NoteWell Help File

Introduction
Using NoteWell

Introduction

NoteWell`s purpose is to allow you to find, make and save notes on a variety of topics quickly and efficiently. As a result, it differs from most general-purpose text editors and word processors in several ways, including the following:

All of the topic files are stored in the same preselected topic directory so that instead of making the user find the directory and file name of a topic, NoteWell can present the user with a menu of all of the available topics.
When a different topic is switched to, the previous topic is automatically saved without asking for confirmation, streamlining the process of changing topics. Similarly, when the program is exited the current topic is automatically saved.
Since new notes on a topic are usually added after any existing notes, when a user switches to a different topic the insert cursor is placed at the end of the notes on that topic.

For information on how to install NoteWell, see the file named INSTALL that is included with this distribution. The remainder of this document describes how to use and configure NoteWell once it has been installed.

Using NoteWell

1. Topic Names and Topic Files

A topic`s topic file is the name of the file in which all of the notes on a given topic are saved. The name of the file is selected when the topic is first saved, or when the user saves the topic to a different file (see Saving the Current Topic below).

A topic`s topic name is derived from the name of its topic file. The topic name for a given topic is the same as its topic file`s name, except that periods (.), dashes (-) and underscores (_) are replaced with spaces. (These replacements allow a topic to have a multi-word topic name without requiring spaces in the name of its topic file.)

Thus a topic with a topic file named NoteWell-Help has the topic name 'NoteWell Help' (without the quotation marks), and a topic whose topic file is named C++_Common_Errors.List will have the topic name 'C++ Common Errors List' (again, without the quotation marks).

2. Starting a New Topic

To start a new topic, select the New menu item from the File menu. This causes NoteWell to attempt save the current topic (see Saving the Current Topic below) and then start a new, empty topic.

The user will be prompted for the name of the file in which to save the notes on the newly started topic when the topic is first saved.

3. Saving the Current Topic

To save the current topic, select the Save menu item from the File menu. This causes NoteWell to attempt to save the current topic. If the current topic has previously been saved to a file, then it is saved to that same file.

If the current topic has not previously been saved to a file (usually because the topic was recently created - see Starting a New Topic above) then a dialog box will appear, asking for the name of the file in which to save the current topic. Entering a valid file name will cause the topic to be saved to that file (in the topic directory), and will change the topic`s name accordingly (see Topic Names and Topic Files above). Pressing the dialog box`s Cancel button will abort the save - the current topic will not be saved.

The sequence of events outlined in the preceding paragraphs will also take place whenever the current topic is automatically saved: for example, when the user switches to a different topic or when the NoteWell program is exited. In these cases if the dialog box asking for the name of the topic file is cancelled out of (by pressing the Cancel button), then the current topic will NOT be saved and the action that caused the automatic save will take place, possibly resulting in some or all of the topic`s contents being lost.

To save the current topic to a different file, select the Save As ... item from the File menu. A dialog box will appear asking for the name of the file in which to save the current topic. The topic`s name will change accordingly (see Topic Names and Topic Files above).

4. Switching to Another Topic

The Topics menu lists the topic names of all of the topics. To switch to a topic, find its topic name in the Topics menu and select that menu item. This causes NoteWell to attempt to save the current topic (see Saving the Current Topic above) and then load the selected topic.

Note that the Topics menu is a tear-off menu. Tearing it off and placing it next to NoteWell may make it easier to switch between topics. Unlike the 'regular' Topics menu, a torn off Topics menu isn`t updated when a new topic is added or deleted, though the existing menu items will continue to work correctly.

5. Read-Only Topics

If you switch to a topic and its topic file cannot be written to, then the topic will be read-only: you will be able to read the topic, but you won't be able to edit or change it in any way. Because the topic cannot be changed, it is not saved when you switch to a different topic or attempt to save it using the Save menu item from the File menu.

6. Exiting the Program

To exit NoteWell, select the Exit menu item from the File menu. This causes NoteWell to attempt save the current topic (see Saving the Current Topic above) and then exit the program.

