Text Editors -- Common Features

Of all the text programs, the text editor is by far the simplest of all the programs. Today, we will look at what features are common among text editors.

Because the text editor is the simplest, that is why I chose it first. Everything else you learn about any program will start with this as a basis.

What is a Text Editor?

First of all, what do I mean by a text editor?

A text editor is any program that you can use to create a text document without regard to any formatting. That is what makes the text editor the simplest of all the text programs. It contains only the basic features you need to write and edit text.

Text Editor Menus

When you look at a menu of a text editor, you should see only 4 or 5 of the basic 6. The menu options you are most likely to see are File, Edit, View, Tools, And Help. The one you most likely would not see is the Windows option, because most text editors do not allow for multiple document windows. To have a different text editor window, you would have a separate "instance" of the program. In other words, it would create a new copy of the program in memory that would show in the taskbar of the operating system.

File Menu

When you look in the file menu, you will find all the common menu items for creating, saving, opening, and printing documents. About the only option you won't find is the properties option. As a basic program, most editors do not let the user set any features here.

One note about the Save and Open options is that because text editors are basic programs, they will generally save and open simple documents using a standard format, such as ASCII or UTF-x. If you open a file and it has a bunch of unreadable characters displayed, then the format of the file is a more complex format than the text editor is able to use. The format you are able to save in can either be found in the Preferences or Options that govern the program or you will be given a Character Encoding option that gives you some choices to choose from.

Edit, View, Tools, Windows, and Help Menus

Most of the other menu options are going to be fairly standard. It's possible that you might see a menu option other than one of these 6, but if you do, most likely it has moved one of the common menu items into a separate menu. If the program you are using does allow child windows, you will see the Windows (or equivalent) menu item.

One thing to take note of is where the Preferences or Options menu item is. Most often it would be under tools if this option exists, but it might be under the Edit menu.

A useful option that you will most likely find in the View menu is the option to Wrap Lines of text. What this does is instead of creating a horizontal scroll for lines that are wider than the window allows, the text editor will "wrap" that line of text to the next line. This can be very useful if you have a lot of long lines. For a text editor, a line is considered any text up to the carraige return (ie the enter key is pressed). So wrapping lines of texts makes it easier to read through lines of paragraphs written in a text editor. If you don't see the Wrap Lines option in the View Menu, check the program options to see if you can set it there.

Of all the menus, the Tools is the one that might have non-standard items. If the text editor is a fairly old editor that has not been updated recently, you might not even see this option. But a newer text editor may include spell checking and document statistics. These would be located under the text menu. Also, if it does provide spell checking, you might have an option to autocheck your spelling. This can be a handy feature.

If your text program does have spell checking, keep in mind that the spell checker doesn't necessarily check to make sure you have the right word for the sentence. For example, if you spelled "two" where you meant "too", the spell checker will recognize this as a valid spelling, even though it is the wrong word. This is a simple example, but say you meant to say exhausted, the spell checker might not catch that you spelled exhaled instead.

Toolbars

Most text editors are not going to have a toolbar, but if it does, you can expect to find basic toolbar options. The basic file options include New, Open, Save, and Print. You will likely find editing options here as well, including Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Find, and Replace. The last option you will likely see on a toolbar for a text editor would be a button to bring up the Help contents.

These are all the common elements you will find on a text editor. Remember, a text editor simply allows you to write text, not to format it in any way. This can actually be beneficial if you are writing web pages or any other kind of program. Another great use for a simple text editor is to make a quick note of information that you want to save and be able to recall quickly. Text editors are great for short pages of text, but are not as good for longer documents.

Voice Recognition Software

I don't often find things that I like in Windows Vista, but the one thing I have found it interesting recently is the voice recognition that is native to Windows. It has its flaws, but I can see where it will be useful. I imagine that Dragon Speaking Naturally would be easier to use, delete that the voice recognition software native to Windows Vista is a little clunky to use.

