If this is your first time here, To see the restof themanual,
read this entire screen before use the cursor movementkeys at
proceding. the right ofthe keyboard,
numbered1 to 9. The upor down
keys, 8 or 2, will get you
OmniEdit allows: through the manual. Youmay try
the others to see what they do,
- reading and changing DOS files or wait until you read about
them later. Push the keys
- simple calculations marked Caps Lock, Num Lock and
Scroll Lock until the letters C,
- elementary word processing N and S disappear from the
bottom screen line. Ifyou get
- talking to other computers stuck, push Esc twice toresume.
through atelephone line.
As you read about each function,
- easy rearrangement of text by try it. Your changes are to a
captures. temporary copy of themanual,
and you can start over by
repeating what you just did to
get here.

Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. i
OmniEdit Contents


Thepreceding paragraphs appear first on the screenfor newusers.


Contents

Introductory Screen .. . . . . . i
Contents . . .. . . . . . 1
Editing . . .. . . . . . 2
Panic Button
Cursor Movement
Editing functions
Miscellaneous
Word processing
Page numbering
Accidental deletion
Function menu . .. . . . . . 3
Communication . .. . . . . . 4
Loading the UART
Dialing the Telephone
Transmitting text
Uploading and Downloading Files
Starting OmniEdit . .. . . . . . 5
Status line . . .. . . . . . 6
Command Summary . .. . . . . . 7
Operating Considerations. . . . . . 8
Glossary . . .. . . . . . 9

Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 1
OmniEditEditing


OmniEdit lets you examine and change DOS text files.


======================== PanicButton =========================

TheEsc keywill get from anywhere to the functionmenu, or to theediting
screen, andthen shuttle between the two.Use this key toescape when you
gettrapped.


======================= CursorMovement =======================

During editing you see 23 lines oftext with a white rectangular cursor to
show whereyou areworking. You may movethe cursor around in the text
using keys for thatpurposeon the keyboard. With practice, you can get to
anyplace in even the largest text in a fewseconds.

key function

left (4)
right (6) Move the cursor left or right. It may move beyond the right
end of a line. When it moves off the end ofthe screen, the
wholescreen scrolls to make room forit.

up (8)
down (2) Move the cursor up ordown one line. When the r flag is on,
set by the End key, these keys keep the cursor at the end of
each line.

Home (7)
End (1) Move the cursor to the beginning or end of the line,or when
already there, to thebeginning or end of thescreen,or when
already there, to the beginning orend ofthe neighboring
screen. End turns on the r flag on the bottom screen line,
alerting youthat the meaning of the up and down keys has
changed. Most other cursor keys turnr off.

PgUp (9)
PgDn (3) Scroll the screen upor down, provided the cursor does not
leavethe screen.

Ctrl-Home
Ctrl-End Move the cursor to the beginning or end of the section.

Tab
Shift-Tab Move the cursor right or left to thenext tab stop. Tab is
the key just above Ctrl.

Ctrl-F1 Set aliteralsearch word.

Ctrl-F2 Set an English searchword.

Ctrl-F4 Move the wordor number at the cursorto the search word.

F3 Advance the cursor tothe next occurrence of the search word.
For aliteral word, marked between triangles on thescreen,
F3 looks foran exact match. For an English word, shown
between dots, F3 stops whenfinding the required word, in
upper or lower case, without anylettersor digits for
neighbors.

For example, to find the next occurrence of the wordcursor,
push Ctrl-F2,type incursor,then push the enter keyand F3.


=====================Editingfunctions =====================

OmniEdit responds to the typewriterkeys in the middle of your keyboard by
putting each typed character into the text. Thesekeys let you make other
changes to your text:

Ins Reverse overstrike mode, as shown byan o flag at the bottom
of the screen. Inoverstrike mode keyed in characters
replace text, instead of lengthening the line. Overstrike
mode goes offwhen you leave the lineyou areediting.

Del Remove the characterat the cursor position, shortening the
line.

Enter Splita lineinto two, the first composed of the part ahead
of the cursor, the second composed ofthe rest. Whenwriting
new text, Enter has the customary effect of going on to the
next line.

backspace Remove the characterto theleft ofthe cursor, shortening
the line. When the cursor is at the beginning ofa line,
backspace joins it tothe endof the one above, reversing the
Enterkey. This is the key labeled with the left arrow, just
abovethe Enter key.

