Editing story text with WritePlus

WritePlus is the story editor built into PagePlus. For certain tasks, such as viewing and editing the full text of an entire story that may be spread over many frames or pages, it’s much more convenient than editing text on the page. And for other tasks, such as exporting story text or Marking index entries, it’s essential!

To launch WritePlus:

  • Right-click on a text frame or artistic text object and choose Edit Story (or with text selected, press Ctrl+E or choose Edit Story from the Edit menu). WritePlus opens with the object’s story text.
    – or -
    Choose
    Text Manager… from the Tools menu, then select a story and click Edit. WritePlus opens with the specified text.

The WritePlus environment

WritePlus opens in a separate window that shares many of the standard PagePlus menus and toolbars. As you make changes in WritePlus, story text in the main window updates instantly.

The WritePlus workspace can have one or two windows. Initially, you’ll see the Text Entry window.

To display a Style Pane on the left, click the PagePlus tbr writeplusstory stylepane Editing story text with WritePlus Style Pane button, revealing style names such as “Heading 1″ (if applied) and “Body”.

PagePlus wplus2 Editing story text with WritePlus

A – Style Pane, B – Text Entry Window

By default, WritePlus opens in Layout Mode, displaying text with formatting applied. You can quickly switch to Draft Mode, which doesn’t display formatting variations.

To switch between Draft Mode and Layout Mode:

  • Click the PagePlus tbr writeplusstory formatting Editing story text with WritePlus Formatting button on the Story toolbar.

The Story toolbar, unique to WritePlus, includes other tools to assist you in working with story text. For example, the Story list lets you select the story to be edited (below), or change the name of a story by typing in the list.

PagePlus wplus3 Editing story text with WritePlus

Text editing procedures in WritePlus are generally the same as you’d use when editing text on the page. Use the basic controls on the Text context toolbar to change the text font, size, font style, or spell check the selected text. To review text properties, see Setting text properties.

Here are some unique aspects of editing text in the WritePlus environment:

  • You can export Unicode and UTF text, as described in Exporting story text.

  • The PagePlus tbr writeplusstory showfields Editing story text with WritePlus Show Fields button lets you view field text shown as text between {curly brackets}. For example, a User Details field, Date or Time field, Anchor field, or a mailmerge field. You can’t alter the actual text of a field using WritePlus, but you can select, cut, copy, and paste fields and change their formatting or style properties.

  • Click PagePlus tbr writeplusstory markindex Editing story text with WritePlus  Mark Index to add an index entry at the current insertion point. See Creating an index.

To close WritePlus and return to PagePlus:

  • Click the PagePlus tbr writeplusstory finish Editing story text with WritePlus Finish button or the window’s PagePlus btn close Editing story text with WritePlus Close button.

Editing story text with WritePlus