Voice recognition software can make it a lot easier to do the typing. From what I've seen of Dragon Speaking Naturally, it looks like it would be much easier to use. However, it does cost a lot of money. Coming up with the money may be a problem. In the meantime, using the native Windows Vista speech recognition software can be an affordable alternative.

Using the speech recognition, you can control your programs, the dictation, in even edit your down dictation. In time, the software might be easier to use. One problem with the native speech recognition is that the microphone pick up sounds that it is not supposed to. This makes dictation a little more difficult using to native program. However, if you can use it in a quiet environment you might have better success. Another problem with the Windows dictation is that you have to enunciate the punctuation. From what I have seen of Dragon Speak Naturally, it can insert that punctuation through natural speech.

This post has been dictated using voice recognition software. At the moment, I just have the native Windows Vista, but when I have more money I plan to get Dragon Speak Naturally.

Word Processor Software and Text Editors

One of the most common types of programs available are the kinds that allow the user to handle text. In fact, dealing with text is such a basic, commonly used function of interacting with computers, many programs, whether they deal strictly with text or not, will have some features that are common to text programs.

The most common type of text programs are:

• Word Processors
• Text Editors
• Code editors

Word Processors

The most commonly used text program is the word processor. A word processor is a program that is used to create a text document. They allow you to format the page, font, and a variety of other things to allow a user to create documents for printing or displaying on the screen. Word processors have tools that make it easy to find and replace text within a document. This feature makes it easy to change text and to rearrange it with ease. They have tools to allow you to check document statistics, such as word counts, and most of the current ones even do spell checking to help make sure that you have spelled everything correctly. Another great feature is the ability to merge one document with another or a database to be able to create multiple pages from a single framework with only a few clicks. Still, despite all this power, word processors still mainly deal strictly with text.

Text Editors

Another common text program is the text editor. A text editor is a word processor stripped of the ability to set formatting and to merge with other documents. You may think that such a program would be worthless, but actually a text editor can be useful for small text files and make a great place to put quick notes that you might want to save for future reference.

Code Editors

A code editor lies somewhere between a text editor and a word processor, but the main function of a code editor is to make it easier for a programmer to write code. Most do this through color coding that allows a programmer to quickly see what the different types of pieces are in a program. For some languages, a code editor might be attached to a compiler, a tool that turns the code into an executable program that can be run on the machine. What features a code editor might have depend greatly on what language, or languages, the program might support.

These are the main types of text programs that one may find. You can find features of text programs in many other programs, so understanding text programs can get you a long way towards understanding and functioning in many other programs.

Most Common Program Type

When I started this blog, I began by going over the 5 steps to learn any program. Today, I'm beginning a new series covering the basic features of some of the most common types of programs.

So what are the key types of programs you will find?

1. Text
2. Communication
3. Financial
   
4. Spreadsheets
5. Databases
6. Audio/Video
   
7. Graphics
8. Games

This will be a long, overall series, with several mini series describing each category. I'll mention now that I left one category off of this list, the operating system, because it is a topic that is very complex and will get its own series.

Before we begin the series, let's look at each of these categories and see how they differ.

Text

The first major category, and perhaps one of the most used areas, is that of text. These include word processors, such as Microsoft Word, and text editors, such as Notepad. The main difference between the two is that the latter is stripped of the formatting aspects, but many other features are similar. Another subcategory to this main category would be code editors, which are text editors designed to make it easier for programmers to write programs in a variety of languages.

Communication

Another very popular category of programs are the ones used for communication. These include web browsers, email programs, and chat programs. Also in this group would be programs for uploading and downloading files. While the features on the subcategories vary widely, they all provide a means of communicating with other people using other computers.

Financial

In terms of practical use, this category is a power house. The programs here allow the user to manage their money. There aren't really many subcategories to this, but they do have a look and feel all their own with some features to be aware of.

Spreadsheets

Used more in business settings than in home settings, spreadsheets can be useful tools when you know how to use them and can help manage large amounts of information. The strong suit of the spreadsheet is its ability to organize, manipulate, chart, and graph numerical information of all kinds.

