Lesson 5: Copying and Moving Text

      In this lesson, we are going to learn how to delete whole
blocks of text, rather than characters or words at a time.  The
command to delete lines is C--K.  (C--K stands for "Kill line".) 
Move the cursor to the first line of this paragraph with C--P or
C--N.  Now type a C--K.  Whatever was on that line has
disappeared.  Now type another C--K.  The line itself has
disappeared and all the other lines of text have been moved up.

      Now move the cursor to the first line of this paragraph,
and move halfway into the line with C--F's or M--F's.  Again,
type a C--K.  You will notice that only the part of the line to
the right of the cursor was deleted.  C--K deletes text starting
with the character which the cursor is resting on until it
reaches the end of the current line.

      In order to remove an entire line and its contents, you
must type two C--K's. You will find this command useful for
retyping previously existing lines of text, where you want to
remove what the line (or the "rest" of the line, starting at the
cursor) says, but want to replace it with something else.

      Typing many C--K's in a row could become burdensome,
especially if you intend to delete an entire paragraph or
chapter.  Instead, Perfect Writer has a command (C--W) to wipe or
delete an entire region of text.  It is called the WIPE REGION
command.

	In order to wipe clear a region of text, the text must
first be marked off.  One end of the region which C--W will wipe
out is shown by where the cursor is in the text.  The other end
of the region is given by a "mark", which we will now learn how
to set.  The command which sets the invisible mark is Escape
Space.  Move the cursor to the beginning of some line in the
middle of this paragraph.  Type M--Space.  Down in the echo line
you should see the message "Mark Set."  If not, try typing
M--Space again, and if that doesn't work, type either a C--@ or a
C--Space now, and use the one which works from now on, rather
than the M--Space.  

      Having figured that out, move to the end of the same line
and type a C--W.  Look at the text; the portion of it between the
cursor (at the end of the line) and the invisible mark (at the
beginning of the line) should have disappeared.

      Let's wipe clear something bigger than a line.  Move the
cursor to the beginning of this paragraph, and set the mark there
by typing M--Space.  Now move the cursor to the end of this
paragraph and type a C--W.  You shouldn't be able to read this
sentence any more!

      What if we make a mistake and wipe out a huge block of text
unintentionally?  There is a command to retrieve the text which
was just deleted, C--Y (for "Yank back deleted text").  Do that
now: type a C--Y and the paragraph we just deleted should appear
back where the cursor is now.

      Now move the cursor down a few lines and type C--Y again.
Another copy of that text appears at the cursor.  Type the C--Y
again; the text should be replicated one more time.  You've just
learned how to copy or move text, all with one command, C--Y!  To
make a copy of some text, wipe it out (using M--Space and C--W)
and immediately yank it back with a C--Y in that spot (i.e.,
without moving the cursor).  Then, move the cursor to the spot
where you would like the copy to appear, and type another C--Y. 
If you want to move a block of text rather than copy it, just
don't type the C--Y at the original position.  See the
description of the Copy Region <M--W> command in the Perfect
Writer User's Guide. 

      C--W is not the only command which saves text in case you
want to yank it back.  C--K, M--D, and M--<DEL> all save text as
well.  IN GENERAL, IF YOU DELETE ANYTHING LARGER THAN A
CHARACTER, PERFECT WRITER WILL SAVE IT FOR YOU in case you want
to move or copy it (or undo a mistake!).

      As an example, move the cursor to the beginning of this
paragraph, and type a couple of C--K's.  Notice that a "plus"
sign has come on at the right edge of the mode line.  This means
that if you continue to type C--K's, the text deleted will be
added on to whatever deleted text is already being stored.  So,
you can delete a region of text, with either an M--Space / C--W
or with a series of C--K's (or even M--D's or some combination of
all of these), and a C--Y will still yank the entire region back.

      Perfect Writer will only store your "most recent" block of
text deletes, however.  What determines what is "recent" and what
is not?  The plus-sign at the right of the mode line.  If you are
about to delete something larger than a character and the plus is
not there, you will be clearing away whatever previous series of
deletes you entered.  In general, all this amounts to is that, if
you give any movement commands or insert anything after deleting
some text, you will "close off" the current group of deletes. 
(You will also see the plus-sign go off.)  Any C--Y's you type
after this will retrieve that group.  Any C--K's, M--D's,
M--<DEL>'s, or C--W's you do after this will clear away that
group of deletes and start a brand new one.

      There is a command to "turn on the plus sign".  This is
used if you want to move groups of lines from several different
places all to one place.  Certainly you could do this manually,
doing a few C--K's, moving to the right place, doing a C--Y,
going somewhere else and doing some C--K's or a C--W, moving back
to the right place, doing another Control Y, etc.  It would be
much easier to do C--K's or C--W's in all the various places and
then yank the whole thing back with a single C--Y.  But we said
earlier that movement away from the place of the text deleting or
wiping causes the plus-sign to go off and the current bunch of
deletes to be "closed off".  The command to turn the plus sign
back on is M--C--W.  (This is your first "M--Control" command. 
Remember that you just type M--C--W.)  You can remember this
command by its close relation with the commands C--W and M--W.

      As M--C--W is difficult to think about, there is no
substitute for practice.  Move to the beginning of this paragraph
and delete the text on the first line, in whatever manner is
convenient.  Then move to the last line.  Notice that the plus in
the mode line has gone off.  Type an M--C--W to turn it on, then
delete the text on the last line.  Now move into the middle of
what's left and type a C--Y.  You will see both the first and
last lines appear there at once.

      Experiment with all these commands for a while.  Try doing
C--W's with the cursor both before and after the invisible mark
you set, and observe the results.  Deleting and yanking text is
one of the more complicated features of word processing. However,
once you understand it, it's also one of the most useful and
convenient features.  Take your time and experiment enough to
make sure that you understand these commands.

      When you're all done type a C--X C--C and answer "Y" for
"yes" when Perfect Writer asks you if you want to abandon the
text buffer without saving it.  You do not want to alter the file
"lesson5" for the next person.  We'll learn more about text
buffers and additional features available with C--Y and multiple
buffers in Lesson 7.
 the plus in
the mode line has gone off.  Type an M