.CH INTRODUCTION to the commands
.P
When you first use RUNOFF the wealth of available commands may seem confusing,
but this wealth may be used to  speed the creation of documents. The first
thing you must learn is how to create simple documents such as letters. To do
this you must learn the following commands.
.LIST 0
.list element _.RIGHT MARGIN to set the right margin.
.LE;_.LEFT MARGIN sets the left margin.
.LE;_.TOP MARGIN sets the top margin on the paper.
.LE;_.PAGE SIZE combines all of the above and sets the page length.
This command should always be used if you wish to produce documents
with the pages numbered.
.LE;_.PARAGRAPH starts paragraphs.
.LE;_.CENTER centers a line of text.
.LE;_.RIGHT right justifies a line of text.
.LE;_.INDENT indents the next line.
.LE;_.SPACING sets the spacing to single, double, triple _....
.LE;_.HALF SPACING sets RNO to produce in between spacing such as
1_&1/2, 2_&1/2 _.... This works on only some printers.  Consult your system 
manager if in doubt whether this will work.
.LE;_.SKIP skips a line (or 2 if double spacing, 3 etc.)
In other words skip skips lines according to the spacing selected.
.LE;_.BLANK skips multiple lines independent of spacing.
.LE;_.FIGURE or _.FIGURE DEFERRED reserves n lines independent of spacing for
inserting drawings, or other artwork later.
.le;_.BREAK starts a new line.  This is called breaking the text.
.LE;_.PAGE starts a new page.
.le;_.FILL automatically fills each line by stringing together words until
the line is full.  When fill is on, the output is neatly packed with
exactly the right number of words per line.
.le;_.JUSTIFY pads the text with spaces to right justify the lines at the
right margin.
.le;_.AUTOHYPHENATE causes long words at the end of the line to be
automatically hyphenated to pack more into each line.
.end list 0
.p
The task of setting up paragraphs may be simplified by using the
_.AUTOPARAGRAPH command.  Once this command has been given any line preceeded
by a blank,tab, or a blank line automatically starts a new paragraph.  By
using this command the input text may be formatted to "look" like the final
document.  The _.SET PARAGRAPH command may be used in conjunction with the
_.AUTOPARAGRAPH to control the format of each paragraph. 
.TP 12
.p
One of the most frequently asked question is: How do I do bibliographies or
tables?  This is usually a matter of setting up a negative indentation and
adding the same indentation to the left margin. As a result every time you
begin a paragraph the line will start on the old left margin, and the text
will be indented. 
.LEFT MARGIN +7.s.rm -2
.s.i-2;^&EXAMPLE the following input:\&
.s.literal
.left margin +5. set paragraph -5
.p;_.SET PARAGRAPH [-indent],[-skip],[test page]
.BR;this command sets the format produced by the _.PARAGRAPH
command, the _.AUTOPARAGRAPH, or _.AUTOTABLE feature.  The 
indentation may be either positive or negative. 
.el
.s.i-2;^&Produces the following text:\&
.s.i-5; _.SET PARAGRAPH [-indent],[-skip],[test page]
.BR;this command sets the format produced by the _.PARAGRAPH
command, the _.AUTOPARAGRAPH, or _.AUTOTABLE feature.  The 
indentation may be either positive or negative. 
.ps
.p
Next you should learn how to control the overall look of the pages. This is
controlled by the _.HEADER commands, _.LAYOUT, and _.TITLE/.SUBTITLE commands.
The basic page contains a title/subtitle at the top with a page number.  The
location of the title/subtitle and the page number may be varied using the
_.LAYOUT command.  This allows 17 different placements.  The title and subtitle
are 2 lines of text which appear at the top of each page.  These may be
specified by the _.TITLE or _.SUBTITLE command.  If no title is specified none
appears.  In addition the _.NO TITLE command will suppress both the title and
subtitle without suppressing the page number. The _.NO HEADER command on the
other hand will suppress title,subtitle, and page number.  The _.DISABLE
NUMBERING command may be used to suppress the page number without affecting the
title/subtitle.  Normally the page number is preceeded by the word "Page".  If
you want only a number and no extra word the _.DISPLAY NUMBER command can be
used to suppress the word "Page". The _.DISPLAY NUMBER command can substitute
some other text for the word "Page" and can add extra text after the page
number. For example, this could be used to number the pages of a 4 page
document as 1/4,2/4,3/4,4/4. The _.DISPLAY command can also switch page
numbers to other forms. Normally the first page of a document will not have
the title/subtitle printed on it.  This may be changed by using the _.FIRST
TITLE command. 
.p
A common problem with text is arranging it on each page.  Often you may wish
to keep a section of text all on the same page without having it split between
2 pages.  This may be achieved by using the _.TEXT and _.END TEXT commands. 
