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FlowDraw Plus(TM) User Manual Shareware Version Copyright (c) 1995 by George Freund This text document is a condensed version of the printed FlowDraw Plus User Manual. The printed User Manual is included with the registered version of FlowDraw Plus. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ................................. 2 CHAPTER 1 - Installation .................... 4 CHAPTER 2 - The Tutorial .................... 5 CHAPTER 3 - Creating Your First Diagram ..... 7 CHAPTER 4 - The File Menu ................... 11 CHAPTER 5 - The Library Menu ................ 16 CHAPTER 6 - The Misc Menu ................... 21 CHAPTER 7 - The Print Menu .................. 23 CHAPTER 8 - The Setup Menu .................. 24 CHAPTER 9 - The Help Menu ................... 30 CHAPTER 10 - Text Icons ...................... 32 CHAPTER 11 - Auto Line Icons ................. 37 CHAPTER 12 - Diagram Icons ................... 39 CHAPTER 13 - Drawing Icons ................... 41 CHAPTER 14 - Edit Icons ...................... 44 CHAPTER 15 - Creating a Template ............. 48 APPENDIX - MS Windows and IBM OS/2 ......... 52 -2- Introduction Welcome to FlowDraw Plus! FlowDraw Plus is designed to help you draw business diagrams. Use FlowDraw Plus to draw flowcharts, electrical schematics, computer system diagrams, organization charts, and many other types of diagrams. FlowDraw Plus makes it easy to draw and print a professional looking diagram. FlowDraw Plus is easy to use: All drawing commands are readily available as easy to recognize icons. Here's how easy it is to use FlowDraw Plus. Use the mouse to select a drawing command icon or a symbol icon (just point and click). Select a location on the diagram (just point and click again). That's all you have to do! FlowDraw Plus performs the drawing command or draws the symbol! How to Use This Manual Chapter 1 provides help installing FlowDraw Plus. You will probably install FlowDraw Plus without referring to this manual. But if you have problems or questions you can refer to Chapter 1. Chapter 2 introduces the tutorial for FlowDraw Plus. Take this tutorial to get started using FlowDraw Plus. The tutorial will take 20 to 30 minutes depending on your level of experience. Although I've tried to make FlowDraw Plus easy to use, some of the concepts may be new to you. The tutorial will show you how to use the important features in FlowDraw Plus quickly. Chapter 3 helps you get started with your first diagram. Chapters 4 through 9 describe the FlowDraw Plus menu commands. Use these chapters as a reference for the menus. Chapters 10 through 14 describe the FlowDraw Plus icon commands. Use these chapters as a reference for the icons. Chapter 15 shows you how to create your own templates. Refer to this chapter when you are ready to create customized templates. The Appendix contains information to run FlowDraw Plus under Microsoft Windows or IBM OS/2. -3- Understanding Mouse Functions FlowDraw Plus uses a mouse for most drawing functions. If you have a multiple button mouse, the left mouse button is the primary button. The following terms describe how the mouse is used. Click: Press and release the mouse button. Drag: Hold down the left mouse button while you move the mouse. Point: Move the mouse until the cursor rests on the chosen area. Technical Support Technical support is available to registered users. I welcome your comments and suggestions about FlowDraw Plus. Please feel free to write, call, or fax. Messages (phone) ........... 216-942-4542 FAX (phone) ................ 216-942-4542 CompuServe ................. 73230,403 Mail ....................... George Freund P.O. Box 203 Mentor, OH 44061 -4- CHAPTER 1 - Installation The FlowDraw Plus Package FlowDraw Plus must be installed using the install program distributed with the FlowDraw Plus files. Many of the files have been compressed for distribution, and they must be uncompressed before you can use them. The shareware version of FlowDraw Plus can be distributed on floppy disk, on CD-ROM, and by BBS. The VENDINFO.DIZ file distributed with the shareware version of FlowDraw Plus provides installation instructions. Brief instructions are provided below. If you have FlowDraw Plus distributed on floppy disk, put the disk in the A or B drive and type A:INSTALL (or B:INSTALL if installing from the B drive). If you have FlowDraw Plus distributed on CD-ROM, make the CD-ROM directory that contains the FlowDraw Plus files the current directory. Type INSTALL to start the installation. FlowDraw Plus distributed by BBS's (bulletin board systems) will have one zipped file called FDPLUS10.ZIP. Unzip the file into a work directory on your harddisk using PKUNZIP. Make the directory containing the unzipped files the current directory. Type INSTALL to start the installation. System Requirements FlowDraw Plus requires the following hardware: A 386 DX based computer. A 486 (or higher) based computer is recommended. A VGA or SVGA monitor. A mouse. One floppy disk drive (for floppy disk installation). A harddisk drive. FlowDraw Plus runs under DOS. You can also run FlowDraw Plus under Microsoft Windows 3.1 or IBM OS/2 2.3. FlowDraw Plus requires a minimum of 2 MB of RAM. At least 1.5 MB must be allocated for extended or expanded memory. FlowDraw Plus works best using expanded memory. FlowDraw Plus requires a minimum of 2 MB of available disk space on your harddisk drive. -5- Chapter 2 - The Tutorial Introducing the Tutorial After installing FlowDraw Plus, the next step is to take the tutorial. The tutorial will teach you the basic features in FlowDraw Plus in about 30 minutes. After you take the tutorial, you'll be able to create your own diagrams. The FlowDraw Plus Screen Before you start the tutorial, review the parts of the FlowDraw Plus screen. This is covered briefly in the tutorial, but you can get a head start if you become familiar with the FlowDraw Plus screen now. The FlowDraw Plus screen is made up of the following components. A tool bar of icons across the top and down the right side of the screen provide access to the FlowDraw Plus text and drawing functions. Browse buttons above the library symbol icons scroll the symbol icons when there are more symbols in the library than can be shown at one time. A double row of library symbol icons on the left side of the screen represent symbols that can be copied to your diagram. A menu bar above the horizontal ruler line provides functions for file handling , libraries, miscellaneous functions, printing, program configuration, and help. The status line below the tool icons contains the diagram filename, memory information, and current cursor location. The prompt line above the menu bar suggests your next action. Ruler bars on the top and left side of the drawing window show you where you are in the diagram. The drawing window is where you create your diagram. You can use the drawing window to zoom in close on the diagram or zoom out to see more of the diagram. Scroll bars are inside scroll boxes on the right and bottom of the drawing window. You can drag the right scroll bar up and down to move the drawing window up and down the diagram. You can drag the bottom scroll bar left and right to move the drawing window left and right on the diagram. Blue scroll buttons at the end of the scroll boxes scroll the drawing window up and down or left and right. The gray scroll buttons on the top and bottom of the right scroll box scroll the drawing window to the top and bottom of the diagram. -6- How to Start the Tutorial Start FlowDraw Plus by typing FDP at the DOS prompt. If you changed the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to include the PATH and SET statements, you can start FlowDraw Plus from any directory. Otherwise, you'll have to make the FlowDraw Plus directory the default directory by typing CD \FDPLUS FlowDraw Plus will take a second to analyze your memory configuration. The shareware version will stop at an introductory screen. Click the mouse outside the introductory message window or press Enter to continue to the FlowDraw Plus screen. The blue menu bar above the drawing window contains a Help entry. Click on the Help entry on the menu bar to get the help menu. On the help menu, click on the Tutorial entry to start the tutorial. Follow the instructions in the tutorial. After you finish the tutorial, review Chapter 4 for tips on starting your first diagram. -7- Chapter 3 - Starting Your First Diagram Starting a Diagram with a Template When you start FlowDraw Plus, the program presents a blank diagram. However, in most cases you will begin a diagram from a template. A template is a skeleton diagram that has heading information already entered in a standard format. The heading information might include your company name and logo along with text boxes for your name and diagram title. The heading might also contain automatic text fields so that the name of the document, date of last update, and page number are always printed on the diagram. Automatic text fields are maintained by FlowDraw Plus, so you don't have to maintain them. Several sample templates are included with FlowDraw Plus. Review these templates before creating your own. Refer to Chapter 7 for instructions on creating a template. Here is how you would start a diagram with a template. Click on the File entry on the menu bar. A pull-down menu will appear underneath the File entry. Click on the new (Template) entry in the pull-down menu. A file list will appear containing the names of template files. Click on a file entry to highlight it, then click on the oK button on the file menu. This will load the template into your diagram, and you should now see the template heading in your drawing window. The sample templates have text boxes for the diagram title, the author's name, and the current date. They also have automatic text fields for date and time of last update, page number and filename. Entering Text in the Heading The template heading may contain text boxes with sample text that shows what belongs in the heading. The following instructions show you how to enter text in a text box. Click on the text-in-box icon (the text-in-box icon is the first icon on the left at the top of the screen). When you click on the icon, the icon becomes active, and its colors are reversed. Click on the first text field in the heading that you want to change. The drawing window zooms in on the text box that contains the text we selected. -8- The text box is a red rectangle surrounding the selected text area. Text in the text box is colored blue. A blue vertical blinking text cursor appears in the first character position in the text box. The text box is like a mini word processor. You enter or edit text with the keyboard and cursor keys just like you would if you were using a word processor. Press the Del key to delete any characters in the text field that are no longer needed. And then key your text in the text box. When you have finished typing the text, you'll want to transfer to the next text box in the heading. Click on text outside the text box to transfer to another text box. The current text box will close, and a new text box will open. Change or enter text in this text box. Continue with the other text boxes in the heading until you have entered all required text. Some text boxes may contain automatic fields like date and time which you cannot edit. If you click on a text box that has an automatic field, the automatic field will appear in black instead of blue. You can only edit blue text in a text box. Drawing the First Symbol Before we draw the first symbol, we have to decide where to put it. This will depend on the type of diagram and how you plan to arrange the symbols. We will need to zoom out so we can see most of the diagram. Click on the lower half of the zoom icon to zoom out. You may be able to do most of your diagram work zoomed all the way out. Click on the upper or lower grid icon to adjust the grid for your diagram. Set the grid size so that grid intersections are at the appropriate spacing for the symbols in your diagram. If you are going to start your first symbol at the top center of the page, use the ruler bar to find the grid line at the center of the diagram. If you are going to start your diagram at the left hand margin, use the