JWPce Interface
This chapter describes JWPce's basic interface. Some of the later information here is advanced, and you may want to come back and review it again later.
Main Display
Below is a sample JWPce display from Windows XP. (There are slight differences in display for some of the versions; however, they are all basically similar.)
The main elements of the display are:
- title bar: Contains the program name, version, and the current file. If the separator between the program name and the file is a "*" the file has been changed. If the separator is a "-" than the file has not been changed since the file was saved.
- menu bar: Contains the menu system.
- toolbar: Contains buttons that activate some of the common features.
- edit window: Working space, where you can edit the file. This contain the contents of the current file.
- kanji-bar: Displays the possible kanji conversions for the kana you have entered.
- status-bar: Displays romaji for kana you are entering (ky in the figure), the current file type ([Shift-JIS]), the input mode (KANJI - this is a button; click it to change to ASCII, then JASCI), and the edit mode (this is also a button, toggling between Insert (INS) and Overtype (OVR) modes).
Note that many of the display elements can be controlled via the Options dialog box.
Related Topics
Single-Window Multi-Document
Most Windows programs are single document (they have a single document open in a single window at a time - an example is Notepad), or Multi-Document Interface (where each open file gets a separate child (inner) window - an example is Word). JWPce, uses a different approach; it opens a single window in which all open files are to be viewed. This is actually very similar to a MDI program where you always maximize the child window. One can imagine all open files as a stack of papers. The one you are working on is the file on top of the stack; it covers all of the lower papers, thus rendering other open files invisible.
The Single-Window Multi-Document (SWMD) approach was chosen for a number of reasons. First, MDI is not supported in the same way under Windows CE, and I wanted to make all versions of the program as similar as possible. Second, the SWMD interface is easier to program, responds faster, and requires less memory. Third, I always maximize the child windows anyway.
The only drawback to the SWMD interface is that the close control has to perform a double function. This control is used either to close the application (program) or simply to close the top file. By default JWPce closes the top file when you click the close control. You can change this in the General page of the Options dialog box (Utilities/Options... or Ctrl+O). Selecting Ctrl+close will always close the current file, and selecting Alt+close will always close the entire application.
Tip: You can always close the current file using the File/Close command, and close the program using the File/Exit command.Related Topics
Pointers and Alt+tap
JWPce operates under both Windows and Windows CE. Windows CE machines generally do not have a mouse, but rather use a pen as a pointing device. The term pointer refers to the pointing device on your system. The term click (or left click) also refers to tapping with the pen.
Pen machines do not have two mouse buttons. Thus in order to make a right click on a pen machine use the action Alt+tap. (Windows 95/98/NT/2000 machines can also use the Alt+left click to generate a right click.) Windows CE PPCs do not have a keyboard; pressing the Action button will have the same effect as a right click (generally to bring up a context dependent menu).
Context menus can also be brought up by holding down the left mouse button (or holding the pen on the display) for a short period of time. This is an interface convention from the PocketPC, but it has been included in all versions of JWPce.
Dialog Boxes
Most of the dialog boxes used in JWPce are non-modal (including Bushu Lookup, Character Information, Dictionary, Four-Corner Lookup, Index Lookup, JIS Table, Kanji Count, Radical Lookup, Reading Lookup, SKIP Lookup, User Conversion, and User Dictionary). A non-modal dialog box allows you to go back to the main window or another dialog box and continue working, and then come back to the dialog box again.
JWPce also contains a number of modal dialog boxes, that block the progress of the program until you respond to the dialog box (such as the Options, Search, Search and Replaced, Page Layout, etc.).
In Windows the non-modal dialog boxes have a minimize controls (the minimize control is not present in Windows CE versions). Clicking this control will minimize the dialog box and all child dialog boxes (such as a copy of the Character Information opened from within the Radical Lookup dialog). The minimized dialog box will drop to the bottom of the screen. Windows does not show any representation of the child dialog boxes on the screen. However, restoring the dialog box will also restore all the child dialog boxes.
Closing a non-modal dialog box will close all child dialog boxes.
The operation of the Insert to File feature present in many dialog boxes is slightly complicated with the non-modal dialog boxes. This feature is intended to copy information form a list to the current file. Generally, the current file is the last file or Japanese edit control that was active. (Remember JWPce considers any Japanese edit control to simply be a single line file. This means that you can do almost anything from an edit control that you can do from the main editor window.) The exception to this is that the current file will never be located in the same dialog box. An example of this is that the Insert to File feature will never insert text form the dictionary results into the Word to Lookup edit control.
Dynamic Dialog Boxes
JWPce has a number of dynamic dialog boxes (including Character Information, Dictionary, History, Kanji Count, User Conversion, and User Dictionary). In Windows, these dialog boxes have a thicker frame around them, as well as both maximize and minimize controls. In Windows CE these dialog boxes have a maximize control. The size of these dialog boxes can be adjusted by dragging the edges of the dialog box. When the size of the dialog box is increased, additional controls or information may be reveled (Character Information, and Dictionary). If you change the size of a dynamic dialog, JWPce will automatically remember the size and location of the dialog box and use the same values next time you open the dialog.
