Lesson 1: Getting Started

      Perfect Writer is a powerful user friendly word processor
especially designed for personal computers.  In many ways, it
makes your computer similar to a modern office typewriter. During
this first lesson, you should be getting used to typing on your
computer.

	In this set of lessons we will be learning how to edit a
file.  When you start up Perfect Writer you are presented with
the Main Selection Menu.  In order to edit a file you select
option  E  from this menu.  Perfect Writer responds by asking you
for the name of the file you wish to edit.  If you are creating a
new file simply type a carriage return (Perfect Writer will
supply a default file name, "NAME.ME").  However, if you are
editing an existing document file, then you will have to provide
the file name followed by a carriage return.  

      When you are finished Perfect Writer will begin to run, and
you will notice some buzzing over at the disc drives.  Your
terminal screen will be blanked in preparation for your typing. 
A single line will appear at the bottom of your screen, something
like:
	  Perfect Writer 1.0 (Fill) name: NAME.ME  -0%-

which tells you that Perfect Writer is ready.

	Let's practice starting up Perfect Writer now.  Be sure
you remember what you need to do to get back to here.  You might
want to write a note for yourself if you're unsure.  Begin by
entering:
		C--X  C--C

then enter from CP/M the following command:

		A>menu <CR>

When the Main Selection menu is presented, enter:  E

followed by 'lesson1' when asked for the file to edit.
TYPING AT THE COMPUTER KEYBOARD
	
It is not possible to let you practise editing at the
keyboard while a file is in the computer because whatever you
type will alter the file.  However, Perfect Writer has Dual
Display Windows that will allow you to continue reading the
Teaching Disk while practising what you learn in another window.  
	To use the two windows enter the TWO WINDOW command:
		C--X  2          {C--X  1  will return you to one window}
	Then call up a new file by entering:
		C--X  C--F  and answering 'scratch.pad' when asked
for the "File to Read <CR>:".  This will provide you with a blank
editing buffer in the top screen while allowing you to scroll the
lessons in the bottom window with the:
		C--X  C--V   {Scroll other window down}
		C--X  C--Z   {Scroll other window up}

	The TWO WINDOWS command divides the screen into two equal
size windows.  Since the top window needs less space we will
increase the size of the bottow window.  Enter the OTHER WINDOW 
command:
           
	   C--X  O   {letter "O"}     [you'll need to type C--V to scroll up]	
	Use the META REPEAT command (or Escape Key followed by a
digit for the number of repetitions) and the ENLARGE WINDOW
command (Control--X  ^) to increase the size of the bottow window
by 4 lines.  Enter:
			M--4     C--X  ^

and then return to the top window with the OTHER WINDOW command:
  
  C--X  O      [when cursor is in top window type C--X  C--V to scroll up] 

      Let's begin by typing on the keyboard.  Type the four
words:
	      This is a test.

	Notice that as you typed, what you were typing appeared
at the top of the screen.  At the end of the line you typed,
right after the period, is a solid or blinking box or underline. 
This is called the "cursor".  It is an indicator of where you are
in your text.  It functions just like the carriage of an ordinary
typewriter, showing you where the next thing you type will
appear.

      The next thing you type will be a carriage-return.  As on
an electric typewriter, hitting the carriage-return key puts you
at the beginning of the next line.  After the carriage-return,
type another line:

      I am testing this word processor.

and follow it with another carriage-return.  Now you have a
two-line document.

      Notice that the line at the bottom of the screen has not
changed position throughout this typing.  The entire screen of a
computer does not move or scroll the same way that a paper would
in a typewriter.  Only the top portion of the screen will scroll
upward, if you type enough text.  This area is called the
"window".  Imagine it as a small viewing area onto a large
document, and the name will make sense.  Let's type a little
more, in order to demonstrate the word wrap feature.   Type:

  It's not much different from using a typewriter except that when
  you go past the right margin Perfect Writer automatically enters
  a carriage return.

Enter a carriage return to get to the beginning of the next line.

