Textforce [en]

The Dropbox-enabled text editor for the iPhone and iPad

Textforce is a text editor utilizing the cloud storage system. It provides seamless access to documents ‘in the cloud’ from anywhere. Use this application to create a document on iPad, edit it on iPhone then complete it on your desktop computer. Textforce also includes regular expression search or replacement, making text editing smooth and efficient.

Features:

○ Link with Dropbox, a cloud storage service.
You can directly edit text files stored on Dropbox. All text is automatically saved in the background; you will never lose data and file saving is instant. Additionally, you can undo errors and restore directly on the the Dropbox website. A free Dropbox account can be created on Textforce.

○ Combination between applications
• ‘Open In’ function – allows .txt files that you are editing to be opened in Evernote apps or GoodReader.

○ Supports text editing
• Cursor Helper function – Easy and intuitive cursor movement on iPhone and iPad.
• Regular expression search and replacement – Registers frequently used search terms from Favorites.
• Displays the number of characters – Counts the number of characters used. Helpful when limited to using a set amount of letters.
• Input support – Work with TextExpander to insert pre-defined snippets.

○ Supports charactor encoding
Textforce can open files in Windows with the text editor by setting up CRLF for line feed code.

○ Offline editing
You can view and edit offline, and sync automatically when online. The Offline Mode is added from version 1.5 in case the Dropbox service is temporarily unavailable.

○ Easy access to commonly used files
You can bookmark frequently used files or directories, or open a recently accessed file from History.

Others

• Undo/Redo
• Auto save while editing data
• Save recently viewed or edited positions
• Preview .html or .rtf files
• Read-only Mode. Open URL links with Safari
• Copy whole text, send as email
• Change the font size and type
• Change the font color and background color
• Word count, line count, display encoding

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Index

1. How to use
2. Contact
3. Change History

1. How to use

1.1. Preparation of Dropbox

Setup Dropbox account

Launching Textforce will display the login screen. If you don’t have a Dropbox account, you can create a free one by selecting ‘Create an Account’.

1.2. File Operation

(1) Open a file

There three ways to open a file.

a. Open in Files Tab

You can select a file from the Dropbox directory. Tapping the left button on the navigation bar returns to the upper directory. Tapping the file tab again gets back to the root directory.

* Files with extensions that you set to display will be listed here. By default the application displays only .txt files.

b. Open in Bookmark Tab

You can select a file from your bookmarks or from a directory.

c. Open in History Tab

You can select a file from the recently accessed files.

(2) Add a file

Adding a file is only available by using file tabs. Tap the “+” button to add a file.

(3) Delete a file or directory

Swiping the targeted file or a directory on the file tab displays the delete button.

(4) Rename a file

Open a file and tap the file icon in the navigation bar to display the menu. Select Rename to change the file name.
* It is not possible to change the directory name.

(5) Bookmark a file

Bookmark can be registered in the following steps.
1) Open a file or directory that you want to bookmark from the file tab
2) Tap the file or directory icon on the navigation bar to display menu
3) Select Bookmark from menu

1.3. View and Edit a file

(1) View a file

Display a file on the file view screen.

The number of contained characters will be displayed on the information bar while you view a file. (* The information bar is only displayed when you set to activate it.)
You can proceed the following operations while viewing a file.

Information button

This button displays the number of characters, lines, words, type of encoding, revision and updated data.

Action menu button

This button allows you to copy text to Clipboard, send an email, switch to Read-only Mode or use the Open In function. In Read-only Mode, text cannot be edited. The URLs on the text can be open by tapping it. (* Note that the Quick Look preview function will be activated instead of Read-only Mode when working with .html or .rtf files.) Please refer to the instructions on app compatibility for further Open In function.

Font/Color button

This button allows you to change the font size, font type, background color or font color.

(2) Edit a file

Tapping the text area opens the Edit mode (* You can’t open Edit mode when in Read-only Mode). The Undo/Redo button allows you to undo or redo the operation while editing a file.
Placing the cursor on a character shows the number of characters used. The number of characters will also be displayed on the information bar while editing. (* The information bar will only be displayed if it has been previously enabled.)

(3) Use Cursor Helper

Positioning the cursor with your finger in the exact location to make a change isn’t always easy on iPhone or iPad. The Cursor Helper makes it easy to move the cursor using buttons.

Tapping text enables buttons at the top of the software keyboard. If you don’t touch on the screen for a while, the buttons will be automatically hidden.
The buttons (shown from the left) provide the following functions: toggle mode, move to the line ahead, move one character to the left, move one character to the right, move to the end of the line. Holding the button repeats the operation.