ruler bar to find the grid line you want to use for the first symbol. Now that you know where to put the symbol, you're ready to draw the symbol. Select your symbol by clicking on the symbol in the library of symbols on the left side of the screen. The symbol will reverse colors when you have selected it. Now move the cursor to the drawing window grid intersection where you want the symbol to appear and click near the grid intersection. The symbol will appear on the diagram centered on the grid intersection. If you want to enter text inside the symbol, click on the text-in-box icon, then click inside the symbol. Continue entering symbols and text as required for your diagram. -9- Printing the Diagram If there are any automatic text fields in the diagram, save the diagram first, so FlowDraw Plus can update the automatic text fields. If you do not want to save your diagram, you can skip the next two instructions. Click on the File entry on the menu bar and select Save from the pull-down menu. A text entry box will appear in the middle of the screen. Enter a filename in the text entry box. You can use any valid DOS filename. After the diagram has been saved, you can print the diagram. Click on the Print entry on the menu bar and select Print to printer. FlowDraw Plus will ask you to verify the printer selected. Click on the Yes button to start printing. While printing, FlowDraw Plus displays a completion bar on the prompt line that shows how much of the diagram has been printed. You can stop the printing at any time by pressing the Esc key. -10- Chapter 4 - The File Menu The file menu provides commands to start a diagram , save a diagram, merge a file into a diagram, change the size of a diagram, swap to DOS, and end the program. Click on the File entry on the menu bar to display the file menu. We'll discuss each of the file menu entries below. The instructions in this chapter will use a mouse to select all menu entries. However, you can also select a menu entry by pressing the capital letter highlighted on the entry. For example, pressing the F key will display the file menu. new (Template) Use this command to start a new diagram from a template. Templates are skeleton diagrams that help you provide a standard format for your diagrams. Templates are identified by a file extension of TMP. For example, DIAGRAM.TMP is the name of a sample template that you can use to start a diagram. Click on the menu entry new (Template) to start the command. A file list window will appear showing the templates in the FlowDraw Plus file directory. The first entry in the file list will be highlighted. Instructions for using the file list window are provided with the Open file command later in this chapter. Select a template in the file list by clicking on the template name to highlight it. Click on the oK button to load the template. The drawing window will reappear and your diagram will contain the template file. The diagram will be unnamed, but you will be prompted to name the diagram when you select the Save command. new (Blank) Use this command to start a new blank diagram. When you select this command, a submenu will appear next to the File menu. The submenu will let you select the format of your blank diagram. Format determines how the longest side of a page is oriented. The format can be either portrait or landscape. If you want to create a diagram that is larger than one printed page, select the Diagram size menu command. This command lets you specify the number of printed page frames that make up the diagram. This command is the same as the change Size command described later in this chapter. Start a blank diagram by clicking on the menu entry new (Blank). Click on the submenu entry. If you select the portrait or landscape command, a blank drawing window will appear on the screen. If you select the Diagram size menu, the diagram size menu will appear. -11- Open file Use this command to load an existing diagram file into FlowDraw Plus. An existing file can be a file created with FlowDraw Plus or a two-color PCX format file created by another program. Click on the menu entry Open file to start the command. A file list window will appear with three sections: name, file, and directory. The file section shows a double column of filenames. These are the files in the FlowDraw Plus file directory. The first entry in the file list will be highlighted. Click on a file name to highlight it. Then click on the oK button to select the file. Click on the Esc button to exit the file selection menu without selecting a file. There are four scroll buttons beneath the file window. When there are more files than will fit in the double window, click on the scroll buttons to browse the file list. Scroll buttons with a single arrowhead scroll a single page at a time. Scroll buttons with a double arrowhead scroll a double page at a time. To change the file directory, move the cursor to the directory section and click on a directory entry to highlight it. Then click on the oK button to select the directory. The filename section provides a mask name to allow you to limit your selection of filenames. The directory path is included in the filename. To change the file name mask, first move the cursor to the filename section by clicking on the file name mask. Then key the new filename mask. You can use any DOS wild card character in the filename mask. Press Enter after keying a new filename mask. You can use the keyboard to change sections in the file window. Alt-N moves the cursor to the filename section. Alt-F moves the cursor to the file section. And Alt-D moves the cursor to the directory section. Use the cursor keys to move the selection bar, then press the Enter key to select the highlighted entry. Save diagram Use this command to save the current diagram. If the file has already been named, the program will save the file without any additional prompting. Click on the menu entry Save diagram to start the command If the file has not been named, the program will prompt you for the name. save As new name Use this command to save the current diagram with a new name. The program will prompt you for a file name. Click on the menu entry save As new name to start the command. The filename prompt will appear in the center of the screen. -12- Type the filename you want to assign to the current file and click on the Enter key (or press Enter). Click on the Esc key to exit the function without saving the file.. Do not include the path in the filename. The program will save the file in the Files Directory. If the Files Directory has no entry, the program will save the file in the current directory. save Compressed Use this command to save the current diagram in a compressed format. This command saves the file in about half the disk space of the normal format but takes longer to process. Click on the menu entry save Compressed to start the command. If the file has not been named, the program will prompt you to enter the filename as in the save As new name command. save as Pcx file Use this command to save the current file as a PCX graphic image file. You would use this command if you wanted to use the FlowDraw Plus file in another program. Most word processing and desktop publishing programs can import PCX files. Click on the menu entry save as PCX file to start the command. A filename prompt will appear in the center of the screen. Key the name of the PCX file. You can use any DOS filename and extension. When you save your diagram as a PCX file, all text information is converted to graphic information. FlowDraw Plus cannot recognize text in a PCX file. so it is important to save the PCX file with a name that is different than the name used to save the file in FlowDraw Plus format. An easy way to do this is to use a filename extension of PCX. For example, if your diagram file is called MYCHART.01, then call the PCX file MYCHART.PCX. save sEction Use this command to save a section of a diagram. This is necessary when you want to copy sections of a diagram into another diagram. Click on the menu entry save sEction to start the command. A cancel button will appear in the upper left corner of the screen. You can click on the cancel button to cancel the command. Use the mouse to drag a rectangle surrounding the section you want to save. Start at the upper left corner of the section and drag to the lower right. After you define the rectangle, the program will prompt you for a load point. The load point will be used to align the section with the mouse location when you merge it into a diagram. Some users prefer to use the middle of the section as a load point and others prefer the upper left corner. -13- Click on the diagram to select the load point. The program will highlight the loadpoint and prompt you to be sure you have selected the correct loadpoint. Click on the Yes button if the load point is correct. After the load point, the program will prompt you for a section filename. Key the filename of the section. You can use any DOS filename and extension. Click on the Enter button after entering the filename or press the Enter key. You can cancel the command by clicking on the Esc button or pressing the Esc key. The section is saved as a FlowDraw Plus file. Merge file/section Use this command to merge a previously saved file or section into the current diagram. The file or section you are merging cannot be larger than the current diagram. Click on the menu entry Merge file/section to start the command. A file list window will appear in the center of the screen. Click on a filename to highlight it. Then click on the oK button to select the file. Refer to the file menu Open file command for more instructions on using the file list window. After you select a filename, a cancel button will appear in the upper left corner of the screen. Click on the cancel button if you want to cancel the command. A red rectangle will appear in the center of the screen. The rectangle represents the area of the file or section you have selected. If you have selected a file that is the same size as the current diagram, the file will be merged into the diagram with no further prompting. Drag the rectangle to the location in the diagram where you want to merge the file or section. When you release the mouse button, the program will merge the file into the diagram at the location of the rectangle. change page siZe Use this command to change the size of the current diagram. Every diagram is made up of one or more page frames. The size of the diagram is determined by the following three factors. The number of page frames. A page frame is an area the size of a printed page. You can set the size of your diagram to be up to four page frames wide and four page frames long. The format of the page frame (portrait or landscape). The format of the page frame determines whether FlowDraw Plus will print the page frame in portrait or landscape. The size of the page frame. You can change the size of the printed page to one of several standard page sizes. -14- Click on the menu entry change page siZe to start the command. A diagram size window will appear in the center of the screen. On the left side of the window is a 4x4 grid of page frames. Each page frame used in your diagram will appear as a white rectangle. Unused page frames appear as black rectangles. Use the mouse to toggle a page frame on or off. The first page frame will always be on. On the right side of the window is a button menu. Click on the Cancel button to cancel the command. Click on the Page format button for a menu that allows you to select the format. When the menu appears, click on the portrait menu entry or the landscape menu entry. Click on the page Size button for a menu that allows you to select the page size. When the menu appears, click on the page size entry of the paper you will use in your printer. At the bottom of the page size window is a box that shows the format, page frame size, number of page frames in the diagram, and the number of available page frames. The number of available page frames is based on available expanded memory. After you have completed your changes, click on the Accept button. You will get a prompt asking if the size is correct. Click on the Yes button to accept the diagram size. Click on the No button to change the diagram size. When you return to the diagram drawing