Chapter 5
Text Tool
Overview
This chapter introduces the Text Tool and its abilities. The Text Tool is useful for distributing information, such as error messages and memos, to a collection of people. For this purpose, the tool incorporates several convenient features. The Text Tool has been internationalized, and now supports non-English message catalogs and character sets. See the Communique! Administrator’s Guide for details.
This chapter describes how to
- send a message
- send a file
- receive a message or file
- save and print from the Text Tool
To Send a Message
Type in the Text Tool
After clicking the Text Tool button in the Conference Manager, the Text Tool appears with a cursor in the upper left corner of the text area. This cursor marks the insertion point where the text you type appears.
The Text Tool may contain text from previous messages. Choose New from the File menu to start with a fresh, empty text area.
1. Click in the text area of the tool.
2. Type the text of your message.
The message should appear in the text area of the tool. If it does not, you may not have selected the window for input. Click in the text area and type the message again.
3. Choose Send from the File menu to distribute your message to conference members.
To Send a File
Loading files in the Text Tool
As with sending messages, to distribute text files you will first need to activate the Text Tool if it is not already active.
1. Click the Text Tool button in the Conference Manager.
If it is already open, merely click in the tool’s window to make it active.
2. Bring up the file selector by choosing Open from the File menu.
If you are unfamiliar with the window manager’s file selector, please look at Chapter 17, "File Selection," for a brief introduction.
3. Use the file selector to open the file you wish to load.
Once you’ve selected a file, Communique! will tell you that loading the file will overwrite anything currently written in the Text Tool and prompt you for approval. Go ahead and click the OK button.
The text file you have chosen will load and appear in the tool.
4. Choose Send from the File menu to send the file to conference members.
Placing files within the Text Tool
On occasion you may wish to load a file into the Text Tool without overwriting text already present in the tool. Use the Include command from the File menu instead of Open.
1. Type or load any text for your message in the Text Tool while actively in a conference.
If you are just appending a file, you may wish to add one or two carriage returns—or other separating white space—between the first part of your message and what you will be appending.
Otherwise, place your insertion point at the appropriate point in your text.
2. Bring up the file requestor by choosing Include from the File menu.
3. Choose the file you wish to include in your message.
The chosen text will appear immediately after your insertion point in the text area of the Text Tool.
4. Choose send from the file menu to send the file to conference members.
Receive a Message or File
The Text Tool Viewer
Anytime a fellow conference member sends a message with the text tool, you will receive a copy. A window appears showing the distributed text. This window is the Text Tool Viewer and its title bar will indicate the originator of the message.
The Text Tool Viewer closely resembles the Text Tool itself, except text in the viewer cannot be changed. You still have the ability to print and save the text.
Save and Print a file
Save information from the Text Tool
Any file you create or receive with the Text Tool can be saved to disk using the Save As command from the File menu.
1. With the text you wish to save appearing in the text area, choose Save As from the File menu.
The file selector will appear.
2. Enter a file path and name for the text you want to save.
3. Click OK.
The text will be saved as a file with the name and at the location specified.
Print from the Text Tool
Files can also be printed from either the Text Tool or a Text Tool Viewer.
With the text appearing in the text area, choose Print from the File menu. The text will be sent to the default printer defined for the conference member account.
If you are using lp as your printer command, you will need to add the -c option to copy the temporary file to the print spool rather than linking to it.