Ctrl-F6 Restore the cursor line toits state before thecurrent
changes. The e flag on thebottomscreen line alerts you
when you may use thiskey.

Youmay capture an area ora set of lines (but notboth at the same time)
with the function keys. A capture shows onthe screen in reverse and moves
with the cursor until you deposit or discard it. To avoid confusion with
ordinary editing, the smallest area capture is two characters. When you
have a capture, you can not typein or delete any text.

Ctrl-PgUp
Ctrl-PgDn Capture the line with the cursor, orthe one above or below
the currentcaptured block. After youhave used the
Ctrl-left orCtrl-right to capture a part of a line, these
keys expand the captured areainto a rectangle.

Ctrl-left
Ctrl-right Capture the character at thecursor and the one to its left
or right.

Ctrl-F9 Capture an entire section, anarea between section marks.

Delor + Deposit the capturein thetext at its current position,
reverting to normal editing.

- Deposit the capture in the text at its current position, but
keepit captured aswell.This allows you to copy text
easily.

Ctrl-F5 Discard the captured area or lines.

F2 This brings up the calculator. Use the Helpcalculator menu
function to learn the keys recognized. Thecalculator uses
Polish organization. Usingthe rectangular captures, you
should be able to getcolumntotals of figures like these in
a few seconds. Justcapturea whole column, push F2, hold
down + until all numbers are added, push backspace and Esc.

income expenses profit
1st quarter 4122325771 15452
3rd quarter 4425629104 15152
4th quarter 4621831442 14776
2nd quarter 4712828401 18727
full year

Youcan enter any character into your text by holding down the Alt key,
typing itsvalue on the numeric pad andreleasing Alt. Bear in mind,
though, that if yousave your text and readit again later,characters with
values 8, 10, 12, 13 and 26will beinterpreted as controls.


======================= Word processing =======================

With these keys youcan tidy your paragraphs, shiftwords between lines, or
line up theright margins.OmniEdit finds a paragraph the same wayyou do,
without using any hidden markers.To give you control, OmniEditmarks a
paragraph before tidying it. If you do not like the way OmniEdit has read
theparagraph you may change your mind before tidying.

F7 Mark a paragraph. If you like the way OmniEdit treats the
paragraph, use the F9 or F10key to tidy it, otherwise move
the cursor out of the paragraph to get rid of the marking.
The paragraphstarts with thefirst characterto the right of
the cursor.In this paragraph, for example, the cursor
should be between F7and Mark when you use F7. All of the
linesafter the firsthave tostart in the same column to be
marked. A ruler at the bottom of the screen shows the left
and right margins andfirst line indentationto be used when
the paragraphis tidied. Themarginscome from the first two
linesonly, so if you don'tlike what you see, change the
firsttwo lines and use F7 again, or use F7on a paragraph
you like, then come back and do F8.

F8 Mark a paragraph, butkeep the margins from the last F7. The
margins show on the ruler atthe bottom of the screen. When
OmniEdit can not recognize a paragraph or could not tidy it,
F8 does nothing.

F9 Tidy a markedparagraph by putting as many words as possible
on each line.

F10 Tidy a markedparagraph and put in enough spaces to align the
rightmargin.

F5 Put asectionmark after the cursor line.


Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 2
OmniEdit Function Menu



A functionmenu appears on the screen when you push the Esc key while
editing, orwhen there is no text. Another sub-menu appears in a corner
when you push F1 or the PrtSc key(without shift)while editing. To use
oneof the functions, movethe cursor to the one you wantwith the up and
down cursorkeys, over the 2 and 8keys, then pushthe Enter key.For the
functions with options, move thecursor into the option with the four
cursor control keys, 8, 4, 6 and2 on the numeric pad,then set their
values with the + and - keys. For the options requiring you to key in
text, such as file names orpage context, the typewriter keys append to it,
andbackspace erases the last character.Nothingwill take effect until
youpush Enter. The functions are:

Exit to DOS EndOmniEdit.

Discard text This throws away the text. Whenyou have made changes,
OmniEdit asks for confirmation, to avoiddiscarding your
work by mistake.

Save text Putthe text back in the edit file. Pushing + with the
cursor at the left allows you to save the file anddiscard
it or exitto DOS at the same time. Whenyou change the
file name you must end it with enter, or OmniEdit will
ignore it. When the file name has the extension .tab,
OmniEdit compressesthe file by using tab characters in the
manner accepted by DOS.

