The Mekashron Editor, which is started whenever you view or edit one of your Documents, is a fully functional, specialist editing tool that is simple yet powerful and enables you to quickly and easily customize all your business documents for use in your Mekashron application.
In this section we will look in detail at all the options and functionality within the Mekashron Editor. The topics we will cover are:
1 - Overview of the Mekashron Editor
This is a view of the Mekashron Editor when you have opened up one of the default Mekashron documents:
Figure 1.1 - The Mekashron Editor
There are many icons and functions to be aware of within the Mekashron Editor.
The main window of the editor shows the document that is currently open. This area is surrounded at the top and on the left with a ruler (in cm) so that you can easily see and modify the layout of items on your document.
The other areas of the screen include:
-
The Main Menu
- The Main Buttons
- The Document Subject field
- The Formatting Menu
- The Footer
We will examine each of these areas in detail.
2 - The Main Menu
Figure 2.1 - The Main Menu in the Mekashron Editor
The functions available to you as options in the Main Menu of the Mekashron Editor are as follows:
Figure 2.2 - The File Menu
- New – allows you to create a new document that you can then save. (We’ll see more about this in the section titled Customizing Documents and Making New Documents)
- Open – opens a standard Windows Open File dialog box, so that you can open an existing text or HTML file on your PC or your network. Note that if you have Microsoft Office installed on your PC you will also be able to open Word documents via this option. However, this is not normally advised, as the HTML tags that are inserted by Microsoft Office are likely to make your documents unreadable when you email them to clients.
- Save – saves your changes to the current document.
- Save As – allows you to save the current document as a copy. You can choose to save the document as an HTML file or a text file.
- Print – allows you to print the current document.
- Exit – closes the Mekashron Editor and takes you back to your previous screen.
Figure 2.3 - The Edit Menu
The options on the Edit menu are standard functions that you will be familiar with from your use of other editing programs:
- Undo (to reverse your last action)
- Redo (to repeat your last change)
- Cut
- Copy
- Paste
- Delete
- Select All
Figure 2.4 - The View Menu
The view menu gives you two ways to view the current document, the Virtual Grid, which is the default view and in which you can make changes to the document:
Figure 2.5 - The Virtual Grid view
...and the Preview option, which allows you to see how your document will look when you print it.
Figure 2.6 - The Preview View
In the Preview screen you have a number of functions:
Figure 2.7 - Buttons in the Preview View
The full list of buttons available to you in the Preview view are, from left to right:
- Previous - if there are multiple pages in your document, this button takes you to the previous page.
- Next - if there are multiple pages in your document, this button takes you to the next page.
- Zoom Out - allows you to zoom in to visually enlarge your document.
- Zoom In - allows you to zoom in to visually shrink your document.
- 100% - returns you to the normal zoom level of 100%.
- Print - sends your document to the printer.
- Save To - allows you to save a copy of the document to your PC or a location on your network.
- Close - closes the preview screen and returns you to the Virtual Grid view to continue editing your document.
Figure 2.8 - The Insert Menu
The options on the Insert Menu allow you to insert various items into the document you are editing:
- Page Break – If you wish to have a multi-page document, this inserts Page Breaks at the appropriate places.
- Picture – You may wish to customize your documents by inserting a picture or logo. We will see exactly how to do this further down.
- Horizontal Line – A simple line to visually break up your document as required.
- Signature - Inserts a signature.
- Text from File – Using this option you can effectively import existing text from a file into the document you are editing. When you choose to Insert Text from File, Mekashron opens up a standard Windows Open File dialog box, so that you can open an existing text file on your PC or your network. Note that the only file type that is available with this option is plain text files (i.e. files whose name ends in .txt)
Figure 2.9 - The Format Menu
The formatting options available to you from this menu include:
- Page Setup
- Font
- Numbering
- Bullets
- Increase Indent
- Decrease Indent
- Background – this allows you to select a background color for your document rather than the default white background.
- Encoding – a variety of encoding options are available to you should you wish to change your document to support a language other than English.
- Clear Document – use this option with care as it completely clears out your document so that you can start with a blank page.
