Every now and then I get an email from an old-time user of PageFour where they suggest adding a feature that already exists. This is an easy mistake to make with software, especially if you’ve been using it for some time and grown accustomed to working with it in a certain way. I’m as guilty of this as the next person, and frequently stumble across features I never knew existed in other people’s software, despite being a regular user for months or even years.

With that in mind, I’d like to draw attention to a few PageFour features you may never have used, but might find interesting.

1. Lock and Unlock
Have you ever closed PageFour because you were leaving your seat for a short time? Maybe you were making a cup of coffee or putting the washing on, and didn’t want anyone to look through your work. The Lock/Unlock feature was designed for just this purpose. Accessible from the Tools menu, or by using the F4 and F5 shortcut keys, locking PageFour will disable access to all parts of the program apart from the currently open page. This means that no one will be able to browse through your folders, switch to other tabs, or open any of your notebooks.

When you return to your seat, you simply Unlock PageFour (F5) by entering your password.

To enable the feature, all you need to do is ensure that a password has been set within PageFour - Tools | Change Password menu. You may never use the password to encrypt any pages, but it can still to used to Lock and Unlock the software.

2. AutoCorrect Dictionaries
I’m not the greatest typist in the world, being in the habit of typing just a little too quickly and carelessly. My most common mistake is typing teh in place of the. As with other word processors such as MS Word, this is where the AutoCorrect feature comes in. This particular feature will be switched off the first time you use PageFour, but once you enable it, will run automatically from that point on.

From the Spelling menu, select Options, and ensure that Correct spelling errors as you type is checked. Click on the Dictionaries button, and check either the autocorrect.adu or autocorrect-british.adu dictionary. Both dictionaries are similar, the only difference being that one automatically converts US spellings to English, and vice versa. (color to colour, center to centre, etc.)

3. Global Font and Paragraph Settings
The default font used in the word processor is Verdana 10, and the default paragraph settings are single line spacing, with no spacing before or after lines or paragraphs. This can be changed for the current, and also for every subsequent page, by using the Font and Paragraph dialogs on the Format menu.

Simply set up the font and paragraph settings you require, and check the Make default for all new pages checkbox.

4. Shortcuts you may not know about
Most shortcuts appear next to whichever menu option they relate to, but not every feature of PageFour has a corresponding menu item. To move between open tabs in the word processor, use the Ctrl+Alt+ Left or Right arrow keys. This is a very quick method of flicking backwards and forwards between open pages without using the mouse.

Other shortcuts you may not be familiar with include Ctrl+J to shift focus between the word processor and the notebook tree, the left and right arrow keys to open and close the currently selected folder, and F12 to take a snapshot of the current page.

The font colour drop down list on the format toolbar has a series of shortcut keys (Ctrl+1 - Ctrl+8) to change the current font colour to any one of 8 preset colours - very useful for greying out text or highlighting in red.

5. Cut / Copy / Paste across Folders and Notebooks
Most people will have found the drag and drop feature within the notebook tree, possibly by mistake when they moved the mouse too suddenly, but not everyone is aware of the short cut keys that do much the same. Cut, Copy, and Paste is fully implemented across pages, folders, and notebooks, and can be accessed either from the Edit menu, or the almost universal shortcut keys of Ctrl+X (Cut), Ctrl+C (Copy), and Ctrl+V (Paste).

This allows you to easily move or copy pages and folders between other folders or notebooks. The icon of the cut or copied pages and folders will appear slightly different depending on which operation you are carrying out. As with most cut and copy operations, the Ctrl+Z (Undo) shortcut will undo a cut or copy, returning the notebook to its previous state.

6. Export Notebooks
Saving a file out of PageFour is a straight forward process, one that I’m sure most people have done at some point, but exporting an entire notebook, or all notebooks within PageFour, may not be an everyday occurrence. There are two ways to do this: either select an individual notebook or folder (Ctrl+X) and use the Tools | Export Selected menu, or simply click on the Tools | Export Notebooks menu to export everything.

Both of these options allow you to select a destination folder, and immediately make a copy of your notebooks. I use this particular feature to backup to an external hard drive every couple of days, rather than opening Windows Explorer and copying the relevant folders myself. As well as providing a simple method of backing up, the Export feature works in conjunction with the Import Notebooks feature, also on the Tools menu, allowing you to synchronize between two installations of PageFour on different machines.

All of these features are explained in detail in the PageFour help (F1), or in the manual on the website.