      We could go on typing lines of text, but sooner or later we
would make a mistake.  Let's make one now, on purpose.  Type just
the two words:
                But typewriterz

and stop there.  So much for our "error".  The "z" in
"typewriterz" should have been an "s".  What do we normally do on
a typewriter if we type a wrong letter?  We use the erase key if
it's a modern office typewriter, or else get the bottle of
white-out.  Perfect Writer has an erase key, too.  Type the key
labelled "DEL" or "DELETE" or "BACK SPACE".  Observe that the
"z" in "typewriterz" has disappeared from the screen, and
the cursor has moved backward a space, to right after the "r". 
Type an "s" now, and the word "typewriters" will become correct. 
It truly IS very much like using a typewriter.

	Suppose we realize that we had forgotten to type some
word before the word "typewriters".  Just hit the DELETE key
enough times to erase the word "typewriters".  (Go ahead and do
that now, delete "typewriters".)  Next type:

	   most typewriters

and stop.  The line now reads "But most typewriters" and the
cursor is right after the "s" is "typewriters".
      We have seen that all text we type is entered at the
cursor; now we have also seen that text we delete is deleted at
the cursor as well.
      What if, as before, we discovered a word missing, only on
the FIRST line this time?  For example, let's suppose we wanted
to change the sentence reading "This is a test." to "This is only
a test." by adding the word "only".  You certainly could type the
DELETE key enough times to erase all the way back, but it would
be an awful waste of time if we had to do it that way.

      The way we modify or add text in Perfect Writer is to "go"
to the place in the text where we want text to be added or
changed, and then type in whatever text we want there.  In order
to "go" somewhere, we move the cursor to that place on the
screen. To get to the first line of text, we will move the cursor
up five lines, one at a time.

     To make Perfect Writer move the cursor to the previous line,
enter the PREVIOUS LINE command:  
		
		C--P

     Now let us go up four more lines, to the first line. Hold
down the control key again, and type "P" four times while holding it.
Again, the cursor will jump up a line each time.

     Now that we are on the correct line for the change we wish
to make, we can move around on that line to get to the correct
place.  We can move backwards on that line with the BACKWARD
CHARACTER command:
		     C--B

Hold down the control key.  Now watch the screen and press the
"B" key several times, while still holding the control key. You
will see the cursor move backwards, that is, to the left, one
character position for each time you press the "B" key.

     We now want to move forward to the place after the word
"is", in order to insert the word "only".  Hold down the control
key, and type the letter "F" several times.  "Control--F" is the
command for "FORWARD CHARACTER", i.e., move the cursor forward
one character.  While still holding down the control key, type
F's until the cursor is under the word "a".  If you type the
Control--F too many times, simply type Control--B's until you get
to the right place.  What you are doing now is an important form
of interaction with Perfect Writer - issuing commands to move to
"the right place", or "until the right thing has happened".

     Now the cursor is at the "a", and we wish to put the word
"only" there.  Simply type the four letters o, n, l, and y.  You
will watch Perfect Writer move the rest of the line over to make
room for the new text and you now have on that line:

	    This is onlya test.

with the cursor still under the "a".  Immediately, we perceive a
problem: there is no space between "only" and "a".  This is
simply because we did not enter one.  Hit the space bar.  Now we
have:
	   	  This is only a test.

with the cursor still on the "a".  We have now fixed the text we
wished to.  Note that in order to type in the new word, "only",
we did not have to say anything special, we just moved the cursor
to the right place, and started typing.  Whenever we type a
non-control character, it goes into the text at the position of
the cursor, and moves the cursor over one to the right.

     Now we must get back to the end of the document, where we
had left off when we decided to add the word "only" to the first
line.  We can do this by going to the Next Line, and the Next
Line, until we are where we want to be.  We do this with the
NEXT LINE command:
         		C--N

Enter the NEXT LINE command five times.  We are now on the right
line.  You will find that you are in the middle of the line,
because Perfect Writer tries to keep you in the same "column"
when going between lines.  Type a few Control F's to get to the
end of the line.  
      Now let's finish the sentence "But most typewriters are
old-fashioned."  Enter the words:

 	    are old-fashioned.

and surely enough, your entire text appears correct before you:

 This is only a test.
 I am testing this word processor.
 It's not much different from using a typewriter except that when 
 you go past the right margin Perfect Writer automatically enters
 a carriage return.
 But most typewriters are old-fashioned.

