FrEdWriter Tips 1
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TIPS ON USING FREDWRITER
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GENERAL TIPS
o Think of the FrEd disk as two separate programs:
- MAIN MENU at boot: although other items bring you
back to the main menu when done, once you go into
Fred, you have to uit Fred (reboot) to get back
to this menu.
- FRED: Once you go into FrEd, all of FrEd is in
memory. The computer is FrEd until you reboot.
o CONTROL RESET will take you to main (editing) screen, if
you get stuck or hung up somewhere in FrEd.
o Try it, if you're not sure you can do it!
o Sometimes Fred boots to 80 columns, even when you choose
40 columns. This happens if you press ANY OTHER KEY after
you press the 4. This is because FrEd looks for the LAST
KEY PRESSED while it is loading. If the LAST KEY PRESSED
is not 4, it comes up in 80 columns. Reboot.
o Use copies of Fred without documentation and have students
save right onto it.
o To understand the PRINT MENU more clearly, pressing RETURN
will do whatever item is highlighted. ESC will take you
out of print menu.
o You must enter a name when formatting a disk. If you
don't give it a name, the program continues as if it is
being formatted. But in fact it will not be. If this
happens, reformat it with a name (such as: BLANK) to make
it useable.
o When first using copies of Fred with students, you may
find a disk won't boot. Recopying Fred solves it, unless
the disk is bad.
o Think of spaces and returns as characters: they can be
inserted or deleted as needed.
o Use the SET TIME & DATE option on opening menu. This
makes it easier to verify when files were saved, for
current or older work.
o You can move up to 256 characters at a time. When you
reach the limit, it will not let you take in more.
o Sometimes, in the middle of a paragraph, a sentence
beginning on the left edge of the screen will display with
a space that you can't remove. It's only a quirk in FrEd's
screen display. It will print correctly.
(c) D.Beck 2/86
FrEdWriter Tips 2
SAVING and LOADING FILES TIPS
o When you type in a filename to save or load, you can type
over another name already there. Any letters at or after
the cursor will be chopped. You do not need to remove
letters under or after the cursor. (In fact, you will
notice that DELETE will not remove them.)
o Acceptable filenames in ProDOS:
- Up to 15 characters long
- Must begin with a letter
- After first character: letters, numbers, periods
- NO SPACES
o Sometimes FrEd may refuse to save or load without giving a
PRODOS ERROR message. For some "unacceptable filenames"
(symbols, commas, etc), FrEd knows they are invalid and
won't continue with the save or load. So, always watch
for the red light on the drive to see that FrEd does save
or load.
o Review saving files: students seem to get confused easily
with: (1) valid names (no spaces, too long, etc.). (2)
typing over old names (delete won't delete, just moves
cursor to left.) (3) think they've saved when they
haven't -- explain "bad pathname" remark AND remind them
to always watch for the red light on the drive to go on.
o If you end up in SAVE or LOAD, and you don't wish to save
or load, move cursor as far left as you can and press
return to get back to the editing screen.
o Type = at the
ave prompt if you want to save under
the name already showing.
o aving with the same name will save the file in memory
over the file on the disk. It will ask if you really want
to do this the first time in a session you do it.
o Save your work every once in a while, every 10-15 min for
long periods of work.
o Make back-up copies of files that are important.
o Loading in a file only loads a COPY of what's on disk.
Saving a file only saves a COPY of memory to the disk.
o Before loading in a new file, remember to clear memory
with and without thinking try to
"load" a file at the Save prompt. The blank memory is
then saved over their file.
-When loading in another file, remind students to clear
memory with