Acorn RISC PD-CD 1

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Text File | 1993-09-20 | 18.2 KB | 335 lines

!TextMax - The Text printer Maximiser (For Epson compatible printers) This is a utility to allow you to use italics ,bold print, superscript, etc. in text files by effectively offering these facilities in embedded command form (Like for changing font,colour,etc.). I wrote it because I can't stand First Word Plus,and would rather use !Edit.The problem is that you can't type in escape characters to !Edit,so it's impossible to type in codes for superscript,bold,italic,etc.I couldn't stick this,as I have a superscript in my name( The c in "McEwan"),and it's really sickening to have to send letters to people with your own name done wrongly,'cos then you can't get at people for not writing your name properly!.I designed this with my Star LC-200 colour dot-matrix in mind.. It supports the standard FX commands,but I'm not sure if it will work with any other printers.It should though.The embedded commands are these. Standard commands (Provided by printer); ((0)) Select manual paper feeding. ((4)) Select automatic paper feeding. ((C))n Change to colour n - for colour printers. "n" is a 3 bit binary number whose bits have the following meanings: Bit 0 - Use the red ribbon. Bit 1 - use the blue ribbon. Bit 2 - Use the yellow ribbon. So,to print in blue,you would type in your doccument "((C))2". More than one ribbon may be used (in which case the print-head passes over twice or more.). It is not possible to use all 3 ribbons "((C))7",and if no bits are set "((C))0" the black ribbon will be used.NB the actual entered number MUST be entered in DECIMAL. ((F))n Change to font number n.The font numbers are standardised,but not all printers have all fonts.The ones I know,because my printer has them are :0 Courier,1 SansSerif,4 Script,7 Orator,9 Draft. Or at least I think they are standardised. Look in your printer manual for the codes and fonts your printer supports. ((R)) Eject paper from Automatic Sheet feeder. ((S))n Selects a print size."n" is a 2-bit binary number whose bits have the following meanings: Bit 0 - width (0 normal,1 double) Bit 1 - height (0 normal,1 double) So the command "((S))3" would select double height,double width, and the command "((S))0" would return to normal.NB the actual number entered MUST BE IN DECIMAL. ((T))n Set starting point on paper from automatic sheet feeder n/6 inches from the top of the paper,so "((T))6" would start printing one inch from the start of the page. NB commands ((0)),((4)),((R)) and ((T))n are only recognised by the printer if it has a cut-sheet feeder installed (mine doesn't),and the ((C)) command will only be used if you have a Colour-compatible printer (like mine!).If the printer doesn't want to use a command (above),it will print the command instead,so be warned - if you type it in wrong,then you'll get the command on your printed page. The commands provided by this utility are of the form [[x]],so that there is no confusion with possible future epson codes; [[^]] Superscript.Causes subsequent characters to be printed superscript (If your really that thick that you don't know what that means,then try it out and see what it looks like.) [[6]] Subscript.You know what that means.I chose six because it's on the same key as the up arrow thingie,which is the best mnemonic I could find for it. [[¾]] Cancel super/subscript.You obtain this character by pressing the 6/^ key while holding down Alt. [[/]] Italic printing. [[|]] Upright printing. [[D]] Double-strike printing (Bold). [[d]] Cancel double-strike. [[E]] Emphasized printing (Another form of bold). [[e]] Cancel emphasized printing. [[_]] Underlining on. [[+]] Underlining off. Embedded commands are strings of text which may be placed in a document to be printed. When the printer recieves one of these commands,instead of printing it,it will use it to change font,size,colour,etc. For example: To print my name properly,I'd put in my document the following: "Hello there,my name is Colin M[[^]]c[[¾]]Ewan." To emphasise a word by using a different colour (if you have a colour printer),use the following in your document: "But this application is ((C))1really((C))0 odd,as it does stupid things." The Application ¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ To load: Double-click on the icon in the directory viewer. To use: Drag a Text-file to the iconbar icon. It will be printed. The Options Window ¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨¨¨ By Clicking SELECT on the iconbar icon,the options window will be displayed. At the right of this window are 3 icons toward the bottom. They are: Set-up :If you click this,then the printer will be set to the current settings (see below).This is not neccesary before printing a document. Save :Clicking this will cuase the current settings (see below) to disc,so that those settings are used automatically when you next load TextMax. OK :This closes the window and takes a note of the settings. To the left of these icons,is an area which controls the settings. This may be scrolled by using the scroll bar to it's right. It contains the following: Miscelaneous... Formfeed -if this is selected,then at the end of a document,the paper will be moved up to the top of the next page. Letterhead -If this is selected,then the file "Letterhead" will be printd befor