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M A G N E T I C P A G E S: Editor (V1.30) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introduction: The Editor is the largest and most complex part of Magnetic Pages. With it you create the articles for your magazine. Each article can contain up to 100 pages. You use the editor to create you page layouts, import your text, graphics, sound and music and put them all together. Note that you must import your text, graphics, etc. The Editor is not a word processor or a paint program. You must write you articles on a word processor, save them as text files and them load them into the Editor. The same is true for any graphics, sound or music you want to use. You must have already created it with the appropriate program and then import it into the Editor. Manual Layout: This manual is divided into two sections. The first section provides a general description of the structure of Magnetic Pages and introduces the terminology used throughout this package. It is quite short but essential reading. The second section provides a description of all the commands available in the Editor and can be used as a reference guide. It is probably not necessary to read this from start to finish as many commands are fairly self-explanatory. It's probably easiest to learn how to use the Editor by experimenting with it, referring to the manual only when you're unsure of how to use a command. SECTION 1: The Magnetic Pages System ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Magazine · Articles · Pages [Text] [This diagram shows the main · Palette objects of Magnetic Pages and · Title their place in the hierarchy.] · Boxes [Graphic] · Picture to display · A Text file · Pictures · Sounds · Music The Editor is used to create articles. A complete magazine is simply a group of articles. This group of articles is defined using the Organiser. An article is made up of one or more pages, and may contain a text file, one or more pictures, sounds and music modules. An article is stored in a single file. There is only one text file associated with an article. The text flows automatically through each text box on each page. It is also important to realise that pictures, sound and music are not directly related to any page. Instead they can be thought of as objects of an article that can be used by any of the pages in the article. There are two page types available. The most common is called the 'Text page'. A text page is displayed on an 8 or 16 colour non-interlaced hires display. (ie 640*256 pixels PAL, or 640*200 pixels NTSC). Most pages should only need 8 colours, but some graphics look better if you use 16 colours. Just remember that when you are using a 16 colour screen your articles will use more memory (to display and store) and will be slower to display. A text page is made up of a series of boxes defined by the user. There are two types of boxes, Text or Graphics boxes. An article's text flows through any text boxes on a page. The Graphics boxes are used to display pictures. Both types of box can be set up to allow the reader to branch to different sections in the magazine when clicked on. They can also be used to play a sound or music when the user clicks on them. Each page can have its own palette and title. You can also specify a sound or music module to play when the page is displayed. A 'Graphics page' is a lot simpler than a text page. Its primary use is to display pictures that use different screen modes from that used by a 'text page'. For example you can display HAM (Hold & Modify), Extra Half-Brite, Lo-Res 32 colours, etc. A 'graphics page' contains no boxes at all, just a reference to the picture to display and possibly a reference to a sound or music module to play. Running the Editor: The Editor will run on a standard 512k machine. However, the more memory you have the better. If you have enough memory, it is very convenient to run a word-processor and a paint program at the same time. The Editor can be run from the workbench or the CLI. If you run the Editor from the CLI, make sure you have a stack size of at least 10k. SECTION 2: Editor Commands ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is a description of the menu commands available in the editor. All action is carried out using menus and their associated requesters. Many of the menu commands have keyboard equivalents. I recommend you use these instead of the menus once you are familiar with the commands. PROJECT New - Allows the user to start a new article. If the current article hasn't been saved, a requester will appear and ask the user for confirmation. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - N Open - Loads a previously saved article. Note that any current article will be erased by the article loaded. Compressed articles will be decrunched automatically (see Save below). Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - O Save - Saves the current article to disk. Note that once an article has been saved, you may compress it using Power Packer. This saves disk space and reduces load time. When you are in Power Packer, make sure you set the file type to 'Data File'. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - S Save As - Displays a file requester to allow the user to specify a name and path to save the current article to. