# Chapter 2

# Getting Started With BeatWare Writer

This chapter discusses the system requirements for running BeatWare Writer, how to install the application on your system, and how to begin creating customized documents quickly.

## Hardware and Software Requirements

To run BeatWare Writer you'll need the following hardware and software:

- BeOS Release 4 or better, running on a PowerPC or Intel Pentium Processor
- A minimum of 16MB of RAM (32MB recommended) and 2MB of free disk space
- A mouse with one, two, or three buttons. (Keyboard shortcuts for simulating a two- or three-button mouse appear in the BeOS User's Guide.)
- A 256-color display

## The Writer Interface

BeatWare Writer's innovative new interface provides you with the option of having the tools you use regularly at your finger tips.

### Toolbar

The toolbar in Writer puts those actions you perform most often a single mouse click away. Unlike most other applications though, Writer defines multiple toolbars that you can choose from depending on what stage in the document creation process you are. You can even create your own custom toolbar or toolbars to suit your particular needs. Of course, the ubiquitous menus are also available for those less frequent actions.

By default, Writer uses the predefined Word Processor toolbar. This toolbar, which is itself customizable, puts the most common word processing actions just one click away.

In addition, Writer provides a pre-defined Page Layout toolbar for fine tuning the look and layout of your document. You can select any of the pre-defined toolbars as well as access the toolbar definition panel from the Toolbar menu.

You have the option of positioning the tool bar vertically along the left hand side of the window. Simply grab the blue handle on the bottom right of the toolbar and drag it to the lower left of the window. Similarly, you can remove the toolbar from the window entirely, causing it to create its own separate window. To do this, drag the toolbar off the Writer window while holding down the CTRL key. Closing the floating toolbar window will return it to its original position along the top of Writer's window.

For those of you who prefer one-click icon shortcuts, you can customize the interface to display only those icons which you use on a regular basis. We have setup two common configurations for you, one with the most common text editing tools, the other with commonly used page layout commands. The preset interface configurations and the customization panel are accessed from the Toolbar menu.

Warning: This is, as yet, an unsupported feature of Writer. Please use caution when changing the toolbar configuration.

### Ruler Bar

Writer's Ruler Bar provides you with a convenient, visual way to set margins, indentations, tabs and frame size. Each of these are indicated by varying colored markers that can be moved along the ruler to change the position of the text. For more detail, see the section entitled Positioning Text.

### Frames

Writer is a frame-based word processor, meaning that all text and images reside in frames which can be easily added, deleted, resized and moved. It's helpful to think of a frame as a container which holds text, images or additional frames. Frames are indicated by a light blue line when inactive and by a red line when active. The small blue boxes at each corner and in the middle of each side of the frame are handles used for moving and resizing the frame.

Frames may be locked to prevent unwanted changes from occurring to your layout while you edit the text of your document. To invoke the lock, select View.Lock Layout from the menu. Locked frames will appear in grey and will not have the light blue handles visible on unlocked frames.

## Opening a File in Writer

BeatWare Writer saves your documents in its own, proprietary file format. To open a new Writer file, double-click on the application icon. You can begin typing in the new file window that appears.

To open an existing Writer file, double-click on it. If you're already in Writer, you can open a file by selecting File.Open from the window menu. In the file selection dialog that appears, select file and press Open.

Writer also provides basic support for the plain text (ASCII), RTF, HTML and UTF8 Unicode file formats. To open a file in one of these file formats, select File.Open from the window menu and select the appropriate file type from the pop-up menu at the bottom of the dialog box. Please note that this support is not fully developed. Non-Writer files containing images will not open successfully.

Text files with the file extension .txt, graphics in the BPicture format and images in the file formats GIF, TIFF, TARGA and JPEG, can be dragged into any open Writer file.