The features and controls in [[b WikiWriter]] are simple and direct. Here's the quick run-down (see the [[b Tutorial]] for details).
=== Menu Structure
==== Viewing
* Project
** Open Existing
** Create New
** Quit
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* Tools
** Compile to eBook
** Webify Entire Project
** Webify This Page Only
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* Search
** Find
** Results
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* Index
** Build Index
** View Index
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* Help
** User Guide
** About
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* Edit Page
* Home
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==== Editing
* Save
* Preview
* Cancel Edits
* Dropdown Lists
** DIV Styles
** SPAN Styles
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==== Previewing
** Edit Page
** Cancel Edits
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=== Project > Open Existing
[[b WikiWriter]] comes with some projects already built and ready to run. That's just our way of showing the system works! To view the projects, select the [[b Project > Open Existing]], browse to a project directory, and select the [[b Home.db]] file for that directory.
=== Project > Create New
To create a new project, select the [[b Project > Create New]]. The system will guide you through the process of creating a project directory, then will automatically create the required startup files in that directory. The new project directory will be a sub-directory of the [[b current]] project, so make sure you are where you want to be, before creating a new project. You can move a project directory to another location later if you wish.
=== Project > Quit
The [[b Quit]] menu option does what you would expect.
=== Tools > Compile to eBook
(WikiWriter version 3 and above...)
=== Tools > Webify Entire Project
To generate a set of HTML files viewable by any browser in a Web, intranet, CDROM, or other HTML-based presentation, select [[b Webify Entire Project]]. WikiWriter will read all the WikiWriter files in the project, adjust the links from wiki-style to HTML, and save each page as an HTML file. A set of HTML files can be converted to ebook or Windows Help format, or Zipped and distributed as-is.
=== Tools > Webify This Page Only
To create a single HTML page (for instance, to update just a single page in a webified project), select [[b Tools]], then [[b Webify this Page Only]]. The page will be converted to HTML and placed in the project folder.
=== Search > Find
Start a search by selecting [[b Search]], then [[b Find]]. Enter search words separated by spaces into the edit box, and click [[b Search]] to scan the current project for the target words. The search algorithm looks for each word in the list, in sequence, to determine if the page will listed in the [[b Results]] list. When it finds the first word in a paragraph, [[b WikiWriter]] looks for the second word. If it finds all the words in the list in the same paragraph, the page gets added to the [[b Results]] list. To search for an exact phrase, put the "phrase in quotes", as I just did here.
=== Search > Results
The [[b Results]] option shows the results of a search in a link list. Click on [[b Results]] to see the list, and click on a link on the list to go to that page. To check out the other pages on the list, click the [[b Results]] option again.
=== Index > Build Index
To create or update an index page, select [[b Index > Build Index]]. The program will scan all the pages in the current project, extract index entries, and assemble and format the entries on a page saved with the name [[b wwidx]].
=== Index > View Index
Once an index has been built, it can be viewed by selecting [[b Index > View Index]].
=== Help > User Guide
The [[b Help]] option [[b User Guide]] calls up the compiled version of this very file you are reading right now.
The Help and Tutorial files are embedded into [[b WikiWriter]], so they are accessible anywhere you place wwrite.exe. You can always view look at the [[b Help]] project files with [[b WikiWriter]] directly, if you wish — it's in the [[b Help]] directory in the [[b WikiWriter]] installation.
=== Help > About
[[b Help > About]] shows the version number, copyright notice, and support access information.
=== Edit Page
The [[b Edit Page]] button places the source file for the page in the editor.
=== Home
The [[b Home]] button takes you to the Home page of the project you are viewing.
=== Editing Functions
While editing a page, you have additional edit-related functions available in the menu bar:
* [[b Edit]] — The [[b Edit]] menu item becomes available, with the usual Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste functions (also available through a right-mouse-click in the editing window).
* [[b Save]] — Saves your edited file as the source for the page, and saves the previous version into the page's [[b .bak]] file, just in case you change your mind later on.
* [[b Preview]] — Shows how the page will look with the current changes, without committing the changes to the source file. Scroll down to see the Preview display.
* [[b Cancel Edits]] — Bails you out of the editing session without saving the changes. Jumping to another page without first using [[b Save]] will also cancel editing changes.
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=== Dropdown Lists
While you are editing, the [[b DIV Styles]] and [[b SPAN Styles]] dropdown lists show the names and brief descriptions of classes in the Cascading Style Sheet. [[b DIV Styles]] shows styles to use for blocks of content like menus, boxed chunks of text, and other page-layout elements. [[b SPAN Styles]] apply to inline elements, like bolded or italicized text.
To use the lists to insert style markup, first select text (words, letters, or phrases for SPAN, whole paragraphs for DIV) or just place your cursor as the target in the text. Then click on the list to open it (selected text in the editor lose its highlight but will still be selected), scroll to view the contents of the list, and click on the style you want to insert. Then click on [[b Do]] to the right of your selected style. See ((Markup Syntax)) for instructions on applying styles by direct entry in [[b WikiWriter]] pages.
=== While Previewing
The [[b Edit Page]] and [[b Cancel Edits]] buttons are active during Preview.
=== Project Address Line
In the status line at the bottom of the window, you see a [[b Project:....]] line showing the full path and filename of the page currently displayed in [[b WikiWriter]]. It helps to know you are editing the right project.
