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- This is FreeHand, written by Roger
- Spooner in the middle of 1990.
-
- The purpose of FreeHand is to draw
- 'freehand' drawings which are too
- complicated and erratic to be done with
- !Draw. All you have to do is move the
- mouse around. The file is eventually
- saved as a DrawFile, suitable for pretty
- well all the programs you may want to
- put the picture in to.
-
- Double click on the icon to load the
- program; it will install itself on the
- icon bar at the bottom of the screen.
- Then, move the mouse pointer over it and
- click MENU. The menu will appear,
- including the option 'DRAW'. This is the
- main option. Selecting it allows you to
- draw your picture.
-
- When you are in drawing mode, the
- screen is blank, except for some
- instructions at the top of the screen.
- The main area is for the picture. If you
- move the mouse while holding down
- SELECT, a line will be drawn. Thus you
- can draw your shapes anywhere, and they
- do not need to be connected together;
- just let go of the button as often as
- you want. Pressing ADJUST, wherever the
- pointer is, deletes the last point on
- the line. Holding the button will make
- all the points disappear, in time. When
- you have finished drawing the picture,
- click MENU anywhere. This tells the
- program that you have completed the
- drawing. If you do this accidentally,
- select 'Continue' from the menu. The
- percentage in the corner of the screen
- while drawing is, of course, the
- percentage of memory used so far. If you
- are still drawing when it gets to 100%,
- the program will stop automatically,
- giving you a message about memory
- allocation. The amout of memory
- available can be increased using the
- task manager.
-
- If you are pressing ADJUST to delete
- previous parts of the drawing, and you
- get to the beginning, the computer will
- bleep.
-
- When you are not drawing, there are a
- number of things the program can do. One
- is to show you the picture in a window;
- another is to save the picture as a
- DrawFile, suitable for !Draw etc.
- Another is to alter the amount of memory
- allocated to FreeHand, allowing you to
- draw a more (or less) complicated
- picture.
-
- The menu options are as follows;
-
- INFO: Display a window of information
- about the program, including the length
- of the DrawFile, if it were to be saved
- now. This is more than the amount of
- memory occupied by the file while inside
- FreeHand.
-
- DRAW: This clears the drawing memory,
- and starts a new drawing. The details of
- this mode are described above.
-
- CONTINUE: This allows you to draw a
- picture, but does not clear the memory
- first, so you can add to, or even remove
- from, an previous drawing.
-
- SAVE: This allows you to save the file
- as a DrawFile. Move the mouse pointer to
- the right, and you will see a standard
- 'save window'. Type in the filename at
- the bottom, then drag the icon to a
- directory window.
-
- ZOOM: This option does not work
- properly. The intention was to allow you
- to zoom the picture in the window in and
- out. It is of very little use, anyway.
-
- SPEED: This is one of the most helpful
- options; it allows you to select the
- speed at which the mouse position is
- recorded, while you are drawing. If you
- move the mouse fast, you will want this
- to be a higher frequency; If the drawing
- is very complicated, you may want a
- lower frequency. 100Hz is suitable for
- most uses, but may be to fast for a long
- drawing.
-
- QUIT: This removes the program from
- memory, losing any file present.
-