Text Entry

Text is what you type at the keyboard when filling out a dialog or editing a String or the cells of a table in the Table Editor or scripts in the Text Editor. There are also other ways of entering Text such as clicking a point in an Image and having a colours component values automatically entered, or the coordinates of a Point. What you type, and how it will be interpreted is also important. Most of the time the Text is saved exactly as you entered it, it will be interpreted by the Parser when it is retreaved and used. But there are circumstances where a number is stored in these cases the Text is passed through the Parser first when you click OK, a Table with Numeric Cells is an example.

Copy and Paste
Your operating System will have a platform wide copy and paste system, the following will work along side this but will be totally indipendant of it. Most Editors and Windows in Czimps have various Command Buttons at the top, amongst these there is usually a place where you can type, I call this the Copy Text Field, though it is often used for other purposes too. If you click the Copy Command Button one line of, or field of, Text will be copied here. You can insert the Copy Text at the current text cursor position by pressing the Paste Command Button. If there is an Exp. Command Button, pressing it will cause the Copy Text to be passed through the Parser before it is inserted. Note if you want to insert a calculated result enclose the calculation in ${} in the Copy Field.

Insert Command Button
If you press this butten and choose one of the items from the Insert Menu text will be inserted at the current cursor position. Most items just insert everything in the items name upto the first space. You can also insert a whole text files contents or the path to a file. Depending on the circumstances additional items may be added to the Insert Manu. There is also the possibility to add a User Submenu which is contained in a Table. The Items and VTK Items submenus will list names and handles of items which exist or will be created.

Points and Colours
Putting the text cursor in a Colour Component Field, or the X or Y Field of a Point and then setting a Point in an Image Window will also set the whole Point or Colour. If you are setting a Point in this way and the Dialog expects more than one Point on consecutive lines there are two possibilities, if the text cursor is in a Y Field the corresponding Point will be filled, but if it is in an X Field the existing point that is nearist to the point clicked will be moved. This latter action is very useful with Constructs and Poly Curves etc.

Proxy Fields
If the text cursor is in a Field on a Dialog and you switch to an Image Window any entry in the Copy Field will be copied into the Dialogs Field also. This is useful when setting the Dialog controlling a Function that modifies an Image, e.g. the brightness of an Image can be adjusted and a preview shown by placing the text cursors in the Dialog Brightness and Window Copy Fields then moving the Slider on the Image Window.