Operations on blocks of slots - BLOCKS

The commands on the BLOCKS menu enable you to manipulate documents to control exactly which areas are affected by a particular operation. A block can include anything from a single slot to a complete document.

Before giving any block command you identify the slots you wish to operate on using the Mark Block command. You can mark a single slot, a row of slots, a column of slots, or a rectangular block of slots spanning several rows and columns.

You identify which block of slots you want to operate on by giving the Mark Block command at the top left-hand corner and bottom right-hand corner of the block. After giving the two Mark Block commands, all the selected slots in the block will be shown highlighted on the screen.

Reproduces the contents of a slot, or block of slots, in any part of the document. The following options are displayed:

Range to copy from
Range to copy to

Each range is a block of slots identified by specifying the coordinates of its top left-hand corner and bottom right-hand corner. If necessary, extra rows and/or columns are created in the document to accommodate the new slots.

The ranges can be one of the following forms:

Range to copy from: a single slot, eg A1.
Range to copy to: an area, eg B3 D7, or just a row or column range. The area can include the original slot, if required.

The contents of the slot are copied over the entire area, as represented symbolically in the following diagram:

Range to copy from: a column array, eg A1 A3.
Range to copy to: a single slot or a row array, eg B5 D5.

The column is copied to the target column starting at either the single slot, or the range of slots given by the target row.

Range to copy from: a row array, eg A1C1.
Range to copy to: a single slot or a column array, eg B5 B7.

The row is copied to the target row, starting either at the single slot or at the range of slots given by the target column, as shown on the following page:

Range to copy from: an area, eg A1 B2.
Range to copy to: a single slot, eg C5.

The area is copied to the area with the top left-hand corner defined by the single slot.

If the slots contain slot references, the references are updated to take account of their altered position, unless they are fixed with the $ operator.

Copies a marked block of slots to the position in the document indicated by the cursor. Slots in the document will be moved apart to make space for the block being copied, in contrast with the Replicate command which overwrites the target area.

Slot references in the new block are updated as for the Replicate command, but references to slots within the block are not altered.

Moves a marked block of slots from its original position to the position indicated by the cursor. All slot references are updated as appropriate.

Note that if you attempt to move a block of slots to a new position which overlaps the same rows or columns as the original block, the error

Overlap

will be displayed.

Sorts a marked block of slots. Text slots are sorted into alphabetical order, expression slots into numeric order, and date slots into date order. The following options are displayed:

Sort on column
Sort in reverse order               No
Don't update references             No 

Sort on column: set to a column label (A, B, C etc) to specify which column within the marked block should be used to determine the ordering of the slots.

Sort in reverse order: by default, the marked block is sorted into ascending order, and any slot references are updated as appropriate. Setting this option to Yes will sort the specified column in descending order.

Don't update references: setting this option to Yes inhibits the updating of slot references within the block being sorted. This gives a faster sort operation, and can be used provided no slots within the sorted block are referred to either from within or from outside the sorted block.

Search is for a specified string within a single document, or a multi-file document. The following options are available:

String to search for
Search only range of columns       No
Equate upper and lower case        Yes
Search only marked block           No
Search from current file           No
Search all files in list           No 

The string to be searched for is specified in the same way as for the Replace command, and the equivalent options have the same effect; see below.

When the search is completed, a message such as

27 found

will be displayed where 27 is the number of matches since the last Search command.