The directory is presented in a standard list. You can move the highlight up and down with the keyboard cursor Up and Down keys, respectively. There are many commands for navigating the directory, shown on the Navigate menu (Alt V) and listed in the command reference section of this documentation. You do not need to memorise all the commands, or even any, as they are displayed on the menu and you can use the menu items themselves. Some of the commands also have toolbar buttons. The most frequently used commands will probably be committed to memory very quickly. They are:

Up/Down Arrow, mouse wheel up/down: Move highlight up/down one line. Mouse wheel enables rapid scrolling.
Home/End, Control Home/End: Move highlight to the top/bottom item in the list.
PGUP/PGDN: Move highlight up/down by one screen.
Tab: Move highlight to beginning of next paragraph.
Shift Tab: Move highlight to previous paragraph heading. This will be the current paragraph heading if the selection is currently on a mid-paragraph entry, or the top entry if there is no prior paragraph heading.
Alt Home/End: Move highlight to first/last paragraph in list.
Alt Left/Right: Move highlight to next/previous subheading within paragraph. These commands do not jump outside the current paragraph.
Control Down: Move highlight to first contact line or link in current paragraph or subsection.
Control Up: Move highlight to first line of current paragraph or subsection, below heading.
Type text: Move highlight to entry containing typed text so far. This is a "speedsearch", the selection changes as the text you type expands. Press and release the Control key or use Home to go to the beginning of the list to clear the search text and begin again.
F3: Repeat last search.

A directory entry is said to be selected when it has the highlight. Pressing ENTER on the selected item "executes" it, that is, performs the action associated with that entry - dialling a telephone number, addressing an e-mail message, displaying a web page, opening a document, etc. You can execute an entry by clicking it with the left mouse button, at any point in the line, without having to highlight it first. The term "select" is also used to indicate actual execution, the meaning should be clear from the context; for example, "WintextCom dials a number when it is selected".

The selected entry scrolls to the top of the window, so as to show the maximum amount of information below it. Scrolling will not happen if the list is small enough for all lines to fit in the window, or near the end of the list where all subsequent entries can be displayed. Clicking on an entry line with the middle mouse button highlights (selects) it, scrolling it to the top if necessary.

A directory paragraph heading is indicated by the entry line beginning with a colon (":"), then the text after a space. This corresponds to a blank line in the file where the directory list is stored, but avoids having blank entries in the directory. Subheadings are indicated by the line beginning with one or more plus signs ("+"), one for each subsection level. These lines are stored literally with the directory list. Directory lists are stored on disk as plain text files.

Under normal operation, you can dismiss the directory by pressing Escape. In text-to-text communications operation, where Escape has other uses, pressing Shift+Escape will dismiss the directory. Dismissing the directory causes it to disappear without any action being performed. WintextCom stays alive in the background, but does not show an icon on the taskbar or in the system tray, which means it is well out of the way if using the keyboard to switch between applications or select system tray options. You can recall the directory at any time, when using any application, by pressing its accelerator key, F10 by default, or by clicking a shortcut icon representing the program, such as the desktop icon, WintextCom, created when the software is installed. When the directory is recalled, its state is unchanged from last time you displayed it, with the same entry in the same list selected.

When you execute a directory entry, the directory usually dismisses as when Escape is pressed. You can create directory entries that keep the directory open when Executed, or change the default behaviour so that it generally stays open unless the entry specifies otherwise.

To shut down WintextCom complete, press Alt+F4 or click the close button in the main window title bar. When WintextCom starts up again, the directory opens at the top of the default list, the state is not saved when WintextCom is terminated.

The following sections describe how to store and use particular types of directory entry. You can find a complete list of directory editing commands in the command reference section of this documentation. Some of the most frequently used commands are listed below. The current position is defined as the position of the currently selected entry, the one with the highlight, which is also referred to as the current entry (or the current line).

Control I, Insert: Insert new entry at current position.
Control A: Add new entry at bottom.
Control M: Modify current entry.
DEL: Delete current entry, prompts for confirmation.
Control L: Copy current entry. Copies current line to the Windows clipboard for external access, which will also be used to fill in the store item dialogue box next time the insert or add command is used.
Control X: Cut current entry. It is removed from the list immediately, but the changes not actually saved until it has been reentered at a new location with the insert or add command.
Control C: copies only the information filed of an entry, the portion to the right of the colon. When you subsequently use the modify command, the copied information replaces the existing information in the store item dialogue box.
Control Shift C: Copies the information field, and th current entry is deleted in its entirety.
Control V: Opens the store item dialogue, filled in wit the contents of the Windows clipboard.
/alt C: Clears a pending entry, for instance, after using the copy command, it will no longer be available for reentry with the insert or add command.
WindowsKey+F2: This is a global command that can be used with supported applications to capture specific information, for example, the tile and address of the currently displayed web page in a browser or the sender's name and e-mail address from a message in Outlook Express or Windows Mail.
Control Shift ENTER; Opens the directory list in an external editor (Notepad by default). This is useful if you wish to carry out more extensive editing than is afforded by the inboard commands, such as to change the layout or copy and paste blocks of information from another document.

Pressing Control ENTER in the directory inserts the information field of the current entry into the underlying document window. For example, if you are working in a document in your word processor and you recall the WintextCom directory by pressing F10, highlight a telephone number entry and press Control ENTER, the telephone number will be inserted into your document at the cursor position, as if you had pasted it from the clipboard or simply typed it. This capability of WintextCom means that the information in your directory is instantly available when working with another application, it can easily be entered into documents, e-mail messages, forms, charts, whatever; it is especially convenient when providing log-on details and filling in Internet forms, because it enables you to store all relevant information together and easily insert it into the required fields. You can insert information as above by double clicking an entry with the left mouse button, instead of highlighting it and pressing Control ENTER.

You can insert other parts of a directory paragraph or sub-paragraph into a document, etc., as well as the information of an individual entry. The options are all available on the directory Send menu (Alt N). Some of the commands used for quick information retrieval are:

Control ENTER: Information field of current entry, if it has one (postal address lines do not, for example).
Left Arrow: Entire current line (all fields of current entry).
Right Arrow: All lines of postal address from current.
Control Left Arrow: Post code (assumed to be last line of postal address).
Control Right Arrow: All contact lines (the lines following a postal address with an information field - telephone number, e-mail address, etc).
Control G: Entire paragraph or sub-paragraph from current line.
Control Shift G: Opens Windows address book. Copy the required information to the clipboard and click OK to close the dialogue; the information is inserted into the previous window. You can press Shift+WindowsKey+G to invoke this feature while working in any application.

Text-to-text telecommunications users can also send this information over the 'phone when on a call.

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Using the Directory