Color Keys; Rvs On And Rvs Off Keys; Run Stop Key; Inst-Del Key - Commodore VIC-20 User Manual

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COLOR keys — You can change the colors of the characters
displayed by simultaneously pressing the CTRL key and one of
the 8 color/number keys on the top row of the keyboard. A
shorthand notation for each color is shown on the face of the
keys. The colors are black, white, red, cyan (light blue), purple,
green, blue, and yellow. With these keys, you can set or change
the color of letters, numbers and graphics displayed inside or
outside a computer program- Once you "set" a color, everything
you type will be in that color until you change colors again.
RVS ON and RVS OFF keys — You can
reverse the images that the VIC puts on the
screen by typing CTRL and RVS ON. Every
thing you type will then be reversed...for example, you can
make the VIC display white characters on a blue background
(the opposite of what it normally prints) by pressing CTRL and
RVS ON. To get back to normal type CTRL and RVS OFF. Try it!
RUN-STOP key — Press this key to tell the
VIC to stop what it is doing and return control
back to you. When the VIC is running a
program, you can stop the program with this key. Holding down
the SHIFT and pressing this key, tells the VIC to begin loading
information into memory from the optional tape cassette unit.
INST-DEL key — You can insert and delete
characters from the line you are typing by
pressing this key. When you press the key by
itself (delete), the character that was immediately to the left of
the cursor disappears. If you're in the middle of a line, the
character to the left is deleted and the characters to the right
automatically move in to close up the space. Holding down
SHIFT and pressing this key, opens up a space in the line so
you can insert a new character. This is very powerful for editing
and correcting mistakes!
GRAPHICS & THE COMMODORE KEY —
When you turn on the VIC, you're
automatically in "graphics" mode which
means you can type UPPER CASE letters and the more than 60
graphics you see on the keys. There are two graphics on each
key. To get the graphic on the right side, simply hold down the
SHIFT key and type the key with the graphic you want. To get
the graphics on the left side, hold down the ■'COMMODORE"
key (the little Hag). In this way you can type UPPER CASE
letters and the full graphics set at the same time! You can
create pictures, charts, and designs by placing characters side
by side or on top of each other (like building blocks).
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