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Text File | 1993-03-12 | 14.7 KB | 357 lines

TextEngine V3.4, Copyright Nicholas Harvey, 1992. INTRODUCTION Welcome to TextEngine, a shareware wordprocessing system for the CBM Amiga. I have virtually re-written the entire program since version 3.3 so if, in the past, you have used a previous version of TextEngine, it is very important that you read this file, as there are a number of significant changes to the program which you might find useful. TextEngine is shareware, and I give my permission for it to be freely distributed. If you use it regularly, or are just feeling generous, then please help out this poor student and register with me by sending £5 to the address below: Nicholas Harvey 149 Manor Road North Thames Ditton Surrey KT7 OBQ England This version of TextEngine has been written to take advantage of some of the new features of Workbench 2.04 including the new '3D Look', and file requesters. If you use TextEngine with WB 1.3 or 1.2, then you will not be able to use these features, but the program will still function correctly on your system. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS TextEngine should run on any memory configuration from 1/2 MB chip RAM upwards. The following files are required to be present on your disk for the program to work: TextEngine3.4.gfx - This contains the various graphical images used by TextEngine and should be in the current directory. TextEngine3.4.config - This contains the user's prefered setup for TextEngine which is loaded on startup and used to configure the program to the user's needs. This also should be in the current directory. libs/asl.library - Only WB 2.04 users will need this if they want to use file requesters with TextEngine. devs/printer.device - This file is needed for printing, along with your printer driver, which should be in the devs/printers directory. l/port-handler - Also needed for printing. Also included is a program called TE_Converter, which is used to convert ASCII files created from previous versions of TextEngine (or from other programs) into TextEngine V3.4 format. Instructions on using this program can be found in the section 'USING TE_CONVERTER'. LOADING TEXTENGINE From workbench: Simply double-click on the TextEngine icon and the program will load. From the CLI: Type: run TextEngine <filename> If you enter the name of a valid TextEngine document in the filename option, it will be loaded automatically on startup. If TextEngine fails to load, check the following things: 1) Make sure that you have enough free RAM to load TextEngine. 2) Make sure that the TextEngine3.4.gfx file is in the current directory. TextEngine should load if the above conditions are satisfied. SETTING UP TEXTENGINE TextEngine can be configured to suit most people's needs by using the following menu selections: TEXT/WORDWAP - Selecting this toggles the wordwrap on and off. PREFS/PRINTER - Here, the paper margins can be alterd by changing the values contained in the following boxes: Lines per page: Here you enter the maximimum number of lines that can be printed on your piece of paper from top to bottom with no gaps at the top or bottom. This is usually set at 70 for A4 paper. Top margin: Enter the number of blank lines you want placed at the top of the page in here. Bottom margin: Enter the number of blank lines you want placed at the bottom of the page in here. If, for example, you specified 70 lines per page with a 5 line margin at the top and bottom, then the maximum number of lines on that page would be 70-5-5 = 60 lines. Chars per line: Here you enter the maximum number of characters that can be printed across the page from left to right with no gaps either side. This is usually set at 80 for A4 paper. Left margin: This defines the width of the left margin in characters. Right margin: This defines the width of the right margin in characters. PREFS/PALETTE - Here you can change the colours of the editor screen. PREFS/NTSC - Using this option will toggle between PAL and NTSC screen heights. PREFS/MACROS - Here you can assign each of the ten function keys a string of 100 characters which is entered into your document each time they are pressed. This can be very useful when you repeat a word or phrase many times. To save this setup to disk, select PREFS/SAVE PREFERENCES. This writes all of the above information, except for the macros, to the TextEngine3.4.config file. Macros are saved each time you save your document so that each document you write has its own set of macros. DISK FUNCTIONS In the FILE menu, there are the following options: LOAD - Lets you load a file SAVE - Lets you save a