1 .fin
2 .all
3 To format documents precisely, you can use either of two "commands" and
4 their associated formatting controls. The simpler of the two is the
5 format_doc command. It has eight controls that enable you to specify page
6 length and width, alignment, and indentation. It is very useful for simply
7 formatted documents like letters. The compose command, on the other hand, has
8 many more controls and can thus be used for both simple and complex documents.
9 It provides additional capacity for, among other things, footnoting, varying
10 the length of pages, and creating tables.
11
12 Use of these two commands is very easy. For example, to format a
13 document with the format_doc command, you simply use the name of the "segment"
14 containing the document's text as the "pathname argument" for the command the
15 segment's name must have the suffix '.fdocin' but it need not be supplied on
16 the "command line":
17
18 format_doc letter_seg -output_file letter
19
20 The command then reads the controls in 'letter_seg' and formats the document
21 accordingly. The output_file "control argument" specifies that the formatted
22 document is to be placed in a segment named 'letter.' That segment can then
23 be printed out on a printing machine.
24
25 Below is an example of a segment that contains formatting controls. The
26 controls used are those for the format_doc command, though in this example
27 they are identical to some of the controls used by the compose command. Note
28 that each control must be preceded by a period at the beginning of the line
29 and be placed on the line by itself. The numbers at the left in this example
30 are reference points for the explanation that follows; they should not be used
31 when formatting text.
32 .fif
33
34 1 .pdw 60
35 2 .fif
36 3 .in 35
37 .fin
38
39 Line 1 sets the line length page width to 60 characters. Line 2 turns
40 fill mode off so that the partial lines that make up the date and address are
41 not run together to fill up 60 character lines. Line 3 indents the date 35
42 spaces.
43 .fif
44
45 4 January 6, 1983
46 5
47 6
48 7 .in
49 .fin
50
51 Lines 5 and 6 will come out blank in the formatted document.
52 Line 7 resets the indentation to the left margin.
53 .fif
54
55 8 Zimmerman Widget Company
56 9 53698 Dixie Highway
57 10 Drayton Plains, Michigan 28999
58 11
59 12 Dear Sir:
60 13
61 14 .fin
62 .fin
63
64 Line 14 turns fill mode on so that the body of the letter is filled out
65 in 60 character lines.
66 .fif
67
68 15 Thank you for delivering a new set of widgets. We will put them to use
69 16 immediately.
70 17
71 18 .in 35
72 19 Sincerely,
73 20
74 21 Michael P. Marley
75 .fin
76
77 Finally, line 18 indents the signature block the same as the date. The
78 formatting control on line 18 keeps the indentation in effect for line 21 as
79 well as line 19. In fact, when the '.in' control is used with a particular
80 value, that indentation stays in effect until the '.in' control is used again
81 with another value.