Use & Special Features |
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Use & Special Features |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Use & Special Features
|
Use & Special Features |
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Use & Special Features |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Using DropDown Lists
Regardless of which method you used to create the DropDown List (methods discussed in earlier sections), Pathagoras will transfer the names of all of the documents in the source into a DropDown List. It is now on your screen (look in the menu area). Once it is on screen, it is ready to use. Just point and click.
The DropDown lists displays in the Menu area.
Point and click to insert any item contained in any DropDown List, depending upon the state of the Insert/Add indictor at the right end of the List. The item selected will be inserted into the current document at the insertion point.
DropDown list 'dropped down'. Select a clause.
Up to 10 Lists can be simultaneously presented. That should make it quite easy to assemble complex documents from a wide variety of sources. Drop down a list, select an item, drop down another list, select an item, and so on. If you mix images and charts with regular text, you will find Pathagoras to be an incredible tool.
DropDown lists display in the Menu area.
At the extreme right of a DropDown List panel (up to 5 DropDown Lists constitute a 'panel'), you should see a button showing either:
or 
.
The button's title indicates the expected action.
| • | «Insert»: the next selection you make will be inserted into the current document at the current cursor location or |
| • | «New Doc»: a new document will be created, and the selected clause inserted as the first element in the new document. |
The button is a toggle. Click it once to select the 'other' choice.
Processing of double angle bracket (and other text) blocks is automatic unless such processing is suppressed. Automatic processing may on occasion prove inconvenient, especially if you are testing certain actions but do not want the options text 'touched.' If the suppress feature has been activated, you will see one or the other of these buttons:
or 
The button's title indicates the expected action.
| • | «Process»: any optional text, and any other text brought in from the source document within <<double angle brackets>> will be processed. |
| • | «Suppress»: any optional text, and any other text brought in from the source document within <<double angle brackets>> will be processed, but rather will remain in the assembled document intact and untouched. |
The button is a toggle. Click it once to select the 'other' choice.
To enable/disable the appearance of the Process/Suppress toggle, click the appropriate button on the Current Settings page of the Utilities & Settings screen.
See Also: Suppress Processing
'Below the Line' features:
At the foot of each drop down list is a series of options that make each list even more useful and flexible. The initial display of the 'Below the Line' features is the 'short list'. It contains only the four most 'essential' tools.
«Refresh»
«Open Folder» (or «Open Glossary»)
«Help»
«Show All Tools»
Here is what you will see when you scroll to the bottom:
The Below the Line features, Initial Display
If you click «Show All Tools», the list repaints itself and displays a much more extensive list of options from which you may choose, segregated into three categories: Tools, Status (toggles) and Miscellaneous (scroll down the list to see the remaining elements)..
The Below the Line features, 'Show All Tools' Display
Some of the 'below the line' features are discussed in separate sections that follow. Here are the rest, broken up into the sections which display in the list:
Tools:
| • | «Open Folder»: Don’t navigate to the folder to see its full contents. Just click this item and you will be taken directly to it. Open documents, edit them, resave them. All from this one line. |
| • | «Save Doc To Folder»: Let’s say that you have created (or copied from another source) a new document and that you want to save it to the folder that is the source of the DropDown List. Simply click this entry and you will be taken there. No navigation. (If the book is a glossary, this item will read «Add H’lighted Text». Same idea. Same ease of use.) See Adding Content to DropDown List. |
| • | «Clause Sel. Screen»: Create a Clause Selection Screen from the entries in the DropDown List. Very helpful when you want to quickly select and assemble multiple items in the list. Imagine—document assembly of image files. Or WordPerfect® files! |
Also very helpful if you want to create a sub-set of this list. Create the Clause Selection Screen, select just the clauses you want and choose the Create DropDown List option from the Clause Selection Screen. Instantly, you have a shorter DropDown list containing a hand picked selection of terms.
| • | «Copy to CPP»: If you have purchased multiple licenses and established a Pathagoras Network, you will be shown this option. When clicked, it will upload a copy of the list to the Common Profiles Path. From there, other users can download the List. |
| • | «Show Fewer Tools»: When you have performed the desired tasks with the full Tools display, you may wish to 'shrink' the display back to the smaller, more manageable listing. |
Status (Toggles). Click the item to 'switch' to the alternative.
| • | «Tree Service On/Off»: Turn Tree Service ‘on’ and the DropDown List display links to the sub-folders beneath the parent. (Sub-folders are displayed at the top of the list between curly-braces.) Click on a sub-folder and the list will be re-drawn, containing the files of the selected sub-folder. Any sub-sub-folders will be displayed at this level as well, along with an “{..{Up}}” entry so that you can return to top of the tree. |
The folder display possibilities here are quite literally endless. By strategically assigning parent folders, you could conceivably access every folder and sub-folder without ever leaving your editing screen. All navigation as envisioned by Windows could be eliminated.
| • | «Display Names»/«Display Subjs»: If you are displaying the terms by Name and want to display them by subject, or vice versa, click this. |
| • | «List Reset after Insert/No Reset after Insert»: This simply indicates what shows after you click on a clause in the list and the list is 'retracted'. If 'Reset' is chosen, the title of the list displays. If 'No Reset' is chosen, the selected item displays, making it a bit easier to (perhaps) choose an item further down in the list. |
| • | «Return Cursor to Top/Leave Cursor at End»: |
| • | Choose the former if you want the program to reset itself to the top of the document (so that you can easily review the document from top to bottom) |
| • | Choose the latter if you want the insertion point (and the display) to be at the document bottom so you can easily add additional text. |
Miscellaneous
| • | «Create Printout»: Need a hard copy of the contents of the DropDown list? Click this entry to transfer the information to a Word document for editing/printing. |
| • | «Assign a Template»: Assign a template to any documents created from a term in the list. A template is typically a blank document that contains headers, footers, margins and styles unique to the type of document contained in the list). Once a template is assigned, if to be laid down before any text is inserted in the following instances: (1) the New Doc toggle has been selected and (2) when the item called from the list is the very first item on an otherwise blank page. (Irrespective of the assigned template, if you call in a term into an otherwise blank document that itself has headers and footers, the headers and footers of the recalled document will display.) |
| • | «Refresh»: If you have added more items to the folder or glossary, refresh the List to include the new additions. It takes just a second or two. |
| • | «Replace»: Place another, completely different, folder or book in place of this DropDown List. |
| • | «Delete»: Delete the DropDown List from the display. |
| • | «Wider» & «Narrower»: Adjust the width of the display with these buttons. |
| • | List information: If you click either the very first or the very last entry in the list, you will see a page of information regarding the list. It may be helpful in determining any unusual behavior of the list. |