Enter new text Youmay type in a file name here,which becomes the edit
file name.Pushing Enter allows you to start a file from
scratch.

Setfile name When you already have a text file, this lets you change its
name. The name is ignored unless you push enter.

Directory This showsa list of files on a disk. At the directory
display, you may select a file you want with the four
cursor movement keys, and the function with + or-. The
Enter key carriesout the function. The read and edit
functions both read the contentsof thefile into your
text, but only edit retains the name of the file in the
lower rightcorner of the screen, so you can save it later.
Using read when youalreadyhave text combines the new file
with the old just after thecursor line. OmniEdit can read
squeezed files, andyou will see the unsqueezed form on the
screen.

Theline at the top gives the current directory.You can
change it by pointingthe cursor at oneof the
sub-directory names, the ones indented one character, and
pushing enter.

Load UART Refer to the communicationssectionfor this function.

Print text Pushing Enter hereprints the text. You can specify some
options on this menu line and the one below. Port is the
DOSname ofthe printer to use. Pitch and weight determine
the print mode. OmniEditdoes not allow variations of
print modewithin a document, such as printing selected
words in boldface.It can print only to the IBM, Epson or
Panasonic printers. If you have someother kind of
printer, wesuggestthat you write your text to a file, and
print it with a utility forthat printer.

Lines per page isthe number of lines actually used by
OmniEdit, paper length isthe length of the paper. The
difference between these two numbers is theamount of blank
paper left over thepage fold.

Help Theoption allows you to select a topic, and the Enter key
shows you a small amount of text on the topic. The light
bulb lets you read your notes in the dark. (How many
programmersdoes ittake tochange a light bulb?)

Novice help Display this manual, provided the file omni.txt is in the
current directory.

Profile A profile saves theoptionsfor thescreen,the printer and
communications. In a later runof OmniEdit, you can
retrieve them all at once.To save them, set the function
on the Profile line to save and push enter. To retrieve
them later use the load function.The profile is saved in
omni.prf, and is loaded whenever OmniEdit starts.

screen Youcan change the colors used forthe menu, the edit file
text, the status line, helpscreensand thecolumn headings
including marked paragraphs. Thefirst option lets you
tell OmniEdit whatkind ofscreenyou have. Setthis to
steady forthe best performance, if you can. Onthe IBM
color graphics adapter, you will see snowon thescreen.
Setting the blink option turns the screenoff during the
refresh, removing the snowat the expenseof blinking the
screen. The color graphicsadaptercan notaccomodate data
at the ratewrittenby OmniEdit. The clockoption lets you
puta timeof dayclock on the bottom screen line. The
clock stopswhen you push Ctrl, Alt, or either Shift key,
to avoid upsetting pop-up software.


Therest ofthe functions appear only on the sub-menu.

Transmit Refer to the communication section.

Search With this function you can set the search word to aliteral
or English value. Refer tothe F3 key for the use of these
words. When you select global change OmniEdit requests a
replacement word,then changes all occurrencesof the
search wordto the replacement. In a single operation you
canchange all instances of"Constantinople" to "Istanbul".
When the replacement word is short, OmniEdit asks for
confirmation beforechanging the text. Thesearch word and
replacementword may contain characters other than letters,
such as spaces, sothis function may do more than simple
word replacement. The changes occur throughout a section.
To change a limited region, put section marks around it
first.

Paginate Paginate puts page markers in a section to prepare the file
forprinting. Each page gets a heading, as muchtext as
will fit, and a footing. Any old page markers, with their
neighboringheadings and footings,are removed first. The
cursor must start between sectionmarks (the F5 key puts
them in). OmniEdittreats the lines from the firstsection
mark to the next null line (one with nocharacters, not
even spaces) as theheading, and treats the lines from the
last null line to the ending section mark as the footing.

Page sizeis the number of lines to use ona page
(excluding the blank lines over thepage fold)

Thecontexttells OmniEdit to put consecutive pagenumbers
inthe headings or footings. You givesome words or
characters just before or after a page number, and OmniEdit
looks for that pattern. Within the pattern, OmniEdit puts
thecorrectpage number onevery page. OmniEdit gets the
page numberby counting from the beginningof the file, so
it is best to paginate yoursections from first to last.

