Commands

PipeDream can perform a number of operations called commands. Commands enable you to move around within your PipeDream windows and edit your data. They can be given by means of menus or directly from the keyboard.

Menus

Bring up the PipeDream main menu by clicking Menu (the centre mouse button). The pointer must be within the PipeDream window when you do this.

The PipeDream main menu is a list of the menus available in PipeDream.

As you will see, each of the items on the PipeDream main menu has an arrow to the right. This means that each item has its own menu.

To choose the Edit menu, for example, move the pointer onto the Edit option, then slide it over the arrow on the right. The Edit menu will appear.

The Edit menu, like the other PipeDream menus, is a list of commands.

If you don't want to use the Edit menu, simply move the pointer back onto the main menu. The Edit menu disappears and you can make another choice from the main menu. If you want to get rid of the main menu, click Select anywhere outside the menu or press Esc. The main menu will disappear.

Click Menu again to bring up the PipeDream main menu. Move the pointer onto the Blocks option and slide it over the arrow on the right to bring up the Blocks menu. You will see that many commands on the Blocks menu have an arrow after their name. This means that you need to move the pointer over the arrow to see something else before you can carry out the command. This will usually be a dialogue box, although it may be a window providing information.

Move the pointer onto the Search command, for example, then slide it over the arrow immediately to the right. The Search dialogue box will appear.

Dialogue Boxes

A dialogue box is a window used to specify information before carrying out a command. Some dialogue boxes contain boxes where you type in information. In the Search dialogue box, for example, there is a box where you can type in the word for which you want to search. For the moment, simply move the pointer back onto the Blocks menu. The Search dialogue box will disappear.

Some dialogue boxes list options from which you make a selection. Move the pointer onto the Save command on the Files menu, then move it over the arrow. You will see the Save dialogue box.

Move the pointer onto the Save only marked block option and click Select.

You will see an 'on' indicator appear in the box next to the option. This means that the option has been turned on. Click Select on the option again to turn it off.

Look at the bottom of the Save dialogue box. Here, there are several Format options, each with a button next to it. These are called radio buttons. The radio button next to PipeDream has a visible indicator within it to show that the PipeDream option is selected.

Move the pointer onto the ASCII option and click Select. The radio button next to the ASCII option will now have the visible indicator within it and the radio button next to the PipeDream option will be empty. Now click Select on the PipeDream option again.

When the options have radio buttons before them, you can only choose one option.

Sometimes, you are not free to choose what you type into a box. You are given a limited range of possibilities. Move the pointer to the up-arrow icon after the Line separator option and click Select. The item in the box on the right changes as you click. The same happens, but in the opposite direction, if you click Select on the down-arrow icon.

When you have completed your dialogue box entries, you click either Select or Adjust on the OK button. If you click Select on the OK button, the command is carried out and the dialogue box disappears. If you click Adjust on the OK button, the command is carried out and the dialogue box remains on the screen. Pressing Enter has the same effect as clicking Select on the OK button.

For the moment, don't click on OK or press Enter.

If you want to abandon a dialogue box, press the Esc key.

Moving around the dialogue box

To move from option to option either use the mouse or Tab or Shift-Tab.

Move the pointer back onto the Files menu.

You will see that some of the commands do not have arrows after their names. This means that you can carry out the command directly from the menu, without needing to make any further choices or supply any more information. To do so, move the pointer onto the command and click Select.

The command will be carried out and the menu will disappear.

If you click Adjust on a command, the command will be carried out but the menu will remain on the screen ready for you to select another command or repeat the previous one.

The Icon Menu

The Icon menu is displayed by clicking Menu on the PipeDream icon on the icon bar.

Short Menus and Long Menus

When you first start using PipeDream, the menus you see are short menus, which display the most frequently used commands. If you bring up the Icon menu and slide off the Choices option, you will see that the Short menus command has a tick next to it. This shows that short menus are switched on. Move the pointer onto the Short menus option and click Select. You will see that the tick next to Short menus has disappeared. This shows that you no longer have short menus switched on. Instead, you have long menus switched on. Long menus show all the available commands.

Move the pointer back into the PipeDream window and press Menu to bring up the PipeDream main menu. Bring up the Edit menu. You will see that it is much longer than it was before.

Short menus are much easier to use than long menus. They contain the commands which you need for all the operations you perform frequently. The extra commands on the long menus are either used very infrequently or, in the case of editing commands, are much more easily used from the keyboard.

After you have used PipeDream for a while, you may find that you want to add commands to or remove commands from the short menus. You can instruct PipeDream to do this and have your new choices used automatically each time you use PipeDream.

For now, bring up the Icon menu again, slide off the Choices option and click Select on the Short menus command to switch on short menus again.

Keys

You may have noticed that all commands on the menus have one, two, three or four letters after their names. These are the keys you can press if you prefer to use the keyboard to give commands rather than selecting them from the menus.

You use the key combinations shown on the menus together with the Ctrl key.

For example, to save a file, you have the choice of:

Many of the key combinations are made up of the menu's initial letter followed by a letter or letters which represent the command's name.

FS, for example, stands for Files Save.

The most commonly used commands consist of only one letter, so that you only have to press one key with Ctrl.

Function keys

For convenience, some commands have been assigned to the function keys, so that they can be given with a single key press.

The function keys assigned to commands are shown on menus after the command's name.

As you can see, PipeDream provides several methods of giving commands. It is entirely up to you which method you use. Some people use one method all the time; others use a combination of all of them.

Throughout this Tutorial and the Reference Guide, the various methods will generally be shown as follows and it is up to you which method you use:

Menu Command Ctrl-sequence Key
Edit Delete row Y F8

In the above case, for example, you could do one of the following:

Either:

  1. Click Menu to bring up the PipeDream main menu.
  2. Move the pointer onto the Edit option and then slide it over the arrow to display the Edit menu.
  3. Click Select on the Delete row command.

Or:

Or: