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Explain Font selection.

    The font used to display text in Thinker is not always a property of the text. There is a default font associated with the Window. This allows some of us to enlarge the font for our older eyes without having to read in and select the entire file.

    The default display font is set on a window by window basis when the cursor is NOT in a statement (clicking the cursor in the blank display box on the upper right of the window removes the cursor from the document. I call this the kitty box because putting the cursor there protects your file from the creative cat walking on your keyboard). After clicking in the kitty box, font selections alter the appearance of the display and print output. Save Options will capture this default setting.

    If you want some text to be in a particular font or size, select the text and set the font and size. This text will always be displayed and printed with this font selection regardless of the default setting. The font of newly typed text is determined by the font and style settings made after the cursor is placed in the text. When the cursor is placed in the text, the font and style is set to the character to the left of the cursor until you change it using the menus.

    How then do you return text to a font that floats with the default?

      Set the font of the entire statement (by sweep selecting all the text in a statement) to the same font and size of the default. This frees the text in the statement from any selected fonts and makes the display float.

    How then do I set the font of text explicitly to the same value as the default as might be required for HTML (to cause an ADDRESS tag)?

      You must make sure that the default font is different from the one you want to set the text to and then set the text to the correct font. For ADDRESS and PRE tags the entire statement including any label must be set to the correct font.

Explain Statement formats

    Each statement carries formatting properties with it. In fancier word processors the properties are represented by a name and the properties described by the name can be changed using a property editor. Thinker statements carry the properties directly. There are some accelerators (explained under the Edit menu) that allow you to change the properties of groups of statements in a single selection.

    As with fonts, there is a default set of properties that are applied to some new statements. These properties are edited by using the Statement Format menu option (under the Styles menu) with the cursor in the kitty box.

    The format properties of new statements are set by one of two rules:

      If the statement is inserted (or imported) at the same level as the target statement, the new statement takes the properties of the target.

      If the statement is inserted at a level above or below the target statement, the new statement takes the default properities.

Why can't a text selection cross statement boundaries?

    The paradigm of text is not linear but of a network of connected nodes. Nodes that appear sequentially on the screen may not even be in the same file (using See Thru links).

    If you want to select whole branches for inclusion in another document, use the Export to Clipboard option.

Is it normal for Thinker to exit when the last window is closed?

    Yes. Thinker was developed on the Amiga platform many years ago. On that platform it is standard to exit when the last window is closed. In order to keep the source of the two versions in sync, this will probably not be changed in the Mac version for some time. Thinker is a small program and loads quickly.