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PageMaker 7.0 Basics – Using Story Editor

Using Story Editor

To edit text in a format that looks and behaves more like a word processor use the Story Editor. The Story Editor displays all the text in a particular story at the same size in block format for easy editing, even if the story spans several pages in your document. A scroll bar to the right of the text allows you to scroll through the text block. The Spell Checker and the Find and Change commands are available only within the Story Editor. Because the Story Editor does not display all of the text enhancements, editing and typing text here is faster than in the layout mode.

return to topOpening the Story Editor

Menu Option:

  1. Click on the block of text you want to edit

  2. From the Edit menu, select Edit Story
    The text of the entire story will now appear in the Story Editor.

Mouse Option:

  1. To access the Story Editor with the Pointer tool, triple-click in a text block

return to topUsing the Find and Change Feature

PageMaker allows you to search stories in the Story Editor for specific words or phrases and to replace all or some of the occurrences with other words or phrases. In order to simply find an occurrence, use the Find feature. In order to change some or all of the occurrences to something else, use the Change feature.

Using Find

Make sure you are in the Story Editor. The Spelling, Find, Find Next, and Change commands are available only in Story Editor.

The Find feature allows you multiple choices in searching your document and story. The Search story function allows you to work with: 

Selected text The Find feature will search only the text you have selected.
Current story The Find feature will only search the current open story.
All stories The Find feature will search all stories.
  1. From the Utilities menu, select Find…
    The Find dialog box will appear on the screen.
    find dialog box

  2. In the Find What box, type the word or phrase to look for

  3. Click FIND

  4. To find subsequent occurrences of the word or phrase, from the Utilities menu, click FIND NEXT
    When no more occurrences exist, the Search Complete dialog box will appear.

  5. Click OK

  6. To find another word or phrase, repeat steps 2-5

  7. When finished, close the Find dialog box

Using Change

Make sure you are in the Story Editor.

  1. From the Utilities menu, select Change…
    The Change dialog box will appear on the screen.
    change dialog box

  2. In the Find What text box type the word or phrase to find

  3. In the Change to box type the replacement word or phrase

  4. To find the first occurrence of the word or phrase, click the FIND button
    OR
    To find and change all occurrences of the word or phrase, click CHANGE ALL
    (If you selected Change All, skip to step 7.)
    WARNING: Use Change All with caution. You may change words you did not mean to change. If you do use Change All, select the Whole Word option and review the document to make sure all replacements make sense.

  5. If you selected Find in step 4, you now have several options
    • To change the word, click CHANGE
    • To ignore the word, click IGNORE
    • To find the next word, click FIND NEXT
    • To change the word and find the next one, click CHANGE AND FIND
    • To change all occurrences of the word, click CHANGE ALL

  6. When the Search Complete dialog box appears, click OK

  7. Type in a new word or phrase to find and change
    OR
    Click CLOSE

return to topUsing Spell Check

Spelling can only be checked in the Story Editor. The Spell Check feature of PageMaker checks your text against the computer’s dictionary. If the computer does not recognize a word, the top left corner of the dialog box will read “Unknown word” followed by the unrecognized word. You have the option of ignoring the word, replacing the word with a new spelling, or adding the word to the computer’s dictionary.

If you want the word to remain in the document spelled as it is, click IGNORE. For example, the computer will probably not recognize your first and last name, but you do not want their spelling changed. The word will be added to a temporary dictionary that is active until you exit PageMaker.

WARNING: If you are working in a general access computer lab, DO NOT add words to the dictionary; simply click IGNORE.

Check Spelling

  1. From the Utilities menu, select Spelling…
    The Spelling dialog box will appear on the screen.
    spelling dialog box

  2. OPTIONAL: To check all stories in your document, select the All Stories option.

  3. Click START

  4. If all the words are recognized by the computer’s dictionary, No Spelling Errors Detected will appear in the upper left of the dialog box
    If this happens continue with step 6.

    • If a word is not recognized by the computer’s dictionary Unknown Word will appear in the upper left of the dialog box. In the Change To box, delete it and type a new spelling. If this happens, continue with step 5.

    • If the word is mispelled and the computer’s dictionary recognizes it, the word will appear in the Change To box. In the text area below the Change To box, the computer will list possible spellings for the mispelled word. Select the correct choice, and move on to step 5.

  5. Click REPLACE
    When the spell check is done, the phrase “Spelling Check Complete” will appear.

  6. Click CLOSE

return to topExiting the Story Editor

  1. From the Edit menu, select Edit Layout
    OR
    From the Story menu, select Close Story
    OR
    Click the CLOSE box

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