     If you haven't already done so, type a carriage-return after
the last sentence.  Now the text has seven lines in it, and the
last one is a blank line.  Now type a "Control--P" to move up to
the previous line.  The cursor is now at the "B" in "But".

	What if we wanted to change "But most typewriters" to
"Most word processors"?  We have to erase the first three words,
then insert the new text.  So far, the only way you know to
delete text is to use the DELETE key.  But if you were to hit it
now, it would delete the character you just entered, that is, the
newline.  We could, of course, type some Control F's to get the
cursor past the words, and then type some DELETEs.  But this
would be cumbersome.  Instead, Perfect Writer has a DELETE NEXT
CHARACTER command: "Control--D". Hold down the control key and
type "D" enough to get rid of the words "But most typewriters".
Notice that, as usual, the entire line is "swallowed up" and
moves to the left as the characters disappear.

  Now type "Most word processors" to insert those words at the
beginning of the line. Type a space after "processors" if you
happened to delete the one to the right of "typewriters" earlier.

      Take a look at the "mode line" at the bottom of the screen
again.  The percentage mark is no longer zero, as it was when we
started.  This number just says roughly how far through the file
the cursor is.  It's not too useful when you can see your entire
document on the screen as we can now, but for large text files,
it's handy to know where you are.  If you want more information
you could enter the LOCATION command:

	C--X  =

Enter this command now and observe what happens.  Perfect Writer
displays information on the file you are editing in the "echo
line", the line just below the mode line.  The information
displays the Point in the text where the cursor is, how long the
file is in characters, what column the cursor is in, and what
line the cursor is on.

Again look at the mode line.  You'll see an asterisk at the right
edge of the mode line which appeared there when you started
typing.  This asterisk means that the text which is on the screen
is different from what you started with.  It turns on in order to
tell you that your text has not been saved anywhere, and that if
you leave Perfect Writer without saving it, your work will be
lost.  We'll learn about saving the text we type in Lesson 3.  To
review what we've learned in Lesson 1 return to the OTHER WINDOW
and go back to ONE WINDOW mode by entering:

		C--X  O  and then    C--X  1

     You have just learned ten important Perfect Writer commands:
     DELETE        Delete previous character.
     Control--D    Delete next character.
     Control--F    Forward character.
     Control--B    Backward character.
     Control--N    Next line.
     Control--P    Previous line.
     Control--X Control--C
                   Quit the editor.
     Control--X 2  Create Two Windows.
     Control--X 1  Use One Window.
     Control--X =  Status line.	

      You have also learned some basic Perfect Writer vocabulary:

cursor:		The indicator which shows where you are about to
		insert or delete text on the screen.

window:		The area which covers most of the screen, and
                which displays twenty to twenty-five lines of
                the text which you are currently editing.

mode line:	The line at the bottom of the screen which tells
		you  (1) how far through the text you are and (2)
		whether the text on the screen has been changed
		since it was last saved.  There are other pieces
		of information which the mode line provides;
		more about those in Lessons 3 and 7.

      Practice using the commands in this lesson until you are
thoroughly familiar with them.  They are very important and
useful commands.  With these commands, and one or two others, you
can do just about anything you will ever be called upon to do.
All the other commands just make it easier to do more complex
things, but you can always move around and type in text with
these.

      You may want to continue experimenting with the things you
have just learned: when you are done, you will have to leave the
editor: this is done as follows: type a "Control X" followed by a
"Control C" (C for "Command level").  This is not an easy command
to type or remember.  That is reasonable, though, because you may
be editing for hours, and you will only type it once.  Hold down
the control key, and type an "X" and a "C" while holding it.
Perfect Writer will respond:

     Abandon modified document(s)?

because you have done work that you have not saved.  That's O.K.
for now.  Type "Y".  Perfect Writer will return you to the Main
Selection Menu.

	If you want to continue with the Teaching Disk then
select option  E  and enter "lesson2".
With these commands, and one or two others, you
can do just about anything you will ever be called upon to do.
All the