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - A Text » Load - Allows you to load the text for your article. The text file must be in ASCII format. It may also have ANSI control sequences imbedded to allow you to change the text mode and colour. Note that if you are using a word-processor to write your article you must save the text as 'TEXT ONLY'. You only load one text file per article. The text will flow automatically from the 1st 'text box' to the next and from page to page. The text is NOT truncated to fit in the number of pages you have created. Therefore as you create more pages and 'text boxes' more of the text will be displayed. Keyboard Equivalent: F1 (Function Key 1) The following ANSI control codes are supported. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ESC [0m - Resets text to default colour and plain style ESC [3m - Italics On ESC [23m - Italics Off ESC [4m - Underline On ESC [24m - Underline Off ESC [1m - Boldface On ESC [22m - Boldface Off ESC [3nm - Set foreground colour (where n = 0 - 9) ESC [4nm - Set background colour (where n = 0 - 9) ESC [6"m - Shadow On { Note: Normal ANSI uses 6"Z ESC [5"m - Shadow Off and 5"Z for Shadow control. } ESC = Ascii code 27 and appears as an inverse left square bracket. There should be no space between ESC and the [. It is also possible to combine several commands in the same escape sequence by seperating them using semicolons. eg. ESC[3;4;35m - Turns on Italics, Underline and sets the foreground text pen to 5. Text » Reload - This command is not shown in the menus. It is invoked by pressing the SHIFT+F1 keys. It is exactly the same as the load text command but it doesn't prompt the user for a filename. Instead it uses the filename from the last load text command and reloads that text file. This command is useful when you have made changes to a text file with a text editor or word processor and you want to reload the modified text file into the Editor. Note that if you haven't previously loaded a text file, then this command acts exactly the same as the load text command. Text » Save - Allows you to save your article text as an ASCII file for re-editing. This allows you to load in some text, perform some text manipulation commands (eg Re-Format, Justify, etc) and then save the result so can do other editing from within your text editor or word-processor. Keyboard Equivalent: F2 (Function Key 2) Text » Resave - This command is not shown in the menus. It is invoked by pressing the SHIFT+F2 keys. It is exactly the same as the save text command but it doesn't prompt the user for a filename. Instead it uses the filename from the last save text command. This command is useful when you want to save the changes you have made to a text file using the Editor text formatting commands. Note that if you haven't previously saved or loaded a text file, then this command acts exactly the same as the save text command. Text » Remove - Deletes all text in the article. Picture » Load - This command is used to load graphics for the article. Note the picture must be saved as an IFF file. Both brushes and picture files may be loaded. Each article can have any number of pictures associated with it. The same picture can be used on more that one page. DPaint IV is a great program for creating icons, pictures, diagrams, etc. Other useful programs are PixMate (especially good for colour manipulation) and ADPro 2 (good for reducing the number of colours in a picture, etc). Keyboard Equivalent: F3 (Function Key 3) Picture » Remove - Allows you to discard a picture you have loaded but are not going to use in the article. Note that even if you don't use a picture in the article, it will still be saved as part of the article. Sound » Load - Allows you to load in digitized sound. This sound can be stored as an IFF sound file or as a RAW file of data. Sound » Remove - Allows you to discard a sound. Music » Load - Allows you to load a MED music module. Note that when you save your song from MED, make sure you save it as a MED module. To play Soundtracker modules you must first load them into MED and resave them as a MED module. Music » Remove - Allows you to discard a MED module. About - Displays a window with information about the program. Quit - Exit the Editor here. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - Q PAGE New - Creates a new page. You are first presented with a small requester which allows you to select the new page type. You can choose either a 'Text' or 'Graphic' page. The Text page is used to display both text and graphics. A Graphic page is used to display one IFF picture of any format. You can cancel this operation by clicking on the Cancel gadget. Note that every article must contain at least one page. This is the reason why when you first load the Editor or when you invoke the New Article command you are automatically presented with this requester. Note that if you cancel this requester when defining page one, page one will default to a Text page. Text Page ~~~~~~~~~ If you chose to create a text page you will be presented with a new requester containing the following items: Page Title: This is the first gadget in the requester. Here you can enter a title which will be displayed in the title bar at the top of this page. Note that the page title is only displayed by the Displayer and not the Editor. # Colours: Allows you to choose 8 or 16 colours for the page. Colour: This is the background colour of the page. When you click on this gadget the 'Colour Selector' will