file SAVE ASCII - This saves your file in ASCII format. Beware, this option sometimes takes quite a long time when saving large files! APPEND - Lets you merge a file with the current document. The file is loaded into your document at the cursor position. ERASE - Lets you erase a file DIR - This feature is only available if you are using WB 1.3/1.2, or if TextEngine fails to open the asl.library. It displays the contents of a given directory, and is useful for locating files on the disk. When using TextEngine with WB 2.04, proper file requesters are used to select a file name for the above functions. Unfortunately, these are not available when using WB 1.3/1.2, but instead the user must simply type the file name in at the LOAD/SAVE/APPEND/ERASE prompts. TextEngine V3.4 uses its own file format which is incompatible with normal ASCII text files. If you want to load an ASCII file into TextEngine, then you must convert it first with the TE_Converter program (see section called 'USING TE_CONVERTER'). If TextEngine fails to carry out a file function for any reason, then an error message is displayed. These errors are explained fully in the section 'AMIGADOS ERROR MESSAGES'. EDITING A DOCUMENT There is a text buffer of 65520 bytes available, which should be large enough for most purposes. If you want to write larger documents, then it might be a good idea to seperate it into smaller sections and edit these individually. When the text buffer is full, an error message is displayed. To see how much room there is left in the buffer, select ABOUT from the PROJECT menu. Keyboard input: Text is entered in the normal way with the keyboard, with the following extra keyboard functions being available: SHIFT+RIGHT CURSOR - End of line. SHIFT+LEFT CURSOR - Start of line. SHIFT+UP CURSOR - Page up. SHIFT+DOWN CURSOR - Page down. CTRL+T - Top of file (also available in the TEXT menu). CTRL+B - Bottom of file. (also available in the TEXT menu). CTRL+C - Centre line. (also available in the TEXT menu). F1-F10 - The ten function keys will each insert a user defined string of text (as defined in the MACRO editor) into the file. On-screen displays: Along the top of the screen is a ruler with each division representing one character. The numbers 0 to 9 represent TAB positions, and the small white vertical bar represents the maximum width of the page. The position of the white bar is calculated from the values entered in the PRINTER PREFERENCES window. Along the bottom of the screen is a status bar which displays the following information: LINE - The current line at which the cursor is situated. PAGE/LINE - The current page, and line on that page, where the cursor is located. WW - Word wrap status (ON or OFF). STATUS - The general status of TextEngine. The PAGE/LINE numbers are calculated using the values entered in the PRINTER PREFERENCES window, so that they represent the limits of the paper you are using. Eg, Lets imagine you are using A4 paper (70 lines per page), with top and bottom margins of 5 lines. If the cursor was on LINE 00189, then the PAGE/LINE values would be 00004/00009 (4 pages at 60 lines = 180, plus 9 lines = 189 lines). Word wrap: When the current line becomes longer than the width of the page (as defined in PRINTER PREFERENCES), the word wrap comes into action. There are two different ways in which the word wrap takes effect: 1) If you are editing the last word on the line, then when the word wrap takes effect a new line is created below the current one, and the last word is pushed onto it. 2) If you are editing the middle of the current line, then when the word wrap takes effect the last word of that line is pushed onto the beginning of the line below if there is room for it. If there is not room for the word on the line below, a new line is created and the word is pushed onto that. When the word wrap is turned off (by selecting the TEXT/WORD WRAP menu option) the full width of the screen is available for editing, and text input stops when the cursor reaches the right hand edge. Merging 2 lines with the backspace: Lets imagine you had the following two lines in your file: Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after. You can now merge the two lines by placing the cursor at the start of the second line and pressing the backspace key. The result in this instant would be the following: Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after. Cut/copy and paste: Up to 70 lines can be cut or copied into a buffer and pasted elsewhere in the document. The procedure for this is quite simple: 1) Place the cursor at the top of the block of text and select MARK TOP from the CUT menu. 2) Move the cursor