I have compiled Christof's MyWord Plugin and added it to this page (below). I wanted to have this plugin as default to the RPMs, but the plugin only has a local installation. That is, it must be installed in your home directory, which is not easy to do with RPMs (simple RPMs at least). MyWord was compiled on a SuSE 9.2 box, but was test on SuSE 8.2, 9.0 and 9.1 to a limited extent.

This plugin provides Skencil with multi-line text on the Skencil canvas.

1. Right-mouse download and unpack the below tarball. At the command line use: gzip -cd ./MyWord.tar.gz | tar -xvf - . Or click on the tarball in Konqueror and it will let you browse and copy the contents like a normal directory (or it will open Ark.). The tarball has one file: "userhooks.py" and one directory: "Plugins".

2. Copy the directory "Plugins" to the directory "~/.sketch" (where "~" is your home directory. Ex. /home/jsmith/.sketch).

3. Copy the file "userhooks.py" to the directory "~/.sketch".

If you use Konqueror to move your files you will need to enable the viewing of hidden files to see the ".sketch" directory. Using the Konqueror drop menu, select "View" -> "Show Hidden Files". You can turn this viewing feature off when done.

If you already have a Plugins directory and userhooks.py file, then copy the contents of the Plugins directory to your Plugins directory and use your favorite text editor to add the lines in the userhooks.py file to your userhooks.py file.

Note that when you start Skencil, Skencil's plugin module will complain about the ruler.py and parammenu.py files (only two lines). This seems to be harmless and not effect the plugin to my knowledge.

To start MyWord use the Skencil drop menu: "Edit" -> "Create" -> "Text". There will be short pause and then your mouse pointer will become a cross. Place the cross onto the canvas and depress the right-mouse. This action will produce a edit box (the usual 8 squares around a box). Now click the "Edit Mode" icon located on the Skencil icon toolbar (it is to the right of the save icon - the floppy disk icon). The edit box will now turn into a cursor bar. You can simply type text form there. Note that spaces don't show up until you type the next word.

Also the small hollow square along the left side of the text should be dragged to the right to size the text box. You can right-mouse (while in edit mode) to get the text options such as align left, right and center. You will need to highlight the text to align it.

Lastly, you can colorize a section of text by highlighting the section and clicking a color swatch. You can also use the color option on the right-mouse which starts the color menu. The font of a section of text can be changes in a similar fashion with the font menu.

For more details of MyWord, go to Christof's MyWord web page (below).

If you have any problems with the installtion of MyWord (or with the RPMs for that matter) shoot me an e-mail at: