Following are some of the typical tasks for which the DOS Editor is ideally suited:

Be aware that document files produced by some word processors aren't pure text files. The files can contain special formatting or printer-control characters. Most word processors can import the pure text files created with the DOS Editor. The Editor, however, might not successfully import word processor document files that contain certain formatting characters.

The Editor is provided with DOS. It is invoked by the external command EDIT, which runs the program EDIT.COM. When you run the Editor, EDIT.COM calls on two other files: QBASIC.EXE and EDIT.HLP. Only QBASIC.EXE is required. EDIT.HLP contains the text of the help messages, but the Editor works without this file.

Having a bootable floppy disk with the DOS Editor on it can be very useful for troubleshooting computer problems. You can copy the Editor onto a floppy disk in two different ways, depending on the version of DOS you have.

→ To make a floppy disk bootable, see “Creating a Floppy Boot Disk,” p. 25.

If you are using DOS 6.x, you must copy the EDIT.COM, EDIT.HLP, and QBASIC.EXE files from the C:DOS directory to the floppy.

If you are using Windows 9x, you need to copy just the EDIT.COM and EDIT.HLP files from the WindowsCommands directory. You no longer need to copy the QBASIC.EXE file.

You can start the DOS Editor from the DOS Shell or from the command line. To start it, type the following at the DOS prompt and press Enter:

EDIT

A preliminary screen appears (see Figure 15.1).

Figure 15.1. The preliminary DOS Editor screen appears when you first use the EDIT command.

You now must press either Enter or Esc:

Press Esc. Now the DOS Editor screen is blank, and you can begin writing a text file. Your screen should look like the one shown in Figure 15.2.

Figure 15.2. The Editor screen, shown with a blank editing area, is ready for you to begin working on a file.

Take a moment to look at your screen (or refer to Figure 15.2). The screen consists of several elements:

The DOS Editor menu system provides many editing commands. The menu bar contains the following options: File, Edit, Search, Options, and Help. Choosing any of these options displays a pull-down menu. The File option displays a menu that enables you to load, save, and print files. You use the Edit menu to cut and paste text. You can use the Search menu for finding and replacing specified text. The Options menu can be used to reconfigure environment options, and the Help menu provides access to online help.

To activate the menu bar, press Alt. The first letter of each menu name is highlighted. To open a menu, press the first letter of the menu name. To activate the File menu, for example, press Alt and then F (Alt+F). Similarly, press Alt+E to display the Edit menu, Alt+S to display the Search menu, Alt+O to display the Options menu, or Alt+H to display the Help menu.

Every time you open a main menu, the first command on the menu is highlighted. You can move this highlight to the other commands by pressing the up- or down-arrow key. As you move the highlight, notice that the status bar displays a brief description of the highlighted command.

On a menu, one letter of each command is highlighted. On most systems, the highlighted letter appears in high-intensity white. To execute a command, move the highlight to that command and press Enter, or press the key that corresponds to the highlighted letter.

Depending on which editing commands you have executed previously, some commands in a menu might not be available. In such a case, the menu shows the command name in a dull color (usually gray), and no highlighted letter appears in the name. If you try to execute an unavailable command, the DOS Editor sounds a beep and refuses to execute the command.

The Esc key is the “oops” key. Pressing Esc closes the menu system and returns you to the Editor.

In the pull-down menus, an ellipsis (…) following the name of a command indicates that a dialog box opens when you issue that command. (Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, a command without an ellipsis also opens a dialog box.)

When you execute a menu command, it can start immediately or, depending on the command and the current context, a dialog box might pop up. A dialog box means that the DOS Editor needs more information before it can carry out the command. If, for example, you execute the command to save a new file, the Editor first needs to know what name to give the file. A dialog box prompts you for the necessary information.

If you activate the Search menu, for example, and then choose Change, the DOS Editor displays the Change dialog box (see Figure 15.3).

Figure 15.3. In the Change dialog box, you indicate what you want to search and replace.

