box.  You can see it in action by pressing
        Alt-F.  Pressing ESC will exit the dialog with no action, so
        if you want, press #F5 (shift F5) now.  In any event this is
        what it looks like:


               [ <Search/Replace> ]ͻ
               Search For                                    
               ۺ
               ĺ
               Replace With                                  
               ۺ
               ĺ
                 [ ] Backward        [ ] Case Sensitive      
                 [ ] Find All        [ ] Pattern (Reg Exp)   
                 [ ] All Windows     [ ] Load all Matches    
                 [ ] Search SubDirs      Mask:*.*            
               ĺ
                      < OK >               < Cancel >        
                                                             
                Ctrl+Enter to Start Search ͼ


            - if you're doing a search, type in what to look for
              in the area underneath the "Search For".

            - then check any buttons you want by using the space bar,
              the letter x, the highlited letter, or the mouse to set
              a backward search (Backward), search for all occurrences
              in one file (Find All), in All Windows (All Windows),
              Make the search Case Sensitive (must match upper and
              lower case exactly), and the search string is a Regular
              Expression (Pattern).  You will need to review regular
              expressions in the "REGEXP.TXT" file if you are not
              familiar with search patterns.

            - you move around the dialog box by using the arrow keys,
              the tab, or the enter.  Pressing the first letter of any
              button will also move you to that button and check it on
              or off depending on what it was.  Of course the mouse
              can be used to navigate as well.

            - pressing ESC (escape) cancels any entry and returns to
              the editing screen.  Clicking the Cancel button with the
              mouse or pressing Enter when the Cancel Button highlited
              will have the same effect.

            - Pressing the OK button with the mouse, or Enter when OK
              is highlited will begin the search or replace.

            - The title of the dialog box will indicate whether or not
              you are beginning a search or replace.

            - If you selected (Found List), the dialog box automatically
              comes up with

                [x] Find All

              checked, otherwise its the same as a Find.  Setting
              'Find All' on means you want a list of ALL occurrences
              of the search string, either in the current window, all
              windows of even all files in this directory, or all
              files in this directory and all subdirectories; see
              'Calling Find from Chooser', below.

            - If you press #F6 (Replace), instead of 'Find All', the
              second button look like

                [ ] Replace All

              checking this button will replace all occurrences of
              string 1 with string 2.  Further if [x] All Windows is
              checked, all occurrences EVERYWHERE will be changed.
              Please use caution!   Enter a value in the 'Replace
              With' area. Please note that a NULL (empty) 'Replace
              With' is a VALID replacement.  You may be trying to
              delete part of every string.  If you leave the 'Replace
              With' area empty, pE will ask for a confirmation of your
              intent.

            - NOTE: If you mark an area, do a replace all and don't
              like the result, alt-0 (zero) undoes the replace.  This
              will only work in a single window and only as long as
              you have memory.

            - You begin the Search or Replace with Ctrl+Enter
              anytime after you have entered the necessary information.

            - NOTE: Any macros which did a DefineFind in previous
              versions of pE, need to be rewritten to accommodate the
              Ctrl-Enter exit rather than just Enter.


            - [x] Find All builds a found list by writing to a file
              named ~FND.$$$. When the search finishes, ~FND.$$$ is
              read into a pE window and DELETED (if completely read).
              Files starting with the character '~' and having
              extensions of '.$$$' are deleted when read by pE.  This
              means that you must do a save to a different name if you
              wish to keep these files.  The directory used for
              ~FND.PED is the one pointed to by the setting of the TMP
              environment variable.  If TMP doesn't point anywhere,
              the current directory is used.  This is important to
              know only because if ~FND.$$$ is NOT completely read in,
              it is NOT deleted and you may want to delete it if TMP
              is on permanent media.

            - A search may be interrupted at any time by pressing ESC
              (escape).

        Ŀ
        13. Backing Up
        
        When pE loads a file into a window, the original file remains on
        your hard drive, untouched.  When you have completed editing the
        copy in memory, Saving writes the copy in memory out to your
        hard drive.  If you save to the same name, pE moves the original
        version (still untouched) to a "backup" directory.  The options
        menu provides an option for you to specify the backup directory.
        The default is to use a directory off the root of the "current"
        hard drive.  This means that each hard drive you run pE on, will
        eventually have a \backup.  If this is acceptable, do nothing.

        You should periodically clean out \backup as you can accumulate
        a considerable amount of backed up files.

        If you save twice, the original backup will be overwritten with
        the newly created file.  This means if a file must be retained
        in its original version, you should NOT save to the same name.

        When the backup directory is on the same drive, pE can just move
        a directory entry to backup up the file, (very fast).  If you
        make the backup directory be a different drive, then the file
        must be copied in its entirety to be backed up.  (slower).

        Ŀ
        14. Printing
        
        pE has a completely integrated print facility.  With it you can:

            - create headers and footers so that all your output pages
              have the same heading and footing

            - print every line with a line number

            - set left, right, top and bottom margins

            - instruct pE to wrap long lines to a particular column

            - direct output to a file to preview the printed image

            - direct output to any LPT, or COMM port

            - single or more space your output

            - set the starting page number

            - print the whole file or any range of marked lines.

        To print, press Alt-P.

        Ŀ
        15. Word Processing
        
        pE is a text processor with many Word Processing features.  It
        has the ability to automatically reformat your text as you
        type, just as a word processor does.  To make pE behave in
        this manner, press Ctrl-F6.  A 'W' will appear on the bottom
        line.  In Word mode, paragraphs are continuously reformatted
        as you type.  The alignment occurs based on the settings of
        'Paragraph Format' in the options menu.  The available
        settings include:

            - left margin
            - right margin
            - indent/outdent
            - justification (left, justified, or unjustified)

        You can also cause word wrap to occur in Text Mode by setting
        the maximum line length to a value where you would like word
        wrap to occur.  This entire file was produced in with the line
        length set to 72.  No other commands were necessary.  You can
        reformat a paragraph manually by pressing Alt-A, Align
        Paragraph.

        Paragraph Alignment can be undone (but only the last alignment)
        with a Ctrl-F10.

        Text can be centered by pressing Ctrl A-C, left flushed by
        pressing Ctrl A-L, and right flushed by pressing Ctrl A-R.

        Marking a block and then pressing one of the above, will use the
        boundaries of the block as the margins.

        See pehelp.exe for further detail.  Also see latest.txt for recent
        changes to pE.