window, the diagram will be the new size. The new size will be reflected in the ruler lines and scroll bars. swap to Dos Use this command when you want to return to DOS temporarily. For example, if you want to delete a file from the FlowDraw Plus files directory, you could swap to DOS, use a DOS command or your favorite file maintenance utility to delete the file, then return to FlowDraw Plus exactly as you left it. Click on the menu entry swap to Dos to start the command. A message will appear in the center of the screen reminding you to type EXIT at the DOS prompt when you are ready to return to FlowDraw Plus. Click the mouse or press Enter to complete the swap to DOS. The DOS prompt will have the prefix FlowDraw Plus... to remind you that you have swapped to DOS from FlowDraw Plus. When you swap to DOS, FlowDraw Plus is saved to expanded memory, extended memory or disk, and most of the conventional memory used by FlowDraw Plus is freed for use. You can run programs from the DOS prompt as you normally would. Type EXIT at the DOS prompt when you are ready to return to FlowDraw Plus. FlowDraw Plus will be restored, and you will return to the FlowDraw Plus drawing window. -15- eXit Use this command to exit the program. This command is the same as the eXit menu entry on the menu bar. Click on the menu entry eXit to start the command. If you changed the configuration file, FlowDraw Plus will first ask you if you want to update the configuration file. Click on the Yes button to update the configuration file, Otherwise click on the No button. FlowDraw Plus will ask you if you want to exit the program. Click on the Yes button to exit the program. Or click on the No button to return to FlowDraw Plus. If your current diagram has not been saved, FlowDraw Plus will prompt you to save the file before exiting. -16- Chapter 5 - The Library Menu A Library in FlowDraw Plus is a collection of symbols that you can copy to your diagram. The library menu contains commands to create new libraries, maintain existing libraries, and load libraries into the program so you can use them. Click on the Library entry on the menu bar to display the library menu. We'll discuss each of the library menu entries below. The instructions in this chapter will use a mouse to select all menu entries. However, you can also select a menu entry by pressing the capital letter highlighted on the entry. For example, pressing the L key will display the library menu. Create library Use this command to create a new library from your own symbols. Click on the menu entry Create library to start the command. This command will prompt you for the name of the new library. Key the name of the library with a file extension of LIB. The name must be a valid DOS filename. Click on the Esc button to cancel the command. Click on the Enter button or press the Enter key to accept the library name. FlowDraw Plus will create an empty library in the FlowDraw Plus library directory and load the empty library into the program. The empty library will appear on the left side of the screen. The area that normally contains library symbols will be blank since the library does not have any symbols. The new library name will appear above the empty library. Refer to the library menu commands Save symbol to disk and Add symbol to lib for instructions on adding symbols to the new library. Load library Use this command to load a library of symbols into FlowDraw Plus so you can use the symbols in your diagram. Click on the menu entry Load library to start the command. A file list window containing libraries containing library names will appear in the center of the screen. Click on a filename to highlight it. Then click on the oK button to select the file. Refer to the file menu Open file command for more instructions on using the file list window. -17- When you select the library, FlowDraw Plus will load the library and display the library symbols on the left side of the screen. Your selected library will replace the previous library. The previous library will not be available unto you load it again. Save symbol to disk Use this command to save a symbol to disk. A symbol must be saved to disk before it can be added to a library. There are several steps to this command. Please read over the procedure before attempting it. Draw the symbol and display the symbol in the drawing window. Click on the menu entry Save symbol to disk to start the command. The library menu will disappear and the complete drawing window will return. In the next step we define the area of the symbol. Starting at the upper left corner of your symbol, drag the cursor to the lower left corner. As you drag the cursor, a rectangle will appear defining the dragged area. Click on the symbol to select the load point. The load point will be used to align the symbol with the mouse location when you merge it into a diagram. Most users prefer to use the middle of the symbol as the load point. The program will highlight the load point and prompt you to be sure you have selected the correct load point. After you have selected the load point, a button menu of symbol commands appear on the right side of the screen. Now, we need an icon to represent our symbol in the library. The library icon for our symbol appears under the button menu. FlowDraw Plus attempts to create the icon for us using the symbol we saved. But we may have to edit the icon to improve its appearance. The icon will be saved as part of the symbol in the library. The buttons on the symbol button menu have the following functions. The Edit icon button displays the icon window to edit the icon. The Rotate button rotates the icon image 90 degrees. The Get an icon button gets an icon from a symbol that has already been saved. This is useful when you are creating a symbol that is similar to one you have already saved. You can use the icon from the first symbol and then edit any differences. The Save symbol button prompts you for a symbol name and saves the symbol in the FlowDraw Plus library directory. The Cancel button cancels the symbol command. The following instructions illustrate how to edit an icon. If the icon does not need to be edited, you can skip to the instruction to save the symbol using the Save button. -18- Click on the Edit icon button to edit the symbol icon. An icon window will appear in the center of the screen with a button menu of editing commands on the right. The icon is a graphic image that is 32x32 pixels in size. Each pixel is represented by a small white or black square. We can edit the icon by clicking on the square to toggle the color from white to black or black to white. An actual size image of the icon as it will appear on your screen is shown under the button menu. Remember, the icon is just a representation of our symbol so we can identify the symbol in the library. The buttons in the edit icon button menu have the following functions. The eXit button saves the current icon and returns to the symbol command. The Clear button blanks the icon by turning all the pixels to white. The Up button moves the icon image up one pixel row and the bottom row of pixels is blanked. The Down button moves the icon image down one pixel row and top row of pixels is blanked. The Left button moves the icon image left one pixel column and the right column of pixels is blanked. The Right button moves the icon image right one pixel column and the left column of pixels is blanked. The Undo button restores the icon to its last saved condition. Click on the eXit button to return to the symbol command. The symbol button menu will return on the left side of the screen. Click on the Save button in the symbol button menu to save the symbol. FlowDraw Plus will prompt you for the name of the symbol. Key the symbol name with a file extension of SYM. The name must be a valid DOS filename. Click on the Enter button to accept the symbol name. The symbol will be saved in the library directory. You can now use the Add symbol to lib command on the library menu to add the symbol to a library. Add symbol to lib Use this command to add a symbol to the current library. The symbol must have been created with the Save symbol to disk command. If the library has more symbols than can be displayed at one time, browse through the library symbols until you display the location in the library where you want to insert the new symbol. Click on the menu entry Add symbol to lib to start the command. A file list window containing symbol filenames will appear in the center of the screen. -19- Click on a symbol filename to highlight it. Then click on the oK button to select the symbol. Refer to the file menu Open file command for more instructions on using the file list window. Click on the symbol location in the library where you want the symbol to appear. If you click on an existing symbol, that symbol and all symbols behind it will be moved back to make room for the new symbol. If you click outside the library, the symbol will be inserted at the end of the library. The symbol's icon is displayed in the library window. Delete symbol from lib Use this command to delete a symbol from the current library. This command only deletes the symbol from the library. It does not delete the symbol file. Browse through the library icons until you display the icon for the symbol you want to delete. Click on the menu entry Delete symbol from lib to start the command. Click on the icon of the symbol you want to delete. The symbol will be removed from the library. All symbols following the deleted symbol will be moved forward to take up the space of the deleted symbol. -20- Chapter 6 - The Misc Menu The misc menu contains an assortment of commands that don't fit into any of the other command menus. These commands include magnify area, grid selection, freehand drawing, fill an area, erase diagram, and technical function. Click on the Misc entry on the menu bar to display the misc menu. We'll discuss each of the misc menu entries below. The instructions in this chapter will use a mouse to select all menu entries. However, you can also select a menu entry by pressing the capital letter highlighted on the entry. For example, pressing the M key will display the misc menu. Magnify an area Use this command to magnify an area so that you can edit the individual pixels in the area. Click on the menu entry Magnify an area to start the command. A small rectangle will appear in the center of the screen. The rectangle represents the area that will be magnified. The area is 32x32 pixels. Drag the rectangle to the location in the diagram that you want to magnify. When you release the left mouse button, the magnify window will appear. Each pixel in the magnified area is represented by a small white or black square. We can edit the area by clicking on a square to toggle the color from white to black or from black to white. The button menu on the right side of the magnify window provides the following additional editing functions. The eXit button closes the magnify window and returns to the drawing window. The Clear button blanks all the pixels in the magnify area. The Up button moves the magnify window up the diagram. The Down button moves the magnify window down the diagram. The Left button moves the magnify window to the left on the diagram. The Right button moves the magnify window to the right on the diagram. The Undo button restores the magnify area from the last time the area was saved. The View button returns the drawing window with the magnify rectangle showing the area you worked on. A button menu in the upper left corner has buttons for canceling the magnify command or returning to the magnify window. You can drag the view rectangle to a new location if you like. -21- After editing, click on the eXit button to return to the drawing window. select Grid size This command selects a grid size for the drawing window. Use this command if you want to select a specific grid size rather than use the grid icon to bump the grid size up or down. Click on the menu entry select Grid size to start the command. A grid size menu will appear in the center of the screen. Click on the grid size entry that you want displayed on the drawing window. If you select a grid size lower than what is available at the current zoom level, FlowDraw Plus will use the lowest grid size possible for the current zoom