be displayed so you can pick a colour. See the section on using the 'Colour Selector' for more information. Initial Sound: When the reader first turns to a page it is possible to play either a sound or music module. You cannot however play both. Here you can choose a sound to play. The 'Select' gadget lets you choose a sound that you have already loaded and the 'Load' gadget lets you load a new sound. If there are no sounds currently loaded, the 'Select' gadget is disabled. When you click on 'Select' a 'List Selector' will be displayed allowing you to choose a sound. The first entry in the list is always 'NONE'. Select this if you don't want an Initial Sound. See the section on using the 'List Selector' for more information. Initial Music: This is same as 'Initial Sound' except a MED music module is played instead of a sound. Graphic Page ~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you chose to create a graphic page you will be presented with a new requester containing the following items: Picture to Display: The 'Select' gadget lets you choose a picture that you have already loaded and the 'Load' gadget lets you load a new picture. If there are no picture currently loaded, the 'Select' gadget is disabled. When you click on 'Select' a 'List Selector' will be displayed allowing you to choose a picture. You must specify a picture for a Graphic page. Initial Sound: Same as for a Text page. Initial Music: Same as for a Text page. Edit - Allows you to edit the current page's characteristics. See PAGE New for more information. Copy - Allows you to make one or more copies of the current page. The cursor is initially in the 'to position' gadget. The 'to position' is the page number in the article where you want the copies to be inserted. If you specify a 'to position' greater than the current number of pages, the copies will be tacked on the end. Pressing RETURN will advance the cursor to the next gadget, 'Number of Copies'. Enter the number of copies you want to make and press RETURN. Now click on 'Ok' or press RETURN to proceed with the command or click on 'Cancel' to abort. Move - Allows you to move the current page to a new position in the article. Enter a new page number into the 'to position' gadget for the current page and press RETURN. Now click on 'Ok' or press RETURN to proceed with the command or click on 'Cancel' to abort. Note that this command has no effect on text. Delete - Deletes a range of pages. Enter the 'Start Page', press RETURN, enter the 'End Page' and press RETURN again. Now click on 'Ok' or press RETURN to proceed with the command or click on 'Cancel' to abort. The start page, the end page and all pages in between will be deleted. If you delete all pages you will automatically be presented with a 'New Page Type' requester so you can define page one. Note that this command has no effect on text. Auto-Number - This command will automatically add page numbers to the title of each page. The text added to the title is created in the following way. 'Prefix string' + 'Current Page Number' + 'Infix string' + 'Total Pages Number' + 'Suffix string'. This text can be inserted in front of the existing title or appended to the end of the title. This is done by selecting either the 'Insert Before' or the 'Insert After' gadget. You can choose not to display the 'Current Page Number' or 'Total Pages Number' by deselecting the appropriate gadgets. The best way to use this command is as follows. When you first begin an article, enter your page title without any page numbering. Then when you have finished your article, use the Auto-Number command to add the required page numbers. You may use the Auto-Number command several times during your article creation, as long as you don't change the page titles between commands. This means you can automatically update the page numbering of your article, if you delete/add pages etc. Copy Title - This command allows you to copy the current page's title to a range of pages. You can use this to change all the page titles in an article. Then you can use Auto-Number to add page numbering. Copy Palette - This works exactly the same as the Copy Title command, except it copies the current page palette. BOX New Text - Creates a new 'Text Box'. Brings up a requester allowing you to edit the box characteristics. Requester Fields: Text Left, Top - Left and Top edge co-ordinates of the box. Columns, Rows - Number of Columns and Rows of text in the Box. Text Colour 1 - The colour of the actual text. Text Colour 2 - The colour behind the text or if the text is in shadow mode the colour of the text shadow. Border Width, Height - Width, Height of box border in pixels. Box Colour - Actually this is the colour of the box. Type - Standard - This box is for displaying text only. It cannot be clicked on. Play Sound - If at least 1 sound has been loaded then this option will appear. Will play the sound selected below when the reader clicks on the box. Play Music - Same as play sound but plays music instead. Go to Page - When clicked on by the reader they will be taken to the article specified in the 'Go to Page ?' field below. Shadow XOff - Offset of the bottom edge shadow component from the left edge of the box. YOff - Offset of the right edge shadow component from the top edge of the box. Width - Width of the right shadow component. Height - Height of the bottom shadow component. Colour - Shadow colour. Jump to Page - the AmigaDos path and filename of the article to be loaded when the user clicks on the box. You must have selected 'Go to Page' in the 'Type' gadget or it will be ignored. Sound - Sound to be played when the box is clicked by the user. You must have selected 'Play Sound' in the 'Type' gadget or this field will be ignored. Music - Music to be played when the box is clicked by the user. You must have selected 'Play Music' in the 'Type' gadget or this field will be ignored. