HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Additional Editing Features
This section describes additional SIGEDITOR editing capabilities that
were not described in chapter 1.
Creating Fields with the Tab and Right Arrow Key
As described in chapter 1, the space bar creates a field when in create
form mode. Once the f1 key (START FIELD) designates the starting point
of a field, pressing the space bar extends the field to the desired end
point.
There are two other ways to extend the field. First, you can use the
right arrow key. However, unlike the space bar, the right arrow key does
not show the field in inverse video until you press the space bar or the
f2 key (STOP FIELD). When using the right arrow key to extend a field,
you must remember to stop the field.
The second method of extending a field is to use the tab key. The tab
key extends the field by ten spaces at a time, relative to the starting
point of the field. For example, if you press the f1 key (START
FIELD), followed immediately by the tab key, the field is extended ten
spaces. If, however, you press the space bar first to extend the field
four spaces, pressing the tab key extends the field by six more spaces,
or ten spaces from the start point. The tab key actually extends the
field eleven spaces, but the last space is erased when the (STOP FIELD)
key is pressed. When you use the space bar, the cursor leads the field
as the field is extended. In contrast, the cursor is included in the
field when you use the tab key.
Stop Field Key
The f2 key (STOP FIELD) appears in the set of keys used to create a
form. As mentioned earlier, you must use the f2 key to indicate the
end of a field. If you do not use this key to end a field, and proceed
to another line to create a new field, SIGEDITOR assumes that the field
extends to the end of the line. Although the whole field might not
appear on the screen in reverse video, it is recorded by the program as
extending to the end of the line. Delete and recreate the field if you
are not sure that you correctly stopped the field.
Other Keyboard Edit Keys
Although it is not recommended, you can modify a form with keys not
included in the function keys f1 through f8 . The additional six keys
are shown in Figure 2-6. These keys can be useful when editing fields;
however, it is good practice to use the eight function keys established
by SIGEDITOR.
INS DEL
LINE LINE
INS DEL CLEAR CLEAR
CHAR CHAR LINE DSPLY
Figure 2-5. Additional Edit Keys
These edit keys perform the same functions in SIGEDITOR that they
normally perform, but they do not act exactly the same as the eight
function keys.
For example, the f2 key (SHORTEN FIELD) removes a space from the field
containing the cursor and leaves the rest of the line intact. SIGEDITOR
immediately updates the field table to reflect any changes.
The delete character (DEL CHAR) key works differently. It deletes a
character from the field in which the cursor appears, but it also moves
the rest of the line one space to the left. The changes to the field
table are not immediate and are not reflected until the form is saved in
memory.
The same differences apply to the f1 key (ADD (TO) FIELD) and the
insert character key. The ADD (TO) FIELD key adds a space to the field;
the insert character key inserts a space to the whole line. If you are
not careful, fields at the end of the line can be truncated.