down to the bottom of the block, and either select CUT TEXT or COPY TEXT from the CUT menu. This will either cut the block of text from the file into the cut buffer, or just copy the block into the buffer whilst leaving it intact in the file. 3) Move the cursor to the position you want to paste the block you have just copied, and select PASTE from the CUT menu. Please note that only whole lines can be cut, copied, and pasted. Printer styles: In the STYLES menu are a number of text styles that can be used in your document. Selecting an option from this menu inserts the corresponding control charater into your file, which, when the file is printed, tells your printer to turn on that style. The next time the same character appears, the printer is told to turn off that style. This is true for all styles except for PICA and ELITE, which cancel each other out. Take the following line of text, for example: There's simply no match for °TextEngine's° user friendliness! When printed, the first five words are printed normally, then the word 'TextEngine' is printed in italics, and the rest of the sentance is printed normally again. Please note that not all printers support all of these styles, but try them out and see for yourself. If you use many styles at once, and want to cancel them together, then why not use the CANCEL STYLES control character. This cancels any styles which are currently selected and returns the printer to normal draft mode. OTHER FEATURES OF TEXTENGINE V3.4 To print a file, select PRINT from the PROJECT menu. If you need to stop printing for some reason, simply click on the CANCEL gadget. Selecting SLEEP from the PROJECT menu returns you to the Workbench and reduces TextEngine to a small window at the top of the screen. In doing this, about 50kB of chip RAM is released and TextEngine will let other tasks get on with what they are doing without taking up valuable processor time. To return to the editor screen, make sure the small TextEngine window is selected, and then press the right mouse button. In the TEXT menu is the WORD COUNT option. Not only does this count the words in the document, but also the lines and pages too. USING TE_CONVERTER Supplied with the main TextEngine program is a much smaller program called TE_Converter. This is used to convert any ASCII text file to a format that is compatible with TextEngine V3.4. To use it, simply follow these steps: 1) Type in the file name of the ASCII file in the box labeled INPUT FILENAME. 2) Type in the filename that you want the new file to be saved as in the box labelled OUTPUT FILENAME. 3) Click on the PROCESS gadget, and the old file will be loaded, converted, and a new file created, completely automatically. Any errors displayed in the title bar of the window are explained briefly in the 'AMIGADOS ERROR MESSAGES' section of this file. AMIGADOS ERROR MESSAGES If an error occurs when accessing a file with TextEngine or TE_Converter, and AmigaDOS error number is displayed. Here is a list of the meanings of most errors that might occur. Error | Meaning ------+-------------------------------- 202 | Object in use 203 | Object already exists 204 | Directory not found 205 | Object not found 212 | Object not of required type 213 | Disk not validated 214 | Disk write-protected 218 | Device not mounted 221 | Disk full 222 | File is protected from deletion 223 | File is protected from writing 224 | File is protected from reading 225 | Not a DOS disk 226 | No disk in drive FINAL NOTE, THANKS, AND HELLOS Well, I hope you enjoy using TextEngine. Not bad for a fivers worth of software, I think! Many thanks for the support I have had from the following people: John Reece, Micheal Amoah, Paul Burnham, M Rhodes, C Ralfe, Ian Rawlings, G Lambert, S May, Stan Davey, R Evans, P Sullivan, David McClay, E Berney, John Ellis, J Jarret, Gary Shaw, R Chambers, P Berg, Peter Stubbs, Graeme McGibbon, D Simons, Len Mullenger, Alan Lingard, Christopher Jones, Sheila Walsh, Pauli Hietala (hello Finland!), Andrew Chambers, A Gravener, C Wellman, R Minns, Ken Spry, 17 Bit, Deltrax, David Aslett, Bill Sloan, Keith Pang, D Davies, Victor Hunt, J Bryer, B Wyatt, Ernest Wilson, Larry Cashill, Dennis Brunskill, Roy Pearson, N Peters, Colin Curtis, W Davies, Tony Campbell, T Dullage, Frank Mitchell, Jim Finney, Graham Adair, Tony Davies, R Robertson, Marcus Ong, Ian Ridehalgh, and C M Stacey. Usual hellos go to: Mark Higgins, Martin Guy, Gary Taylor, Warren Saunders, Glen Batchelor and the Friday night gang! Yo dudes to everyone at JS Surbiton (especially Denise Frewin), and farewell to Esher College (particularly Dave and Jean of the Physics department!) Signed: Nick (2/8/92)