Figure 2.10 - The Table Menu
The Table Menu allows you to insert or delete a table, or to change the properties of an existing table. The sub-menu items on the Table Menu are as you would expect in any good word processing program.
Figure 2.11 - The Email Menu
The Email Menu allows you to set up the options that will be used when you send this document out by email to your clients.
The options available to you in this menu are:
- Hyperlink – allows you to insert a hyperlink into the document, which when emailed to your clients will be a clickable link in the email that they receive.
- File Attachment – allows you to include an attachment each time you send this document out to a client by email.
- Rich Text(HTML) / Plain Text – specifies the format that you wish to send the email in when you send out this document.
- Set Priority – specifies the priority that your email will be sent with.
- Send Picture with Message
Figure 2.12 - The Campaign Menu
From the Campaign Menu you can assign an email or fax that you create within the Mekashron Editor to an existing Campaign, or you can assign it to a new Campaign. To learn more about this functionality, please refer to the Campaigns chapter of this manual.
3 - The Main Buttons
Figure 3.1 - The Main Buttons in the Mekashron Editor
Most of the buttons in this toolbar are convenient shortcuts that you can click on instead of selecting the options in the main menu.
Figure 3.2 - The Save Button
Figure 3.3 - The Cut Button
Figure 3.4 - The Copy Button
Figure 3.5 - The Paste Button
Figure 3.6 - The Preview Button
Figure 3.7 - The Print Button
Figure 3.8 - The Attach Button
There is an additional button:
Figure 3.9 - The Macro Button
The Macro function is very important as this is how you can insert Data Fields into your document template. These will then be automatically populated by Mekashron with the correct details when you add a document to a client’s order (please see the section on Adding Documents to an Entity later in this chapter).
To insert a Data Field, place your cursor within the document you are editing in the location that you would like to add a field, then click on the Macro button. You will get the following screen:
Figure 3.10 - The Macro Screen
… simply select the field that you wish to insert into your document and click OK.
The default screen shows you fields related to an entity (for example, your client). There are other fields that you can insert…
User Fields (details of the user that is logged in when the document is linked to an entity):
Figure 3.11 - Inserting User Fields
Business Fields (details of your business):
Figure 3.12 - Inserting Business Fields
Sale Fields (details of orders):
Figure 3.13 - Inserting Sales Fields
Product Fields (details of products in your inventory):
Figure 3.14 - Inserting Product Fields
4 - The Documents Subject Field
Figure 4.1 - The Subject Field
The subject field for the document provides the subject line of the email when you email a copy of the document to a client. The default subject is the name of the document (e.g. Price Quote, Invoice, etc) followed by an auto-populated data field which will be customized each time you email a document with the specific number. In this way, your client will receive an email with a meaningful subject such as “Invoice 1234”.
5 - The Formatting Menu
Figure 5.1 - The Formatting Menu
The formatting menu allows you to easily make formatting changes to your document. Most of these functions we have already described, as they are also available via the Main Menu. You will be familiar with these options from your use of other standard word processing software packages.
Figure 5.2 - Format Font
Figure 5.3 - Bold, Italic and Underline
Figure 5.4 - Alignment options
(Left, Centered, Right or Justified)
Figure 5.5 - Indentation (Decrease or Increase)
Figure 5.6 - Font Color
Figure 5.7 - Background Color
Figure 5.8 - Highlight Color
(highlights the text you have selected in the color you choose)
Figure 5.9 - Insert Hyperlink
Figure 5.10 - Insert Picture
Figure 5.11 - Switch Alignment
(reverses the alignment of all your text in the document to either Right or Left aligned – the opposite of how it is currently aligned)
6 - The Footer
At the bottom of the Mekashron Editor you have the footer.
Figure 6.1 - The Footer
An advanced option that you have here is that you can select to view the HTML Source of the document that you are editing. This is for users who are skilled in HTML, and is not necessary for you to use. Especially if you are utilizing the documents provided by Mekashron with only minor customization, you will never need to edit the source for a document from this tab. However the ability to view and edit the source is provided for the convenience of users who wish to take advantage of it.
7 - Summary
In this section we have covered the full functionality of the Mekashron Editor. You will encounter the Editor in many areas as you use your Mekashron system, so please refer back to this part of the manual at any point as needed.