Thecontextshould have just one number in it. If one side
of the context has a space, the page number will expand
toward that side when it gets larger. The number in the
context, normally 1, is assigned to the first page in the
text. If OmniEditdoes not like the context you type in,
it will disappear when you move thecursor to another line.

Here are some examples of how the page context works, with
<> marking the sidewith blank spaces:

context bcd 001 efg bcd 01 efg <><> -5-
oldheading abcd 17 efgh abcd 17 efg h a-17-b
OmniEdit puts in:
page 1 abcd 1 efgh abcd 1 efg h a -5-b
page 10 abcd 10 efgh abcd 10 efg h a-14-b
page 100 abcd 100 efgh abcd 100 efgh a104-b
page 1000 abcd 000 efgh abcd 1000efh a004-b

To print this manual, push F1 to get to the sub-menu, move
thecursorto Paginate, then right to context. Type the
characters page 1, leaving a spaceto the left of the word
page, seven typed in characters in all.Get the cursor
into the contentssection and push F1 again, move the
cursor to paginate and push enter. RepeatF1 and Paginate
until the cursor reaches the end of the text. Push Esc to
getthe main menu, move thecursor to Printand push Enter.

Recapture This enables you to undoyour mistakes,withinlimits.
Recapture deletionrecovers, in capturedform, the last
lines you deleted with theCtrl-F5key. Recapture edited
line creates a one line capture containing the previous
form of thelast line changed by OmniEdit.

Capture This option appears whenyou enter the sub-menu with
captured lines. You may edit the capture to:

- Sort the capturedlines in ascending or descending order.
The sortkey begins at the column wherethe cursor was
before making thecapture.

- Center lines, oralign them at a uniform left or right
margin, or truncate them by removing trailingspaces.
The margin is the column wherethe cursor was before
making the capture.

- Change the letters in the capture to upper case, lower
case, or the opposite case.

Section Capture captures the entire section, the same as Ctrl-F9.
Concondancecreatesa list showing how manytimes each word
in the current section is used. The concordance goes in to
thetext atthe endof the section.

Capture This appears when you have capturedlines.The twooptions
select the functionto apply to thecaptured region.

Capture.sort This function arranges thecaptured lines in ascending or
descending order. For an area capture, the sorting key is
theentire line, for captured lines, the sorting key begins
at the column where the cursor was when the capture was
started.

Capture.align Align center centers each line, align left or rightadds or
removes enough spaces to line up the left or rightedge of
each captured line,align truncateremovestrailing spaces
from the capture. For an area capture, themarginsare the
left and right edges of the capture. Forcaptured lines,
themarginof align left and align right is the column
where the cursor was when the capture started, themargins
of align center arethose of the last paragraph marked with
F7.

Capture.case change
This changes all letters in the capture to upper case, to
lower case,or to the opposite case. Other characters are
unchanged.

Xmodem This appears only when communication is in progress. To
useit, ask the computer at the other endof theline to
start an Xmodem transfer. When ittells you to start, get
to this menu function, key in the file nameand push enter.
Youwill return tothe editing screen, where youmay use
OmniEdit while the Xmodem transfer takes placein the
background. An x flag at the bottom of the screen tells
you that Xmodem is running, and the block and retry
counters replace the line and column numbers. When the x
disappears,you mayresume with theTransmit menu function.

Directory During communication, this option appears on the sub-menu.
From the directory,you can switchsub-directories, or use
thesend function on a file, causing itto be uploaded
using the background Xmodemprotocol.



Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 3
OmniEdit Communication


OmniEdit lets you transmit files to another computer through the telephone
system. Touse this facility, your computer must have a modem inside, or
an externalmodem connectedto a serial port.


==================== Loading the UART ====================

Youmust tell yourcomputer to usethe same protocol usedby the computer
at the other end ofthe line. Thisis donein partby loading registers in
an integrated circuit chip called aUART, which is part of the serial port.

To get started, youhave toset themenu options onthe Load UART line then
push enter to get them intothe UART itself. If you forget to push enter,
theoptionswill disappear when youmove the cursor to another line. This
area is complicated, because thereare a lot of differentways ofusing a
communication line. The options are:

operating mode Offmeans you are not usingcommunications,modem means you
have a modem on the line, and loop means you want to run
theUART in its own loopmode, so anything yousend is
received back immediately.You won't see any otheroptions
until you set this to modem or loop. Loopis slowbecause
it will does not use interrupts.

port This determines which of the two possible serial ports you
want to use.

baud This is thenumber of bits per second to send on the line.
It must match the capacity of yourmodem.

frame size Thenumber of data bits percharacter.

parity Thepossiblilites here are:
none parity bit omitted
even parity bit sent, number of one bitssent iseven
odd parity bit sent, number of one bitssent isodd
one parity bit set to one
zero parity bit set to zero

stop bits Oneor two,determines the number of one bits following the
data and parity.

