Viewing Pdfs - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE Manual

Chapter 7. Working with Documents 81
window prompts you to name the file and save it in the directory of your choice. If you are editing
an existing file, then any changes you make automatically appears in the file the next time you open
it. You can also choose File => Save As... to save an existing file under a new name or in a different
location, which is convenient if, for example, you are editing a configuration file and you want to test
your changes without losing your original configuration.
For more information about gedit, choose Help => Contents from the file menus to access the gedit
manual.
7.2.1. Shell Prompt Text Editors
If you are not using a graphical desktop and want to read and modify a text or configuration file, Red
Hat Enterprise Linux includes the vi (pronounced vee-eye) text editor. vi is a simple application that
opens within the shell prompt and allows you to view, search, and modify text files. To start vi, type
at a shell prompt. To open a file with vi type at a shell prompt.
filename
vi vi
% &
Figure 7-9. vi
By default, vi opens a file in Normal mode, meaning that you can view and run built-in commands
on the file but you cannot add text to it. To add text, press [i] (for Insert mode), which allows you to
make any modifications you need to. To exit insert mode, press [Esc], and vi reverts to Normal mode.
To exit vi, press [:] (which is the vi command mode) and press [q] then [Enter]. If you have made
changes to the text file that you want to save, press [:] and type [w] then [q] to write your changes
to the file and exit the application. If you accidentally made changes to a file and you want to exit
vi without saving the changes, type [:] and then type [q] followed by [!], which exits without saving
changes.
More information about using vi can be found by typing
at a shell prompt.
man vi

7.3. Viewing PDFs

A PDF (Portable Document Format) file is an electronic image of a document. PDF captures format-
ting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send format-
ted documents and have them appear on the recipient's monitor or printer as they were intended. To
view a PDF you must have a PDF reader.