If you’re new to PageFour, it may take you a little while to get used to the interface and the way it works. Here’s a few tips to make those first few days a little easier:

1. Choose a default font. When you begin using PageFour, all new Pages use Verdana 10. To change this to a font of your choice, simply open the font dialog from the Format menu, select the font and size you wish to use, and check the “Make default font for all new pages” box.
2. Set up your default paragraph options. As with the default font, changing your paragraph settings for new pages is a simple process. Open the Paragraph dialog from the Format menu, specify any settings you wish such as double line spacing, and check the “Make default for new pages” box.
3. Spell checking - the live spell check (squiggly red underline) can be switched on and off by using the F8 shortcut key, or the right click menu in the Word Processor.
4. AutoSave is switched ON by default and will save all your open work every 2 minutes, or when you close a Page. This means you never need to click the save button. You might ask why the save button still exists, and the answer is that many people simply find it reassuring - a throwback to software like MS Word.
5. The Import Dialog allows you to select Word, RTF, or text documents to import into PageFour, and can be accessed from the “Tools | Import Documents” menu, or the Import button on the toolbar. This should be your first step if you wish to edit your current work in PageFour.
6. All On / Off - Clicking Ctrl+O will switch off or on all unnecessary sections of the interface, removing any distractions and letting you concentrate on your writing.

These are just a few tips to help you get started, and touch on many of the more commonly asked questions from new users. No doubt you would have found all this information on your own over time, but many of us grow frustrated very quickly with software if it behaves in ways we do not expect.

Every software product has shortcut keys for the most common actions. If you’re like me, then these shortcuts will be the LAST thing you learn rather than the first. We all know that Ctrl+S will perform a save action in anything from MS Word to Firefox, and that Ctrl+P will print something or other. PageFour follows these conventions where possible - or more to the point, where I had previous knowledge of what they were.

I use a very popular text editor called Textpad for viewing large, text based, data files. It’s a great program, and its popularity amongst techies is well earned. But every time I use it I fall foul of their unconventional shortcuts. For reasons known only to them, Ctrl+F will NOT open the find dialog - you have to press the F5 key. I use this program every day, and every day I stumble. It’s frustrating and it’s annoying. It’s so annoying I’ve just mentioned it in a blog post that was supposed to be about PageFour.

Rather than discuss all of PageFour’s shortcuts in detail, I’m going to highlight just four of the most powerful. Knowing these few simple key combinations will make navigating between Pages, Folders, and Notebooks a quick and easy process.

The Jump Command (Ctrl+J): The main PageFour window consists of 3 panes - the list of Notebooks, the Folders and Pages of the currently open Notebook, and the word processor. The Jump command can be found on the right click menus of each of these 3 panes, and each time it has the same function and the same shortcut (Ctrl+J). As the name suggests, it ‘Jumps‘ the focus from the current pane to the next.

Jumping from the word processor will immediately shift focus to the current Page’s location in the open Notebook, allowing you easy access to its sister Pages and Folders. Jumping from the current Notebook will move focus to the Notebooks list, giving you the opportunity to open another Notebook. And jumping from the Notebooks list will shift focus back to the word processor.

The Jump mechanism means you can access almost every function and every location in PageFour without ever needing to use the mouse. It’s a quick method of adding a new Page next to the current one: Ctrl+J followed by Ctrl+N (New Page), as well as a simple way of seeing where the current Page fits in relation to the Pages and Folders around it.

Tab Navigation: It’s very common to have a number of Pages open in different tabs at the same time, many of them related to each other. You might have a number of different chapters open, or Pages of character and plot notes.

Moving up and down the list of open tabs is simply a case of using the Ctrl+Shift+Left Ctrl+Alt+Left or Right arrow keys. Once you remember this shortcut, moving between Pages is a much faster process.

Left and right arrows - how hard could it be?.

The next release of PageFour will contain a new ‘Open in Tabs‘ feature, which will allow you to open all the Pages in a folder simultaneously into different tabs, making this shortcut even more powerful. A beta containing this feature will be available shortly.

Screen Size: PageFour does not yet have a full screen capability, but there is a simple method of switching the Notebook section off - the F11 shortcut key - thereby increasing the screen size for the word processor. Switching it back on again is a case of using either F9 for the Notebooks list, or F10 for the Snapshots list.

Closing Pages: As you open more and more Pages, things may start to look a little cluttered. There are 2 simple methods for closing Pages quickly. The Ctrl+W key combination will close the current Page, whereas the far more powerful Ctrl+Q shortcut will close EVERY Page apart from the current one. This is very useful when you finish a large piece of work and wish to move on to something else.

