PageFour is an easy to use piece of software designed to function as a complete writing environment. It was created for writers, and differs from normal word processors in that it was not written with the business market in mind. Too many software products attempt to be all things to all people and end up satisfying no one. PageFour fills the gap left by larger word processors which focus too much on the corporate market and ignore other users.

What makes it different?

Aside from a really cool interface, PageFour is a notebook, journal, and word processor all rolled into one. PageFour is fully self-contained and can be used with no learning curve by complete computer novices and professionals alike.

The techie software design model of files, disks, saving, copying etc. has been abandoned in favour of a more realistic all encompassing design. Basically, it works the way you would expect it to work.

• PageFour makes structuring your novel a simple process.
• There are no restrictions on the way you work - you decide.
• You never need to open Windows Explorer or browse for files.
• Searching through all your work for a word or phrase you used months ago could not be simpler. No more Windows Search!
• You never need to worry about saving your work. The auto save feature is switched on by default.
• You never need to worry about where files are being saved to. This is all taken care of by PageFour.
• You can password protect a single page or multiple pages at a single click. You never have to worry about your husband reading those Brad Pitt stories again!
• Archiving is fully automatic.

The first time you open PageFour, two default notebooks and a number of folders and pages will have been created. These demonstrate some of the available features and give you a starting point to work from. At any time, they can be deleted or renamed.

PageFour is structured to make working on a single page or multiple pages as easy as possible. Most people are familiar with at least a couple of Windows software packages, which should make the layout of the notebooks easy to understand.

The main window is divided into three separate parts. The left pane contains the notebooks list at the top, with a larger space underneath in which the contents of a single notebook can be expanded. The bulk of the window is occupied by the word processor, which looks and behaves very similar to other word processors.

Double clicking on a notebook expands the contents of that notebook, whereas double clicking on a page in the notebook will open that page for reading or writing in the word processor. Adding a new page or folder is simply a case of clicking the Add Page or Add Folder buttons on the toolbar. New notebooks can easily be added from the Notebook menu.

If you are migrating from another word processor such as Word, an import feature has been designed to make the transition as seamless as possible. You can easily import single documents or whole folders and sub-folders in different formats into PageFour by selecting the Import button on the toolbar.

To summarise: PageFour consists of any number of notebooks, all created by you. These notebooks contain any number of folders and pages, again created by you. How these notebooks, folders and pages are constructed and used is all down to you.

You may decide to have one notebook for each novel, with a folder in each notebook for character summaries, followed by a single page for each chapter. Or you may decide to have a separate folder for each chapter, containing many different versions alongside notes and fresh ideas.

PageFour will never force you to write in a certain way or to structure your novel in certain way.

The Toolbar

The toolbar at the top of the screen contains buttons for the most commonly used features. From here you can easily

The toolbar at the top of the screen contains buttons for the most commonly used features. From here you can easily

• Add a new page or folder
• Print the current page you are working on, or print a whole folder Cut, copy and paste from within the word processor
• Search for text in the current page, or across all your notebooks
• Take a snapshot of the current page
• Save the page or folder as a document that can be read by other word processors
• Import documents or whole folders of documents from outside PageFour

The toolbar is fully customisable and can be switched on or off at will to increase the size of the word processor.

The Notebooks

The notebooks are situated to the left of the screen and comprise a simple list of notebooks at the top, from which each individual notebook can be expanded into the space below. Any action you wish to take on individual notebooks, folders or pages can be undertaken from here.

If you cannot see the notebooks on the left, you may have switched them off the last time you worked in PageFour. They can be switched back on by selecting Notebooks off the View menu, or by simple using the F9 shortcut key. Switching the notebooks off is a good method of freeing up more working space for the word processor and can be useful if you are running PageFour with a small monitor or on a lap top.

To access the features on the Notebook, use the Notebook menu, or the right click menu after selecting a notebook, folder or page. The features available include

• Opening a page to edit
• Adding a new page, folder, or notebook
• Deleting or renaming a page, folder, or notebook
• Move a page or folder around by dragging and dropping it somewhere else
• Cut, copy or paste a page or folder - useful if you do not wish to use the drag and drop feature
• Save pages or folders as documents that other word processors can read
• Search for a page you may have written some time ago
• Password protect, or remove password protection from a page. Remember, there is only one password for all your protected pages!

The Word Processing Toolbar

The word processing toolbar will appear under the main toolbar when PageFour is first opened. It contains many of the most commonly used features of word processors.

       

• Make text bold, italic, or underlined
• Justify your writing to the left, right or center
• Indent paragraphs
• Set paragraph options, such as spacing before and after, and line spacing
• Create bullet points or numbered lists
• Change the font or font size
• Change the colour of text

Once you become familiar with the shortcut keys that correspond to each of these features, you may decide to switch this toolbar off, thereby increasing the size of the word processing window.

The Word Processor

The word processing window is the largest part of PageFour and where you will be spending most of your time. It contains the most commonly used features of word processors you may have used in the past, but without the clutter associated with excessive, business oriented functionality. These features can be reached from the word processing toolbar and the format menu.

A key component of the word processing window is the tabbed pages feature. This allows you to work on many pages at the same time, without having to close and re-open them.

Tabbed paging will be switched on by default and the tabs will appear at the bottom of the screen. These options can be changed at any time by using the View menu and the Options dialog accessible at the bottom of the Tools menu.

The automatic spell checker is switched off by default. It can easily be switched on by selecting Live Spelling from the Spelling menu or by simply pressing the F8 shortcut key. The complete spell checker and thesaurus are also available from the Spelling menu.

When working on a machine with a small monitor, the toolbars, tabs and notebooks can all be hidden by using the View menu. This frees up the whole monitor for the word processor and gives you much more room to work.

Tip:A special Jump command with a shortcut key combination of Ctrl+J allows you to jump between the word processor, the current notebook, and the notebooks list. Using this shortcut, you can easily move between pages in different folders or notebooks without ever having to use the mouse.