For those who don't want to wade thru the full PCCON Paragraph Formatter document and just want to quickly see how to use the main PCCON facilities immediately, this is the place to be. The following describes setting up five keys (arbitrarily chosen) to invoke the most useful PCCON facilities. Not all five definitions are required. Of course these definitions could use different keys than those listed below. Their use here just makes things easier to describe.
Here are some important terms used with PCCON:
Actually you don't have to calculate or know the actual values of these two paragraph shape characteristics, inset and hanging indent. With PCCON you just manually shift the first two lines of an initial paragraph to be as you want that formatted paragraph to eventually appear, then click the appropriate key to invoke "PCCON (USESHAPE". PCCON does the calculations and then formats the paragraph, while also recording the hanging indent and inset values to be used to format other paragraphs. It's very WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get"); there is no need for you to calculate or be aware of the numbers used; PCCON does it for you. In fact, because of the built-in defaults, most of the time you do not even have to do the manual adjustment of some initial paragraph; C-F1, C-F2, and C-F3 just automatically do the formatting you would expect using the defaults of inset = 0 and hanging indent = 3.
If you were to chose to set up only two of the key definitions below, the best might be the definitions assigned here to C-F1 and C-F5. If you want to use a list item paragraph shape other than the default (hanging indent = 3 and paragraph inset = 0), then C-F2 and C-F3 definitions require the "PCCON (USESHAPE" defined in C-F5 to set up non-default values.
| Key | Macro Invocation | Result of Formatting |
|---|---|---|
| These five PCCON invocations are used most frequently. | ||
| C-F1 | PCCON (INSET 0 HANGIND 0 | Ordinary paragraph, left edge in column 1 |
| C-F2 | PCCON | List item paragraph (normally has a hanging indent) |
| C-F3 | PCCON (INSET CP HANGIND 0 | Continuation paragraph (aligned with indented text) |
| C-F5 | PCCON (USESHAPE | Save paragraph shape (per lines 1 and 2), then format |
| C-F4 | PCCON (CHGMARGIN | Change the right margin per the cursor |
For the most usual cases, the text ("paragraph") to be formatted must be delimited by
blank lines and must not contain blank lines. Put the cursor anywhere in the paragraph
and press the appropriate key to get the desired formatting of that paragraph.
C-F1 formats the paragraph to use a left margin of column 1 and a right margin as KEDIT
currently has it (margin.2). The initial text can be scattered all over the place.
PCCON neatens it up within the margins.
C-F5 requires the first non-blank character in line 1 and the first non-blank character
in line 2 to be inset from column 1 as you want the formatted paragraph to appear.
The remaining text in lines 1, 2, and lines thereafter can be scattered. (However
the "overhang" text arrangement in line 1 is preserved.) The paragraph is then
neatly formatted with the desired inset and hanging indent. Moreover these inset
and hanging indent values are recorded so they can be used with later C-F2 and C-F3
formatting. This is the "shape" of the paragraph (and of its "family").
C-F2 formats the specified paragraph with the hanging indent and inset saved from the
last-issued C-F5. (Defaults: Hanging indent = 3 and paragraph inset = 0.)
C-F3 formats the paragraph with no hanging indent but inset appropriately to align under
a list item paragraph formatted with C-F2. (Default: Inset = 0.)
C-F4 lets you use the cursor to designate the desired right margin and then updates
KEDIT's margin.2 to that value.
This is a continuation paragraph for the above "C-F4" list item paragraph. It has a
hanging indent value of 0 and an inset appropriate to align it with the bulk (lines
2 and following) of the list item paragraph.
In the text in this example block, the top paragraph and this paragraph were both
formatted with C-F1. (Assume column 1 is the leftmost block column that contains text.)
Then C-F5 was used to format the "C-F1" list item paragraph, recording the shape (hanging
indent and inset) of that paragraph in the process. Then C-F2 was used to format the
"C-F5", "C-F2", "C-F3",and "C-F4" list item paragraphs. Those formats used the inset
value (0) and hanging-indent value (5) saved when C-F5 formatted the "C-F1" paragraph.
Finally, C-F3 was used to format the continuation paragraph to align neatly under the
"C-F4" list item paragraph.
Copy the lines below into a text file; edit the file with KEDIT; define the keys; experiment.
Example 1: Just try
it with C-F5. It works even
to format a peculiar (far offset, long overhang)
scattered about paragraph like this
one.
Then use C-F3 to format a continuation paragraph
under the list item paragraph.
Example 2: Then use C-F2 to format another
list item paragraph, using the shape values saved by C-F5.
By using the specified keys to format the above, you should get a result looking like this:
Example 1: Just try it with C-F5. It works even to format a
peculiar (far offset, long overhang) scattered
about paragraph like this one.
Then use C-F3 to format a continuation paragraph
under the list item paragraph.
Example 2: Then use C-F2 to format another list item
paragraph, using the shape values saved by C-F5.
If you want to explore further, the PCCON Paragraph Formatter document provides much more detail, some good diagrams, many examples, and some helpful usage tips. It also describes a number of additional useful facilities, e.g., putting the cursor in the prefix area to avoid formatting the lines above the cursor line.
HOME