Re: copying & pasting between XY and MS

["Leslie Savan" lsavan@xxxxxxxx]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Harry Binswanger" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: copying & pasting between XY and MS


Thanks, Harry. I'll try to answer your questions here:

>
> I know these things are personal, but why would you prefer a full-screen
> (which used to be something about 15" diagonally) to having that same
size
> as a window on a larger monitor? Full-screen simply deprives one of the
> Windows taskbar, with no plus side that I can see.

It is kind of personal, but at least two things I prefer about fullscreen:
1) Serifs--easier to read. Now, if I could get a serifed font in Xy4 or some
other way, I'm game. 2) The windowed screens can be difficult to "stretch"
to fill the monitor and, like Carl, I prefer Xy's peaceful black-and-white
sea of words, without MS distractions. Also, sometimes I can't get the usual
22 lines of type to fill the screen; the 22 lines will appear but there'll
be a big black space of nothing below. (SOrry, I can't tell you what
exactly procedure produces this effect, since I don't have an XP computer
handy now.)


> >1) No taskbar:
> >On my ME, when I hit alt-enter, I get a small screen that reads "EDITOR"
> >at the very top, and under that, a taskbar with the edit icons--"mark,"
> >"copy," "paste"--as well as "properties," "fonts," and an icon to return
> >to full screen. But when I've tested Xy (via flashdrive) on an Xp (or on
> >Vista, which is worse), there's no taskbar at all. Instead, this appears
> >at the very top: E:\Xywrite\EDiTOR.EXE.
>
> Have you tried right-clicking (I forget whether you do this with cursor on
> title bar or in text area)?

Right clicking does the same thing as left clicking and regardless of where
I click.

> >Is there a more efficient way to do this on XP?
>
> The tremendously more efficient way is to use U2. Then you can simply do
> ctrl-C and ctrl-V (or whichever keys you assign) as in Windows. It's not
an
> ME vs. XP issue.
> The U2 requires Xy 4. I'm pretty sure you can get that free. To the user,
> Xy4 is almost exactly like Xy III+, but it has improvements in XPL
handling.
>
> If you don't want to get Xy4, you have to do right-click/Edit/Mark etc.
>
> I'd 100% recommend getting Xy4. You can get it here:
>
> http://www.xywrite.com/ttg/y2k/y2k.htm
>
> Why not just download it, unzip it to get editor.exe (making sure you do
it
> in a directory that won't overwrite Xy III's editor.exe). And then try it
> out? I'm pretty sure you don't actually need *any* other files to see what
> it looks like. Then, if you're calmed by the familiarity of it, you can
use
> your existing keyboard files, etc. and download the U2 from:
>
> http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/

I will try this. Thanks!


> >2) The things and arrows of copying/pasting from XY to Windows:
> >For years, I've been writing on Xywrite and going through this clunky but
al-
> >ways reliable process to send a piece in:
> >--insert a 3 1/2" floppy and copy the story from C: to A:
> >--copy the story from A: to the floppy via email (on Outlook Express) by
> >clicking "insert," then "text from file")
>
> Why is the copy to A: even involved? Why not go straight from C:?

It just doesn't work straight from C:

> >But coming out of my cozy cave, I see that these new-fangled computers
> >don't do floppies. And so the only way to copy/paste from Xy to email is
> >to use the mark-copy-paste technique in Xy on windows.
>
> Why? You seem to say that Outlook will import text files, and that's what
> Xy files are.

I don't know if I quite understand your answer, but the Outlook importing
works only from a floppy (at least on my ME). If no floppy's available on a
newer computer, then I imagine I'd have to do the cumbersome mark/copy/paste
method.
>
> >But when I copy to email, long arrows, little boxes, or weird question
> >marks appear wherever I've used the enter key to end a graf or create an
> >extra line. Then, in the email or Word doc, I have to manually delete
each
> >little arrow or box, evidence of which I've left in the graf above.
> >
> >Is there a better way to do this?
>
> Lots. If you use Outlook's Insert/File option, you are sending it as an
> attachment. Is that producing the strange characters? Are they only at the
> bottom of the file?
>
Using Outlook's Insert/File does work fine--no arrows or strange characters
(and only one box at the very end, as you say). But again, on my current
set-up I can do that only from an A: floppy. Does Outlook Insert/File work
on an XP without a floppy? If so, great.

>
>>3) No scrolling while copying allowed:
>>Using the mark-copy-paste method for XY to email (and this problem is on
>>ME as well as XP) you can only "mark" a page (22 lines on my system) at a
>>time. In full-screen Xy, you can copy and scroll at the same time (but of
>>course copy/paste only within Xy). Is there anyway to avoid this?

>Don't know about this.

>
>>4) Finally, before I buy a system, which is likely to best solve the above
>>problems? A straight Xp Pro, Win7 32 bits with an Xp downgrade, virtual
>>PC, and/or partitions? (I don't quite understand the recent partition
>>thread, so this question may make no sense: Is there a way to partition ME
>>(from an original disk I have) into a new computer?
>>

>I don't know, but I don't see any advantage to XP Pro over the (cheaper?)
>XP Home edition. I've used both.

>>My computer guy (a 14 year old!) tried some of these combos, and concluded
>>that the advantages of an ME (taskbar, full Xy screen, the floppy
>>business) can't really be replicated. His experiments are below. Anything
>>he missed? I see he didn't try Win7 32 bits. Would that make a difference?
>
>>I apologize for such a long post, and thank you all in advance for your
>>guidance.