• Adding Fieldsand Text
• Rich Text Editor
• Using Memo and Rich Text Memo Fields
• Working with Conditional Rich Text Fields
• Working with Rich Text Fields
• Working with Rich Text Objects
• Working with RTF Data

Rich Text Editor

Description

The Alpha Anywhere Rich Text Editor gives you many word-processing capabilities. You can select a variety of fonts, styles, and sizes, align paragraphs of text, insert page breaks, and find and replace words and phrases.

Fields and_Conditional_Paragraphs>Text, Fields, and Conditional Paragraphs

Most of the design work takes place in one or more Rich Text Objects. When you first create a Letter, Alpha Anywhere automatically places a Rich Text Object in the Letter Body region. Within this region you can type in text, insert fields, and place conditional commands to include or exclude conditional-paragraphs. If you wish to add Rich Text Objects to any of the optional regions, you can use the Rich Text Tool on the Toolbox. To do this, click the Rich Text Tool button , and then click and drag the cursor over the area on which you want to insert the object. When you release the mouse button the object is created.

• Rich Text Tool button

  

Creating Rich Text in the Rich Text Editor

The Rich Text Editor is used to create and edit Rich Text in both Rich Text Objects and Rich Text Fields. The Rich Text editor is a word processor, and is automatically activated when you are in a Rich Text Field, or when you double-click a Rich Text Object while editing a layout. When the editor is active, the Text menu appears at the top of the Alpha Anywhere window, and you have access to the Rich Text toolbars. Like other word processors designed for Windows, you can cut, copy, and paste text using the Edit menu. You can align paragraphs to the left or right margin, or center them between the margins. The following subsections show you how to move around in the editor by using the keyboard, align paragraphs, set the font, size, and other text attributes, and search and replace words and phrases within the text.

Navigational Keys

The Rich Text Editor supports the standard navigational keys, found in most word processors. A list of these keys is provided below:

• CTRL RIGHT

  Moves forward one word.

• CTRL LEFT

  Moves backward one word.

• HOME

  Moves to the beginning of a line.

• END

  Moves to the end of a line.

• CTRL HOME

  Moves to the beginning of all text.

• CTRL END

  Moves to the end of all text.

Activating the Rich Text Editor

The Rich Text Editor is activated when you are in a Rich Text Field, or when you double-click a Rich Text Object while editing a layout. When the editor is active, the Text menu appears in the Alpha Anywhere menu bar. When the Rich Text Editor is activated, the Text Toolbar appears that lets you choose the size, font, alignment, and color of the text.

Alternatively, you can create and format Letter text in other word processors. You can copy the text to the clipboard and paste it in the Rich Text Object, or save the text as a Rich Text Format document, and import it into Alpha Anywhere.

Typing Text and Inserting Fields and Calculations

To add text to the object, simply type in the text you want to include. You can add fields to the text by dragging them from the Drag-and-Drop List and dropping them into the object. To insert calculations, you can use the RTF Insert Command toolbar (displayed by clicking the Insert... button on the Text Toolbar ) or select Text > Insert > Expression. When the Expression dialog box appears, type the expression in the Expression box, or click the Expression button to create the expression in the Expression Builder. RTF Insert Command Toolbar

Inserting Conditional Paragraphs

You can enter conditional commands to either include or exclude blocks of text depending on the underlying data. This enables you to create one Letter layout that can print multiple variations of the same Letter. For example, if you send out collection notices to people who are slow in paying their bills, you can change the tone of the letter based on how much time has elapsed since they paid. If the last payment was within 60 days, the phrasing would be polite; if more than 60 days, you could threaten to turn their account over to a collection agency. To add conditional command, from the Text menu, click the If, Else, Elseif, or Endif buttons on the RTF Insert Command toolbar. When the Expression dialog box appears, enter the logical (TRUE/FALSE) condition under which the command occurs.

You can click the 'xy' button to create the expression in the Expression Builder.