For Windows CE systems, you cannot drag the edges of the dialog boxes (this operation is not supported by Windows CE). You can, however toggle the dialog box between full screen mode and normal mode. For HPC systems, additional information will be shown when the dialog box is in full screen mode. PocketPC systems do support dynamic dialog boxes, but the gain is rather minimal since the normal dialog boxes use most of the screen space.
Help
JWPce has extensive online help. Virtually the entire contents of the manual can be accessed through the help system.Accessing Help
There are a number of different methods that can be used to access help. Selecting the command Help/Main Index..., will bring you the main help index. Pressing the F1 key from almost any location will also bring you to the help system. Further, if you are working within a dialog box, JWPce will automatically jump to help for the dialog box that you are in.
Clicking on the question icon (located in the upper right of the window) will also bring you to the help system. Like the F1 key, if you are working within a dialog box JWPce will automatically jump to help for the dialog box that you are in.
WARNING! When you click on the question icon in the Windows 95/98/NT/2000 systems the cursor changes to a question mark pointer. You can then click on an object you want help on. JWPce's help system, however, brings up help on the dialog box (or window), not on the actual control within a window.Navigating the Help
JWPce's help system is designed to be used in a number of different ways:
- Contents: Using the Contents button you can return to the contents and look for a topic as you would in a book, using the concept of chapters and sections. You will also notice that the help content is almost the same as the manual contents.
- Index: Using the Index tab on the help contents, you can look for a topic as you would in the index of a book.
- Related Topics: Once you find a topic, you can use the Related Topics section (located at the end of every help topic) to find related information. The Related Topics sections will always contain at least two entries, and can contain more. The first group of entries is actually related topics. The second group of entries is actually forward and backward jumps that can be used to read the help file as a book (these may be duplicates).
Below is a sample Related Topics section. This section contains four related topics, then the jumps backward and forward through the help file.
Related Topics
Dictionary
What you can Search for
Searching and Results
Dictionary Options
What you can Search for
Searching and Results
Windows CE and Help
JWPce implements help using Pocket Internet Explorer. Due to errors in how Pocket Internet Explorer works, some help features are not implemented the same way on Windows CE systems. First, because Pocket Internet Explorer does not support a full URL specification, help cannot always place you at the actual topic in question, but can only place you at the beginning of the chapter. Second, because of some format failings in the Pocket Internet Explorer, some information is not formatted as well as it should be. I assume these errors will be fixed in later versions.
Japanese Edit Controls
A Japanese edit control is similar to a conventional Windows edit control, which allows you to enter a line of text, numbers, or other such input. The major difference between the two types of edit controls is that a Japanese edit control allows you to enter Japanese text into the control, and a conventional Windows control will only accept English text.
Japanese edit controls can be spotted easily on most systems, because they are the height of the Japanese font, which is typically larger than your Windows system font.
Japanese edit controls are actually small files (just a single line) that you can edit. JWPce allows you to perform just about any action that can be done in the edit window within a Japanese edit control. For example, you can invoke the dictionary utility by pressing Ctrl+D, or by using the popup menu, just as in the main edit window.
Several Japanese edit controls have a history function (including Dictionary, Search, and Replace). This function keeps track of the last 30 or so things you have entered so you don’t have to enter them again. History information is stored in the user configuration file, and thus is preserved each time you start JWPce. (The number of past entries that are saved can be adjusted on the Advanced page of Options dialog. The history can be accessed in a number of different ways. Within the Japanese edit control, you can press the up and down arrows to move through the history. The up arrow takes you further and further back into the history. The down arrow takes you to more recent entries. Pressing the down arrow enough will take you to a blank line. Pressing down again will open the history dialog, which can also be open by clicking the small button next to the edit control.
Double clicking an entry in the history dialog will insert that entry into the edit control. You can also select and entry and press the OK button to insert text into the edit control.
JWPce automatically maximizes the number of entries in the history buffer. Partially, this is done by removing duplicate entries. For example, if you enter the same string in the dictionary twice, JWPce will only keep the most recent copy of the string. The space used by the older copy will be used to hold additional history information.
Japanese List Controls
A Japanese list control is similar to a conventional Windows list control, which displays a list of information, and allows you to select items in the list. The major difference between the two types of edit controls is that a Japanese list control allows display of text containing Japanese, and allows a number of enhancements that conventional Windows list controls do not allow.
Enhancements
The following facilities, not available in Windows list controls, are supported in JWPce Japanese list controls:
- Clipboard: Selected data in the list control can be copied to the clipboard using the commands Ctrl+Ins, Ctrl+C, or the popup menu (see below).
- Selecting: Items in the list control can be selected by dragging the mouse over them with the left button held down. If the Ctrl key is held down, the selected items will be added to any already selected items. If the shift key is held down, all items between the current item, and the pointer will be selected. The entire contents of the list can be selected by pressing Ctrl+Shift+A or selecting Select All from the context menu.
- Within line select: Normally entire items (lines) are selected at one time; however, a part of an item can be selected by dragging the pointer horizontally within a single list item.