the text.See below. Multitasking -This option is not yet implemented.When it is,it will allow multi-tasking to continue in the desktop whilst printing is taking place. Text Justification... Left Justify -If this is selected,then text will be aligned to the left margin, leaving gaps at the right margin. Centre of Page -If this is selected,then text will be centred between the left and right margins. Right Justify -If this is selected,then text will be aligned to the right margin,leaving gaps at the left margin. Full (double) -If this is selected,then extra spaces will be inserted in the text,to enable text to be aligned to both left and right margins,giving straight edges at both left and right margins. NB if you select a different character pitch,then you will have to alter the right-hand margin (see below). Pitch... Pica (10 CPI) -This will cause text to be printed at a pitch of 10 Columns per inch,giving 80 columns on a standard A4 sheet of paper. Elite (12 CPI) -This will cause text te be printed at a pitch of 12 Columns per inch,giving 96 columns on a standard A4 sheet of paper. Condensed -If this option is selected,then text will be printed condensed,so allowing more columns on a piece of paper.Pica will be condensed to 17.1 CPI and Elite will be condensed to 20 CPI,giving 137 and 160 columns on a sheet of paper respectively.NB Condensed print may not be printed in NLQ. Font... Here is shown the currently selected printer font. By clicking on the arrow to the right of this box,a menu may be called up,from where may be selected a different font to be used. The font numbers are standardised,but only the fonts for my printer are currently listed.If you know of other fonts,please tell me their names and font numbers so I may include them on the menu in future versions. NB - If your printer doesn't have any of these fonts,then select a font from you printer's control panel,and that font will be used instead. Margins... Left -This is the number of characters from the left hand edge of the paper the printing will start at. Right -This is the number of characters from the left-hand edge of the paper printing will stop.NB If you select a different pithc,you will have to expand the right margin from the default 80. Print Direction... Uni-directional-This causes the text to be printed uni-directionally.This takes longer than bi-directional printing,and is supposed to give better quality print,due to more accurate dot alignment,but on my printer,it just seems to make the dots align all wrong. Bi-directional -Bi-directional printing is faster than uni-directional,and is supposed to give slightly worse results,but my printer works better with bi-directional.Try both to see which works best on your printer. Colour... If you have a clolour printer,then you may select the default colour of the text from this menu (use it like the Font menu above).Not really useful,but included for completeness. The Letterhead Option. ¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ This option causes a letterhead to be printed before the text-file. To create a letterhead,follow the instructions below: 1) Load up !Draw (or !Paint,or ANYTHING else which uses the RISC OS printer driver) and design your letterhead. 2) Load your printer driver and set it to print to the file "Letterhead" in this application directory. 3) Print your letterhead. 4) Set your printer-driver to print to your printer again.(This is to ensure the printout file is complete and closed) 5) To print a letterhead before a letter,select the "Letterhead" option from the TextMax options window,and print the letter by dragging it down to the TextMax icon.The text will be printed from the bottom of the letterhead,so you just need to start your letter "Dear Sir/Madam/Bogey,". A letterhead file is inclded in the directory already,but there are 3 things about it which will discourage you from using it: 1) It is horrible draft quality. 2) It is my letterhead with my address on it. 3) It will only work with an FX-Compatible printer. ***************************************************************************** This application may be freely copied,used and distributed,so long as no profit,of more than 25% of the charge made,may be made by copying it. All files must be left intact and unchanged,and no alterations may be made without prior permission of the author (me). ***************************************************************************** If anyone out ther has a Public Domain Download font editor,or has fonts suitble for direct download to printer,then I'd welcome these very much (I get bored with Courier,Sansserif,Script,Orator,and especially Draft,although the 225 CPS megadraft mode is FAST,and highly useful for printing out long documents,like this or the user manual for WimpExtension. Thanks to Jon Ribbens for the WimpExtension module,which is excellent,but has a very long manual .Also thanks to whichever supplier it was I got my LC200 from.Thanks to Acorn for writting the RO3 PRMs,and not to the Computer Depot for not stocking them,thus making me have to wait 'till 2 weeks from now 'till I can get my mitts on them... Anyway,I suppose I'd better go and do something useful,like work on BackDrips v1.06H. Just like v1.06,except it's designed to work from a hard-disc,rather than the ResourceFS.Therefore,it will have the advantage of taking less memory,but the