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - 1 New Picture - Creates a new 'Picture Box'. Brings up a requester allowing you to edit the box characteristics. Unless you have already loaded a picture, this command will not be available. Requester Fields: Box Left, Top - Left and Top edge co-ordinates of the box. Type - Standard - This box is for displaying text only. It cannot be clicked on. Play Sound - If at least 1 sound has been loaded then this option will appear. Will play the sound selected below when the reader clicks on the box. Play Music - Same as play sound but plays music instead. Go to Page - When clicked on by the reader they will be taken to the article specified in the 'Go to Page ?' field below. Border Width, Height - Width, Height of box border in pixels. Colour - Border colour around the picture. Shadow XOff - Offset of the bottom edge shadow component from the left edge of the box. YOff - Offset of the right edge shadow component from the top edge of the box. Width - Width of the right shadow component. Height - Height of the bottom shadow component. Colour - Shadow colour. Animate Type - Gadget to toggle between a standard 'Push' button box and a box with several 'Frame's of animation. Frames - Number of frames of animation. Select between 1 and 30. Ignored unless 'Animate Type' is 'Frame' Speed - Number of 1/60ths of a second between frames. Ignored unless 'Animate Type' is 'Frame' Picture Frame - The current frame. You can move through the frames of an animated box using the + and - gadgets. Width, Height - The width and height of the picture. You cannot change this. Select - This brings up the 'List Selector' to allow you to choose a picture for the box or current frame of animation. +, - - Move to the Next/Previous frame of the animation so a picture may be selected for that frame. Jump to Page - the AmigaDos path and filename of the article to be loaded when the user clicks on the box. You must have selected 'Go to Page' in the 'Type' gadget or it will be ignored. Sound - Sound to be played when the box is clicked by the user. You must have selected 'Play Sound' in the 'Type' gadget or this field will be ignored. Music - Music to be played when the box is clicked by the user. You must have selected 'Play Music' in the 'Type' gadget or this field will be ignored. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - 2 Edit - Allows you to modify an existing box on the page. You will first be asked to pick a box. If you want to abort the command at this stage you can click on a blank portion of the page. Once you've picked a box, an edit text or graphic box requester will be displayed. This is the same requester used for the 'New Box' commands. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - 3 Copy - Pick a box, keeping the mouse button held down and drag the copy into the desired position. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - C Move - Pick a box, keeping the mouse button held down and drag the box into the desired position. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - M Resize - Pick a box, hold the mouse button down and drag out the box to the desired size. If you resize a graphics box, only the border size will change. The actual picture will not be resized. When you resize a text box, the new size will be used to work out the maximum number of text rows and columns for the box. Anything left over will be used for the borders. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - R Delete - Pick a box. If the box is a graphics box it will ask if you want to delete the picture as well. If the picture is being used by another box or page it won't let you remove it. If the box has sound or music associated with it, it will ask if you want them removed as well. Again this may not be possible if they are still being used by another box or page. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - X BOX POSITION Centre Horizontally - Pick a box and it will be automatically centred horizontally on the page. Centre Vertically - Pick a box and it will be automatically centred vertically on the page. Centre - Pick a box and it will be automatically centred on the page. Align Horizontally - Pick a box you want to align with another one. Then choose the box you want to align it with. It will then be aligned horizontally with the box you chose. Align Vertically - Pick a box you want to align with another one. Then choose the box you want to align it with. It will then be aligned vertically with the box you chose. Move in front of - This command and the next allow you to change the order in which the boxes are drawn. This can also affect the order in which text flows from box to box. Pick the box to move. Then pick the box to move it in front of. This will change the order of an internal list of boxes. The box you choose to move will be moved down the list and placed just after the box you chose to move it in front of. This