Oh,
The letter itself, Textedit is the best.
Thanks for lisetning,
Alex,
On 2-Dec-08, at 12:27 PM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Alex,
I don't quite know how I would use Addressbook for my letters. I
have learnt successfully thanks to Anne and others' tips how do
addrress an envelope using addressbook but I can't see anything in
the addressbook that would allow me to design a template for the
letter itself.
If you have been able to this, please let me have some more details.
With best wishes
Simon
On 2 Dec 2008, at 15:12, Alex Jurgensen wrote:
Hi,
Simon. Could you not use address book for your letters?
Thanks for lsietning,
Alex,
On 2-Dec-08, at 6:30 AM, Esther wrote:
Dear Simon,
I think that if you have access to Word, you can probably set up
formatting the way you like (tab markers for the start of your
return address, line spacing, page margins, alignment, fonts),
then change this to a Rich Text Format that you use as the basis
for a TextEdit style file. What I did was take a letter that was
in the form of a Word .doc file, open it in TextEdit, and then
save it by writing out a version in Rich Text Format so that I
could examine how TextEdit recorded its format setup. (As you say,
it's not easy to understand the various setup and formatting
options described in the help file for TextEdit without having a
concrete example to use as a reference.) Interacting with the
ruler of that file let me experiment with ruler markings. That
file had just the single left tab marker at the position of the
return address. To save this as a style file, interact with the
Styles popup button in the ruler and select "Other". Then press
the "Add to favorites" button and supply a name for the style.
You can also check any of the boxes for "Include the ruler as part
of the style" or "include the font as part of the style",
If you want to modify a default TextEdit file to be like the
letter style, and only have one left tab, you could interact with
the ruler, then VO-right until you come to the first left tab stop
(at 0.5 inches) and interact. Hold down the right arrow key to
move this to the far right. It will sound a bit like clattering
typewriter keys by the time you get to the end, and the sounds
will change as you move through different regions. If you stop,
and you're past the region where the right page margin would be
set (for example, beyond 8 inches) then, once you've used Command-
Shift-W to wrap to page, you can VO-right in the ruler to pick up
the first left tab stop, interact, and move it left to the
position you want. The other left tab stops will be outside the
page margins. Again, you may need to move your right margin
setting to match the appropriate value for A4-sized paper. Once
you're happy with your setup, save this as a style file. You can
try creating your letter style file this way first. Then you can
experiment with templates that you create starting from formatted
Word documents. Alternatively, if your experiments with a sample
letter formatted Word document go well, you can just save that
file as a style template instead of starting from the default
setting.
To use one of your saved style files when you open a new TextEdit
window to start typing a letter, choose the template from the
popup style button in the ruler.
There are probably better ways to do this, but this might get you
started. Basically, TextEdit supports quite a lot of features,
but doesn't have a lot of controls to automatically make all these
adjustments, so you're just saving style templates based on
formats generated in Word -- which does let you fiddle with all of
these settings.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Esther
On Dec 1, 2008, at 10:13 PM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Esther,
How do I move the left tabs to the edge of the page as you
helpfully suggest? Do I do that by interacting with each and
setting their value to the one coresponding to the position of
the right margin? Or is there a way of dragging them? It would be
best for me just to use one left tab press to avoid any
confusion. I guess once I've set up the template, I can save it,
and I also surmise that when I open a new untitled document, the
ruler is going to appear in its original default seting.
Forgive my ignorance in the above matters. I have read through
the help files a few times to make sure that there are indeed no
shortcut keys for fiddling with the tabs. But maybe I've missed
something.
Again, many thanks for the explanations. I'm excited to think
that once I've set up my template, I will be able to write my
letters in Textedit rather than booting into Windows and using
Microsoft Word.
With best wishes
Simon
On 1 Dec 2008, at 22:10, Esther wrote:
Dear Simon,
I think there's only one left margin (head indent), and another
setting to set paragraph indentation (first line indent) plus
the right margin (tail indent). Apart from these ruler markers,
there are just the left tab markers. You can interact and move
them. If you don't want to use additional tab markers before
the tab for your return address, just move the additional tab
markers to the end of the page area (right margin). What
happens when you turn formatting on to "Wrap to Page" is that
the head indent and tail indent move to give you 1 inch margins.
(This is for U.S. letter paper that is 8.5 x 11 inches.) If you
want to move the margins further away from the right and left
edges, you can. You may need to do this if the margins are not
well matched for A4 paper.
If you want to keep the left tab markers in place, you'll need
to count the number of left tabs you place before your return
address and press the correct number of tabs. The key settings
are for left and right margin if you want to change these, and
to move the tab you want to set for the return address to the
correct location.
Cheers,
Esther
On Dec 1, 2008, at 11:48 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Esther,
Thank you for these detailed and helpful instructions. I shall
follow them and report the outcome. I did think of using a left
tab and maybe right justifying the return address. My concern
was with the number of left margins in the ruler. I guess I
just change the value of the left margin and ignore the rest?
With many thanks again,
Simon
On 1 Dec 2008, at 17:14, Esther wrote:
Hi Simon,
There may be better ways to do this, but I took a letter in
Word and saved this as a Rich Text Format file. Then I opened
this with TextEdit and saved this as a style file that I
called "letter". In fact, examining this turns out to be
pretty basic. In minimal format, you use the page boundaries
and a single left tab that is placed to put your address on
the right hand side. The page boundaries here are the
defaults you set "Wrap to page" (Command-Shift-W) -- 1 inch in
from the boundaries of the window. Since I am using U.S.
letter paper, this means that the head indent and tail indent
markers for the ruler are set to 1.0 inch and 7.5, and these
form the left and right margins of my page (which is 8.5
inches wide). My single left tab stop, which is used for my
address or the closing, is set for 5.9 inches.
By comparison, in the default setup for Rich Text Format, the
mode is "Wrap to window" (typing goes to the edge of the
window instead of starting or stopping at the "margins" of the
page -- here, 1 inch to the left or right from the left and
right limits of the window). There are also
12 left tab stops (set every half inch from the left edge of
the window).
I don't think you need to use the right tab stop unless you
are typing in a language that flows from right to left, such
as Hebrew.
For the letter template I describe, I simply tab to start
typing the return address (5.9 inches from the left edge of
the window, or 4.9 inches from the left margin of the
letter). The recipient's address is set at the left margin,
where typing automatically starts, since I use "align left".
Hope this makes sense. To find out the margin and tab
settings, interact with the ruler. The head indent ruler
marker will be 0 if you are in the default setting of "Wrap to
Window". Use the Command-Shift-W shortcut to toggle this
setting or else go to the Format menu and choose the option
"Wrap to Page". Now when you read the position of the head
indent ruler marker it should be 1 inch. Your right margin
(tail indent) may be set up for A4 paper and have a different
value from mine (7.5 inches). Similarly, you will want to set
the left tab stop for your return address to a different value
than 5.9 inches since A4 paper is narrower. You can interact
and move one of the existing left tab stops instead of setting
a new one.
Maybe Anne has recommendations.
Cheers,
Esther
On Dec 1, 2008, at 4:56 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Listers,
I am trying to work with tabs in Textedit. I have read as
much as I was able to in the Voiceover help file on tabs and
in Textedit help files. I can set the value of the right tab
without a problem but I am not sure how to activate that tab.
When I press the tab button, how do I know whether I activate
the left tab or right tab? Has anyone got any more experience
on that? I'm trying to create letter template so that my
address is always on the right handside and so that I may
input the address of the recipient on the left.
Your experience and help would be welcome.
With best wishes
Simon
