The word processors of the late 1980s had three tools that writers came to rely on: Block, for choosing text with the keyboard, Typeover, for typing over text as on a typewriter, and Undelete, for bringing back words you had deleted. Retroprose has all three, on their original keys, alongside the modern ones.
This guide explains each, starting with the question many people arrive with: what does the Insert key do?
What does the Insert key do?
The Insert key, marked Ins or Insert, switches between two ways of typing:
- Insert, the usual way. What you type goes in at the cursor and pushes the rest of the line along.
- Typeover, also called overtype. What you type replaces the letters at the cursor, one for one, as a typewriter would type over a line.
Press it by accident and typing starts to eat the words in front of the cursor, which is why so many people search for how to turn it off. The answer is to press Insert again. On many laptops it shares a key with another, and needs the Fn key held down, and some keyboards have no Insert key at all.
Typeover in Retroprose
Ins turns Typeover on and off. While it is on, the status line at the foot of the screen says "Typeover", so you always know which way you are typing, and an accident is easy to spot.
- Enter still starts a new line. It never types over the line below.
- Typing at the end of a line adds to it, as usual.
- No Insert key? Typeover is on the Edit menu and the key bar too, so every keyboard and every touch screen can use it.
Typeover is handy for correcting text of a fixed length, such as a date or a reference number, without deleting first.
Block: choosing text with the keyboard
Block is how you choose a piece of text without a mouse.
- Put the cursor at one end of the text and press F12. The status line says "Block on".
- Move the cursor with the arrow keys, Home, End, Page Down or any other movement key. The block grows as you go.
- Act on it: F6 makes it bold, F8 italic, and Delete deletes it. Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V cut, copy and paste.
- F12 or Esc turns Block off.
Block goes further than the arrow keys. With Block on, Go to page (Ctrl+G) stretches the block to the start of any page, which is a quick way to choose a whole chapter.
The modern ways work too: Shift with the arrow keys, or the mouse. Some browsers keep F12 for their own tools, so if it opens something else, use Shift and the arrows, choose Edit, Block, or install Retroprose as an app, where more function keys reach it.
Undelete: words back from the bin
Undo takes back your last change, then the one before, in order. That is no help when you deleted a paragraph, wrote three more, and then wanted the paragraph back: undoing that far loses the three new ones. Undelete solves it.
Retroprose keeps your last three deletions in each open document. A deletion is one run of Backspace or Delete presses, a deleted block, or a cut.
- Put the cursor where you want the words.
- Press F1, or Ctrl+Shift+U. Your last deletion appears at the cursor, highlighted, and the status line asks "Undelete: 1 Restore, 2 Previous deletion: 0".
- Press 1 to put it back, 2 to see the deletion before it, or 0 or Esc to leave things as they were.
Because the words go back wherever the cursor is, Undelete is also a quick way to move text: delete a sentence, move to where it belongs, and press F1 then 1.
Deletions are kept in memory while the document is open, and cleared when you close it.
Undo or Undelete?
| Undo | Undelete | |
|---|---|---|
| Keys | Ctrl+Z | F1 or Ctrl+Shift+U |
| What it brings back | Your last change of any kind, then the one before | Any of your last three deletions |
| Where | Where the change was made | Wherever the cursor is |
| Keeps later work | No, it goes back step by step | Yes, nothing else changes |
The other classic keys
- Two documents. Shift+F3 switches between Doc 1 and Doc 2, each with its own cursor, undo and Undelete. Copy a block in one, switch, and paste in the other.
- Search and replace with a question. F2 searches, Shift+F2 searches back, and Alt+F2 replaces, stopping at each match to ask "Replace? No (Yes)" if you want it to.
- Reveal codes. Alt+F3 or F9 shows the codes under your text, such as [BOLD] and [bold], and deleting a code takes its format away. See Reveal codes.
Every key is on the key template, ready to print. If a key does not suit you, change it: Tools, Key settings lets you set the classic and the modern key of any action.
All of these are in every edition, free, and you can try them now in the demo, with no account.