Remembering these few shortcut key combinations will allow you to get a lot more out of PageFour. Full details on all of PageFour’s shortcuts can be found in the Help section.

A common question from PageFour users is how to go about moving PageFour and all their Notebooks and Pages to another PC. It’s a relatively straight forward process, though there are a few steps that need to be followed.

1. Download and install the latest version of PageFour to your new PC.
2. If you are running a licensed version, open the License dialog from the Help menu and enter the product key you were given when you purchased. This will have been sent to you via email, but if it has been lost or misplaced, contact me with the name you used when making the purchase, and I’ll track it down for you.
3. Did you set a PageFour password on your old PC? If the answer is yes, open the Password dialog on your new PC by selecting the ‘Tools | Change Password’ menu, and set the password so that it corresponds to the one on your old PC.
4. On your new PC, open the Options dialog from the ‘Tools | Options’ menu, click on the Miscellaneous button, and make sure the Location of Notebook Pages value is the same as your old PC. (This step is not critical, but it will make the moving process less prone to human error)
5. Close PageFour.
6. Locate your PageFour files folder on your old PC. An earlier blog post outlines how to go about finding this folder, which may or may not be named ‘PageFour’.
7. Copy this folder in its entirety from your old machine to the same location on your new machine. When prompted by Windows, simply agree to overwrite any existing files or folders with the same name.
8. Reopen PageFour on your new PC. All your old Notebooks and Pages will appear, and all customised dictionaries and archives will be in place.
9. Two default Notebooks, ‘First Novel’ and ‘My Notebook’ will have been created when PageFour was installed on your new PC. These can be deleted at any time.

If you still cannot see your PageFour Notebooks, the problem will almost certainly lie in the Location of Notebook Pages. This should be checked again to ensure that you copied the PageFour folder to the correct location, as it is very easy to inadvertently drop or copy into the wrong folder.

The above image demonstrates the correct structure of your PageFour folder.

A few weeks ago, Adobe announced that it would be relinquishing control of its PDF format to an outside body, and in doing so probably did more to ensure the long term future of Adobe Acrobat than any other single act. Nobody likes proprietary formats, and despite the almost universal acceptance of PDF files, and the multitude of software applications that utilise it, the PDF file structure was still under the control of a single company.

This is one of the main reasons PageFour files are saved as RTF, rather than a unique format of my own devising. When the very first beta was released, a proprietary format was used. Feedback on this point from early beta testers was negative, as no one wanted to be tied forever to a single piece of software, or to have their months or years of work exist in files that could only be read by one program. There was also the fear, as with any new product, that the company responsible could fail, or the product be abandoned due to poor sales.

Similar arguments were made against the use of any kind of database by PageFour.

By saving the files as RTF, these problems were bypassed, as Rich Text Files can be read by virtually ALL word processors. There was therefore no reliance on PageFour, or on the timely answering of support emails from a small company, should a problem occur - PageFour files could simply be opened and edited in MS Word, Open Office, or some other program.

Moving back to PDFs. Though PageFour itself does not contain any built in PDF capabilities, it is possible to use other PDF software with the product, and there is a multitude to choose from, many of them free.

Some time ago, I recommended PDFCreator, and I still stand by it as the simplest free product to incorporate a PDF writing feature into PageFour. It installs itself as a printer driver, which means that to convert a Page to PDF, you simply set PDFCreator as the Default Printer from the Print menu, and print the page.

Those of you with only a single printer linked to your PC will never have come across the Set Default Printer option on the Print menu, as it only becomes visible when two or more print devices have been installed. When PageFour is opened, the default printer is ALWAYS set to the Windows default, but this can be changed by simply selecting another printer or print device from the list. This changes the default only for PageFour, and only for the current session. Other programs will happily carry on using the Windows default.

If you do choose to install PDFCreator, you will need to close PageFour and reopen it for the changes to take effect. A point worth mentioning, is that the installation of PDFCreator also attempts to install an Internet Explorer toolbar - the reason for which escapes me. This can be prevented by unclicking the appropriate option on the final page of the installation wizard.

There are other, more sophisticated PDF programs out there, many of which offer far more options, such as merging multiple pages into a single PDF document - ideal for novels. These should be tested thoroughly - especially if you plan to hand over money - as not all are as capable of handling multiple pages and merges as they suggest.

