XFIG Users Manual

Miscellaneous

- Search/Replace/Update
- Spell Check
- 2- or 3-Button Mouse
- Wheel Mouse
- Mouse Function Indicator
- Information Balloons
- Fig File Format
- LaTeX and Xfig
- Internationalization
- Year 2000 Compliancy

Search and Replace Text

The Search/Replace entry in the Edit menu will popup the Search & Replace Panel. The keyboard accelerator Meta-I will do the same. Using the Search & Replace Panel, users can search and optionally replace text in the figure. It is also possible to apply UPDATE to searched texts.

[Search/Replace Panel]

- Search for
Specify the string to be searched. Pressing Return in this window or pressing the Search button will start the search.
- Search
Pressing this button will start the search for the text in the Search for entry. The results of the search will be displayed in the bottom window, with the coordinates of each text object containing the word or words.
- Case Sensitive
If this box is checked, upper-case and lower-case letters will be considered significant when searching.
- Replace with
Specify the string to replace the string entered in the Search field.
- Replace
If this button is clicked after the search, the string specified in Search for field will be replaced with the string specified in the Replace with field. Search must be clicked once before clicking this button.
- UPDATE Settings
If this button is clicked after the search, the UPDATE function will be performed on the matching texts, applying settings in the Attribute Panel to the matched text objects.
N.B.: The Undo function is not available for this feature.

Spell Check

Spell Check... in the Edit menu or keyboard accelerator Meta-K will popup the Spell Check Panel. Xfig will run the external spelling checker (resource Fig.spellcheckcommand) on text in the figure, and shows any misspelled words in the text.

[Spell Check Panel]

- Status window
This window shows the status of the spelling checker, and how many words (if any) are misspelled.
- Misspelled words
This listbox shows the misspelled words, with a scrollbar if necessary If you click on a word it is copied to the Correction window where you may edit it to correct it. Pressing Return in this window or the Correct button will replace all occurrances of this word in all text objects in the figure.
- Recheck
Pressing this button will do a re-check of spelling. This is useful after correcting words to verify the corrections.
N.B.: The Undo function is not available for this feature.

2- or 3-Button Mouse

Use of a three-button mouse is recommended, but it is also possible to use a two-button mouse (if you have a two-button mouse and your X server doesn't emulate a three-button mouse, press the Meta (or Alt) key and right mouse button together to simulate mouse button 2). Normally, mouse buttons 1 to 3 are assigned to the left, middle, and right buttons respectively.
However, be warned that some window managers may use the Meta-Right button combination to do window operations (e.g. resize). If this is the case you will have to change the setting in the window manager.

Wheel Mouse

If you use a wheel-mouse, then the following functions are available:
- Attribute Buttons
Rotating the wheel on attribute buttons will increase/decrease setting of the button as if mouse button 2 or 3 is clicked. This can be useful to alter parameters such as Line Width.
- Spinners
Rotating the wheel on a spinner will increase/decrease the value.
- Rulers and Canvas
Rotating the wheel on the rulers or canvas will scroll the canvas.
- Zooming
Rotating the wheel on the canvas while the Control key is pressed will zoom/unzoom the canvas around the pointer.
- Changing Modes
Rotating the wheel on the canvas while the Shift key is pressed will popup a panel to select drawing modes (upward) and editing modes (downward). The panel will close when any item is selected, or when the wheel is rotated in the reverse direction.

Mouse Function Indicator

[Mouse Function Indicator]

Mouse Function Indicator shows which functions are assigned to each mouse button.

Although the function of each mouse button changes depending on the state (selected mode, position of the mouse cursor, state of SHIFT key or CONTROL key, etc) at the time, the mouse function indicator shows the current function at all times.

If the TEXT mode is selected and it is ready to enter text from keyboard, the mouse function indicator shows that as a keyboard icon.

If left and right mouse button are switched, message on the mouse function indicator can be switched with -flipvisualhints option or Fig.flipvisualhints resource.

See also Information Balloons.


Information Balloons

If this mode is ON (see Global Settings Panel), `balloon' messages corresponding to the object the mouse is positioned over will popup after a predetermined time (in milliseconds; resource Fig.balloon_delay). Here is an example:

[Balloons Example]


Year 2000 Compliancy

Both Xfig and TransFig/fig2dev are Year 2000 compliant. They don't rely on any dates for their operation.
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