# The KEdit Handbook

Bernd Johannes
Wuebben

    wuebben@kde.org

Version 0.7.3, Dec 10 1997

This Handbook describes KEdit Version 0.7

The KEdit Handbook

KDE
KEdit
text editor

## Introduction

KEdit is the default text editor for the KDE Desktop. It is a small editor best used in conjunction with kfm for text and configuration file browsing. KEdit may also serve well for composition of small plain text documents. It is not meant to be a programmers editor, in particular it is not meant to replace any of the more powerful editors such as XEmacs or Emacs. KEdit's functionality will intentionally remain rather limited to ensure that KEdit will start up reasonably fast.

### New

- Word-wrap works now ( hopefully ;-) )

- Emacs like kill-ring implemented Ctrl-k Ctrl-y

- Paragraph formatting Ctrl-j. Use this in conjunction with AutoIndent and this feature becomes quite powerfull.

I hope you will enjoy this editor,

`Bernd Johannes Wuebben`

wuebben@kde.org

## Installation

### How to obtain KEdit

KEdit is a core application of the KDE project http://www.kde.org. KEdit can be found on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main ftp site of the KDE project.

### Requirements

In order to successfully compile KEdit, you need the latest versions of `libkdecore` and `libkfm`. All required libraries as well as KEdit itself can be found on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/.

### Compilation and installation

In order to compile and install KEdit on your system, type the following in the base directory of the KEdit distribution:

    % ./configure
    % make
    % make install

Since KEdit uses `autoconf` you should have not trouble compiling it. Should you run into problems please report them to the KDE mailing lists.

## Onscreen Fundamentals

KEdit is very simply to use. I am sure that if you have ever used a text edit you will have no problems with KEdit.

### Drag and Drop

KEdit makes use of the KDE Drag and Drop protocol. This means that you can darg and drop files form the Desktop or kfm or some remote ftp site that you have open in one of kfm's windows on to KEdit.

### Editing files on the internet

You can open and save files transparently on the internet. Try the the following at the command-line prompt to see an example of this.

    % kedit ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/Welcome.msg

### Printing

KEdit supports printing. You can either print the document your are editing or the selection you made directly to your default printer. Optionally you can specify the printing command of your choice. There exist a number of printing utilities in the Unix world which are excellent. It would make little sense to try reimplement their efforts. Explicitely let me mention to you the following two printing utilites.

GNU enscript.

  Markku Rossi has written a powerful reincarnation of Adobe's enscript ascii to postscript utility. My favorite usage is enscript -2rG text.txt, but GNU enscript goes far beyond that. Make sure you have the latest version from http://www.hut.fi/~mtr/genscript/, or any GNU mirror.

a2ps

  Akim Demaille and Miguel Santana have written a powerful ascii to Postscript conversion utility which will format your output depending on the documentype. Whether you want to print out C++ sources or a email message, the default styles are very nice. Get it from: http://www-inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps.html

The above two utilities are an absolute must. If you don't have them, get them and become familiar with their usage. Learning how to use them is no longer a problem due to our great html/texinfo/man viewer `kdehelp`. These utilities are your friends when it comes to printing in the UNIX world. Due to their power and many options once you know how to use them properly, you will always miss them should they ever not be available to you, even under Windows95.

Make sure your system is set up for printing PostScript documents. If you don't have a native PostScript printer ( who does?) get yourself ghostscript/ghostview version 4.03 or higher from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/%7Eghost/. Note, that there are now commercial grade ps fonts available that come with the ghostview/ghostscript package. These fonts are a must for any quality printing of Postscript documents on a non-postscript printer. If you were dissapointed by the results you got from ghostscript on your printer so far - get the new fonts, this will give you the best possible results.

### Key Bindings

KEdit honors the following key bindings.

- `Insert` Toggle between Insert and Overwrite mode

- `Left Arrow` Move the cursor one character leftwards

- `Right Arrow` Move the cursor one character rightwards

- `Up Arrow` Move the cursor one line upwards

- `Down Arrow` Move the cursor one line downwards

- `Page Up` Move the cursor one page upwards

- `Page Down` Move the cursor one page downwards

- `Backspace` Delete the character to the left of the cursor

- `Home` Move the cursor to the beginning of the line

- `End` Move the cursor to the end of the line

- `Delete` Delete the character to the right of the cursor

- `Shift - Left Arrow` Mark text one character leftwards

- `Shift - Right Arrow` Mark text one character rightwards

- `Control-A` Move the cursor to the beginning of the line

- `Control-B` Move the cursor one character leftwards

- `Control-C` Copy the marked text to the clipboard.

- `Control-D` Delete the character to the right of the cursor

- `Control-E` Move the cursor to the end of the line

- `Control-F` Move the cursor one character rightwards

- `Control-H` Delete the character to the left of the cursor

- `Control-J` Format Paragraph

- `Control-K` Delete to end of line and place content into the kill-buffer

- `Control-N` Move the cursor one line downwards

- `Control-P` Move the cursor one line upwards

- `Control-V` Paste the clipboard text into line edit.

- `Control-X` Cut the marked text, copy to clipboard.

- `Control-Y` Yank content of the kill-buffer into the document at the current cursor position.

## The Menu Entries

### File

#### New

Opens a new Document in the editor

#### Open

Allows the user to open a document

#### Save

Saves the current Document

#### Save As

Allows the user to save the document in a new file.

#### Close

Closes the editor window. If the closed editor window was the last instance open, KEdit will exit.

#### Open URL

Allows the user to open a file on the internet.

#### Save to URL

Allows the user to save to a file on the internet.

#### Print

Open the print dialog and lets the user print the whole document or the current selection.

#### Mail

Brings up a mail dialog. Make sure you have checked and if necessary modified the mail command on the 'Misc Options' dialog on the 'Options' menu.

#### New Window

#### Exit

Exits the Editor.

### Edit

#### Copy

Copies the current selection to the clip board.

#### Cut

Deletes the current selection and places it into the clip board

#### Paste

Inserts the content of the clip board at the current cursor position

#### Insert File

Allows the user to insert a file at the current cursor position.

#### Insert Date

Inserts the current date at the cursor position.

#### Find

Opens the find dialog.

#### Find Again

Repeats the last find operation , if a find operation has already taken place.

#### Replace

Opens the replace dialog

#### Goto Line

Opens the goto line dialog

### Options

#### Font

Allows the user to choose the font which the editor uses to display the text. The font information is not stored with the document, nor can you choose different fonts within a document.

#### Colors

Allows the user to select fore and background color of KEdit's text display area.

#### Misc Options

Allows the user to set a fill column as well as to enable word wrap and set the mail command suitable for his system.

#### Auto Indent

Allows the user to switch to auto indent mode and back. In auto indent mode the cursor is placed on a RETURN or ENTER underneath the first visible character on the first nonempty line above the current line.

#### Hide/Show Tool-Bar

Allows the user to have the tool bar displayed or hidden.

#### Hide/Show Status-Bar

Allows the user to have the status bar displayed or hidden.

### Help

#### Help

Invokes the KDE help system with the KEdit help pages displayed.

#### About

Displays essential information about KEdit.

## Questions and answers