The most frequently asked question by PageFour users is “Where are my files?” And the usual reason for asking is that they want to back up their data to CD or thumb drive. Though PageFour does archive your files automatically, this does not help you in the event of a hard drive failure, or your house burning down.

When you run PageFour for the first time, all your Notebooks and Pages, archives, and customised dictionaries are written to your own user-specific Windows Application Data folder. This location can be changed by you at any time. To identify the exact location of your files, open the Options dialog from the Tools menu, and click on the Miscellaneous button. The value stored under Location of Notebook Pages is where all your files are stored.

In the above example, my files are stored in the “C:\Documents and Settings\Darren\Application Data\IMBT\PageFour” folder.

If there are many user accounts on your PC - say one for yourself, another for your husband, and children etc. - and each of you runs PageFour, there will be multiple PageFour folders, all in each user’s Application Data folder.

Depending on your Windows file settings, this folder may not always be visible when browsing. If this is the case, open Windows Explorer, go to the Tools menu, select Folder Options, open the View tab, and make sure the Hidden Files and Folders setting is set to “Show hidden Files and Folders“.

Your Notebook Pages should NEVER be stored in the “Program Files” folder of your PC. This location is normally used by software as it installs itself, and often contains files that are needed to run the software. PageFour will by default install into this folder, and many of the files it writes here are used when setting up new PageFour users, so this folder should be left untouched and does NOT need to be backed up.

So which folders and files should I back up?

That depends on how often you back up. There are four separate folders, along with many sub-folders within your PageFour folder - Archive, Data, Dictionaries, and Temp.

The “Archive” folder contains ALL your existing archives, in some cases going back as far as a year. If you back up frequently, or to a location without much memory (a thumb drive for example), you may decide not to back up this folder. The Archive folder does not contain your most current work.

The “Data” folder MUST be backed up. This folder contains all your current Notebooks and Pages. In the example above, there are seven Notebooks - Blog, Business Blog, Journal, etc. The best way to back up these Notebooks is simply to copy the entire Data folder.

The “Dictionaries” folder is quite small, and only contains your own customised dictionaries, along with any auto-correct dictionaries you may have updated. This is not a critical folder, and you may choose to back this up only rarely.

The final folder, which may or may not exist depending on which PageFour features you have been using, is called “Temp”. You do NOT need to back this folder up, as its contents are temporary and of no great importance.

Do remember to close PageFour before performing a backup.

Is there a quicker way to back up?

Yes, there is. If all you wish to do is take a copy of your existing Notebooks, the quickest method is to go to the Tools menu and select Export Notebooks. This will copy all your current Notebooks and Pages to a location of your choosing for easy backup. In the case of a thumb drive, it will perform the entire backup for you, whereas if you are backing up to CD, exporting to a recognised backup folder on your local machine may help speed up the process.

Backing up your PageFour Data folder IS important, as hard drive failures and corruption can occur at any time. How often you decide to backup, is of course, up to you.

I always love receiving emails from PageFour users. Usually, these emails begin with a small compliment, quickly followed by a suggestion for improvement or a question about a particular feature. Occasionally (from those with a more troll-like disposition), the email takes the form of a rant about how PageFour is just like Product X, which is free, but if I added ALL the features of MS Word, they might consider buying it.

The suggestions for new features and enhancements I immediately add to my list, being careful to increment the common ones that pop up over and over again; the questions about existing features I answer by explaining the feature in question, and drawing attention to similar features that may also be incorrectly understood; the troll-like comments I do my best to answer politely, without letting my more sarcastic side come to the fore.

I’m planning on utilising this blog more fully over the coming months, and have decided to begin by talking about some of the features in PageFour that users often question. I’ve come to the conclusion that many existing users are not fully aware of all the features within PageFour, and that their use of the product could be improved by describing them, and the reasons they were implemented, in more detail. Commonly asked support questions will also be addressed in detail.

In terms of feedback, I always welcome comments about the product. Every time someone points me to the lack of a particular feature, or suggests a method of improvement, I add them to the future releases spreadsheet, and it is from this list that upcoming work is decided upon.

Recent suggestions and queries that caught my interest come from Tammy, who suggests expanding on the word count feature to encompass entire Notebooks rather than just individual pages, one of my new French users who suggests configuration files to allow the menus to appear in different languages, and from Mike, who brings up one of the most commonly asked questions - Where exactly are the PageFour files on my hard drive?

I’ll be starting with this question.