Databases

Although often used, the use is usually behind the scenes. Databases are great storehouses of related information. Some examples of databases you might be aware of include customer lists, library and retail stock, employee information, and a lot more.

Audio/Video

The programs in this category let users create, modify, and display audio and video files. Many of the tools are similar for both, so they are included together here. Some subcategories are movie/video players, cd players, sound editors, video editors, and presentation programs.

Graphics

Graphics programs allow users to create, manipulate, and view graphics. There are several types of graphics that have different characteristics, such as vector graphics, raster graphics, and 3d graphics. The programs that do each of these are varied, so expect a lot of differences.

Games

Outside of all the productivity related programs, games are the most used program on the computer. Games vary widely, but they are an important part of computer life that they have to be mentioned.

Now, there may be many programs out there that don't appear to fit into any of these that I mentioned, but as you will see, most of those combine different aspects of each of these areas, or are programs designed for a specific, narrow purpose, that may include many features discussed in these. If you understand these 8 categories, any other program you come across will have something that relates to one of these basic categories. The order of importance I've put these in may be debatable as far as popularity, but I hope that, as these are expanded further you will be able to see why I placed them in this order.

Working on a new Series

Well, if you liked the posts so for on the program basics, stay tuned, because I'm getting ready to launch into a new series.

This series picks up where the 5 steps left off and goes in depth of some of the most common types of programs around.

Some other thoughts for the future might include tutorials for programs (designed around the 5 steps for learning programs). I'm thinking of eventually including some information on getting started with programming, particularly web page programming.

I know it has been a few days since I posted here, but I have been working on the ideas. I'll try to post the first part in the series sometime later today.

Learn To Use Photoshop In Just 2 Hours

Don't have a lot of time but want to get up and running in Photoshop? Check out Learn To Use Photoshop in Just 2 Hours!

Recently, I discovered this great resource for learning the graphics program. I have not used Photoshop a lot, but I have used other graphics programs, and I know that they can be very difficult to learn. Having someone to coach you through how to use them can be a great help.

What can you expect from Learn to Use Photoshop in Just 2 Hours?

• How to use various tools and the quick mask to create selections
• Painting and drawing
• Resizing Images
• Working with Layers
• And Creating Text

Learn to Use Photoshop in Just 2 Hours can also show you how to do some tasks common to any graphics program, including:

• Retouching Photos
• Removing Red Eye
• Creating montages

The videos are all very short, usually under 5 minutes. This means that they are quick to view and you'll be off to try them yourself in no time. Best of all, most of the videos teach you practical stuff. In fact, if you've done the 5 Steps to Learn any Program, you can skip about half the videos, dive into the practical stuff, and still pick up a trick or two without seeing the video on "how" to do it!

The great thing about the practical stuff is that with a little thought and playing around, some of the things can be done in other programs, besides Photoshop. For example, I had learned one method of red eye correction when I first learned GIMP a couple years ago, but I tried the method in Learn To Use Photoshop in Just 2 Hours on GIMP, perhaps with even better results.

So whether you want to learn to use Photoshop CS3, or looking for alternate ways for learning another program, Learn To Use Photoshop in Just 2 Hours just might be the quick solution to try.

Books, Manuals, or Tutorials? Which is best?

Once you have completed your overview of the program you want to learn using the strategies I recommended, you may be wondering how best to proceed with learning a new program. I think a lot of what you should do depends greatly on the type of learning you are hoping to do.

Manuals

If you bought a software program from a store, you probably have a manual that came with the program. While manuals have gotten more readable and better to follow in recent years, manuals are still best when you are wanting to learn the features of a program that are available. The manual can teach you where to find a particular feature that you may be looking for. When you have used a program of the type you are trying to learn, using the manual can be a great resource on finding the tools you used in other programs.

Tutorials

When you are new to a type of program (3d graphic software, for example), it may be best to start furthering your education with tutorials, rather than a manual. Sometimes, a manual assumes that you know what you are doing to some degree. Tutorials, on the other hand, can be much easier to follow for someone who is a complete newbie.