The DOS Editor uses dialog boxes to get a variety of information. Sometimes you must type something, such as a filename or a search string in a text box. Sometimes you must choose from a list of options. At other times, you select from a series of command buttons.

→ For a discussion of dialog boxes, text boxes, option buttons, and command buttons, see Chapter 4, “Using the DOS Shell,” p. 57.

When a DOS Editor dialog box opens, the following three keys have special significance:

In every dialog box, one command button is enclosed in highlighted angle brackets. The highlighted brackets identify the action that takes place when you press Enter.

To highlight the angle brackets of the command button you want, press Tab repeatedly. Be sure not to press Enter until you have specified everything satisfactorily.

For convenience, many commonly used DOS Editor menu commands have an associated shortcut key. Pressing this shortcut key while you are working with the Editor executes the command directly, bypassing the menu system. Table 15.1 provides a complete list of shortcut keys.

A mouse is an excellent pointing device for computer applications. The DOS Editor supports a mouse. You can execute menu commands and many editing tasks by using a mouse. If your system is mouseless, you can get along fine; if you have a mouse, try it and see what you think.

When the mouse is active, you see a special mouse cursor onscreen. The mouse cursor is a small rectangle, about the size of one text character, which moves as you move the mouse. Notice that the regular blinking cursor remains active. You can continue to use all the keyboard commands and features. Refer to Table 15.1 for a comprehensive list of mouse techniques.

The following are some additional mouse pointers:

When you have text in the DOS Editor window, you can move the cursor around the text in several ways. The Editor provides two alternative cursor-movement interfaces:

Generally, the DOS Editor accommodates both camps. Most editing techniques are available with both the keypad and Control-key (WordStar-style) sequences. A few techniques, however, can be performed with only one method. This chapter focuses on the keypad style. The Control-key combinations are mentioned only when required by a particular editing technique.

Table 15.2 summarizes the cursor-movement commands.

Look at the far-right end of the status bar, in the lower-right corner of the DOS Editor screen. You see two numbers, separated by a colon. The two numbers indicate the cursor's current location in your file. The first number is the current row; the second, the current column.

Use the arrow keys to move the cursor, and watch the numbers change. Press Num Lock; an uppercase N appears next to the location numbers to indicate that Num Lock is on. Press Num Lock a few more times to toggle the indicator on and off. Press Caps Lock; an uppercase C appears next to the location numbers, left of the N, to indicate that the Caps Lock key is on.

Scrolling is the movement of text inside the Editor window. When you scroll, you bring into view a portion of the file currently not visible in the Editor window. Scrolling, which can be horizontal as well as vertical, keeps the cursor at the same row and column number but moves the text in the window.

Table 15.3 summarizes the scrolling commands. For large-scale scrolling, you use the PgUp and PgDn keys. Try using these keys by themselves and with the Ctrl key.

You can insert text into an existing line. To do so, move the cursor to the position at which you want to insert text; then type the text you want to insert. As you type, text to the right of the cursor moves right to accommodate the inserted text. You can move off the line by using any of the cursor-movement keys. Do not press Enter to move off the line. Pressing Enter splits the line in two. If you want to replace, or overwrite, the text instead of inserting, press the Insert key. See the “Overtyping” section later in this chapter.

You can use one of the following two methods to delete a few characters from a line:

Most people find the first method more natural. Try both methods and make your own choice.

Sometimes you need to split a line of text into two lines. To do so, move the cursor so that it is positioned under the character with which you want to begin the second line of text; then press Enter. The line splits in two, and the second half moves down to form a new line. Succeeding lines are pushed down to accommodate the new line.

Conversely, you can join two lines to form one line. To do so, position the cursor in the second line and press Home to move the cursor to the left end of the line. Then, press Backspace. The second line moves up to the right end of the first line. Lines beneath the split line move up one line.

To insert a blank line between two lines, move the cursor to column 1 in the lower of the two lines and then press Ctrl+N or Home (to move the cursor to the left end of the current line), and press Enter. Then, move the cursor up to the new blank line.

