Writing a simple text

Once you have given your document a name, you may start to type your text. Later on, we will explain how to type special characters, which are necessary for writing texts in foreign languages. The following is a sample text, which you may try to type as an exercise:

Figure 1. Typing a simple text using TeXmacs.

When you are done with typing, we recommend you to first save your document, using the save buffer item in the icon menu, or by pressing the F3 key. A message on the footer should confirm the success of this operation:

Figure 2. We just save the simple text for security.

For your safety, TeXmacs actually autosaves your document every two minutes. If you forgot to save your document before closing TeXmacs, or if your computer is unpowered for some reason, then you will be prompted whether you want to retrieve the last unsaved changes in your document as soon as you try to load it. Again, a message on the footer confirms autosaving:

Figure 3. TeXmacs automatically autosaves your document every two minutes.

When you are done with typing, you usually want to print your document out. This can be done by selecting the Print all item in the icon menu, or by pressing the F4 key. Before printing, it might be that you want to setup your printer using File→Page setup. You may specify a printing command (like lpr), the paper type of your printer (like a4 in Europe or letter in the U.S.A.) and the printer's precision in dots per inch (600 is default).

In order to retrieve your text after closing TeXmacs, you first have to push the Load buffer item in the icon menu or hit the F2 key. Next, you may select your file using the file browser. In our example, the file test.tm indeed appears in the file browser and we may retrieve it by rapidly clicking twice on it.

Figure 4. Retrieving the simple text from the disk.