# Le Redacteur

Welcome to the first in a new series of features on the French word processor Le Redacteur. Over the coming issues, Joseph Hogan is going to cover the main features of the program as well as answering any questions you may have...

I am not really sure how to start off talking about Le Redacteur, because it is a very versatile program. I will not say that it is the best, and works for everyone, but I will say that it does most of what I need to do.

I will be open for ideas of topics. I don't know everything that it does, but I am trying to learn something new once in awhile, so if you have a question, drop me a line, and maybe we could work it out. I am going to give a few possibilities each article, and then also highlight one or two topics.

I am going to just cover a couple of the basics, and then I will try my hands at some of the more interesting stuff as we go along.

I'll start off with a reminder of the various ways of erasing letters, words, lines, phrases, and paragraphs. It's just a small aspect of the program, but if used, it can make removing the text, and lot less of a chore. To see all the options, just press the HELP key, and then the BACKSPACE or DELETE key.

The normal use for most people for DEL and BACK, is just to press it once, and to get rid of a letter. For a word or more, they just hold it down, until the word(s) disappear. But, by adding one or more of an A, S or C. The following is how it works.

DEL | delete LETTER in front of cursor
BACKSPACE | delete LETTER in behind of the cursor

For the rest, press and hold Alt, Shift or Control before pressing the DEL or BACK key.

Control+DEL | delete from the cursor to the end of the WORD
Control+BACKSPACE | delete from the cursor, to the beginning of the WORD
Shift+DEL | delete from the cursor, to the end of the LINE
Shift+BACKSPACE | delete from the cursor, to the beginning of the LINE
Alt+DEL | delete from the cursor to the end of the SENTENCE
Alt+BACKSPACE | delete from the cursor, to the beginning of the SENTENCE
Shift+Control+DEL | delete from the cursor to the end of the PARAGRAPH
Shift+Control+BACKSPACE | delete from the cursor, to the beginning of the PARAGRAPH

The next application of this lends it self easily to the use of the Alt, Shift and Control along with the arrow keys to maneuver around the document which I will mention next time.

A couple of use tricks/tips that I find useful are:

The 'Esc' key is a nice little twist. No, litterally, it'll take the two characters just before the cursor, and it'll switch them around.

Not really a trick, but if you find that you'd like to use a feature, but don't know exactly how to use it, or how it might work, just press 'Help', and the the command you are looking to learn about. The online help is pretty extensive, and I like to use it once in a while to try something new.

No, I haven't talked about a whole lot, but I will be waiting for your questions or ideas, and I'll try to answer them. I am also willing to add in something from version 1 or 3, I'll add it to the menu.

Talk to you all next time.

Joseph Hogan

hoganj@freenet.msp.mn.us