Editing

PipeDream has a wide range of commands which enable you to edit your document to make changes and improvements and to correct mistakes. Some editing commands, such as those to insert or delete a column or row, affect the layout of the document. Others enable you to make changes to individual words or letters.

Adding or Deleting a Line (Row)

You can insert a new blank line in just one column, or as a row of lines across all the columns on the document. Likewise, you can delete any line from a column, or the row of cells across the whole document.

To insert a blank row of cells across all columns

  1. Position the caret where you want the blank row.
  2. Give the Insert Row command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Insert row F7 N
Example:
  1. Position the caret in cell B3:
A B C
1 one one one
2 two two two
3 three caretthree three
4 four four four
5 five five five
6
A B C
1 one one one
2 two two two
3 caret
4 three three three
5 four four four
6 five five five

The caret will be in a blank cell and the previous text in all columns will move down.

To insert a blank cell in one column

  1. Position the caret where you want the blank cell.
  2. Give the Insert Row in Column command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Insert row in column EIRC

The caret will now be in a blank cell, and the previous text will move down.

Example:
  1. Position the caret in cell B3.
  2. Give the Insert Row in Column command.
A B C
1 one one one
2 two two two
3 three caret three
4 four three four
5 five four five
6 five

The caret will be in a blank cell and the previous text in column B will move down.

To add a blank row at the end of the document

Position the caret on the last line and press Return↵.

To delete a cell or row of cells

  1. Position the caret in the row of cells you wish to delete.
  2. Give the Delete Row command to delete the whole row or the Delete Row in Column command to delete a cell from just the one column containing the caret.
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Delete row F8 Y
Delete row in column EDRC
Example:
  1. Position the caret in cell B3.
  2. a) If you give the Delete Row command, row 3 is deleted and the rows beneath it move up.

    b) If you give the Delete Row in Column command, only cell B3 is deleted and the other cells in column B move up.

Adding or Deleting a Column

You can insert a new column to the left of an existing column, add a new column at the right-hand side of the document, or delete an existing column.

To insert a new column to the left of another column

  1. Position the caret in the column.
  2. Give the Insert Column command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Insert column EIC

The column containing the caret will move right, and a new column will be inserted with an initial width of 12 characters.

To add a column to the right of the other columns

Give the Add Column command:

Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Add column EAC

The caret will be in the new column which is created with a width of 12 characters, and a right margin of zero. Note that when a column has a right margin of zero, the text wraps at the end of the column.

To delete a column

  1. Position the caret in the column you wish to delete.
  2. Give the Delete Column command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Delete column EDC

If you change your mind about deleting the column or if you want to move it to another position, you can recover it using the Paste command.

Joining and Splitting Lines

You can split a line of text so that the second part of the line moves to the next row of the document. You may want to split a line when you want to perform a block operation on text that starts or ends in the middle of a line. You can also join the next line onto the end of the line you are on.

To split a line

  1. Position the caret just behind the first character that you want to move to the next line.
  2. Give the Split Line command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Split line ESL

To join two lines

  1. Position the caret on the first of the two lines.
  2. Give the Join Lines command:
Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Join lines EJL

The text on the next line will be moved up to the end of the line with the caret on it.

The Split Line and Join Lines commands use the Insert on wrap setting in the Options dialogue box to determine how to maintain alignment over the document.

Another way to split and join lines is to turn on the Insert on Return option in the Options dialogue box. Then pressing Return↵ splits a line at the caret position and either giving the Delete Character command at the end of a line or pressing Backspace at the beginning of a line join lines.

Typing and Inserting Text

You can add text or blank lines anywhere in the document. Text is always entered at the caret position. PipeDream provides two alternative ways to type text into a document. By default, text you type is inserted before the character at the caret position. If you switch to overtyping, text types over any text previously on the line.

To switch between inserting and overtyping

The Choices sub-menu has an option called Insert, which has a tick next to it by default to show that all text you type will be inserted. To change to overtyping, click Select on the Insert option. The tick will disappear and what you type will overwrite what was there before.

Swapping case

You can alter text which you have typed in from upper-case to lower-case and vice versa with the Swap Case command:

Menu Command Cmd-sequence Key
Edit Swap case SS

To insert text

  1. 1. Use the mouse to move the pointer to the required position in the document.
  2. 2. Click Select to position the caret at the required position.
  3. 3. If you are currently inserting, just type in the text. If you are currently overtyping, give the Insert Space command to make space for the new text:
Menu Command Cmd-sequence Key
Edit Insert space U

To insert a character

You can insert any ‘top-bit-set’ character. These are characters you may not find on the keyboard, such as foreign letters and accented characters. To insert such a character, position the caret where you want the character to appear. Find !Chars in the RISC OS Apps directory. Double-click Select on the !Chars icon to activate it. You will see a window which displays all the characters available. If you wish you can change the font displayed by !Chars by bringing up a menu in the !Chars window and clicking Select on the font. Click Select on the character you want to insert. It will appear in your PipeDream document at the caret position.

Another way to insert ‘top-bit-set’ characters is to hold down the Alt key whilst you type in the numerical value of the ‘top-bit-set’ character, using the numeric keypad. Tables of character values can be found in your RISC OS User Guide.

Deleting Text

The Backspace key (Rubout) deletes anything to the left of the caret.

The Delete Word and Delete Character commands can be used to delete words and characters respectively.

The Delete to End of Cell command deletes all the contents of the cell to the right of the caret.

Recovering Deleted Text

Text deleted with the Delete Row, Delete Word, Delete Column, Delete Block, Delete to End of Cell and Delete Row in Column commands can be retrieved with the Paste command:

Menu Command Tool Key Cmd-sequence
Edit Paste Paste icon F9 I
Example:
  1. Position the caret at the beginning of a sentence.
  2. Give the Delete Word command repeatedly until the sentence disappears.
  3. Give the Paste command repeatedly and the sentence will reappear.

With Delete to End of Cell, if the cell deleted is a number cell, when it is recovered using the Paste command, the formula it contained will be pasted in as text. Give the Edit Formula command to make it into a formula again.

Repeating a Command

Very often, you may want to repeat a command that you have just performed. For example, you might want to use the Add Column command to add 15 columns to your spreadsheet. You can do this in one of three ways:

Menu Command Cmd-sequence Key
Files Repeat command J F5

This has the effect of repeating the last command given and is probably the easiest method to use.

For information on See
Deleting blocks of text Block Operations
Other uses of the Paste command Paste