Tutorials can often be found for one of three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Beginner tutorials assume that the user has no prior experience with any type of software of the type being learned. They will teach not only the fundamentals of the program type, but also generally give step by step instructions on where to find the various tools.

Intermediate tutorials assume that the user has a basic understanding of the software category and generally know their way around the program. It may point out where certain features are, but other things that are considered "basic" are glossed over but might be provided as a reminder.

Advanced tutorials usually assume that the user is fairly proficient not only with the type of program being used, but also with the program itself. Hardly any time is spent on where things are located outside of the advanced features discussed. Advance tutorials get more into the theory of how stuff works and less into the where to find features of the program

Tutorials of all three kinds can be found in audio, video, or text in a variety of places. Some programs may include some tutorials. Other tutorials can be found online. Look around. You might can find some things at little to no charge, but there might be other information that you can learn only by paying for it.

Books

Books bought on a particular program fall somewhere between being another "manual" for the program and providing "tutorials" to teach the user. The best books for learning how to do will focus more on the tutorial method of instruction. That doesn't mean that a book can't be useful if it focuses more on the "manual" method.

Remember, "manuals", whether you bought it separately or it came with the program, work best when you are switching from one program to another. For example, if you already have a solid foundation on Jasc's Paint Shop Pro, reading the manual for Adobe's Photoshop can help you find the similar features.

All three can be useful in learning more about a program once you have a foundation to work with. I always try to spend at least 30 minutes with any new program (or even program version) prior to trying to use the manual. I often figure out just how to do what I want to do without any further help. But then I use the other resources to fill in the gaps and improve my knowledge.

Office Suite Software -- Common Programs for Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office, and OpenOffice.org

Since I started this blog, I have spent a lot of time explaining the common program elements. Now, it is time to look at some of the different categories of programs and see what elements are common among them.

One of the biggest collection of programs every user is likely to come across is the office suite. A suite, in computer terms, is a collection of programs gathered for a common purpose. Office suites, the most common type, are generally a collection of programs that are commonly found in any office, whether it be a home office or a mega corporation's office.

The most popular office suites available include Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office (by Corel), Lotus Symphony, IWork, and the open source OpenOffice.org. While there are some variations in what each of these contain, nearly all of them include a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database, and a presentation program.

Word Processors

Microsoft Works is probably the most well known of all the word processors, followed closely by Corel's WordPerfect (the word processor program). These two are among the oldest and have been around since at least the early days of Windows, if not before. The function of a word processor is to create text documents. These can be anything from letters, to envelopes, to labels -- the list goes on. Many authors use them to write their novels and other books.

All word processors will have tools to modify the text, including font, font size, font and background colors, and more. The ability to adjust margins, page dimensions, and setting headers and footers are also common. Most will have the ability to "create" multiple pages by merging a text document with files from another source, such as a database. Spell check and word counts are also common. Most word processors today can also double as desktop publishers, though there are other programs that may do a better job at this type of task, depending on your needs. Keep in mind, this is only a summary list. There are many other features common to most word processors, but these are the basics that a user might see on a regular basis.

Spreadsheets

One of the oldest, in terms of "brand recognition", may be Lotus 123, though it "disappeared" for a while. Microsoft Excel is probably better known today, followed by Corel's Quadro Pro. Spreadsheets are perfect for "columnar" type data, particularly the kind that involves numbers and math.

In addition to many of the font and page features of word processors, spreadsheets always have some mechanism for introducing formulas. Afterall, mathematics is the forte of spreadsheets. Columns and rows can be adjusted for size, grouped for printing or creating reports, as well as gathering data from other sources, such as a database. Each "sheet" of a database can represent a "page" of a spreadsheet. One great feature of spreadsheets is the ability to reference cells, both within the same page and from other pages, based on a relative or an absolute position. This makes "filling in" columns or rows easy and efficient.

