Mike McBride tutorial This section is a step by step walk through of the most important functions needed to understand how to create and manipulate a complex document. This tutorial will generate the start of a newsletter as an example document. It is recommend that you go through the tutorial in order at least once if you are new to frame based word processors. The steps to this tutorial are numbered from 1 to 23. Beneath each step, is text in italics which further elaborates or explains the changes. When you first start &kword; (or start a new document after &kword; is running), &kword; asks for a document template. Screen shot Here you can either: Select the initial template for your new document. Open a &kword; document saved to your hard drive or network. Step 1: Click on Page Layout. Screen shot This will list the Page Layout templates available on your system. For information on the differences between Page Layout and Text Oriented templates, see the section entitled The difference between Text Oriented and Page Layout templates. Step 2: Now select the Simple Layout icon by clicking once with the left button of your mouse. Screen shot This is the template we will use for the tutorial. Step 3: Now confirm your selection by clicking on Use This Template. Screen shot To complete your selection. &kword; will open a new document with three frames. The frames are outlined on the white background, as gray boxes. Each box is a separate frame. To begin entering text (or adding any sort of data for that matter) into a document, its important to let &kword; know which frame to put the data in. In order to keep both editing and formatting of your document efficient and simple, the command executed with a mouse click changes depending on where in the &kword; window the pointer is located. When the pointer is located over toolbars, scrollbars, menu buttons or other areas outside the document, the pointer is an arrow. You should already be familiar with this type of pointer when using other &kde; programs. When inside the document, there are two separate pointers which alternate automatically based on how close to a frame edge the pointer is currently located. When the mouse pointer is near the edge of a frame, the pointer will change into two intersecting lines with arrows on all four points. Clicking the left mouse button now will select the nearest frame. As you move the pointer away from the edge of the frame, the pointer will change into the text entry pointer. Clicking the left mouse button at this time will tell &kword; to insert text into this frame. Step 4: Place the mouse pointer over the upper-left frame. Make sure you do not see the frame select pointer Step 5: Click once with the left mouse button. Screen shot This tells &kword; to insert text into this frame. Click in the upper left corner of the frame to position the cursor in the upper left corner of the frame. Step 6: Enter the following text using the keyboard: KWord Press Release. This is some sample text for our newsletter. Step 7: Select KWord Press Release by placing the mouse cursor on the right end of the text. Click once with the &LMB; and drag the mouse cursor to the left. Selected text will be white text on a colored background. When all the text has been selected, release the &LMB;. Screen shot This defines what text is going to be altered with Step 8. Step 8: Click inside the Text Size combo box. Change this number to 26. Screen shot This changes the size of the selected text to one more appropriate for a title. Now that we have entered some text, we can see that the frame should extend across the entire width of the page for a title. We need to change the size and shape of the frame. Step 9: Place the mouse pointer over the frame border (you will notice the cursor changes to two intersecting lines with arrows), and click once with the &LMB;. This will select this frame, so it can be re-shaped. You will now notice the frame is outlined in black, with 8 squares on the outline. These squares are used for re-sizing the frame. Step 10: Place the mouse pointer over the square in the lower right corner of the frame. Click with the &LMB; and hold it down. Drag the mouse up and to the right. Screen shot Notice how the frame changes shape. Adjust the size and shape of the frame until it looks similar to the example below: Screen shot When it does, release the mouse button. Now that we have created a title block, we will center it at the top of the page. Step 11: Place the mouse pointer over the border of the frame (but not on any of the squares). The pointer will now change to a 4 way arrow. This indicates &kword; is ready to move the frame on the page. Step 12: Click and hold with the &LMB;. Drag the mouse, and the frame will follow it. Position the frame in the center of the page near the top. When you are satisfied with its final location, release the mouse button. Screen shot Notice how the right side of the title block has slid behind the empty frame on the right. This is easily corrected. Step 13: Select FramesBring to Front. Screen shot This will place the title on top of the other frame. You can raise and lower frames to give you the look you need. Now we will add a new text frame to our document for our first article. Step 14: Begin by selecting InsertText Frame from the menubar. Screen shot The pointer has changed to cross-hairs. You can draw your new text box with this cursor. Start by placing the pointer at one corner. Click and hold the left mouse button. Drag the mouse diagonally. An outline will appear which represents your new text frame. When you have a text frame of reasonable size, release the left mouse button. Screen shot It is not important if your text box does not resemble the example for the purposes of this tutorial. When you release the left mouse button, a new dialog box appears. This dialog box lists all the current frame sets and has a radio button to create a new frame set (default value). By selecting the default value, you will create a new frame set (text will not flow from any other frame into this frame). Notice that the default name for this frameset is Text Frameset 3 Step 15: For the purposes of this tutorial, the default value of Create a new frameset is good. Simply select OK. Screen shot Now you can see your new frame has been created. It is called Text Frameset 3 Now we are going to create another small frame right next to this one. Step 16: Select InsertText Frame. Screen shot Again using the crosshair pointer, draw another small frame near the first one. Screen shot A dialog box will appear. Step 17: Select Text Frameset 3 by clicking with the &LMB;. Screen shot Step 18: Select OK. Screen shot What you have just done, is connect this new textframe, to the last frame you created. To test this: Step 19: Click once inside the leftmost frame with the &LMB;. Screen shot Step 20: Begin typing. You will need to type quite a bit, but keep typing. When you run out of space in the text frame, you will see your new text is moved immediately into your new text frame. Screen shot Now we will delete an unneeded frame. We will delete the long text frame on the right side of the page. Step 21: Place the mouse pointer over the frame border of the right hand text frame (Remember: watch for the pointer to change), and click with the &LMB;. Screen shot This selects the frame. Step 22: Select FramesDelete Frame. Screen shot A small dialog box appears, checking that you really intended to delete this frame. Step 23: Select Delete. This deletes the frame. Hopefully this tutorial has introduced you to the most basic tasks in &kword;. At this point, you have : Started a new document using a template Added text to a frame. Resized text. Created, moved, resized and deleted frames. The purpose of this tutorial was not to explore every aspect of &kword;, but to introduce you to the bare essentials. Hopefully you understand the basic manipulation of frames. From this point, you can refer to the specific sections of the manual for help, tips and advanced features of &kword;.