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When editing large amounts of text, you can save a lot of time and frustration using the Story Editor. The Story Editor lets you edit text in a better environment and can reduce eye strains. Read this tutorial to find out how to use the Story Editor and how to customize it properly for your monitor.

Editing text with Story Editor

Typing on the main layout works for short periods of time. When typing long text or formatting existing text, you'll find it a hassle to use the layout editor to edit text. This is where you would use the Story Editor. In the Story Editor lets you see the typeface, size, and spacing without the distraction from the layout. The Story Editor, however, does not display text styles such as bold, underlined, subscript, etc.

Using the Story Editor

To use the Story Editor, select the text frame or any text inside the text frame then choose Edit > Edit in Story Editor.

• Paragraph styles indicate the the style used. This can be H1, H2, Basic Paragraph, and other types of paragraph styles.
• You can move the divider to adjust the column position. This only affects the way you edit text. It does not affect the text.
  • The vertical depth ruler indicates the height of the text. It is located in the same area as the divider.
  • When you have text that cannot fit in the text frame, the overset text indicator appears. Any text inside the area will not be visible layout.

Customizing the Story Editor

To edit the preferences of the Story Editor display, choose Edit > Preferences > Story Editor Display.

To exit out of the Story Editor, choose Edit > Edit in Layout.

Text Display Options

• The font option changes the font used. Letter Gothic Std or Courier New where you can easily tell the difference between similar looking characters such as zeros and o's or capitalized i's and lowercase l's.
• The line spacing option defines the spacing between the lines. For easier reading, choose 150% or double space.
• The text color and background option lets you customize the colors used. You can also use the theme option to pick a preset combination.
  

  Ink on Paper	Amber Monochrome	Terminal
  This is the default color theme.	On a CRT monitor, this provides easier reading.	Simulates the colors of terminal text.
  Classic System	Blueprint
  This theme provides the least eye strain on your eyes. This theme is a good choice if you will be using the Story Editor for long periods of time.	This option is not available as a preset theme, but you can manually choose white as the text and blue as the background. This color combination is the easiest to read.

• The enable anti-aliasing option smoothes the text to reduce jagged edges.
  • Default is best for CRT monitors. It smoothes the text using shades of gray.
  • LCD Optimized is best for LCD monitors. It uses colors instead of shades of gray to smooth text.
  • Soft is the same as default except it produces a fuzzier appearance.

Cursor Options

The options in this area let you change the appearance of the text cursor.

• You can select between four cursor styles: Standard, Barbell, Thick, or Block.
• When the Blink option is enabled, the cursor will blink. Don't confuse this with your mouse cursor, this is for the text cursor that's shown when you click on any text.