Editing

9.1. Undo and Redo

The undo and redo functionalities are available from the Edit menu, the main tool bar, and the keyboard shortcuts.

• Undo (Ctrl+Z)
• Redo (Shift+Ctrl+Z)

The functions Undo All and Redo All in the Edit menu will undo or redo all of the stored changes. The maximum number of changes can be configured in the preferences; by default Bluefish will remember the last 100 changes per document. It is possible to clear the changes after the document is saved by unchecking the Clear undo history on save check box in the Editor tab of Preferences.

Always perform a save on file before making important modifications. This will prevent any loss of data during undoing.

9.2. Cut, Copy, and Paste

The functions Cut, Copy, and Paste are available from the Edit menu, the main tool bar, and the keyboard shortcuts.

• Cut (Ctrl+X)
• Copy (Ctrl+C)
• Paste (Ctrl+V)

On X Windows Systems, you can also paste the current selected text using the middle mouse button. First select some text (in Bluefish or in any other X application), then press the middle mouse button where you want to paste the selected text.

Cut or copy and then paste can also be done by selecting some text and dragging it to the destination. If the text is dragged to another document (or another application), it is copied. If the text is dragged within one document it is moved. Dragging highlighted text from one application to another may or may not work. However, most GNOME and GTK programs support this feature.

9.3. Input methods

Bluefish handles a number of input methods, available from the contextual menu within a given document.

The Input Methods Contextual Menu

• The default mode switches all input methods off.
• The Amharic mode is used for the most popular Ethiopian language.
• The Cedilla mode is used for languages such as French, which uses the cedilla.
• The Cyrillic mode is used to enter Russian with Roman letters. The transliteration occurs immediately.
• The Inukitut mode works the same as Cyrillic mode.
• The IPA mode is used for International phonetic alphabet.
• Other modes are used for Erythrean, Ethiopian, Thai and Vietnamese languages.

The X Input method relies on a client-server input system, and an input server.

For Japanese, Chinese, and Korean documents, you may have to install and launch the correct input system, such as canna, and the appropriate input server, such as kinput2.

Here is how to write a Japanese document on a non-Japanese system.

Procedure V.1. Writing in Japanese with Bluefish on a non-Japanese system

1. Launch the canna server if it is not running already
2. Set the encoding to Japanese, for example: export LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8
3. Set the Xinput method with export XMODIFIERS="@im=kinput2"
4. Launch kinput2 as a background process with kinput2 &
5. Launch bluefish as a background process with bluefish &
6. To activate the Xinput method within bluefish, use Shift+Space. A small window with a Japanese glyph will appear at one of the corner of the Bluefish window. Once the desired glyph has been composed, press Space, and hit enter to validate it.

Here, you can see the small Xinput method window, at the bottom left corner of the window and the first Japanese word not already validated in the Bluefish window launched on a French system.

Writing in Japanese with Bluefish

For an in-depth discussion on that subject, see Inputting from the keyboard.