level. For example, if you have zoomed out, the lowest grid size you can use is 1/4 inch. If you select 1/8 inch, FlowDraw Plus will change your selection to 1/4 inch. Click on eXit to accept your selection. Clicking outside the grid size menu has the same effect as clicking on eXit. When you exit the grid menu, you will return to the drawing window, and your selected grid will be displayed. Draw freehand Use this command to draw freehand on your diagram. This is not a function you would normally need to draw a diagram, but it has been included to provide a complete set of tools. Click on the menu entry Draw freehand to start the command. A cancel button will appear in the upper left corner of the screen. You can draw freehand with the snap icon on or off. If the snap icon is on, your drawing lines will follow the grid lines on the screen. Move the cursor to where you want to draw, then drag the cursor to draw. When you press on the mouse to start the drag, hesitate a moment until FlowDraw Plus has had a chance to save the current screen. Click on the cancel button when you want to end the command. The cancel button will be removed from the screen, and the freehand drawing command will end. Fill an area Use this command to fill an enclosed area with a pattern. Click on the menu entry Fill an area to start the command. A pattern menu will appear in the center of the screen. Click on the pattern you want to use to fill the area. The drawing window will return after you select a pattern. -22- Click inside the area you want to fill. It is important that the area is completely enclosed or the fill pattern will try to fill the entire diagram. The fill process is time consuming and if this happens, it could appear to lock up your computer for several minutes. For this reason FlowDraw Plus will attempt to limit the size of the fill area. If you want to fill a large area, you may have to break it up into several small areas. When you click on the fill point, the point will be marked, and a prompt window will appear to verify the fill point. If the fill point is not correct, click on the No button. The No button will cancel the command. Click on the Yes button. FlowDraw Plus will fill the area with the selected pattern and return the drawing window. Erase all Use this command to blank the current diagram. All images and text will be cleared from the diagram. Click on the menu entry Erase all to perform the command. FlowDraw Plus will blank the current diagram and return a blank drawing window. Technical functions This command is used by the author for technical support and program debugging. It activates commands on the misc menu that are useful in resolving technical problems. These commands are inactive unless activated by this command. The following commands are included as technical function commands. The Rewrite text command rewrites all text in the program in white or black color depending on the submenu selection. The Undo toggle command toggles the undo icon function on and off. I recommend that you don't use these commands unless instructed to do so. -23- Chapter 7 - The Print Menu The print menu has commands to print your diagram. You can print to your printer or you can print to disk. Click on the Print entry on the menu bar to display the print menu. We'll discuss each of the print menu entries below. The instructions in this chapter will use a mouse to select all menu entries. However, you can also select a menu entry by pressing the capital letter highlighted on the entry. For example, pressing the P key will display the print menu. Print to printer Use this command to print to your printer. Click on the menu entry Print to printer to start the command. When you start the command, FlowDraw Plus will display a printer prompt in the center of the screen to verify that you want to print. Click on the No button to cancel the command. The prompt will contain the name of the printer selected in the printer setup menu. Refer to The Setup Menu chapter for instructions on selecting a printer. Click on the Yes button to start printing. A printing message will display in the center of the screen. You can press the Esc key at any time to stop printing. If you press the Esc key you will get a prompt asking if you want to quit printing. If you click on the Yes button to quit printing, the program will issue a page eject and cancel the print command. Click on the No button to continue printing. While the program is printing, the prompt line is used as a print indicator to tell you how the printing is progressing. The left side of the prompt line tells you which page you are on. The right side of the prompt line displays a bar graph depicting the progress of printing. print to Disk Use this command to print to a disk file instead of the printer. The disk file will contain the print file in the format for the selected printer. You can copy this file to the printer to print the diagram. This command is identical to the Print to printer command except that a printer file prompt will appear in the center of the screen after you reply Yes to the printer prompt. Key the filename of the print file and then click on the Enter button or press the Enter key. The default name of the disk print file is PRINTER.FIL. The print file will be created in the files directory if the files directory has been set up. Otherwise the print file will be created in the current directory. -24- Chapter 8 - The Setup Menu The setup menu has submenus for configuring FlowDraw Plus for your computer. These submenus include diagramming defaults, printer configuration, directory locations, and screen color. The setup values can be saved in the FlowDraw Plus configuration file. FlowDraw Plus uses the configuration file to configure the program when it starts. You can also the use the setup menu to temporarily override the configuration file. Click on the Setup entry on the menu bar to display the setup menu. We'll discuss each of the setup submenus below. The instructions in this chapter will use a mouse to select all menu entries. However, you can also select a menu entry by pressing the capital letter highlighted on the entry. For example, pressing the S key will display the setup menu. Saving a New Configuration The setup values can be saved in the FlowDraw Plus configuration file. FlowDraw Plus uses the configuration file to configure the program when it starts. You can also the use the setup menu to temporarily override the configuration file just by not saving the new configuration. If you use the setup menu to change any of the configuration values, FlowDraw Plus will ask you if you want to update the configuration file when you exit the program. Updating the configuration file will save your new configuration so it can be used the next time you start FlowDraw Plus. If you intend to save the new configuration, click on the eXit command on the menu bar or the eXit command on the file menu. A prompt will appear in the center of the screen asking if you want to save the configuration. Click on the Yes button to save the configuration. Click on the no button if you do not want to save the configuration. After you respond to the configuration prompt, you will get another prompt asking if you are sure you want to exit the program. Diagram defaults Use this submenu to set the diagramming defaults that you will normally use. These defaults include font size, grid size, diagram size and zoom level. Click on the menu entry Diagram defaults to select this submenu. The Diagram defaults submenu will appear to the right of the setup menu. -25- Font size Use this menu to select the default font size. This will be the default font size used by the text commands. You will be able to override the default font size using the font icon or the font size buttons in the text commands. Click on the menu entry Font size to display this menu. The font menu will appear in the center of the screen. This menu lists the font sizes available to FlowDraw Plus. The current default font will be displayed as the selected font. Click on the font size you want to select as the default font. Your selection will show as the current default font. The default font will appear in the font icon at the top of the screen. Click on the eXit menu entry to end the default font selection. Clicking outside the menu box is the same as clicking on the eXit menu entry. Grid size Use this menu to select the default grid size. This is the grid size that will display in the drawing window. Click on the menu entry Grid size to select this menu. The grid size menu will appear in the center of the screen. Click on the menu entry that you want to select as the default grid size in the drawing window. The smallest grid size is only available when you zoom in. If you select the smallest grid size, FlowDraw Plus will override your grid size when you zoom out. For example, if you have zoomed out, the lowest grid size you can use is 1/4 inch. If your default grid size is 1/16 inch, FlowDraw Plus will change the grid size to 1/4 inch. Click on the eXit menu entry to end the default grid selection. Clicking outside the menu box is the same as clicking on the eXit menu entry. Diagram size Use this submenu entry to set the default diagram size. This is the size and format (portrait or landscape) of a new blank diagram. If you start a diagram with a template, the template determines the diagram size. The diagram size menu entry is the same as the diagram size command on the file menu. Refer to the instructions on using the diagram size command in The File Menu chapter. Zoom level Use this command to set the default zoom level to the current zoom level. Before using this command, set the zoom level to the level you want to use as the default. -26- Click on the submenu entry Zoom level to start this setup command. FlowDraw Plus will display a prompt in the center of the screen asking if you want to use the current zoom level as the default zoom level. Click on the No button to cancel the command. Click on the Yes button to use the current zoom level as the default zoom level. The program will return to the default submenu. Printer setup Use this submenu to set the default printer configuration. This includes printer make and model and print offset on the diagram. Printer selection Use this command to select the printer that will print your diagrams. This command displays a printer selection window in the center of your screen. Click on the Printer selection submenu entry to start this command. The printer selection window shows the list of printers that FlowDraw Plus supports. You can scroll through this list using the scroll bar on the right side of the printer selection window or using the PgUp, PgDn keys, or moving the selection bar with the cursor keys. The current printer selection is flagged with a checkmark. Move the selection bar until it highlights your printer, and then click on the oK button to select the printer. The program will return to the printer submenu at the end of the command. If your printer is not shown in the list of printers, refer to your printer manual to see if your printer can emulate one of the printers supported by FlowDraw Plus. print Offset Use this submenu to change the print offset on the diagram. The print offset determines how much the printed image is offset on the page. FlowDraw Plus is distributed with the offset configured for the HP LaserJet II. Some printers may require an offset adjustment to print the diagram in the center of the page. If your printed diagram does not appear centered on the page, create a diagram with a large rectangle forming the outside border of the diagram. Print the diagram and use a ruler to measure the offset required to center the diagram on the page. Then use the print offset command under the setup menu to change the print offset. Click on the print Offset submenu selection to get the print offset submenu. -27- Click on one of the Print offset entries to display an offset adjustment window. The amount of offset appears in the inset window in 1/100s of an inch. Adjust the offset by clicking on the up or down arrows next to the inset window or keying the offset in 100ths of an inch in the inset window. For example, an offset of one half inch would be 50. An offset of a quarter inch would be 25. Click on the oK button