Database

Most office suites have a database program. These will usually be able to connect with a variety of database types, including popular SQL databases, but they usually have a "native" database format that it will use if no other format is specified. One of the oldest around is a program called dBase, though it is not as popular as it might once have been and has not been associated with an office suite. The most well known attatched to a suite is probably Microsoft's Access.

A database can be thought of as an "electronic filing cabinet", able to store vast amounts of data in collections. Most database programs will allow you to create a database (obviously), but many will also let you create "forms" for interacting with a database to perform "queries" that look up information and generate "reports" that detail that information. As such, you can expect to find text type tools available, though maybe not as much as you would in a word processor. Databases can be interconnected, greatly enhancing the capabilities of the storage of data. Chances are that, though you may not have known it, you have interacted with a database at some time or another.

Presentation Programs

Presentation programs, such as Microsoft's PowerPoint, allow someone to create and display "presentations" to groups of people in a variety of situations. They are often used in seminars and classrooms for teaching, in offices for sales presentations, and in other ways for a vareity of purposes.

The most common thing you will find here are text specific tools described for word processors, though you will have a variety of ways to "move" them around. You can also add images such as pictures, graphs from a spreadsheet, and other types of data. These programs will have tools to govern the way the information "transistions" from one "slide" (the basic "page" of a presentation program) to the next. This includes the how, such as a timed delay or a "click" of a button, as well as what the visual transition might be, including wipes, disolves, and other types of transitions. The presentations generated are usually run from within the program, though most programs also give the user the ability to create a "stand-alone" presentation that does not require the "presentation generator" program.

These are the four most common. Some others you might see include drawing programs and email programs, but for the most part, these are the most used programs in the suites.

Firefox -- Are You Using it?

Mozilla has released the latest version of its open source web browser, Firefox 3.0. Firefox is the browser that I generally use myself. I discovered it a few years ago, and I find that I prefer it to Internet Explorer. Here are some reasons you might consider it.

1. Tabbed browsing

I know Internet Explorer has since integrated this, but Firefox started doing this before IE did. Why do I like tabbed browsing? With tabs, I can browse multiple web pages without creating a new "instance" of the program. Firefox will put tabs just under the menu/toolbars so that you can switch between pages easily. This way, if one page is taking a long time to load for some reason, I can switch over to another page. I often go back and forth between pages as I am browsing. Even now that I am using a high speed internet connection, there are times I like to use the tabbed browsing.

2. Better W3C Standards Conformance

W3C is the organization that defines the standards for web technologies such as HTML, XHTML, XML, and CSS. For the average web browser, this may not mean much. Pages can be displayed on IE. But they may not look the same, depending on the CSS code.

I find the deviance of certain standards by Microsoft to be interesting because they are one of the organizations that helps to provide input for these standards.

3. Customization Through Add-Ons

Firefox has thousands of add-ons to customize your browsing experience. Some tools are useful for web page developers, while others may allow you to add search bars, weather reports, and many other features. Firefox also has many "skins" that allow you to change the way the browser looks.

In fact, I'm using an add-on right now! One of the add-ons is called "ScribeFire", and can allow you to post to some blogs.

4. It's Free!

I know... Technically, so is Internet Explorer, but there are some browsers out there that you might have to pay for. Firefox is free. It always has been, and as far as I can tell, always will be.

5. Multi-Platform Support

Whether you are using Windows, Mac, or Linux, or some other operating system, odds are that if it is a fairly widespread operating system, you can find a port that will run on your computer.

6. Crash Recovery

If your browser crashes unexpectedly, Firefox will take you back to where you were before the browswer crashed. In fact, with the latest version of Firefox, not only can you get this functioning when the program crashes, but now, you can set up Firefox to "remember" where you were the last time you had the program open! This can be handy if you are in the middle of checking something when you have to go off to do something else.

To be honest, for the most part, there is very little difference between IE and Firefox. Maybe I switched to this one to be using something other than "Microsoft". Whatever the reason I switched, I find myself using Firefox more than IE. Try it. What I mentioned is only a few of the features, but it has many more.