Documentation Publicon User Guide Advanced Features Editing and Formatting Notebooks Notebooks and Cells

Working with Notebooks and Cells

Cells and Cell Styles

Each Publicon document consists of structural elements called cells. The extent of a cell is indicated by a bracket along the right edge of the notebook. Each cell has a specific style that defines all of its attributes, such as the size, color, and font of the text within it.

When creating your document, it is advisable to use a separate cell for each paragraph of text as well as elements, such as headings, equations, and graphics. You should choose a cell of the appropriate style for each element, such as Title, Section, Subsection, Text, and so on. You can choose from the cell styles listed under the Format Style menu or create new cell styles of your own by defining them in the notebook's style sheet.

The consistent use of different cell styles helps you to structure your document in a logical manner, making the document easier to read and edit. For example, you can group Text cells under a Subsection cell and Subsection cells under a Section cell. You can then easily navigate through different parts of the notebook and locate a specific section by opening and closing cell groups.

Building up a document in terms of cells also gives you greater control over the style of the document. The appearance of each cell style is defined in the notebook's style sheet. Thus, by editing the style sheet, you can apply style changes globally throughout the notebook. For example, you can change the font size and font style of all Section cells in a notebook in one step.

When you open a notebook and start typing, a new cell is automatically created. By default, all new cells are Text cells unless you specify otherwise.

You can modify the appearance of a cell by changing the value of cell options listed in the Option Inspector. For example, you can put a frame around a cell, change its background color, attach labels to it, or change its size. For more information, see Publicon Getting Started: Advanced Formatting.

A cell with a frame and a colored background.