Text blocks

A text block holds the words on a calcsheet: the title, the headings, the design basis, the note that says why you picked that load factor. It formats as you type, renders when you click away, and keeps its heading numbers in step with the rest of the sheet. (Underneath, it’s Markdown. You never need to know that, but it helps if you do.)

Text blocks are available on every plan.

Add a text block

Click an empty spot on a page to drop the insertion beacon, then press ‘ or click Text on the beacon’s toolbar. The block opens with the caret in it and a faint Text… placeholder; just type. A maths block whose first character is ’ turns into a text block too, so the reflex works wherever you are.

Press Enter when you’re done. The text is kept and a new maths block opens below it, so a heading, Enter, and the maths that goes under it is one movement.

A text block you empty deletes itself when you click away.

Pasting into a text block brings in plain text; formatting from the source is dropped. Paste text onto an empty spot on the page instead and the blocks are made for you: prose becomes text blocks, lines of LaTeX become maths blocks.

Format the text

While the caret is in a text block, the format toolbar floats above the page:

The text format toolbar: bold, italic, strikethrough, subscript, superscript, heading, bulleted list, numbered list and link

Button	Does
Bold, Italic, Strike Through	Format the selection, or switch the style on for what you type next.
Subscript, Superscript	For H₂O and m² in plain prose. Press again to come back down to the line.
Heading	A menu of heading levels; see Headings.
Bulleted List, Numbered List	Turn the paragraph into a list.
Link	Asks for a web address and links the selected text.

The small icon at the right-hand end, Dock toolbar right, parks the toolbar at the side of the window; Float toolbar top brings it back.

Typing shortcuts

You don’t have to leave the keyboard:

Type	Gets
`**` or `__`	Bold on; the same again turns it off.
`~~`	Strikethrough on and off.
`-` then a space, at the start of a line	A bulleted list.
`1.` then a space, at the start of a line	A numbered list.
`Ctrl` + `B`, `Ctrl` + `I`	Bold, italic.

Ctrl + U underlines while you type, but the underline is gone when you click away. Text blocks don’t keep underlining.

Markdown typed out longhand renders when you click away too: *italic* for italics, backticks for code, and [text](address) for a link. The flip side is that a pair of underscores in ordinary text italicises whatever sits between them, so f_y and g_k comes out as fy and gk. Write symbols as inline maths and the problem goes away.

Paragraphs and line breaks

Ctrl + Enter starts a new paragraph within the block. In a block you’ve only just added, press it twice: until you first click away from a new block, one press only breaks the line, and the two lines join up again when you leave.

Shift + Enter breaks the line while you type, but the break closes up to a space when you click away. That’s Markdown’s rule: a single line break is a space. If the next line should stand on its own, make it a paragraph.

Links

Select some text, click Link and type the address into the box the browser opens. Links can point at http, https and mailto addresses only.

Hover a link and it says Ctrl+click to open link. A plain click puts the caret in the link so you can edit it; Ctrl + click (⌘ + click on a Mac) opens it in a new tab.

Headings

The Heading button opens a menu of eight headings and a way back:

Numbered headings carry a number: 1, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.1.1. Non-numbered headings come in the same four sizes with no number. Normal text turns a heading back into a paragraph. From the keyboard:

Keys	Heading
`Alt` + `Shift` + `1` … `4`	Numbered, level 1 to 4.
`Alt` + `1` … `4`	Non-numbered, level 1 to 4.

On a Mac, press ⌥ for Alt.

Numbering runs through the sheet

Heading numbers count across the whole calcsheet, not per block. Each text block picks up where the one before it left off, in reading order: top to bottom, then left to right, page after page. So a heading can live in a block of its own with the maths under it, and the numbers still come out right:

Headings numbered 1 Loads, 1.1 Dead load and 1.2 Imposed load, each followed by a maths block, then an unnumbered Source heading and note, then 2 Member design

Each heading resets the levels below it: Member design is 2, and the next level-2 heading under it would be 2.1. A non-numbered heading, like Source above, takes no number and doesn’t disturb the count. Move a block and the numbers follow its new place in the reading order. Print or export a PDF and they come along.

One wrinkle: a text block sizes itself to its text without counting the heading number, so a short numbered heading can wrap straight after its number. Double-click the block’s resize handle to give it the full width (see Width); the headings above have had exactly that done.

Find headings in the Navigate tab

The Navigate tab of the sidebar lists every heading on the sheet under Calcsheet headings, indented by level and numbered to match. Click one to jump to it.

The Calcsheet headings list in the Navigate tab: 1 Loads, 1.1 Dead load, 1.2 Imposed load, Source, 2 Member design

Theme and heading colour

How text blocks look is set once for the whole sheet in Calcsheet options: the text theme (Classic, Human or Droid) and the heading colour (black, red or blue, applied to heading levels 1 to 3). See Text block theme.

Inline maths

Put LaTeX between dollar signs and it’s typeset in the line: $\sigma_d$ gives $σ_{d}$ . $ … $ works as well. While you’re editing, the block shows the source so you can fix it:

A text block being edited, showing the LaTeX source between dollar signs

Click away and it’s typeset:

The same block rendered: the design stress sigma d must not exceed f y over gamma M0, with a second line of prices left as plain text

Inline maths is typography, not calculation. It isn’t evaluated and doesn’t know the sheet’s variables; to show a value, use a maths block.

The rules for which dollar sign starts maths are there so that prices stay prices:

An opening $ must be followed directly by a non-space character.
A closing $ must come directly after a non-space character, and mustn’t be followed by a digit.
\$ is always a plain dollar sign.
Nothing inside backticks is maths.

That’s why $50 a tonne, rebar $30 above stays as text: the second dollar sign has a space in front of it, so it can’t close anything. If the LaTeX between a pair can’t be typeset, the block shows the source in code type instead.

Calcsheet properties in text

Type { and the block offers the calcsheet’s properties:

Pick one with the arrow keys and Enter or Tab, or type the name and close the brace yourself. While you edit, a token shows as its name in grey italics, such as {title}. The rest of the time it shows the value, and changes when the value does. {title}, page {pageNumber} of {pageCount} reads:

A rendered text block reading Footbridge deck design, page 1 of 1

The values come from the Properties page of Calcsheet options, which has the full list of tokens. Three things worth knowing:

{title} is the Calcsheet title property, not the filename in the header. Renaming the file in the header leaves it alone.
{pageNumber} is the page the text block sits on.
{currentDate} is today’s date, as dd/mm/yy.

Spell check

Words the browser doesn’t recognise get its usual red underline, checked in the browser’s own language; the footer shows which, as Spell check: en-GB or similar. Right-click a word for up to three corrections, and click one to swap it in:

Right-clicking the misspelt word reinforcment, with the correction reinforcement offered in a menu

Those corrections come from Maths Explore’s own dictionary, which is US English whatever the footer says. Right-click colour and it offers color; ignore it. When the dictionary has nothing to suggest, you get the browser’s own right-click menu instead. Inline maths, code and property tokens are left out of the corrections.

Width

A text block sizes itself to its longest line, up to the right-hand edge of the page, and grows downwards as you write. While you’re editing, a handle sits on its right edge:

Drag it to set the width. The text wraps to fit, and the block keeps that width from then on.
Double-click it to stretch the block to the page’s right edge.