Generalities for typing text

As soon as you have performed the preparatory actions as explained above, you can start typing. The usual English characters and punctuation symbols can easily be obtained on most keyboards. Accented characters from foreign languages can systematically be obtained using the escape key. For instance, “é” is obtained by typing A-' e. Similarly, we obtain “à” via A-‘ a and so on. Long words at borders of successive lines are automatically hyphenated. In order to hyphenate foreign languages correctly, you should specify the language of the document in the menu Document→Language.

At the left hand side of the footer, you see the document style, the text properties at the current cursor position. Initially, it displays “generic text roman 10”, which means that you type in text mode using a 10 point roman font and the generic document style. You can change the text properties (font, font size, color, language) in the Format menu. You can also change the text properties of the text you have already typed by selecting a region and then using the Format menu. Some text properties can also be changed for all the document with the Document menu.

At the right hand side of the footer, the character or object (like a change in the text properties) just before the cursor is displayed. We also display all environments which are active at the cursor position. This information should help you to orient yourself in the document.