198 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
198 lines
9.0 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>Ted, a Rich Text Word Processor LG #44</title>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0000AF"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H1><font color="maroon">Ted, a Rich Text Word Processor</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><font color="maroon"><h3>Introduction</font></h3></center>
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<p><A HREF=../issue43/ayers.html>Last month</A>
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I wrote about the evolving AbiWord word processor. Another similar effort
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called Ted is being developed by Mark de Does, a programmer in the Netherlands.
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Rather than attempting to emulate the features of the ubiquitous MsWord, Mark
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has settled on a more modest goal (but a goal more likely to be achieved by a
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single developer): a word processor analogous to WordPad, a small application
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bundled with Windows. The idea is to facilitate document exchange with Windows
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users, using RTF (Rich Text Format) as the compatible file format. Both
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MsWord and WordPad can read RTF documents created with Ted, though for various
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familiar reasons the opposite won't always be true. But if you would like to
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be able to send documents formatted with your choice of fonts and even
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including embedded images and hyperlinks, Ted is well worth trying.
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<p>Mark de Does' motivation for starting this project two years ago were
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threefold:
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<ul>
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<li>He wanted to be able to produce documents which would be acceptable in
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the administrative and documentation departments of his office workplace.
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<li>The ability to write letters with a little more style than straight
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ASCII text possesses without needing to boot Windows.
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<li>A further motivation was the possibility of writing the Ted
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documentation and web-site using Ted.
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</ul>
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<p>Ted is primarily a one-man project. The graphics and regular-expression
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code and the spelling dictionaries were borrowed from other free software
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projects, but the bulk of the code is Mark's. Feedback and suggestions from
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users have been important; Mark writes:<br>
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<blockquote>
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Feedback in the form of bug reports and feature requests from users have been
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essential for reaching the point where I am now. Though this kind of
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contribution is commonly not as highly appreciated as coding work, it might
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actually be more important. It keeps our feet on the ground and us from
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autistic excursions into pure technology.
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</blockquote>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<center><font color="maroon"><h3>Obtaining and Installing Ted</h3>
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</font></center>
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<p>The Ted <a href="ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/editors/ted">ftp</a> site, hosted
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by a Linux user's group when Mark's site was unable to handle the load, is the
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place to visit for the latest binary packages as well as source code (Ted is
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licensed under the GPL). The binaries are statically linked with the Motif libraries and
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are packaged in RPM as well as tar.gz files. Static linking means that it
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isn't necessary to have the proprietary Motif libs in order run Ted. I've
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found that the source distribution compiles easily using the freely available
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Lesstif libraries and headers, and the resulting binary is much smaller due to
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its use of local shared libraries. In order to successfully compile Ted you
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will also need to have the development packages for the libtiff, libgif, libjpeg,
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libpng, and libxpm graphics formats. These should be included on just about
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any Linux distribution CD.
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<p>After installation you will find the executable, Ted, in /usr/local/bin, a
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dictionary file in /usr/local/ind (a three-megabyte binary database derived from the
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ispell dictionary), and a sample RTF file (TedDocument.rtf, located in
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/usr/local/info) which is simultaneously a demonstration of Ted's capabilities
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and a help file. Dictionary files are available for a growing variety of languages.
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<p>To get an idea of what Ted can do, try loading the above-mentioned
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file in Ted; just type <kbd>Ted /usr/local/info/TedDocument.rtf</kbd> at a
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shell prompt.
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<p>Here is a screenshot of the first page of this file.:<br>
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<p><img alt="Ted Window" src="gx/ayers/ted.gif">
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<hr>
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<p>Mark maintains a
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<a href="http://www.nllgg.nl/Ted">web site</a> devoted to information and news
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about Ted.
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<hr>
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<p>
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<center><font color="maroon"><h3>Formatting and Images</h3>
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</font></center>
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<p>As in most word processors, tab-stops are visible above the text window and
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can be adjusted with the mouse. Ted has its own font directory,
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<kbd>/usr/local/afm</kbd>, with a few basic Postscript fonts installed. More
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fonts can be added, though the procedure sounds a little tricky. In the
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<b>Font</b> menu, below items which toggle bold and italic, is an entry which
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will invoke the Font Tool, a small separate window which allows changing the
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font of a selected region. At first I assumed that setting the font in the
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Font Tool window would change the font for subsequently typed text, but it
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only works for selected text. The default font is ten point Helvetica; this
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can be changed by creating a file in your home directory named <b>Ted</b>. The
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following line in this file will cause new documents to use 14 point Times New
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Roman rather than Helvetica:<br>
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<p>
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<kbd>Ted.defaultFont: Times,,,14</kbd>
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<p>Tables are well supported. A simple four-cell table can be inserted by
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selecting <b>Insert Table</b> from the <b>Table</b> menu; additional rows and
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columns can be added using the same menu. The table cells dynamically expand
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as they are filled with text. A window called Table Tool can be summoned from
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this menu. The Table Tool allows fine-tuning of margins, row and column size,
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and style of cell. The cells can be freely expanding (the default) or of a
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fixed or minimum size.
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<p>The image-insertion capabilities are one of Ted's strong points. Images
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in any of the common image formats, including JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and PNG, can be
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inserted into a document, then positioned and resized. When a file is saved
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in the RTF format, the image is converted to a Windows MetaFile, which is
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basically a wrapper for a BMP bitmap image. Save the file as an HTML file and a
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copy of the image file is created in a subdirectory of the parent document's
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directory. An image link is created which points to the new image file.
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There is one disadvantage to RTF documents with images: the files can be very
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large. The images within the document are necessarily in a bulky and
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uncompressed form. Image-laden files saved as HTML tend to be much smaller.
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<p>I tried opening several RTF files including embedded images using MsWord and
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they were all displayed properly.
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<p>
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<hr>
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<center><h3><font color="maroon">
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Hyperlinks and Bookmarks</font></h3></center>
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<p>Another impressive pair of features are the ability to place hyperlinks and
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bookmarks in a file. The hyperlinks, either referring to local files or
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remote URLs, are set by entering the information in a dialog box. Bookmarks
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are defined in a similar manner. If a document is saved as an HTML file these
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links become <kbd>"<a ref>"</kbd> or
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<kbd>"<a name>"</kbd> HTML tags. These references
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can be accessed from a file saved in RTF format by means of the same dialog
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boxes used to set them.
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<p>The HTML tagging produced by Ted is rather unusual, though Netscape can
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interpret it just fine. The intent is for the browser-rendered HTML to
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reproduce as accurately as possible a document's appearance in RTF format.
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This necessitated extensive use of the <kbd>"<font>"</kbd>
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tag, as well as use of the "<div>" tag rather than
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"<p>" to separate paragraphs.
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<p>
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<hr>
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<center><h3><font color="maroon">Conclusion</font></h3></center>
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<p>Ted should be useful to users communicating with the mainstream
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Windows-centric world, but I've found it to be a valuable piece of software in
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its own right. Using Ted is an easy way to create nicely-formatted documents
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with in-line graphics without having to deal with HTML or LaTeX tagging,
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and without needing to fire up a bulky browser in order to view them.
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<hr>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1999, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 44 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, August 1999</H5></center>
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