An alternate way to guarantee a fixed number of lines all on the same page is
by use of the _.TEST TEXT command or the _.TEST PAGE command. You should be
aware that the _.PARAGRAPH command has an automatic _.TEST TEXT built into it.
.bb
.p
You may wish to reserve part of a page for a figure with a caption.  This is
easily achieved by the _.TEXT DEFERRED  and _.END TEXT commands.  Any text
between these commands is stored and reproduced on the next page that has
enough space.  You may reserve a whole page by using _.TEXT DEFERRED
and _.PAGE to complete the reserved text.  Several captioned figures may be
generated and mixed with text, without leaving partial pages blank.
.eb
.p
Once you are able to basically format a letter or simple few page document,
you should begin to learn some of the shortcuts.
Often you need to produce lists such as the list above of simple commands.
The easy way to do this is by using 3 commands _.LIST, _.LIST ELEMENT, 
and _.END LIST.  These commands make creation and modification of lists
simple and perhaps even enjoyable.
.ls 0
.LE;_.LIST is the command to begin a list.
.LE;_.LIST ELEMENT starts each entry in the list.  If you need to insert
more entries in the list you need only insert a new _.LIST ELEMENT command
with the added text and the list will be appropriately numbered.
.LE;_.END LIST ends the list.
.END LIST 0
The file LIST.TST contains an example of a properly formatted list.
If you need to produce lists preceeded by Roman numerals or letters rather than
numbers the _.DISPLAY ELEMENTS command allows you to change the list format.
This is illustrated in the file DISLIST.RNO.
.p
You may wish to format a large document.  This is most easily done by breaking
it up into sections.  Each section may be combined by using the _.REQUIRE
command.  You would make a master file containing just the command _.REQUIRE
"filename".  For each file you wish to combine you insert the _.REQUIRE with
the filename being the name of each file with text you wish to print.  If you
later on decide that you must reshuffle the various sections it is easily done
by rearranging the various _.REQUIRE statements. If you find that a document
is to be longer than a single page you should always break it up into
sections. 
.p
Another thing you may do in a large document is divide it into chapters and
appendices.  The best way to do this is by using the _.CHAPTER and _.APPENDIX
commands.  These commands automatically format the beginning of each chapter
in identical fashion and the chapters are numbered in the order in which they
occurr.  If later you need to insert a new chapter this is easily done because
the chapters are then automatically renumbered.  The "look" of the chapters
may be modified by the _.STYLE CHAPTER command.  This sets up the margins, and
placement of the chapter number and title. Some documents may need the page
number  placed in different locations depending on whether the current page is
the first page of a chapter. The _.CHAPTER LAYOUT command may be used to
control the first page of each chapter independently of subsequent pages.
_.DISPLAY CHAPTER and _.DISPLAY APPENDIX may be used to select either letters,
ruman numerals, or normal Arabic numerals for numbering the chapters and
appendices. Whenever a document is chapter oriented the page numbers are then
printed as chapter-page.  For example the 5'th page in chapter 2 would be
numbered 2-5.  If sequential page numbering without the chapter numbers is
desired, then _.DISABLE NUMBERING CHAPTER should be used. 
.p
Often you wish to divide a document into sections in addition to or instead of
chapters. Each section is started with a section header consisting of a number
followed by a title. A section number is a string of numbers separated by
periods.  For example 3.2.5  or 1.2 and so on.  A string of 3 numbers is
called the third header level, 2 numbers the second and 1 the first. RUNOFF
can automatically generate headers by using the _.HEADER LEVEL command.  This
is illustrated by the file _.HEADER.TST.  Using the header level command
allows you to easily insert more sections because RUNOFF will then renumber
all the remaining sections automatically.  Headers can be reformatted by the
_.STYLE HEADERS command.  This controls the spacing and placement of the
headers.  In addition the _.INDENT LEVELS command indents the left and right
margins on the headers as desired. If you need to use letters or Roman
numerals instead of normal decimal numbers you may use the _.DISPLAY LEVELS
command to change the type of numeral. 
.p
You may decide that you wish to have sections defined in outline form.
That is instead of numbering sections a.b.c... you wish to use large letters
for level 1, numbers for level 2, and small letters for level 3.  This
can be accomplised by using the _.STYLE HEADERS command and _.DISPLAY LEVELS.
The STYLE command can suppress the a.b.c form of numbering and the
DISPLAY command can specify the numbering format.  In addition
the section title can be centered, underlined, capitalized and so on
automatically.