to accept the offset. Or click on the Esc button to cancel the command. printer porT Use this command to set the printer port for your printer. Click on the printer porT submenu selection to get the printer port menu. Click on the printer port entry. If you have one printer, LPT1 is usually the printer port used. Click on the eXit button or click outside the menu to accept your selection. directory Setup Use this submenu to get a list of commands to change the default directories for files and libraries. File directory Use this command to name the files directory. This is the directory FlowDraw Plus displays when you open a file. And it is also the directory where FlowDraw Plus saves files. Click on the File directory command to get the prompt window for the file directory name. The file directory name prompt will appear in the middle of the screen. Key the directory path. For example, C:\FDPLUS\FILES\ Click on the Enter button to accept the file directory. Or click on the Esc button to cancel the command. Library name Use this command to name the library loaded when you start FlowDraw Plus. Click on the Library name submenu selection to get the prompt window for the library name. The library name prompt will appear in the middle of the screen. -28- Key the library name without the file extension. Library files have an extension of LIB. Key the library filename without the extension. For example, to use ELECTRIC.LIB, key ELECTRIC. Click on the Enter button to accept the default library. Or click on the Esc button to cancel the command. library Directory Use this command to name the library directory. This is the directory FlowDraw Plus displays when you load a library. And it is also the directory where FlowDraw Plus saves libraries and library symbol files. Click on the library Directory submenu selection to get the prompt window for the library directory name. The library directory name prompt will appear in the middle of the screen. Key the directory path. For example, C:\FDPLUS\LIBS\ Click on the Enter button to accept the default library directory. Or click on the Esc button to cancel the command. screen Colors Use this submenu to change the colors of the screen objects. Click on the menu entry screen Colors to select this submenu. The color selection window will appear in the center of the screen. The color selection window has three sections. A screen objects menu in the upper right corner. A color selection matrix in the lower left corner. And a color example display on the right side. Click on the entry in the color object menu that you want to change. A submenu will appear to the right of the color object menu. The submenu contains the names of the objects for this entry. The example display changes to show just the color objects in the entry. Click on the object in the menu that you want to change. This will highlight the menu entry. Click on the color in the color matrix to select a color for the object. The color selection is acknowledged with a beep and the color will change in the example display. You can return to the program default colors by selecting the deflt Clrs submenu entry. Click on eXit in the submenu to return to the Screen Objects menu. You can return to the original program default color selection for all screen objects by selecting the default Colors entry in the Screen Objects menu. -29- Click on eXit in the Screen Objects menu to return to the Setup menu. A prompt window will ask if you want to save the new color configuration. Reply Yes to the prompt if you want your color selections to be saved as the new default colors. Misc (in Setup menu) Use this menu to set the following miscellaneous features. Mouse location. This sets the measurement of the mouse location in pixels or inches. The default is inches. File save format. This sets the save format as quick or compressed. The default is quick. Compressed files take about half the space of files saved with the quick format, but they take longer to save and load. Edit refreshes text. This sets the text refresh feature on or off. The default is off. During edit commands, text can appear to be erased when it is still in the diagram. The text refresh feature refreshes the text after edit commands. When this feature is on, some editing commands will take longer. Click on the menu entry Misc to select this submenu. On the submenu, select the misc feature you want to change. A button menu will appear in the center of screen listing the two choices for the feature. Click on the choice you want, and then click on the eXit button to close the button menu. Clicking outside the menu is the same as clicking on the eXit button. -30- Chapter 9 - The Help Menu The help menu contains entries to help you learn about FlowDraw Plus. There is a Quick start entry to introduce you to FlowDraw Plus and a Tutorial entry to show you how to use the important features in the program. A Help index provides an alphabetic list of program features that you can reference when you need help with a specific topic. Click on the Help entry on the menu bar to display the help menu. We'll discuss each of the help menu entries below. The instructions in this chapter will use a mouse to select all menu entries. However, you can also select a menu entry by pressing the capital letter highlighted on the entry. For example, pressing the H key will display the help menu. Quick start The quick start menu entry is a help screen with some pointers on getting started quickly. Click on the Quick start menu entry to start this command. The quick start help window will appear in the drawing window. Tutorial The tutorial menu entry shows you how to use the important features in FlowDraw Plus. Please refer to Chapter 2 for more information about using the tutorial. Help index Use the help index to look up information about a specific topic. Click on the menu entry Help index to start this command. A help list window will appear in the center of the screen. This window will contain a list of help topics in alphabetic order. Use the PgUp and PgDn keys on your keyboard to browse the list of help topics. You can also use the mouse to move the scroll bar on the right side of the help list window. Click on a help topic to highlight it. Press the Enter key or Click on the oK button to select the topic. A help window will appear in the drawing window. If there is more than one page of help information, use the PgUp and PgDn keys to scroll the help window. Press the Esc key to quit the help window or click on the square button in the upper left corner of the help window. -31- Last command used Use this command to view a help screen for the last command that you used. For example, you clicked on the undo icon and didn't understand what happened. So now you click on the help menu entry on the menu bar to bring up the help menu. On the help menu you click on Last command used. FlowDraw Plus will display a help screen about the undo command which was the last command you used. Previous help topic Use this command to review the previous help topic that you selected. program Info Use this command to review the program version number and copyright message. -32- Chapter 10 - Text Icons The three text icons provide an easy way to add text to your diagram. The text-in-box icon adds text to a rectangular area on your diagram. The text line icon adds a text line to a single page frame portrait diagram. The font icon changes the default font size. Text-in-Box Icon Use this icon to enter text in a rectangular box on the diagram. The box can be defined by a symbol or lines drawn on the diagram. Or you can define the size of the text box with the cursor after you start the command. Click on the text-in-box icon to start the command. Click inside a symbol or drag a text box to define the size of the text box. If you click inside a symbol, FlowDraw Plus will determine the boundaries of the text box from the blank area inside the symbol. The size of a text box can be no larger than 3 3/8 inches wide by 2 3/8 inches deep when printed. If you want to define the size of the text box, point to the upper left corner of where you want the text box to appear and drag to the lower right corner. A red rectangle will define the size of the text box as you drag the cursor. When you release the left mouse button, FlowDraw Plus will zoom in on the selected area if you are not already zoomed in. A red rectangle will define the area of the text box. A blue vertical text cursor will appear in the first character position inside the text box. The text in the diagram is stored in a text buffer. The amount of text box buffer that you have used is displayed at the top of the screen. The text box buffer used will gradually reduce as you add text to your diagram. When the text box buffer used reaches 100% you will not be able to add more text to the diagram. Deleting text boxes or unlinking text will reduce the amount of text box buffer used. A button menu will appear at the top of the drawing window. The button menu will provide the following functions for the text-in-box command. The Accept button saves the text in the text box, closes the button menu and returns you to the drawing window at the previous zoom level. The caNcel button cancels any text changes made since the last text update, closes the button menu and returns you to the drawing window at the previous zoom level. The Center button centers the text inside the text box. The leFt button left justifies the text inside the text box. -33- The Small button reduces the font size of all the text inside the text box by one size. The Big button increases the font size of all the text inside the text box by one size. The coL button increases the text box size by one character. The cOl button decreases the text box size by one character. The Row button increases the text box size by one line. The roW button decreases the text box size by one line. The Delete button deletes all the text in the text box. FlowDraw Plus will ask you if you really want to delete the text in the text box. The Unlink button changes the contents of the text box from a text image to a graphic image. This is useful for special effects with text. After the text has been unlinked, it cannot be edited as text. The Movbox button lets you move the text box to another location on the diagram. After clicking on the Movbox button, point the cursor inside the text box and drag the text box to a new location. The Auto button displays a menu of automatic text entries. When you select an automatic text entry, it is inserted in the text box at the location of the text cursor. There are two kinds of automatic text entries. Current text entries are entries that FlowDraw Plus enters for you, but you can edit these entries just as if you keyed them yourself. Auto text entries are text entries that FlowDraw Plus enters and maintains. You cannot edit auto text entries, but you can remove them using the Auto button menu. Key text using the keyboard. The text box is like a mini word processor. The following keys have special meaning for keying text. The keyboard cursor keys move the text cursor one character position in the direction of the cursor key. The cursor can only move across a row if text has been entered. Use the spacebar to advance the cursor on the row if no text has been entered. The text cursor does not respond to the mouse. The Del key deletes the character in front of the cursor. The backspace key deletes the character behind the cursor. The Enter key and down cursor key advance the cursor to the next text row. The Ins key changes the cursor from insert mode to overkey mode. With insert mode, characters are inserted into the text line. With overkey mode, keyed characters replace existing characters. The text cursor will change to a horizontal line when you can key over characters. The Home key moves the cursor to the beginning of the text line. -34- The End key moves the cursor to the end of the text line. Click on the Accept button to save the text you entered. Clicking inside another symbol or text area is the same as clicking on the Accept button. The button menu will close, and the drawing window will return. The text will appear in the drawing window. The text-in-box icon stays active until you start another command. You can edit the text any time by clicking on the text-in-box icon and then clicking on the text. Text-Line Icon If your diagram is a single frame portrait diagram, you can use the text line icon to enter text lines across the width of the page. This feature is not available on landscape or multiple-frame diagrams. Click on the text-line icon to start the command. Click on the approximate location of the text line. FlowDraw Plus will determine the exact location of the line. After we select the line location by clicking the mouse, the drawing window will zoom in on the area we selected, and a text line window will appear in the center of the diagram. The text line window is a red rectangle almost as wide as the drawing window with a depth that is the height of the font we are using. The text cursor is at the first character position in the window. The text in the diagram is stored in a text buffer. The amount of text line buffer that you have used is displayed at the top of the screen. The text line buffer used will gradually reduce as you add text to your diagram. When the text line buffer used reaches 100% you will not be able to add more text lines to the diagram. Deleting text lines or unlinking text will reduce the amount of text line buffer used. A button menu will appear at the top of the drawing window. The button menu will provide the following functions for the text-line command. The Accept button saves the text in the text line, closes the button menu and returns you to the drawing window at the previous zoom level. The caNcel button cancels any text changes made since the last text update, closes the button menu and returns you to the drawing window at the previous zoom level. The Center button centers the text on the line. Remember that you are only looking at a window on the text line. The line is actually more than twice as long as the window. The leFt button left justifies the text on the line. The Small button reduces the font size of all the text on the line. -35- The Big button increases the font size of all the text on the line. The Delete button deletes all the text on the text line. FlowDraw Plus will ask you if you really want to delete the text on the line. The Unlink button changes the contents of the text line from a text image to a graphic image. This is useful for special effects with text. After the text has been unlinked, it cannot be edited as text Key text using the keyboard. The text line window is like a mini word processor. The number of space characters on the first text line determine the margin for succeeding lines. You can use the Tab key instead of the space bar to indent the text line. The Tab key will advance to the next even inch on the ruler bar. As you key text near the right end of the text line window, the window will shift to the next section of the text line. The following keys have special meaning for keying text in a line. The keyboard cursor keys move the text cursor one character position in the direction of the cursor key. The cursor can only move across a row if text has been entered. Use the spacebar or Tab key to advance the cursor on the row if no text has been entered. The text cursor does not respond to the mouse. The Del key deletes the character in front of the cursor. The backspace key deletes the character behind the cursor.. The Enter key and down cursor key advance the cursor to the next text line. The Ins key changes the cursor from insert mode to overkey mode. With insert mode, characters are inserted into the text line. With overkey mode, keyed characters replace existing characters. The text cursor will change to a horizontal line when you can key over characters. The first press of the Home key moves the cursor to the beginning of the text line window. The second press of the Home key moves the cursor to the beginning of the text line. The first press of the End key moves the cursor to the end of the text line window. The second press of the End key moves the cursor to the end of the text line. Press on the Return key to advance to the next line. Click on the Accept button to save the text you entered. The button menu will close, and the drawing window will return. The text will appear in the drawing window. The text-line-icon stays active until you start another command. -36- You can edit the text any time by clicking on the text line icon and then clicking on the text line. Font Icon Use the font icon to change the default font. The default font is the font that will be available when you enter the text-in-box or text-line command. You can also change the font from the button menus in the text commands. Click on the font icon to start the font command. A font menu will appear in the center of the screen. Each entry in the menu has an on/off button. The button for the current default font will turned on. Click on the font menu entry you want to select for the default font. The button for the font you select will turn on. Click on the eXit button to exit the menu. Clicking outside the menu is the same as clicking on the eXit button. -37- Chapter 11 - Auto Line Icons The auto line icons draw horizontal or vertical lines and arrows automatically between two existing points on the diagram. The first icon in this series provides menus to select the thickness and style of any line. The last icon in this series provides an erase feature for single thickness straight lines and arrows. The icons in between draw the lines and arrows. Lines Icon Use this icon to select the line thickness, style, or box corner. The current line thickness and style display in the window inside the icon. The default is a single thickness straight line. This command applies to all lines drawn with the auto line icons and the drawing icons with the exception of the circle icon and arc icon. Click on the lines icon to start this command. A menu for line thickness, line style, and box corners will appear in the center of the screen. Select line Thickness from the Line Description menu to change the thickness of the drawing line. Click on the menu entry line Thickness for a menu of line thickness. A line thickness menu will appear in the center of the screen. Click on the line thickness that you want to use for your lines. An example of the line thickness in the current line style appears in each menu entry. Click on the eXit entry to exit the menu. Clicking outside the menu is the same as clicking on the eXit entry. Select line Style from the Line Description menu to change the style of the drawing line. Click on the menu entry line Style for a menu of line style. A line style menu will appear in the center of the screen. Click on the line style that you want to use for your line. An example of the line style in the current thickness appears next to each menu entry. Click on the eXit entry to exit the menu. Clicking outside the menu is the same as clicking on the eXit entry. Select Box corners from the Line Description menu to change the shape of box corners. Click on the menu entry Box corners for a menu of box corner shapes. The box corner menu will appear in the center of the screen. -38- Click on the box corner type that you want to use for your boxes. The box corners are used in the draw box command. Click on the eXit entry to exit the menu. Clicking outside the menu is the same as clicking on the eXit entry. All lines drawn using either the auto line icons or the drawing icons will have the line thickness and style selected. Auto Line and Arrow Icons The auto line and arrow icons work the same way. You select the point on the diagram where the line will be drawn and FlowDraw Plus draws the line. The following instructions illustrate how to use this command. Click on the auto line icon that you want to use. For an example, we'll use the right horizontal arrow icon. This icon draws a horizontal line between two existing points with an arrowhead at the right end of the line. Click on the diagram where you want the line to be drawn. In our example, we want an arrow connecting two symbols, so we click between the two symbols. FlowDraw Plus draws the arrow between the two symbols. The icon stays active until another icon or menu entry is selected. Erase Line Icon Use this icon to erase a horizontal line or arrow. The line must be a solid line of single thickness. Click on the Erase Line icon to start this command. When you move the cursor to the drawing area, the cursor will turn into a small box. Move the box cursor so that it sits over the line you want to erase and click the mouse to erase the line. The line will be removed from the diagram. This command will stay active until you click on another icon or menu entry. -39- Chapter 12 - Diagram Icons Diagram icons provide commands for displaying the diagram and controlling the grid. I've also included the undo icon as part of this group. View Icon Use this icon to display a full view of your diagram. Click on the view icon to start this command. FlowDraw Plus will display a full view of your diagram in the center of the screen using as much of the screen area as possible to display the complete diagram. This view is for display only and cannot be edited. Click to return to the drawing window. Zoom Icon Use this icon to control the zoom level on your diagram. There are three levels of zoom. Normal zoom, zoom in, and zoom out. Depending on how much detail is in your document, you will probably spend most of your time in normal zoom or zoom out. Zoom out shows you most of a single page frame diagram, but it may not show enough detail for you to work comfortably. The zoom icon is divided into two parts. The upper half zooms into your diagram for a closer look. The lower half zooms out from your diagram to show you more of your diagram. All commands are available at each level of zoom. Click on the upper half of the zoom icon to zoom in. A large box will appear in the drawing window. The cursor will appear as a cross when you move it to the drawing area. This box represents the area of the diagram that we will zoom into. We can drag this area anywhere on the diagram. When we release the mouse button, we will zoom into the area. The cancel button in the left hand corner of the screen allows us to cancel this command. Click on the lower half of the zoom icon to zoom out. The drawing window will zoom out immediately. The Grid Icon Use this icon to change the size of the grid on the drawing window. The grid consists of equidistant intersecting lines. The distance between the lines is the grid size. At normal zoom, the grid size starts at 1/8 inch. Each larger grid size doubles in size up to 2 inches. -40- This icon is divided into two parts. The upper half of this icon doubles the grid size. The lower half of the icon halves the grid size. Clicking on the grid icon when the grid is at its maximum or minimum will remove the grid from the drawing area. Click again to add the grid back to the drawing area. Click on the upper half of the grid icon to double the grid size or click on the lower half of the grid icon to halve the grid size. The grid size will change on the drawing window. Snap Icon Use this icon to turn the snap feature on and off. FlowDraw Plus begins with the snap feature on, and it will remain on until you turn it off. If you turn it off, it will remain off until you turn it back on. The snap feature causes any drawing command to use the nearest grid line or intersection as its drawing point. This feature makes it very easy to line up symbols in rows and columns and to draw lines at precise locations. When we draw a line, the line will snap to the nearest grid line. When we draw a symbol, the load point of the symbol will snap to the nearest grid intersection. Click on the snap icon to turn it off. The snap icon will change to show the snap feature is off. See-thru Icon Use this icon to turn the see-thru feature on. The see-thru feature allows you to superimpose symbols. FlowDraw Plus begins with the see-thru feature off, and it will remain off until you turn it on. If you turn it on, it will remain on until you turn it back off. Click on the see-thru icon to turn it on. The see-thru icon will change to show the see-thru feature is on. Undo Icon Use this icon to undo the last drawing command. The number of commands that can be undone is displayed in the window inside the undo icon. This number will vary as you use the program since