You can also use the Cursor Helper to select the text range when you cut or copy text. The Cursor Helper switches to the Range Selection mode by tapping the Toggle mode button or simply selecting the range of text. You can slide in or out the range selection with the operation buttons.

(4) Search/Replace text

You can search or replace text. Tapping the magnifying glass icon accesses the search mode. Enter search text in the Find text field or replacement text in the Replace text field.

You can toggle search and replacement on the search settings by tapping the gear button. Setting up case-sensitive or activating regular expressions is also available on this setting screen. You can call the past search terms from History or search terms that you saved for Favorite.

Search result that matches the keyword will be highlighted. When there are several entries that match the keyword, you may check through each match by using the button on toolbar. You can replace the selected text, or all the text that matches the keyword, using the batch button.

(5) Send data to another application

You can send editing data to another application via the Open In function. For example you can save data in the Evernote application by sending it. Select Open In from the action menu on the View mode to enable the function.
Note: An application that supports Open In needs to be installed to use this function. Each application differs with regards to which file extensions are compatible.

(6) Others

• Preview .html file and .rtf file by selecting Quick Look from the action menu in the View Mode.
• You can use snippets that you defined in TextExpander. * Enable this feature in the settings.

1.4. Setup Application

The following settings are available from setting tab.

User Interface

Font settings

Font size and type

Color settings

Font color and background

Information bar

Enable the information bar to display the number of ‘characters used’ when editing a file

Cursor Helper

Enable cursor move or range selection expansion.

Text File

File extension

Add or remove file extension types that you wish to be treated as text files. The .txt extension is always handled as a text file. If you want to work with a file without an extension, enable the “No extension file” option.

Line feed code for a new file

Setup the line feed code for a new file

TextExpander

Enable the TextExpander compatible function

Auto local save

Save an editing text file as a Local file on a regular basis.

Dropbox

Offline Mode

Disable sync with Dropbox. You can use this mode when Dropbox server is down.

Share bookmark

Share bookmarks between different devices such as iPhone and iPad.

Cancel Dropbox connection

Cancel the connection with Dropbox. Note that this operation removes all cached data, bookmarks and history from the device.

Others

Debug Settings

You can either choose to obtain a debug log or not. However it is not recommended to enable debug log since it creates a large number of files. When saving is enabled, the app displays a menu that allows you to email a bug report. When you encounter bugs, please enable this setting, recreate the bug if possible then forward the bug details by email to our support team.

2. Contact

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns at: dev.yutaka+textforce@gmail.com
It is sometimes difficult to determine if sync issues are due to Textforce or the Dropbox service. Sending the debug log through email via the “Send Bug Report” function will help us to better solve any problems you may be experiencing.

3. Change History

Ver.2.3
* You can change sort order of file list from setting menu.
sort order type: file name, file size, updated

Ver.2.2
* You can use focus mode. The focus mode hide toolbars, you can focus text editing.
* Bug fixes

Ver.2.1
* Adding support full screen editing view on landscape mode of iPad.
You can change screen size by expand/shrink button on the editing tool bar.

Ver.2.0
* You can move text file from the file icon menu of the text editing view.
* You can duplicate text file from the file icon menu of the text editing view. (“save as” function)
* Bug fixed.

Ver.1.5
*You can select offline mode. Please use the mode if Dropbox server is down.
*Dropbox API had return error 500 for an API calling, so Textforce fix don’t use the API.
*You can display information bar that show total number of charactors and more. Please enable from setting view.
*You can use cursor helper function. The function support moving cursor and selecting text selection. Please enable from setting view.
*You can select auto saving time.
*You can select search condition hisotry and you can add the condition to favorite list.
*Bug fixes

Ver.1.4
* You can “find” and “replace” text. The function support match case and regular expression.
* The range of the selectable font size that was able to be set was expanded.
* The userinterface is improved.
* Other bug fixes.

Ver.1.3
*Support default file name. When creating new file, the file name field is set to default name.
*You can share bookmarks between iPhone and iPad. It is possible to enable it from the setting.
*You can use TextExpander. It is possible to enable it from the setting.
*You can send file to other applications. It is possible to transmit by action menu -> OpenIn of the file edit screen. The application program corresponding to the extension such as txt is necessary. The Evernote application program etc.
*Support CP932 encoding
*Other bug fix

Ver.1.2
* The treatment of the newline character is improved.
– The newline character of the file was displayed with the Info button.
– You can select default newline character from LF or CRLF.
– You can preserve new line charactger when the file is edited.
* You can change text color and background color.
* Bug fixed.

Ver.1.1
*add function: You can make directory
*add function: You can rename file
*add function: You can preview of .html and .rtf file
*support non-extension file
*bug fixes

Ver.1.0
*New release