Formatting Text - Star Micronics NX-10 User Manual

CHAPTER 4
FORMATTING TEXT
Subjects we'll cover in Chapter 4 include-
* The carriage return and line feed;
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The amount of space between lines;
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Moving to the next page;
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The number of lines on a printed page;
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Horizontal and vertical tabs;
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Setting margins- left, right, top and bottom;
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Centering and aligning.
Chapter 3 showed us all the basic techniques of using the
printer. Now we're ready for the more advanced ones. We'll con-
centrate on changing the appearance of the page to suit our
needs.
ilNES AND LINE SPACING
n
Starting a new line
Up until now the only time we have thought about printing on
a new line is when we didn't want it to happen. We learned that
putting a semicolon (;) at the end of a BASIC line will not end the
line of printing. So somehow, the computer telling the printer
when to end one line and start another.
There are two codes that are used to end one line and start
another. They are carriage return (CHR$(13)) and line feed
(CHR$(lO)). Like the escape code, they have been given ab-
breviations which you'll find many texts (including this one):
<CR > and < LF > . The codes are simple, but their action is a
little confusing (especially with BASIC). Carriage return is the
easiest. Each time that the printer receives a CHR$(13) it
returns the print head to the left margin. It does not advance the
paper (if DIP switch 1-8 is on; see below).