means it will be drawn after (and therefore in front of) the other box. If both boxes were text boxes, then text will flow through the other box first and then through the box you moved. You can use this command and the next to change the order that text flows through the boxes on a page. Move behind - Performs the opposite of the above command. The box is moved up the list and is therefore drawn before (behind) the other box. Copy to another Page - Pick a box and then choose the page to move it to. You can't copy a box from a 16 colour page to an 8 colour one. TEXT Re-format - This command lets you remove unnecessary spaces from lines of text and fill lines that can fit more words on them. It is most useful when you import text. Lines that don't fit in the text boxes are broken at word boundaries if possible and put on the next line. This often leads to lines that contain only 1 or 2 words. To fix this use Re-format. Simply select text to re-format by clicking the mouse at the start of the text you want and drag-select the rest. You may have to do this several times on a box as the text is compacted. Because you can only select the text from one box at a time you often can't fill the last line of a box. Use the 'Join 2 Lines' command to join the 1st line of the next box with the last line. Re-format can also be used to unjustify text that you have used 'Justify' on. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - F Justify - Used to right justify text. Select the text to justify in the same manner as you do for Re-format. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - J Centre - Used to automatically centre text within a box. Select the text to centre in the same manner as you do for Re-format. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - Z Join 2 Lines - Pick a line. The next line will then be joined with the first. Its main use is in conjunction with the Re-format command. Often at the bottom of a box or page you will get a partial line of text. You can't use the Re-format command to close up this gap because you can only select text in one box at a time. Instead use this command to join the 1st line of text from the next box or page with the last line. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - T Edit Line - Pick a line of text to edit. A requester will be displayed allowing you to change the text. Note that you can insert escape codes to change the text style and colour. If you are using Workbench 2 and want to insert escape codes, you must turn the 'Text Gadget Filter' off in the IControl Preferences. Once you've made your changes, press RETURN. Now click on 'Ok' or press RETURN to proceed with the command or click on 'Cancel' to abort. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - E Add Line - Pick a line to insert the new line before or after. Enter your line of text. Select the 'Insert Before' gadget to insert the new line in front of the line you selected. Select the 'Insert After' gadget to insert the new line after the line you selected. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - I Delete Lines - Select a range of lines to delete. You will then be asked if you are sure you want to delete the lines. Click on OK to proceed with the command or click on 'Cancel' to abort. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - D MOVE TO Next Page - Move to the next page. Keyboard Equivalent: Cursor Right Prev Page - Move to the previous page. Keyboard Equivalent: Cursor Left 1st Page - Move to the first page. Keyboard Equivalent: Shift+Cursor Left Last Page - Move to the last page. Keyboard Equivalent: Shift+Cursor Right Number - Allows you to goto to a specific page number. Enter the desired page number and press return. ow click on 'Ok' or press RETURN to proceed with the command or click on 'Cancel' to abort. Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - G OTHER Palette - Allows you to change the page colours. You can use a pictures palette by clicking on 'Picture Colours' and then selecting the picture you want. UNDO lets you undo a change you have made to a colour. COPY allows you to copy a colour to another position. To modify a colour, use the R,G,B or H,S,V sliders. R, G and B specify the Red, Green and Blue components of a colour. H specifies the Hue of a colour. S specifies the Saturation of a colour. As saturation is decreased, the colour becomes more washed out until it eventually becomes white. V Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga - P Show Pics - Lets you view any picture you have loaded. Useful to view pictures that use custom screen modes. Play Sound - Allows you to play any sound you have loaded. It also lets you change the volume, period and number of cycles of a sound. Set the number of cycles to zero to have the sound play continuously (when played from the Displayer). Play Music - Allows you to play any music you have loaded. It also lets you change the number of times the music is played. Set the number of cycles to zero to have the music play continuously (when played from the Displayer). ------------------------------ Upgrades ~~~~~~~~ The Editor is by no means perfect. I will continue to work on it when I get the time. I'm not promising anything but if enough interest is shown in Magnetic Pages, then there are many new features I'd like to add. If you have any suggestions, or complaints please let me know when you register. Mark Gladding.