some drawing commands require more memory than others. The undo icon allows you to backout your last drawing command. As an example, we have just connected two symbols in our diagram with a left hand arrow. But after drawing the arrow, we realized that we really want to connect the symbols with a double headed arrow. The undo icon shows we can undo the last 3 commands. But in this example, we're only interested in the last command. Click on the undo icon to undo the last drawing function. The previous drawing function is removed from the diagram. Now we can redraw our arrow correctly. -41- Chapter 13 - Drawing Icons Use these icons to start drawing commands. These commands erase, draw lines, arrows, boxes, circles and arcs. Erase Icon This icon starts the erase command. The erase command turns the cursor into a small box that you can use as an eraser. The eraser is intended to erase graphical information only. Click on the erase icon to start the erase command. When you move the cursor into the drawing window, the cursor will change to a small box. Drag the cursor over the area you want to erase. The cursor works just like an eraser. As you drag the cursor, it erases anything under its path. The cursor will appear to erase text if you drag the cursor over text. But text can only be deleted by using one of the text commands or by deleting the text box with the cut command. If you use the erase command to delete text, the text will be restored the next time you load the diagram or edit the text box area. However, you can print the diagram while the text appears deleted, and the deleted text will not show on the printed diagram. Draw Line Icon Use this icon to start the draw line command. The draw line command draws a line from point to point. Click on the draw line icon to start the command. Move the cursor to the drawing area and point to the starting point of the line. Drag the cursor to the ending point of the line. As you drag the cursor, a red line will appear beginning at the starting point and ending at the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the red line will change to a black line and become part of the diagram. You can now move the cursor to a new starting point and draw another line. The draw line icon will remain active until you start another command. -42- Draw Single Arrow Icon Use this icon to start the command to draw a line with a single arrow head. This command is similar to the draw line command, but the line has an arrowhead at one end. Click on the draw single arrow icon to start this command. Move the cursor to the drawing area and point to the starting point of the line. The starting point is the end of the line without the arrowhead. Drag the cursor to the ending point of the line. As you drag the cursor, a red line will appear beginning at the starting point and ending at the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the red line will change to a black line and become part of the diagram. An arrowhead will appear at the ending point. You can now move the cursor to a new starting point and draw another line. The draw single arrow icon will remain active until you start another command. Draw Double Arrow Icon Use this icon to start the command to draw a line with a double arrow head. This command is similar to the draw line command, but the line has an arrowhead at both ends. Click on the draw double arrow icon to start this command. Move the cursor to the drawing area and point to the starting point of the line. The starting point is either end of the line since both ends will have an arrowhead. Drag the cursor to the ending point of the line. As you drag the cursor, a red line will appear beginning at the starting point and ending at the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the red line will change to a black line and become part of the diagram. An arrowhead will appear at both ends of the line. You can now move the cursor to a new starting point and draw another line. The draw double arrow icon will remain active until you start another command. Draw Box Icon Use this icon to start the draw box command. This command draws a box. Click on the draw box icon to start this command. Move the cursor to the drawing area and point to the upper left corner of the box. The upper left corner of the box will be our starting point. -43- Drag the cursor to the lower right corner of the box. As you drag the cursor, a red rectangle will appear with its upper left corner at the starting point and the lower right corner at the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the red rectangle will change to a black rectangle and become part of the diagram. You can now move the cursor to a new starting point and draw another box. The draw box icon will remain active until you start another command. Draw Circle Icon Use this icon to start the draw circle command. This command draws a circle. Click on the draw circle icon to start this command. Move the cursor to the drawing area and point to the center of the circle. The center of the circle will be our starting point. Drag the cursor in any direction. As you drag the cursor, a red circle will appear with its center at the starting point. The location of the cursor determines the shape of the circle. When you release the mouse button, the red circle will change to a black circle and become part of the diagram. You can now move the cursor to a new starting point and draw another circle. The draw circle icon will remain active until you start another command. Draw Arc Icon Use this icon start the draw arc command. This command draws an arc. Click on the draw arc icon to start this command. Move the cursor to the drawing area and click on the first end of the arc. Either end of the arc can be used as the starting point. When you click on this end, the point will be marked with a small crossed circle. Click on the second end of the arc. This point will also be marked with a small crossed circle. Drag the cursor in any direction to draw the arc. As you drag the cursor, a red arc will appear with its ends at the two starting points, and the center of the arc at the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the red arc will change to a black arc and become part of the diagram. You can now move the cursor to a new starting point and draw another arc. The draw arc icon will remain active until you start another command. -44- Chapter 14 - Edit Icons The edit icons perform graphical editing functions like cutting, pasting, copying, moving, sizing, and rotating. Cut Icon Use the cut icon to delete a rectangular area from the diagram. Click on the cut icon to start the command. Point the cursor to the upper left corner of the area you want to cut. Drag the cursor to the lower right corner of the area you want to cut. As you drag the cursor, a red rectangle will appear defining the area you will delete. When you release the mouse button, the red rectangle and the graphical image will disappear from the drawing area. The cut command will stay active until you start another command or click on the cut icon to turn it off. The image that you cut out of your diagram is transferred to a temporary buffer. You can add this image back to the diagram using the paste icon. The buffer contains the contents of the most recent edit command. Paste Icon Use the paste icon to insert an image from the edit buffer on to the diagram. You must have completed a cut, copy, or move command so that an image is in the edit buffer for pasting. Click on the paste icon to start the command. The cursor will turn into a cross hair when you move it to the drawing area. Point to the area on the diagram where you want to paste the image. Click the mouse or drag the cursor to reposition the image. The crosshair will change to a circle with crosshair while you drag the paste image with the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the image will be added to the diagram. The paste command will stay active until you start another command. -45- Copy Icon Use the copy icon to copy a rectangular area to one or more locations on your diagram. When you use the copy command, you first copy an image to the edit buffer, and then copy the image in the edit buffer back to the diagram. Click on the copy icon to start the command. Point the cursor to the upper left corner of the area you want to copy. Drag the cursor to the lower right corner of the area you want to copy. As you drag the cursor, a red rectangle will appear defining the area you will copy. When you release the mouse button, the red rectangle will disappear from the drawing area, and the area that was inside the red rectangle will be copied to the edit buffer. Point to the area on the diagram where you want to copy the image. The cursor will turn into a cross hair when you move it to the drawing area. Click the mouse to place the image or drag the cursor to reposition the image. The crosshair will change to a circle with crosshair while you drag the paste image with the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the image will be added to the diagram. You can continue to point and click to copy the same image to the diagram as often as you like. Click twice on the copy icon to start the copy command again for a different image. The copy command will stay active until you start another command. Move Icon Use this icon to move a rectangular area from one location in the diagram to another. The move command is a combination of the cut and paste command. You cut an area from the diagram and save it in the edit buffer. Then you copy it from the edit buffer back to the diagram. Click on the move icon to start the command. Point the cursor to the upper left corner of the area you want to move. Drag the cursor to the lower right corner of the area you want to move. As you drag the cursor, a red rectangle will appear defining the area you will move. When you release the mouse button, the red rectangle and the graphical image inside the rectangle will disappear from the drawing area. The cursor will change to a crosshair. -46- Point to the area on the diagram where you want to move the image. Click the mouse or drag the cursor to reposition the image. The crosshair will change to a circle with crosshair while you drag the paste image with the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the image will be added to the diagram. After you have completed the move you are ready to start another move. The move command will stay active until you start another command. Size Icon Use this icon to change the size of a graphical image. Remember that FlowDraw Plus stores images as bitmaps, and that resizing the bitmap may not always provide an acceptable image. In some cases you may have to redraw the image at the desired size. Click on the size icon to start the command. Point the cursor to the upper left corner of the area you want to size. Drag the cursor to the lower right corner of the area you want to size. As you drag the cursor, a red rectangle will appear defining the area you will size. When you release the mouse button the red rectangle will remain on the drawing area. Starting in the center of the red rectangle, drag the cursor to define the new size of the area. As you drag the cursor, a green rectangle will appear defining the area that will be the new size of the image. The green rectangle cannot be smaller than 1/4 the size of the red rectangle. When you release the mouse button the image will be resized to the area of the green rectangle. The size icon will remain active until you start another command. Rotate Icon Use the rotate command to rotate a graphical image on your diagram. Remember that FlowDraw Plus stores images as bitmaps, and that rotating a bitmap may not always provide an acceptable image. In some cases you may have to redraw the image at the desired rotation. Click on the rotate icon to start the command. Point the cursor to the upper left corner of a square area you want to rotate. Drag the cursor to the lower right corner of the square area you want to rotate. As you drag the cursor, a red square will appear defining the area you will rotate. -47- When you release the mouse button the red square will remain on the drawing area and a rotate button menu will appear at the top of the screen. The buttons on the rotate menu have