Keys to Delete and Insert Characters

If you have typed

Thisz is the ...

for example, you move the cursor back to the superfluous character and press the

Del

key, which should be on your keyboard. (Sometimes it is labelled with Entf or with something else.)

An alternative to this procedure offers the backspace key. It is above the return key and it has an arrow pointing to the left on it (please do not mix it up with the `cursor to the left' key that looks very similar to the backspace key). The backspace key deletes the character on the left of the cursor. Anything on the right of that character moves to the left by one position. For comparison, the Del key deletes the character on the cursor position while the backspace key deletes the character before; in both cases anything on the right moves to the left by one position.

But if you have typed

Thi is the ...

- and forgotten the s, as you can see - you move the cursor back to the place where you have to insert the character (i.e. the space after `Thi') and press the

Ins

key, that should be on your keyboard (and which is sometimes labelled with `Einfg' or something else). Finally, you press the key with the missing character.

When you have pressed the Ins key, you have put exaEdit into the insert mode (please, note the difference between insert mode and input mode, the term input mode is explained in the section Creating a File). `Insert mode' means that any additional characters are inserted at the cursor position. The sign ^ (/\) that is displayed in column 14 in the status line helps you to recognize that exaEdit is in the insert mode. You leave the insert mode by pressing the Ins key again. The insert mode is also turned off automatically each time you press the Enter key.

Later, in the lessons Changing Data Directly and Changing Data, you will learn how you can remove typing errors that you only recognize after you have entered them into the workfile with the return key.