7. Copying, Cutting and Pasting

To copy a portion of the current topic to the clipboard, select that portion and then select the Copy menu item from the Edit menu. The selected portion will be copied to the clipboard.

To remove a portion of the current topic and copy it to the clipboard, select that portion and then select the Cut menu item from the Edit menu. The selected portion will be removed from the current topic and copied to the clipboard.

To insert the contents of the clipboard into the current topic, move the insert cursor to where you want the clipboard`s contents inserted, then select the Paste menu item from the Edit menu. The current contents of the clipboard will be inserted into the current topic to the right of the insert cursor.

8. Searching the Current Topic

To search the current topic in a forward direction starting at the insert cursor, select the Forwards ... menu item from the Search menu; select the Backwards ... menu item from the Search menu to search the current topic in a backward direction starting at the insert cursor. In either case a dialog box will appear asking for the pattern to search for and the type of search to do.

There are three types of searches to choose from: an Exact Match search, in which a portion of the current topic must be exactly the same as the search pattern for a match to occur; an Ignore Case search, in which a portion of the current topic must be exactly the same as the search pattern for a match to occur, except that upper- and lower-case versions of the same letter are considered to be the same; and a Regular Expression search, in which a portion of the current topic must match the regular expression specified in the search pattern for a match to occur.

For all types of searches, either the insert cursor is moved to the start of the first portion of the current topic that satisfies the search criteria, or a dialog box appears indicating that the search failed. Note that the search will wrap past the end (or beginning) of the topic and continue at the beginning (end) of the topic.

To find the next portion of the current topic after the edit cursor that matches the search criteria from the last search, select the Find Next menu item from the Search menu; select the Find Previous menu item from the Search menu to find the next portion of the current topic before the insert cursor that matches the search criteria from the last search.

9. Help

To switch to the NoteWell help topic, select the Help Topic menu item from the Help menu. The insert cursor will be positioned at the top of the topic.

See Configuring NoteWell below to find out how to select the name and location of NoteWell`s help topic.

10. Configuring NoteWell

You can configure NoteWell by creating or editing a NoteWell configuration file named .notewell in your home directory. Lines in this file whose first non-whitespace character is an exclamation mark (!) are considered to be comments and are ignored.

To change the topic directory (the directory in which NoteWell searches for and stores topic files), add a line to the .notewell file that starts with Notewell.topicDir: and is followed by the absolute path of the directory that you want NoteWell to use as the topic directory. You should also comment out or delete any other lines in the .notewell file that start with Notewell.topicDir:.

For example, to change the topic directory to /home/myid/doc/notes you would add the following line to the .notewell file in your home directory:

Notewell.topicDir: /home/myid/doc/notes

Notice that the above line starts with Notewell (with a lower-case 'w') and not NoteWell. The information in the .notewell file is case-sensitive, so this distinction is important.

To change the name and/or the directory of the NoteWell help topic file, add a line to your .notewell file that starts with Notewell.helpFile: and is followed by the absolute path of the file that you want NoteWell to use for its help topic. You should also comment out or delete any other lines in the .notewell file that start with Notewell.helpFile:.

For example, to change the topic file that NoteWell uses for its help topic to a file named General-NoteWell.Help in the directory /usr/doc/notewell you would add the following line to the .notewell file in your home directory:

Notewell.helpFile: /usr/doc/notewell/General-NoteWell.Help

Again, notice that the line starts with Notewell and not NoteWell. Also note that, unlike all of the other topic files, the help topic file does not have to be in NoteWell`s topic directory (though if it isn`t then it won`t appear in the Topics directory and so can only be accessed from the Help menu).

Other aspects of NoteWell can be configured as well. Some examples of how to configure the colours of various parts of NoteWell are shown in the sample configuration file notewell.config that is part of the NoteWell distribution; a complete discussion is beyond the scope of this document.

NoteWell Help File

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