Themost common protocol in use by microcomputers is 1200 baud, 8 data
bits, no parity and one stop bit,and that is what OmniEdit starts with.
After you have loaded the UART successfully, you may use the profile save
function, so that the next time yourun OmniEdit, it knows what youwant.


=================== Dialing the Telephone ===================

Next you must makethe phone connection. This canbe done by dialing the
phone by hand before attaching it to the computer,but with a modem having
dial capability, itis simpler to have the modem dial the phone foryou.

To keep OmniEdit as flexible as possible, no modemcommands are built in,
butit is easy to send commands to a smart modem. To talk to the modem,
usethe Transmit function of the sub-menu (the oneyou bring up with F1).
If you don't see Transmit there, you forgot to load the UART. A letter t
on the lower screenline tells you that your keystrokes will now go to the
modem. Characters returning from the modem go into your text, and appear
on the screen. To get the modem to dial the phone, look up the command in
your modem manual and type it in. For example, to get the Hayes Smartmodem
to call dial-a-joke from a pulse dial phone (nottouch-tone), enter the
command:

ATDP 1(212)976-3838

As soon asthe computer finishes dialing,pick upyour telephoneto hear
today's joke.

When calling another computer, the modem will detect a carrier from the
other computer and switch to sending your characters to theother computer,
instead of treatingthem a modem command.

Since it is tedious to key in modem commands, you may keep a file of
commands. Capture lines with your modem and log oncommands beforeyou use
transmit. The first capture lineis sent immediately to the modem (or
other computer) and other lines are sent one at atime when you push the
Delkey. You may push other keys while your capture is waiting to be sent,
andthey will be transmitted. All replies from the modem go into your
text, and appear onthe screen. Itis possible to store the modem commands
andthe entire logon sequence for a bulletin board in a file.Capture
this block and transmit it,and youcan log on by pushing only theDel key
a few times.

Forthe Hayes Smartmodem, here are the most usefulcommands. Refer to the
Hayes manual for the complete set.

AT This should be thefirst thing transmitted on a command line, to
tell the modem to take it as a command. Itmust bein upper case.

D Dial the phone. Follow itwith a P or T (for pulse or touch-tone
dialing), and the phone number, in which the punctuation characters
( )- spaceare ignored. Acomma causes a two second pause.


====================Transmitting text =======================

TheTransmit function on the sub-menu letsyou start talking to the modem.
If you don't see itwhen you expectto, youforgot to load the UART, or you
are alreading transmitting. The F9 key isa shortcut to start
transmission.

When transmitting, the typewriter keys youpush are sent to the modem for
useas itscommands when it in its command state, or for transmission
through the phone line. Any characters receivedfrom the modemwill be
entered into the text at the cursor, exceptfor:
null 0ignored
bell 7audiblesignal
backspace 8erase last character
tab 9skip tonext tab
line feed 10ignored
return 13split line
end file 26ignored
When you want to leave communications, useone of the cursor control keys
or Esc. (PgUp andPgDn donot interrupt communications).The F9key has
thesame effect as this menu option.

Theresend option causes OmniEdit to startthe transmission with the same
captured lines usedbefore. This may be helpful when trying to repeatedly
dial a busyphone.

Insystems in which your telephone mouthpieceis active during data
communication, be sure to keep it far away from your keyboard and speaker.


============= Uploading and Downloading Files ================

OmniEdit can transmit and receive files using the Xmodem protocol.Sending
files to another computer is called uploading when you send a file to a
central computer, and downloading when you receive a filefrom acentral
computer.To transmit files, establishcommunication with the other
computer at the other end usingthe procedureabove. Get the other
computer ready to accept Xmodem commands in either direction, using the
facilities of the system you are connected to. Then get to the sub-menu
with F1 anduse theXmodem menu function to uploador download, oruse the
Directory function, for uploading(send) only. Once you push enter to
start the transmission, you will return to the editing screen, where you
may use OmniEdit as an editor.The transmission takes placein the
background,and yousee only an x at the bottom ofthe screen to tell you
that the transmission is inprogress. Thefields normallygiving the line
andcolumnnumber are replaced by the Xmodem block andretry counters.
When the x flag goes away, the transmissionis complete.




Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 4
OmniEdit Starting OmniEdit



TheDOS command omni, or omni filespec, availablewhen you have the file
omni.com onyour disk, invokes OmniEdit. Here filespec is defined in the
DOSCommands chapter of the IBM manual for DOS.When you do not have a
filespec on the omni command, OmniEdit will resume editing the file you
were working on the last time you left OmniEdit. When you do notwant to
edit that file, usethe command omni *.

Thefiles edited are DOS text files with lines of up to255 characters.
OmniEdit requires a computer with a disk drive, 192k bytes of memory and
DOS. The displays look best with the IBM monochromeadapteror the
enhanced graphics adapter.



Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 5
OmniEdit Status line


Thestatus line at the bottom of the OmniEdit screen shows,left toright:

- Search word, or the last few characters transmitted.

- the date and time, when the clockmenu option is on.

- The cursor line and column numbers. During Xmodem transfer, this shows
the line number and retrycount in the Xmodem file.

- The name OmniEdit.

- Asmall dot that appears when OmniEdit iswaitingfor you.

- Flags:
e when you havemade changes that may be reversed with Ctrl-F6.
o when you are in overstrike mode.
r when the cursor up and down keys hug the right end ofthe line.
t when you are transmitting through theUART.
u when an exactcopy ofthe text is in a DOS file.
x when an Xmodem transfer is inprogress.
C Caps Lock.
F (flashing) when a function has been refused because memory isfull.
N Num Lock.
S Scroll Lock.

- The name of the file youare editing, or an asterisk (*) when there is
none.


Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 6
OmniEditCommandsummary


Here are the keystrokes to do some common functions:

tab tab, Shift-tab.

beginning of line Home.
beginning of screen push Home a secondtime.
previous screen push Home a third time.
beginning of section Ctrl-Home.
beginning of document hold down Ctrl-Home.

endof line End.
endof screen push End asecond time.
endof nextscreen push End athird time.
endof section Ctrl-End.
endof document hold down Ctrl-End.

break a line into two Enter.
join two lines intoone with cursor at left margin, backspace.
overwrite text push Ins, then type in text.
delete characters backspace or Del.

getto menu Esc, or F1for sub-menu.
search for word F3.
setsearch word Ctrl-F1 orCtrl-F2, then key in,
or put cursor onword ornumber,then Ctrl-F4.
global change set searchwith Ctrl-F1 orCtrl-F2or Ctrl-F4,
then usesub-menu, F1.
limit scopeof change put section marks around change area with F5.

move lines repeat Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PgDn, move cursor, +
duplicate lines same as above, butuse - before +
delete line Ctrl-PgUpCtrl-F5.
delete several lines repeat Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PgDn, then Ctrl-F5.
delete large section push F5 atstart and end, then Ctrl-F9 Ctrl-F5.
duplicate text Ctrl-PgUp or CtrlPgDn, then - and +

delete area repeat Ctrl-left or Ctrl-right,
then Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PgDn, then Ctrl-F5.
move area repeat Ctrl-left or Ctrl-right,
then Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PgDn,
then move cursorand +
duplicate area same as above, butpush - before +

calculate F2.
addcolumn capture with Ctrl-right orCtrl-Left,
then Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PgDn, then F2 and+

undo edit to line Ctrl-F6.
recover deleted text use sub-menu, F1.

sort lines position cursor atkey column,
Ctrl-PgUp or Ctrl-PgDn to capture lines,
F1, movecursor to sort,Enter, Del.

combine files read one file, putthe cursor where you want
the other, at menu use directoryto read
the second file.
seetime ofday screen menu function.
remove snowon monitor screen menu function.
change screen colors screen menu function.
remember options Profile onmain menu.
help Help menu functions, or Novice help.
read after sundown Help lightbulb.

layout pages Put section markers at thebeginning and end of
the file with F5.Put heading lines afterthe
first section markfollowed by a null line(one
with no characters, not even spaces) and put
footing lines justbefore the lastsectionmark
preceded by a nullline. At the sub-menu,use
paginate.

number pages Follow instructions above,but puta page number
inthe heading or footing with some neighboring
characters. At Paginate in the sub-menu, type in
the first page number withthe same neighboring
charactersas the context. For this manual, for
example, the context is " page 1",with a space
before thep. Then use paginate once for each
section.

Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 7
OmniEdit Operating considerations

TheOmniEdit package contains the executable file omni.comand themanual,
omni.txt.

Forthe benefit of users who may want to change the operating environment,
here is a list of resources used by OmniEdit. The entire omni.com file,
including the program segment prefix,remains unchanged inmemory.
OmniEdit modifies the cells for interrupt3, 36,134 to 209, and during
communication, 11 or 12. To avoid conflictwith Sidekick, the service code
forinterrupts 11 and 12 does not allow interrupts. The intra-application
area of memory, locations 1264 to1279, stores the edit file name. The
area from the end of the loaded comfile tothe endof memory, found in the
second wordof theprogramsegmentprefix,is workspace. The lower part
is used first, so that the residentpart ofcommand.com is left undisturbed
as long as possible.

OmniEdit calls on DOS or BIOS services for the following purposes:
int.ah purpose
16 change cursor and sound speaker.
17 equipment, to know which screen adapter to use.
18 keyboard input.
32 termination.
33 DOS functioncall.
33.2 abort message.
33.14 highest drive number.
33.(17,18,26) for reading directories.
33.25 current drive.
33.37 set interrupt vectors 10, 11, 27 and36.
33.(42,44) dateand time for clock display, cursor speed and xmodem
protocol timeout.
33.59 change directory.
33.(60-64) fileinput and output, including printer.
33.71 display of directorypath.

Thescreentext iswritten directly to the screen buffer, creating snow
when usingthe IBMcolor graphicsadapter. The UART isloaded directly
through theport addressesfound in the BIOS table at location 640. The
calculator patches the Num Lock indicator at location 1047. No interrupts
or servicecalls other than the ones alluded to in these paragraphs are
used.

Please sendcomments, suggestions, or imprecationsto the author, Robert T
McQuaid, Quaid Software Limited,45 Charles Street East Third Floor,
Toronto Ontario M4Y1S2.

Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 8
OmniEdit Glossary

Here is a list of technical termsused inthis manual. We exclude words
used in a sense incommon use by laymen, terms defined where theyappear,
thenames of keys on the IBM personal computer keyboard, and termsused in
theoperating considerations section.


backspace The key on the IBM Personal Computer keyboard labeled with the
left arrow, just above the Enter key.This isnot the key in
the numeric pad marked with the 4.

capture A part of the editing text that can movewith the cursor.

communication
A process in which a computersends and receives information
from another device overa telephone line.

current directory
This iswhere DOS looks for files when you do not specify a
directory.

cursor A mark identifying a place on the screenwhere action may occur.

default drive
The drive DOS uses for files, when you don't specify one.

DOS Disk Operating System, aproductacquired by most owners of the
IBM Personal Computer, that provides many services needed to
make practical use of the computer.

edit Making changes to a file.

file A place for permanent storage of information. Things stay in a
file until you do something to change its contents.

IBM International Business Machines,a company that sells computers.

interrupt A process in which a computer is diverted for ashort period of
time to service an urgent need.

modem A device placedbetweena computer anda phone line, allowing
the computer to send andreceiveinformation on the line.

memory The part of a computersystem that stores things in the most
readily available form.Memory sizes are measured in bytes.

menu A display of options, allowing you to select theone youwant by
pointingto it.

port A facility in a computer system capable of accomodating the
attachment of anexternal device.

protocol A set ofconventions giving meaning to data transferredbetween
systems.

profile A set of options retained fromone invocationof OmniEdit to
another.

ruler A graduated marker usedto measure theposition of columns on
the screen.

scroll Used as a verb,meaningto movethe text displayed on a screen
up or down, losing some text at one end,and bring new text into
view at the other end.

section The partof the text between twosectionmarks.

serial port
A port on whichsignalscan besent between a computer and an
externaldevice. The signals at a serial port conform to a
standard called RS-232. The computer side of the port is
usually a UART, and the externalside isusuallya modem.

text In thismanual text refers tothe lines of text retained by
OmniEditin the internalmemory of the computer.

text file A term used in the IBM manuals to described files organized with
text lines as their contents.

UART A computer component used to operate a serial port, andthrough
it, a communications line.

Xmodem A protocol in common use with micro-computers for sending data
over phone lines.

Copyright 1985 by Robert T McQuaid. page 9