** 2 page regular tutorial / 1493 words **

Better Papyrus

Michael High starts a new series taking over where the manuals 
leave off...

** 1STWORD.GIF here **
** PAPYRUS.GIF here **
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Using Papyrus like 1st Word is like driving a car in first gear 
all the time!
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When you buy a car you don't get a manual telling you how to 
drive. It's the same with Papyrus, those nice people at ROM 
Software/HiSoft assume you know how to use powerful document 
processing software.
We suspect there are many Papyrus users driving around in first 
gear. If you're one of them, these tutorials are your driving 
lessons...

Back when people used quills pens writing was a combination of art 
and craft skills. The typewriter changed this making it easy to 
produce neat lines of legible text. In the early eighties 
computers and word processing software made it easy to correct 
mistakes, output different typestyles and reformat paragraphs.

Towards the end of the eighties the DTP revolution split the 
actual words away from the craft skill of page layout - designers 
of the groundbreaking Timeworks package assumed the text would be 
generated separately and imported into Timeworks for page layout. 
One of the key tools used in Timeworks page layout was the use of 
"Styles" and Papyrus adopted and developed this concept as the 
basis of its page layout abilities.

Putting on the style

In 1st Word (or using a typewriter) textstyles and formatting are 
added as you type. Although you can work like this with Papyrus, 
there is a better way.
In Papyrus, there is a distinction between creative writing 
(getting the words right) and the formatting and layout (making 
the page look attractive).
Although Atari Computing towers issue contributors with a writers 
style guide they can't turn you into Shakespeare overnight. On the 
other hand this magazine is a good example of the consistent 
application of style. The choice of font, size and spacing can 
often convey as much meaning as the actual words. For example, it 
is obvious which words are titles, headings, text and even 
computer code - each has a distinctive style. The editor doesn't 
have to think "This is a heading so I have to select Swiss Font, 
16 point, bold, left Justified, followed by an 8 point ruler" 
instead he just indicates it's a "heading" and leaves the designer 
to take care of the details. This not only saves time, but offers 
other advantages.

Supposing you have just finished typing in a letter applying for a 
new job. The words are perfect, the spelling has been checked, but 
the letter just spills over onto a second page.
One solution would be to reduce the font size and the line 
spacing. With local formatting every letter would have to be 
changed manually, using styles, you simply change the style and 
all the text using that style is automatically updated! Your 
document still retains the same look and feel and fits onto a 
single page.

This ability to globally change how text appears throughout 
documents really comes into its own when working on complex 
documents, such as newsletters or hand-bills. Papyrus offers both 
"Text Style" and "Paragraph Style".

Text Style tips

You can specify as many or as few parameters as you like. In the 
example I have set everything except the text effects (bold, 
underline and so on) because "Normal" is the only style I use. 
This leaves the option to local add formatting for occasional 
emphasis. Other text styles would specify the text effects, for 
example, to make headings bold. Behind the six text style switches 
lie ten parameters, so choosing a text style can save a great deal 
of menu clicking.

** TEX_DIAL.GIF **
** Caption **
Format selected text and save the settings here
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Paragraph Style points

In addition to the four optional parameters, the Paragraph Style 
stores three sets of information. These are always set, even 
though they are not displayed in the same way as in the Text Style 
dialog.

** PAR_DIAL.GIF **
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Numbering and enumeration is more exciting than it sounds!
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First the five parameters of the Paragraph Offsets are set (this 
option, located under the Text menu which has always struck me as 
inconsistent - Style seems much more logical). It is good practice 
to use paragraph offsets in preference to adding blank lines to 
create space between paragraphs. Although measured in points (1 
point = 1/72 inch), Papyrus accepts decimal settings giving 
adjustments as fine as your printer allows.
Second, the line spacing and justification are set with the 
Paragraph Style.
Most important of all, every Paragraph Style contains a ruler, 
complete with paragraph margins and tab stops.

Ruler rules

The ruler hasn't changed much so the description in the manual is 
fine, although a few points deserve fuller explanation. It is 
important to understand the difference between document and 
paragraph margins. Document margins apply to all pages following a 
specific Master Page - a subject well covered in the manual. 
Paragraph margins apply to any text with a particular Paragraph 
Style.

** RULER.GIF **
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Spot the subtle difference between first margin and decimal tab
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In the ruler example, the left document margin is at 2cm - shown 
by the small tick to the right of the line. The right document 
margin is shown by left facing tick mark at 10cm. They can only be 
moved via the Page Layout dialog in the Document menu. There are 
two symbols for the left paragraph margins. The mark at 2.8cm is 
for the second and subsequent lines of the paragraph, whilst the 
dot at 3.8cm is the margin for the first line. They can be placed 
on the left document margin, or between it and the right paragraph 
margin at 8.8cm.

The three paragraph margins can only be set using the mouse. They 
snap to the nearest multiple of 2mm, 1/12 inch or 1/2 pica 
depending on the selected measurement system. The ruler displays 
the distance from the edge of the paper but paragraph margins are 
set relative to the document margin. If you change the document 
margins, the paragraph margins appear to remain the same. However, 
if you move them, they'll snap to the 2mm etc so it makes sense to 
work in multiples of 2mm etc. when choosing document margins.

Tab tips

With typewriters and 1st Word tables can be laid out using the 
space bar. This is not the case with Papyrus. Changing the font, 
increasing the font size or spacing and even selecting bold effect 
alters the distance covered by a space character. The only way to 
place text at a fixed distance from the margin is to use tabs. 
When placed using the mouse, they follow the snap rules, but 
remain adjustable. Right clicking the tab mark on the ruler line 
brings up a dialog which isn't covered in the manual. This dialog 
allows you to change the type of tab and to set its exact 
position, in addition up to six characters of any text can be set 
as the "decimal" tab - a nifty feature.

** TAB_DIAL.GIF here **
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Decimal tabs don't have to be decimal points
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To save time set up several default tabs in your "Normal" 
paragraph style - mine are set every 1.2cm. As you create 
additional paragraph styles, the tabs can be changed to different 
types without moving them, which helps preserve a uniform layout.

One I prepared earlier..

Most of us load up a new software, ignore the manual and 
immediately start producing something with it. All this talk of 
styles and rulers seems to get in the way of printing a document. 
The good news is you only have to set things up once.

Paragraph and text styles can be saved in templates. These 
documents are created like any other. Under the Document menu, the 
Document type is changed to Template before it is saved into your 
template folder. To create the styles, simply create some dummy 
paragraphs - these can subsequently be deleted without losing the 
style information. The most useful template file is called 
_NEW.PAP because it's the file opened via the New document 
([Control]+N) option from the File menu.

Once you have saved your own "house style" template as _NEW.PAP 
you can customise the function keys. Double-clicking or 
[Control]+clicking in the middle line of the Function key displays 
a dialog where paragraph or text styles can be assigned to a 
Shift-Function key combination. These can then be saved using the 
Save options ([Control]+E) command.

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** On reader disk logo here **

And there's more...

The Reader Disk includes some example files which demonstrate 
these features, along with some we couldn't squeeze into this 
article. Next time we'll explore the hidden potential of tables. 
Meanwhile, if there are any topics you would like covered drop me 
a line, on disk in ASCII or Papyrus format, to the editorial 
address.

** Italics on **
Michael High
** Italics off **

** BC on **
Email: michael_high@nt.com
** BC off **
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