BB Editor (for NOS 2.1 only)

Even though I love the Newton's HWR, editing text and recognizing some punctuations are a bit troublesome. I then created PunctPad, but even though it's a great tool it still took up screen space. So here's BB Editor.

Honoware
Support Newton Developers! BB Editor is honorware and costs $5.00 cash (U.S.).
Please send registration fee to:
Way Wong
5714 Clearsite Street
Torrance, Ca 90505

Installing
BB Editor comes with two packages. BB Editor.pkg is the main app, zBBEditor button.pkg is a button that resides on the bottom left corner of the Newton's button bar. You need to install both packages, preferably on the internal store.

Use (Also see the "What's new" read me for the newest features)
BB Editor is a palette of editing buttons and punctuation keys that overlays the MP2000/2100 soft button bar (BB Editor will not work on the MP130 or earlier). Since BB Editor covers the button bar, it takes up no writable screen space.

Besides the standard keyboard keys, BB Editor has the following special editing/punctuation keys:
- "Word" hilites a word. A series of taps in quick succession will add the previous word to the hilite.
- "All" A single tap will hilite a paragraph,  a double-tap hilites the entire text.
- "NoSpace" will remove all spaces from a hilited text.
- "Caps" will capitalize or decapitalize the word(s) in a hilited text.
- There are a set of up, down, back and forward caret positioning keys in an inverted "T" shape. These keys are framed.
- The " , {} and () keys will type a set of double quotes/parenthesis/brackets and position the caret between them.
- s and 's keys are ones I personally always need for plurals and possesives!
- BB Editor has its own "Undo" and scroll/overview buttons that works just like the Newton's builtin controls.
- Below the Undo button is a "P" button. With each successive tap the changes from the main punctuation keyboard (P), to a numeric keyboard (N), then to a user-defined keyboard (U).
- The user-defined keyboard holds up to 12 keys for your editing pleasure! To edit the user-defined keyboard (U), tap the "i" button then tap "Prefs". This will bring up the user-defined keys editor.
- At the bottom left of BB Editor is an expand/shrink button to open and close BBeditor on the fly.

BB Editor 1.5 features
1) The Caps and the new Day buttons are now "dual mode."
Both buttons can be have an action for tapping or pressing. For example, you might like to use the Day button to insert the current date most of the time. If you use the pop up date picker, it would take two taps to insert the date (one to pop it up and another press its close box, not to mention the pen travel). Set up the button this way: via the preferences set the Day Button to "Tap - current date / Hold - picker". This way it takes one tap to insert the date. But if you need the pop up date picker then just tap-hold the button and the date picker slip is displayed. Or maybe set it to "Tap - picker / Hold - current date". Play around with it and see which works best for you.

It's the same with the Caps button. You now have four capilization options to choose from: Caps/low, Title Case, lowercase, UPPERCASE. I like to assign my most used capitalization format to be activated with a tap. If you almost always use the Caps/low function, then set the Caps Button to "Tap - Do Cmd, Hold - Pop up" and "Caps/low". Now you can use one tap to do your most often used capitalization and tap-hold to get the pop up list of all four options! 

2) Cut/paste button added. This button has "triple mode" abilities: tap, tap/hold and tap/long hold. Each tap or press will have a sound associated to it to help identify the function. From BBE's preferences you can set these three different pen functions to any of the pop up functions: cut, copy, paste, paste copy, clear clipboard, or pop up the list.

3) Txt button saves text clippings a pop up list. Just tap an item from the list and it will be inserted where the caret is.
Note: The text clippings editor is the same as PunctPad's editor.

To create a new text or edit an existing one, tap the Cut button, tap "Edit text" an the Editor will open.
	a) To create new text: 
		- tap - "New" (A new, empty slot is created). If your list is long scroll arrows will 
			appear. Use the arrows to scroll to your new text slot (it will be hilited.)
		- Enter the text into the input area and press "Replace".
		- You can also add text without opening the editor by first hiliting the text 
			then tap the Cut button and select "Add hilited text".
		- Easy Add! Hilite the text clipping then tap and hold the Txt button. You will hear a 	
			"plunk" sound as the text is deposited into the list.
	b) To Delete an existing item in the list:
		- Tap the item in the list to hilite it. Its text will appear in the editing area.
		- Press "Delete"
	c) To edit an existing item:
		- Tap the item in the list to hilite it. Its text will appear in the editing area.
		- Make your changes and press "Replace"
	** Make sure you press "Save" after changing any item. Pressing the close 
	box does not save your changes. 

4) For the User Defined Keys you can now insert an "invisible" backspace. For example, let's say the * sign is the invisible backspace. If you create user defind key to be "[]*" then when the key is press you will get [] with the cursor positioned between the two brackets.

5) Larger icons for main keys.

6) BBE opens displaying the last keypad used (P, N, or U). 

7) Del button is now also dual mode: tap to delete one letter at a time, hold it down to delete all text in the view.

8) The Day button can insert one of three date formats. See BBE's preferences.

9) All features now work with NewtWorks (Caps, new Text clippings feature)

Caveats:
- Some Button Bar enhancing programs such as BB+ and BarKeep allow you to change the thickness of the BB. While BB Editor will adjust its dimensions to fit the modified BB, the narrow comfiguration will make the buttons/keys look quite scrunched up.
- BBEditor has been quite happy with Gesture Launch by ICS on my Newton!

About my programs:
I have a lot of fun creating Newton utilities that are unique (and within my limited programming skills!). I first design them for my own personal use by enhancing the NOS so it could be a little more convenient to use. I really strive to include a few that features no other apps have and to me that's what makes them unique, useful and maybe a little fun.

Contacting me
Please feel free to send any comments, questions or problems:
Way-Chung Wong
firstvln@earthlink.net
Visit Byte-Size Software on the web at
http://home.earthlink.net/~firstvln/bytesize.html