.P
The next page number or chapter number and so on may be assigned by the
_.NUMBER commands.  These assign numbers for the document.  In addition to
pages, subpages may be numbered.  This allows insertion of extra pages without
reformatting and reprinting the whole document.  For example after page 12 you
may insert 12A, 12B, and 12C for a total of 3 more subpages. This is done by
issuing the _.SUBPAGE and _.END SUBPAGE commands. The actual subpage number
may be selected with the _.NUMBER SUBPAGE command. The _.NUMBER commands make
skipping pages possible.  You should also be aware that it is possible to
format only selected pages and chapters by using the
.if RT
/C, /A, and /P
.else RT
/CH, /AP, and /PA
.endif RT
switches. 
.bb
.p
You may wish to reproduce your document in book form with both sides of
the paper printed.  To aid in this effort several commands are available.
The _.ENABLE ODD forces the first page of each chapter onto an odd
numbered page.  _.PAGE ODD or _.PAGE EVEN may be used to pick which page
you wish to have next.  In addition you can select only odd or even page
output via the
.if rt
/O or /E
.else RT
/OD or /EV
.endiF RT
switches.  By splitting your document into odd and
even pages you can first print out the odd pages, then reinsert your paper
and print all of the even sides.  By using the
.if rt
/R
.else RT
/RI
.endif RT
switch you can move the
text over to account for an extra binding margin.
.eb
.p
Text may be underlined by using the underline flag.  This is controlled by
the _.FLAGS UNDERLINE, _.ENABLE UNDERLINING and _.DISABLE UNDERLINING commands.
Normally only printable characters are underlined.  If you wish to underline
spaces, the _.UNDERLINE command allows definition of underlinable 
characters.  Likewise if you never want to underline certain characters such
as punctuation or numbers you may define them not underlinable by the
_.NO UNDERLINE command.
.p
A whole cornucopia (or Pandoras box) of extra features may be
controlled by the _.FLAGS commands.  These allow you to enable and redefine
special symbols to perform various functions as underlining, capitalization,
hyphenation, overstriking, breaking, and substituting. The _.ENABLE or
_.DISABLE commands let you control when these features are used.  These
features are explained in the section about SPECIAL CHARACTERS. Most of these
features are self explanatory.  Three of them are worth mentioning here. 
.LIST 0
.LE;OVERSTRIKING is where more than 1 symbol is printed in the same spot.
For example overstriking an oh "O" with a minus sign "-" can produce the
Greek letter theta.
.LE; BREAK is a special way of telling RUNOFF where it may break a line
as opposed to hyphenating it.  This is also used to control tabulation.
In addition AUTOBREAK may be used.
.LE;SUBSTITUTION is a way of defining abbreviations for long
commonly used lines of text, numbers, or symbols.  This is most conveniently
used to create complex symbols which may be printed on special line printers.
See _.DEFINE SUBSTITUTE, _.RESET SUBSTITUTE, _.FLAGS SUBSTITUTE, and  _.ENABLE
SUBSTITUTION 
.end list 0
.p
.bb
Often you may need to number various items in the text.  Some examples of this
are footnote numbers, figure numbers, table numbers, and equation numbers.
You may set up such numbers and increment them with the _.DEFINE ITEM and
_.NUMBER ITEM commands.  In addition you may wish to reference various numbers
such as the section number, chapter, appendix, or items.  You may set up
substitute labels to reference these with the _.DEFINE NUMBER commands.
.eb
.p
Sometimes you need to type a table in column format.  This can be onerous even
with the tab stops on a typewriter.  RUNOFF contains tab stops settable by the
_.TAB STOPS or _.TAB PROPORTIONAL commands. In addition RUNOFF can right
justify columns or even center justify columns using _.TAB STOPS. A command
that helps you align columns of numbers along the decimal point is
_.AUTOBREAK. Examples of some of this are shown with the TAB commands. You may
want to connect items in a list by ellipses to guide the eye. The command
_.ELLIPSES will fill in ellipses rather than spaces whenever you tab to the
next item.
.p
You should be aware that RUNOFF can automatically take care of footnotes.
The _.FOOTNOTE command allows you to type the footnote at the same
point it is referenced, and it will appear at the bottom of the page.
In addition RUNOFF can produce an index and a table
of contents.  Separate sections of this document explain indexing
and table of contents.
.p
Finally a few special features should be mentioned.  If you have a word
processing style printer these features are available.  If in doubt ask your 
system manager.  These features are:
.list 0
.LE;Equation formatting - Allows you to easily write equations on the printer.
.LE;_.VARIABLE SPACING - Improves the look of the output when you right
justify the text.
.els 0
.p
Since this version of RUNOFF is almost the same as Digital Standard Runoff
(DSR), the DSR manual can be used as a guide to most of the basic features.
However a large number of advanced features are not available in either DSR or
any other version of RUNOFF. VAX/VMS users may prefer this version to DSR
because of the extra features available to customize documents.  RSX, RT,  or
IAS users have no choice but to use one of the versions of RUNOFF available
through DECUS.