Simple Operations

LYX can of course do most of the things you're used to doing with a word processor. It will word-wrap and indent paragraphs automatically. Here's a quick description of how to do some simple actions.

Undo

LYX has multiple levels of undo, which means you can undo everything you've done since your current editing session started, by selecting Edit $\triangleright$Undo over and over again. If you undo too much, just select Edit $\triangleright$Redo to get it back.

Currently, undo is limited to 100 steps. Undo also doesn't work for everything; for instance, changes to the document layout. Each of these is really a LYX bug.

Cut/Paste/Copy

Use Edit $\triangleright$Cut, Edit $\triangleright$Copy, and Edit $\triangleright$Paste to cut, copy, and paste. Or automatically paste selected text (including selections from other programs) with the middle mouse button.

Find/Replace

Use Edit $\triangleright$Find & Replace for a search. In the dialog, search with the Find button, and use the Replace button to replace a word you've found^2.4. If you like, you can specify whether to make the search case-sensitive, or to search for only complete words; you can also search backwards through the document.

Character Formatting

You can emphasize text (which will generally put characters in italics), put it in bold face, or in NOUN STYLE (usually small caps, used for people's names) from the toggle buttons in the Layout $\triangleright$Character menu.

Toolbar

There are buttons on the toolbar (just below the menus) which allow you to do some of the more popular functions, such as Paste and Print.

Of course, you haven't yet written enough to make most of these functions useful. As you write more, though, try undoing, pasting, etc.