To delete an entire line, place the cursor anywhere on the line and press Ctrl+Y.

By default, the DOS Editor operates in Insert mode. If you type new text while the cursor is in the middle of a line, the Editor inserts that new text at the cursor location. If you prefer, you can choose Overtype mode, in which the new text replaces the former text.

To activate Overtype mode, press Insert. The cursor changes from a blinking line to a blinking box. The larger cursor signifies Overtype mode, in which any new character you type replaces the character at the cursor location.

To return to standard Insert mode, press Insert again. The Insert key acts as a toggle switch that alternates between Insert and Overtype modes.

When you type a line and press Enter, the cursor drops down one line but returns to the column where you began the preceding line. This feature is convenient when you want to type a series of indented lines.

For an example, type the following line and press Enter:

This line is not indented

The cursor moves to the beginning of the next line. Then press the spacebar three times to move the cursor to column 4 and type the following:

But this line is

Press Enter again. Note that the second time you press Enter, the cursor moves to the next row but remains indented at column 4. Now type this message and press Enter:

So is this one

The cursor remains indented.

Now press the left-arrow key until the cursor returns to column 1. Type the following and press Enter:

Back to no indentation

The short text block you typed looks like the following:

This line is not indented
    But this line is
    So is this one
Back to no indentation

By default, tab stops are set every eight spaces. When you press the Tab key, the cursor moves to the right to the next tab stop. All text to the right of the cursor moves right when you press Tab. Additional tabbing techniques follow:

A place marker designates a specific location—a row and column—in your text. You can set as many as four place markers. After setting a place marker, you can move the cursor instantly from anywhere in the file to that marker's location. The markers are invisible; no character appears in the text to indicate a set marker.

You can set four markers: 0 through 3. To set a place marker, press and release Ctrl+K, and then press a number key from 0 to 3. This action associates the cursor's current position with the marker having the number whose key you pressed. To move the cursor to a previously set place marker, press and release Ctrl+Q, and then press the number of the marker (0 through 3).

You don't turn off markers; they are always set. You can reset them to a different location, but you cannot unset them. They are forgotten when you exit the program.

A block of selected text is always one contiguous group of characters. The block can be one character, a few characters, a line, several lines, a paragraph, or even an entire file. Selected text appears in reverse video.

Follow these steps to select a block of text:

Table 15.4 lists the keys used for selecting text. In general, the keys you use to select text are the same as those you use to move the cursor, but you also press Shift when using them to select text.

After you select (highlight) a block, you can deselect it by pressing any arrow key. (Do not use Shift, however; Shift expands or shrinks the selection.) The highlighting disappears, indicating that you have deselected the entire block.

The Clipboard is a text storage area in memory; it acts as a kind of halfway house for blocks of text. You can place a block of text into the Clipboard and later retrieve the block. The Clipboard has many uses. Its most common use is to cut and paste—to move or copy a block of text from one place in the file to another.

The Clipboard stores only one block of text at a time. When you place text in the Clipboard, the incoming text completely replaces the previous contents of the Clipboard. Changing the block of text in the Clipboard is always an all-or-nothing affair. You cannot add or subtract incrementally. Similarly, retrieval is all or nothing. You cannot move only part of the Clipboard's contents into your file.

The DOS Editor supports four block-oriented editing techniques (see Table 15.5). You can access each technique by using the Edit menu or pressing the appropriate shortcut key. (Press Alt+E to activate the Edit menu.)

To select the first three lines of text in a file, for example, press Ctrl+Home to return the cursor to the beginning of the file. While you're holding down the Shift key, press the down-arrow key three times to select the first three lines of the file. They now appear in reverse video (highlighted).

After the three lines are selected, you can use one of the block-editing commands. To activate the Edit menu, press Alt+E. The DOS Editor displays the Edit menu shown in Figure 15.4. You can now use one of the menu commands.

Figure 15.4. The Edit menu enables you to cut, copy, paste, and clear text.

When you perform copy operations, a copy of the selected text moves to the Clipboard but isn't deleted from the original location. If you perform a cut command, however, the DOS Editor removes the highlighted text from its original location and places it in the Clipboard.

After text has been copied or cut to the Clipboard, you can use the paste operation to copy the Clipboard's contents to a new location in the file. To do so, move the cursor to the desired target location and choose Paste from the Edit menu, or press Shift+Ins (the shortcut key for Paste). The Editor inserts a copy of the Clipboard text at the cursor's location.

Pressing Del or choosing the Clear command from the Edit menu permanently deletes the selected text from the file without placing a copy of it in the Clipboard.

To use the Find command, first activate the Search menu by pressing Alt+S. Your screen looks similar to Figure 15.5.

Figure 15.5. Using the Search menu, you can find text, repeat a find, and change text.

Choose Find. The Find dialog box opens, with the cursor on the Find What text box (see Figure 15.6). The word that is at the cursor's current location in the file (or the currently selected text) appears in the text box. If you want to search for this word, press Enter. Otherwise, type the correct search string and then press Enter. The DOS Editor locates the first occurrence of the search string in your file and selects (highlights) the text found.

Figure 15.6. The Find dialog box enables you to search for text.

→ For more information on using wildcards, see Chapter 5, “Understanding Files and Directories,” p. 99.

You can press F3 or choose Repeat Last Find from the Search menu. The Editor moves to the next occurrence of the search string (if any).

As you can see in Figure 15.6, you can use the following check boxes in the dialog box to place conditions on the search:

In addition to just searching for text, you can use the DOS Editor to search for specific text and then replace it with other text.

You activate the Search menu by pressing Alt+S. Then, choose the Change command. The Editor displays the Change dialog box (see Figure 15.7).

Figure 15.7. The Change dialog box enables you to search and replace text.

The first text box in the Change dialog box is labeled Find What. Type the text you want the Editor to find in this text box (the target text). The second text box is labeled Change To. Type the text you want entered. Figure 15.8 shows a completed Change dialog box.

Figure 15.8. The first step in performing a search-and-replace operation is to fill in the Find What and Change To boxes.

This dialog box contains two check boxes: Match Upper/Lowercase and Whole Word. Refer to the preceding section for a discussion of these check boxes.

After you make the appropriate entries in the text boxes and select any desired check boxes, choose from among the following three command buttons:

After the DOS Editor finishes the search-and-replace operation, it displays a second dialog box, which contains the message Change complete. If no matching text can be found, the box displays the message Match not found. Choose the OK command button to return to the Editor window.

The File menu is your command center for loading and saving files. Six commands are available on the File menu (see Figure 15.9).

Figure 15.9. The File menu enables you to access the file-management functions of the DOS Editor.

The following list explains the File menu commands:

When you save a file for the first time, you should specify two file attributes: the file path (the directory or disk on which to save the file) and the filename.

The DOS Editor stores files on disk in ASCII format. Such files are text files that most text editors and word processors can manipulate. You can view ASCII files directly from the DOS command line by using the TYPE command.

After text files are stored on disk, you can load a file into the DOS Editor by using the Open command. Because this command lists files in any directory, you also can use Open to search your directories for specific filenames. When you choose Open, the Open dialog box appears (see Figure 15.11).

Figure 15.11. The Open dialog box enables you to load an existing disk file.

The Open dialog box contains a File Name text box. By default, this box contains *.TXT, the wildcard filename for all files with the extension TXT. The current directory path (C:DOS in Figure 15.11) appears below the File Name text box. In the File Name text box, type a filename, directory path, or name using the * and ? wildcard characters.

To change the default path, specify a path in the File Name text box and press Enter. Otherwise, the DOS Editor looks in the current directory for files with the extension TXT.

The Files list box contains the names of all files that satisfy the current directory, path, and filename specification. In Figure 15.11, the Files box shows all files that satisfy the path and filename specification C:DOS*.TXT.