the following functions. The Accept button saves the new image and returns you to the drawing area. The Cancel button cancels any changes made in the rotation command and returns you to the drawing area. The reStrt button cancels any changes made in the rotation command and restores the original image inside the red square. This allows you to start over with the same rotation area. The +5 deg button rotates the image 5 degrees clockwise. The +15 deg button rotates the image 15 degrees clockwise. The + 45 deg button rotates the image 45 degrees clockwise. The -5 deg button rotates the image 5 degrees counter clockwise. The -15 deg button rotates the image 15 degrees counter clockwise. The -45 deg button rotates the image 45 degrees counter clockwise. The +90 deg button rotates the image 90 degrees clockwise. The -90 deg-button rotates the image 90 degrees counter clockwise. The Mirror button reverses the image. Click on the button in the rotate menu that corresponds to the amount of rotation you want to use. The image inside the red square will be rotated. Click on the Accept button to accept the rotated image and return to the drawing area. The rotation command will still be active so you can define a new rotation area. The rotation command remains active until you start another command. -48- Chapter 15 - Creating Templates Introduction Templates are skeleton diagrams. You use a template when you start a new diagram. The template diagram contains a skeleton of graphical and text information that you like to include in all your diagrams. Having this information in the template saves you the trouble of inserting it into each new diagram. When you want to start a new diagram, you can select File from the menu bar and Templates from the File menu. The Templates window lets you select a template to start your diagram. FlowDraw Plus includes a number of sample templates and you can create your own templates easily. In this chapter, we'll show you how to create a template with both text and graphical information. We'll follow the steps used to create a template similar to the sample flowchart template called FLOCHRT2.TMP. This template has a heading box at the top of the page. This type of template could be used for computer systems flowchart documentation. You may require templates for a different type of diagram, but you can use the same approach to construct your own templates. Getting Ready to Start We'll start with an empty diagram. Select new (Blank) from the File menu, then select Portrait from the new file menu. Draw the Box Outline of the Heading Through trial and error, I've already determined the that the dimensions of our heading box will be 7.5" wide and 7/8 inches deep. If the dimensions of our box were not important, we could zoom out to see the largest area of the diagram and draw the box. But the shadow outline we will use is only 1/16" wide. In order to draw this, we have to use the maximum zoom in. Click on the upper half of the zoom icon to zoom in. We will draw all the boxes in this template with rounded corners. Click on the lines icon and select Box corners, then select Round. Because we are at maximum zoom in, we first have to draw the left side of the box and shadow outline. Then move to the right side of the diagram and draw the right side of the box and shadow outline. And finally join them together. We'll start on the left side. Click on the draw box icon. Then starting with the upper left corner of the box, drag the mouse to the lower right corner to draw the box. Note that we're using a grid size to make it easy to draw the box. -49- To create an outline for the shadow affect, draw a second box on top of first one, but offset by 1/16". We've changed to the 1/16th grid size for the shadow outline. Next, erase the part of the shadow outline that is not needed. You can use the line erase icon. If we're using rounded corners, we'll have to use the erase icon to erase the corners that we don't need. In a similar way, draw a box on the right side of page. First we'll draw a box , then a shadow outline on top of the box. Next, erase the part of box we don't need. Now connect the three lines joining the left and right sections using the horizontal auto line icon. Finally, select the Misc menu entry Fill an area, and fill the shadow area with one of the fill patterns. Add Title Text Click on the font icon and change the font to the largest size. Then click on the text-in-box icon and draw a text box for the diagram title. The text box doesn't have to be exact. You can change the size and location at any time. Type the title of the diagram or your company name in the text box. If you need to adjust the size of the text box, click on the coL+ or Row+ buttons in the text button menu at the top of the screen. If you need to center the text box, click on the Move box button in the text menu and drag the text box to reposition it. Click on the Accept button when you are satisfied with the location of the title. If you need a font larger than what FlowDraw Plus provides, click on the Unlink button in the text button menu to change the text to a graphics image. Then select the size icon and enlarge the text image. Before sizing the text image, click on the snap icon to turn off the snap feature. This will allow you to be more precise when you size the image. Add Subtitle Text Change the font size to the next lower size. Create a text entry for the subtitle. Use the same technique as used for the title text. If the subtitle will change with each diagram, just provide a reminder entry like "Subtitle goes here...". Now, we'll add detail entry boxes to our template. Change the font size to the next lower size. -50- Add Entry Box for Author In this template, we will box in the template entries to highlight them. If you prefer a simpler template, you can skip drawing the box for each entry. To box in the text entries, make sure the grid size is set to 1/16". Click on the upper half of the zoom icon to zoom in, and click on the lower half of the grid icon to reduce the grid size. To get the lowest grid size, click on the lower half of the grid icon until the grid disappears, then click again to get the smallest grid size. Click on the draw box icon and draw the box for the author heading and author name. If you like, you can separate the heading from the name with a vertical line. Click on the vertical auto line icon and then click where you want the line to appear in the box. Use separate text boxes for the heading and name. When you use the template in a diagram, it will be easier to enter a name if you don't have to deal with the heading in the same text box. Click on the text-in-box icon and then click inside the left part of the box. The box we drew for the author heading and name defines the text box for these entries. If you are not using boxes for your template entries, or your name box doesn't have a separator line, then define the text box for the heading by dragging the cursor instead of clicking inside the box. Type the text for the author heading. Then click on the right side of the box and type a reminder entry for the author name. If you did not box in the template entries as in the example, you will have to click on the Accept button to close the text box. Then define a text box for the next entry by dragging the cursor. Add Entry Box for Last Update Use the same procedure as above to draw a box with a heading for the last update date and time. Now, define the text box for the update date and time. Note that we set the font sizes for entries maintained by FlowDraw Plus to one size smaller. Click inside the box that will contain the update date and time. Move the text cursor with the space bar to the first position of the date. Click on the Small button to lower the font size. Click on the Auto button in the text-in-box button menu and select the auto Date. In the same way, add the auto Time to the date and time update box. This completes the box for the update date and time. -51- The date and time in this box will be maintained by FlowDraw Plus each time the diagram is saved. Add Entry box for Create Date Use the same procedure to create this box and heading as you used for the previous boxes. Click inside the create date text box and enter MM/DD/YY to show that this entry should contain the current date. When you create a diagram using this template, click on this text box. Then select the Current date from the Auto menu to insert the current date. Add Entry Box for Filename Define text boxes for the filename heading and the filename. Click on the Auto button and select auto Filename. FlowDraw Plus maintains the filename with the name used when you save the file. Since you haven't named this file yet, it has the name "unnamed". Add Entry Box for Page Number Create a text box for the page heading and enter the heading "Page". Then create a text box for the page number with space for the page number, the word "of" and the pages-of number. Use the space bar to space into the text box. Type the word "of" in the middle of the text box. Move the cursor to the location of the page number. Select auto Page from the Auto menu. Now move the cursor to the location of the pages-of number. Then select auto pages Of from the Auto menu. Remember, the pages-of feature from the Auto menu only works if you use a 2-digit page number as a filename extension. If your file naming standard doesn't allow this extension, you can leave out the pages-of entry from this text box. The completes the drawing of the template. Save Diagram as Template File Click on the File menu entry. Select the save As menu entry. When the filename prompt appears, enter a filename with an extension of TMP. The extension identifies this file as a template. Templates are saved in the FILES directory. When you select templates from the File menu entry, FlowDraw Plus will present a list of all the template files. -52- Appendix FlowDraw Plus is a DOS program and runs best under DOS. However, it will run under other operating environments. FlowDraw Plus in Microsoft Windows FlowDraw Plus will run under Microsoft Windows in a full screen DOS window. You may notice that some FlowDraw Plus commands are slower under Windows. The following instructions will help you setup FlowDraw Plus as a program item in Windows. Install FlowDraw Plus in DOS or in DOS window under Windows. FlowDraw Plus includes a Windows PIF file (FDP.PIF) and an ICO file (FDP.ICO). The FDP.PIF file has a program filename path and a starting directory path of C:\FDPLUS. If your program path is not C:\FDPLUS, use the Windows PIF editor to change the program path and starting directory in the PIF file. Start Windows. Select a group to contain the new program item. Select File on the Program Manger menu bar. Select New on the file menu list. Click on Program Item in the New Program Object dialog box. Then click on OK. In the Program Item Properties dialog box, enter FlowDraw Plus for the Description. In the Command Line box, enter the full path for the FlowDraw Plus program directory and the name for the FlowDraw Plus program. For example: C:\FDPLUS\FDP.EXE In the Working Directory box, enter the same path and name as in the Command Line box. Click on the Change Icon button. In the Change Icon File Name box, enter the same path used above followed by the FlowDraw Plus icon file FDP.ICO. For example: C:\FDPLUS\FDP.ICO After the icon appears in the Program Item Properties box, click OK to place the icon in the group window. Test the FlowDraw Plus program item by double clicking on the new icon. -53- FlowDraw Plus in IBM OS/2 FlowDraw Plus runs under IBM OS/2 in a full screen DOS window. You can add FlowDraw Plus to an OS/2 DOS Programs folder using these instructions. Open OS/2 System. Open System Setup. Open Add Programs. Select Search for and select programs to add. Select OK. Select Program Type DOS programs. Remove check from other program types. Select OK. Select Other Programs. Highlight FDP.EXE in list of programs. Select Add>>. Select OK. Select OK in Select Programs window. FlowDraw Plus has been added to the Additional DOS Programs folder. Select OK in Add Programs Information window. Select Cancel in Search for Programs window. Select Cancel to Add Programs to the Desktop window. Open Additional DOS Programs folder. Select the FDP.EXE object.