- Character information: By performing a Shift+right click or pressing Ctrl+I (or an Alt+Shift+left click) you can get Character Information for the character under the pointer.
- Search within list: By pressing Ctrl+F, Ctrl+S, F8, or selecting Search… from the context menu, you can search for text within the list. You can also use Ctrl+N, F9, or select Find Next from the context menu to continue the search.
- Context Menu: Right clicking (Alt+left click), holding the left button down, or pressing the context menu button will generate a popup menu with a number of options. These options are discussed below.
Context Menu
The popup menu contained in a list control contains a number of very powerful features. In particular, these commands allow you to copy information from the list control to a number of different locations.
Generally the popup menu takes on one of the forms. The first form contains six menu items, and the second form contains seven items.
The commands in the menu have the following functions:
- Get Info... Gets Character Information for the character under the pointer.
- Copy Copies the currently selected data to the clipboard.
- Select All Select the entire contents of the list.
- Search… Search for text within the list.
- Find Next Find next matching item in the list IDH_EDIT_SEARCH
- Insert to File Inserts the currently selected data back into the file you were editing when you launched this dialog box. Remember, however, that a Japanese edit control is simply a very small file, so you can also insert back into a Japanese edit control using this command.
- Replaced to File This is just like the Insert to File (above), except that it replaces the selected text in the file, instead of simply adding new text.
- Insert to New File Inserts the text to a new file. This can be used to start generating a vocabulary list for a file you are reading (also see the Insert to ??? command, below). When this option is selected, a new file is generated and the selected text is inserted to that file. The current file you are editing will not change, so to see the new file you must change the current file.
- Insert to Any File... Generates a dialog box with the names of all open files, and allows you to chose a file in which to insert the selected text (also see the Insert to ??? command, below).
- Insert to ??? If you have used the Insert to New File or Insert to Any File... commands a new menu command will be added, allowing you to insert directly to the last file you inserted to.
Tip: When you are working with the dictionary, the Insert to New File can be used to start a vocabulary list in a new file, and the Insert to ??? command can be used to add to that vocabulary list.
Insert Options
When you insert from a list control into a file, the results depend on what is selected. If a single item is selected, the item is inserted into the file, pushing any other text in the file to the right.
When you select multiple items, JWPce can either insert the items by successively pushing the text further to the right, or each item can be inserted on a new line. This option is controlled by the Insert on new Lines check box on the Misc page of the Options dialog (Utilities/Options... or Ctrl+O).
Unfortunately, some items in a list can be too long to display in the list box, so JWPce has to break the item into more than one line (dictionary entries are, by default, always broken into two or more lines). When inserting multiple selected lines, JWPce will always connect selected lines that have been broken to fit in the list control.*
When using the commands Insert to New File, Insert to Any File..., and Insert to ???, JWPce processes the Insert on new Lines slightly differently. Normally, JWPce starts a new line after each item except the last one. (This allows JWPce to correctly insert a single item without inserting a new line.) With the above commands, however, JWPce always starts a new line after inserting the text to allow these commands to be used for building a vocabulary list.
* If you really work at it you can confuse JWPce's line reassemble algorithm.Related Topics
Edit-List Controls
An edit-list control is actually a collection of controls that are used both to display a list and to allow you to edit and/or rearrange the elements in the list. JWPce contains a number of these controls, for things such as user kana->kanji conversions, and user dictionary entries.
An edit-list contains all the features of a Japanese list control together with a number of extra buttons to manipulate the items in the list (see below).
Important concepts in working with edit-lists are an item and the current item. An item consists of one entry in the list. The actual item may extend over more than one line in the list box. In such a case, the second, third, fourth, etc. lines will be indented. The current item contains the currently selected line, which can be anywhere in the item. The currently selected line has a box around it when the list-box is active. Generally, this is the last location the pointer was clicked in or dragged to. Most edit-list operations only affect the current item, and not the items that are selected.
The following commands are available in most edit-lists:
Add Add a new item below the current item (Ins or double click after the end of the list). Edit Edit the current item (Space or double click the item to edit). Find Find an entry within the list. Delete Delete the current item (Del). Up Move the current item up one item (Ctrl+Up). Down Move the current item down one item (Ctrl+Down). Import Import an entire file into the list. This can be used, for example, to merge your friend's user dictionary with your own user dictionary. In most cases you can import a file by dragging the file onto the dialog box. Sort Sort the list in kana order. Insert to File Insert selected text into a file. Related Topics
Choose Color Dialog Box (Windows CE)
Windows CE does not contain a standard color selection dialog box, thus JWPce includes a custom color selection box. This dialog box can be used to set the color used for Color Kanji, or the highlight color.
The dialog box contains 36 Predefined Colors, as well as Red, Green, and Blue controls for specifying custom colors. When you select a predefined color, the Red, Green, and Blue edit boxes will be set to the values for that color, so you can use the Predefined Colors as a basis for custom colors. (he range on the color selection boxes is 0 to 255.)
Related Topics
Next Chapter: Entering Text