The Dirs/Drives list box lists available directories and disks. You can move the cursor to the Dirs/Drives list box by pressing Tab repeatedly. Then, press the up- and down-arrow keys to move the highlight to one of the directories or drives listed in the box. Press Enter to change the default path.

To load a specific file into the DOS Editor, you can use the File Name box or Files box. To use the File Name box, type in the box the name of the specific file, including a path (or rely on the default path shown below the box). If you don't specify an extension, the Editor assumes the TXT extension. To load the file MYFILE.TXT, which is in the current directory, for example, type MYFILE and press Enter.

You also can select a filename from the Files list box if it contains the filename you want. First, press Tab to move the cursor to the Files list box. Then, use the arrow keys to highlight the target filename. Alternatively, you can press the first letter of the filename to move the highlight. When the name you want is highlighted, press Enter. The DOS Editor loads the file so that you can edit or view it.

You can load a file when you first start the DOS Editor. To do so, use the following syntax:

EDIT filename

filename is the name of the file you want to edit. Include the path if the file isn't in the current directory. To start the Editor with the file SALESMYFILE.TXT loaded, for example, type the following line:

EDIT SALESMYFILE.TXT

The following notes apply when you load a file when you start the DOS Editor:

Use New when you want to stop work on one file and create a new file. If you haven't saved the old file, the DOS Editor opens a dialog box for confirmation. Otherwise, the old file is cleared, and the screen looks as though you had just initiated the Editor. You see a blank editing area with Untitled in the title bar.

Your computer system probably includes a printer. Whether you have a dot-matrix, inkjet, or laser printer, follow these steps to print a copy of the file currently loaded in the Editor. You can print selected text or the complete file.

After you finish editing files, you might want to leave the DOS Editor. Just display the File menu and choose the Exit command. If the file already has been saved, the Editor returns to the DOS Shell or to the command line, depending on how you started the program.

If you try to quit without first saving the document you have been editing, the Editor opens a dialog box to ask whether you want to save the file. Choose Yes to save the file and exit the Editor. Choose No to exit from the Editor without saving any changes to the current file. Choose Cancel to close the dialog box and return to the Editor. To get help information about the dialog box, choose Help.

To change screen colors in the DOS Editor, display the Options menu and choose Display. A dialog box similar to the one in Figure 15.13 opens.

Figure 15.13. The Display dialog box enables you to customize how the Editor screen appears.

With the cursor on the Foreground box, you can select a new foreground text color by pressing the up- and down-arrow keys. The Foreground box cycles through the colors available with your video hardware. Notice that as you press the arrow keys, the text to the left of the dialog box (Set Colors for the Text Editor Window) shows the current foreground and background colors. Select a new foreground color by moving the highlight to the color you want. Don't press Enter yet. You have more selections to make before closing this dialog box.

Press Tab to move the cursor to the Background box. Select a new background color; the process is similar to the one you followed to select a new foreground color. Now press Enter to return to the Editor screen. The new colors should be in use.

If you don't use a mouse, you might want to consider removing the scrollbars from your screen. Many users think that the screen looks less cluttered without the scrollbars. To see which you prefer, try the following exercise:

If you change one or more display options, the DOS Editor creates a file named QBASIC.INI and stores it in the directory containing the EDIT.COM and QBASIC.EXE files. (For most systems, this directory is DOS.) The QBASIC.INI file contains a record of the new screen configuration. When you later restart, the Editor uses QBASIC.INI to restore the screen with your customized settings.

Every time you start the Editor, it looks for QBASIC.INI in the default directory or in the directory chain established by the PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you restart from a different directory, be sure that the Editor has access to the QBASIC.INI file.

If you want to start the Editor with the original screen configuration, simply erase the QBASIC.INI file.

The DOS Editor provides online help through the Help menu (see Figure 15.15). Help screens include information about menus and commands, shortcut keys, dialog boxes, keyboard actions, and even about the help system itself.

Figure 15.15. The Help menu helps you learn to use the DOS Editor.

Three categories of information are available from the Help menu:

The following are general notes on using the Help system: