For serious text editing, you should actually use a word processor on your computer.
You can transfer the resulting files to your calculator if you have the Graph Link cable and software.

For short texts, you can type on your TI-92+.
If you have a TI-89, don't try anything longer than a word or two.

You get to the Text Editor through the APPS menu.

Selecting Current takes you back to whatever text you last edited.
Selecting Open or New (or Current if the last text file is no longer saved) gets you a dialog box like this one:

Type is always Text.
Folder is main unless you've created some other folders.
Variable is the name of the text file.
    In the Open menu, you can scroll throuh a listing of all the saved text files.
    In the New menu, enter an unused variable name and hit ENTER twice.

You go to an empty screen. Each new line begins with a colon, supplied automatically by the calculator.
A line of text can actually occupy several lines on the calculator screen.
A line on the screen without a colon at its left is part of the preceding line.
You can use colons in your text without confusing the calculator.

The Tools menu, F1, contains the usual word processing tools.
Many of these tools are available via F1 on other screens as well.
Notice that there are shortcut keys for these commands on the TI-92+.
Since the TI-89 has a much smaller keyboard, the only shortcut available there is the backspace key.

The Command menu, F2, allows you to change a text line to an executable line.
The C before the colon identifies a line of text as a command which can be transferred to the command line of the HOME screen and executed.
Option 4, Clear command, removes the C.
Option 5, Execute to EOF, executes the entire sequence of commands starting with the line the cursor is on and ending at the end of the text file.

(The other two items are useful for transferring a text file from the calculator to a computer (with the Graph Link cable and software) for printing.
(Page break does what it sounds like.
(PrintObj puts a P before the colon of a line.
    (Enter the name of a variable after the colon.
    (When you transfer the text file to your computer, the calculator substitutes the contents of the variable for its name.
    (This is useful if you want to print a graph in the middle of a report, for example.)
 

The View menu, F3, automatically splits the screen, with the Text Editor in the top window and the HOME screen in the bottom.
The second option undoes the split.
You can accomplish the same thing with the MODE menu, but this is more convenient.

You might like to split the screen this way so that you can execute a command from the Text Editor and see its effect on the HOME screen immediately.
 

The Execute key, F4, copies the text line the cursor is on to the command line of the HOME screen and executes it.
If the line does not begin with a C:, the Execute key merely moves the cursor to the beginning of the next line.
 

The Find... key brings up the same kind of search utility you'll find in most word processors.
(There's no search-and-replace, however.)

The most useful application of the Text Editor is for saving, modifying, and recalling the results of commands you entered on the HOME screen.

Suppose you just performed the following sequence of calculations, part of an introduction to the derivative of a function.

Option 2 on the Tools menu (F1), is Save Copy As..

If you save the history area as calc1, you can revisit calc1 in the Text Editor.

In the view above, we split the screen and changed the definition of the function f.

This shows the result of putting the cursor at the top of the file and pushing F4 three times.
 

Some tips if you want to use the Text Editor this way:

• Always start your file with NewProb.
• If you use any variables other than a, b, c, ..., z, include a delvar statement at the beginning of your file. delvar aa,bb,cc will delete all three variables. You may want such a statement at the end of your text file as well. (You can find the delvar statement in the CATALOG  or on the Other menu on the HOME screen.)
• Save a copy of the text file under a different name before you edit it. Any changes you make are instantly permanent. You can do this on the VAR-LINK screen.
• Insert some non-command lines with explanatory text. That way you'll know what the file was for when you come back to it later.

One good use for the Text Editor is to store formulas and equations that you'll need to use often.
If you make each formula a command, F4 will transfer it to the command line of the HOME screen and execute it.
You can substitute values for the variables in the formula, using the STO command beforehand or the with bar afterwards.
If you substitute values for variables in an equation, you can then use the solve command to solve for other variables.
With a little practice this becomes much faster than pencil-and-paper techniques.

The screens below show the result of storing values in f (force) and m (mass) and then
going to the Text Editor and executing the line storing Newton's Second Law.

Back on the HOME screen, the solve command finds the right value for a (acceleration.)
Notice that the calculator will handle the units for you.

You can jump back and forth between the two halves of a split screen by pushing 2nd APPS.
The ans(1) key is 2nd (-). You can change the 1 to refer to earlier answers (= higher numbers.)

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