disadvantage of loading slightly slower (I can't test this,as I don't have a Hard-Disc).Oh yeah,the address... I may be contacted at this address: Colin McEwan 11 Helen Way Bonhill Dunbartonshire Strathclyde Scotland G83 9PJ Also welcome at the above address are: Letters, Download fonts, Details of other standard printer fonts, PD software, videos of [ Blossom, Roseanne, Cheers, Drop the Dead Donkey, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Absolutely, etc.], ZX9 and ZX9CL printer ribbons (new ones,not old ones!), money (!!?!??), hard-disc drives, A5000s, scanners, digitisers, Laser printers, Multi-sync monitors (Yup,I've still got a TV-res monitor...), digitised pictures [see above list of TV progs], tapes of [anything really. I'm one of those odd peoples who can listen to anything. I am currently listening to the Shamen's "Boss Drum" on Atlantic 252,but I also love classical, folk, "Sixties",and just about everything else.], paper-clips, letters, upgrades from Oak-Recorder to Oak-Recorder II, E-format floppy discs (NOT F-format,as I've only got an 800k disc drive), cheap-nasty things from Corn-flake packets, and anything else really. If you click on my name in the info window,you will find a nice scrolly window. I got this idea from Clarisworks on my school's apple-macs (YEUCH!),but the only purpose I can see in Apple-Macs is that they are there to have ideas nicked from them. Now there's the thing about the apple-macs.They try to be too cute.But it's an odd sort of cute. Not cute like the Archie's little cartoony icons,but having cute (or rather stupid) options for silly noises and things. Is that a waste or what? The difference between the Arc and the Mac is that on the mac you have to pay for the cute stuff (i.e. It is Apple themselves who are silly),but on the Arc,the silly stuff is completely free (i.e. it is people like wot I is who write the silly stuff.). Go suck an Apple-Mac (Sorry... I didn't mean that...) Version History ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Righty-ho. Version history...(changes that is...) 1.00 (01 Aug 1993) First half-decent version. All production variants were also numbered 1.00, so this could get confusing if you have a pre-release version (but I only gave this to a few friends, so I'll have words with them if it ever got out into general circulation.) 1.01 (05 Aug 1993) Altered menu icons (gright) so they popped into the sprite pgright. Much nicer. Made whichmenu% variable point to the location of the menu structure, rather than just numbering the menus. This way, I can identify the current menu, as well as examining it without the need to use a CASE or anything. Corrected the positioning of the colours and fonts menus relative to the gright button. I'd only ever previously encountered this in !Configure, and I hadn't looked too closely at it. Removed outline fonts from Info window, too keep RO2ers happy. Added beep when error or prompt. Removed "Okay then." report when cancelling unknown file print. (this was stupid and pointless). Moved options to a menu option (rather than just clicking iconbar). Removed Close icon from options window. Added option to change default slabbing colours. Can be grey 3 for compliance, or grey 1 or orange for good taste. You can even have icons slabbing cream if you want. (Disgusting, but according to Acorn,most people seem to like it...) Added option to turn menu icons on or off. Options dialogue box is now a true dialogue box in that nothing happens until you press OK (not true actually. It's just that if you press CANCEL it undoes it all. That's probably better,'cos then the user can see what he/she wants to do safely). Whoever it was that designed Morpheus ought to be taken out and publicly insulted for his/her options box. It's horrible, and does not in any way follow the RISC OS standards. And besides which, instead of OK or CANCEL, they put the word "Close" on the OK icon. Eurgh. Fixed slight (understatement...) bug with versions of WimpExt larger than 2.17. Gave silly errors because the command WimpExt_Defaults was changed to WimpExt Defaults. Highly annoying. I don't know exactly which version this was changed in, but I know it's somewhere between 2.10 and 2.17... I have assumed the transition took place with version 2.17. If you have a version between 2.10 and 2.17, (or even beter, if you know WHEN this change took place),then please write and tell me. I'm away to play Zool, or SWIV, or Xenon II or something now. ByeBye. 1.02 (20 Sep 1993) What I said above about versions of WimpExt greater than 2.17. I was talking through somewhere I'd rather not specify. All that did was fix it so it didn't work with versons less than 2.17. Basically, try and lay your hands on a copy of v2.17 or greater. If not, write me and I'll give you a copy. Still don't know why it doesn't work. Also added nice logo. Well, that's it. I'm in the middle of reading the Hitch-Hiker trilogy (5 books, and they STILL call it a trilogy?) for the umpteenth time, and I still love them all (or do I love the fact that Catriona loves them too?), so I'm off to read them. Definetely more intresting than Zool, which gets boring after you've completed it squillions of times. (If you can't complete it, write me and I'll give you a copy of my Zool Cheatmod (or even better (for Andy that is), buy The Hacker (or if Desktop Hacker is out, buy that.)))