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PC-Graph(tm) User's Guide Version 1.0 (C)Copyright 1985 by Jim Button (C)Copyright 1985 by Softek All Rights Reserved. Jim Button ButtonWare, Inc. P.O. Box 5786 Bellevue, WA 98006 24 hr. order line: 1-800-J-BUTTON _ TABLE OF CONTENTS 0.1. Your Evaluation Copy............................... 3 1. INTRODUCTION........................................... 5 1.1. General Information................................ 5 1.2. Getting Started.................................... 6 2. TUTORIAL............................................... 7 2.1. Preparation........................................ 7 2.2. Plotting........................................... 8 2.3. Labelling.......................................... 14 2.4. Saving the plot.................................... 15 2.5. Printing........................................... 15 2.6. Loading plots from disk............................ 16 2.7. Comment............................................ 16 3. REFERENCE SECTION...................................... 17 3.1. Starting the Program............................... 17 3.2. Main Menu.......................................... 17 3.3. PC-Graph Options................................... 18 3.4. F1--Plot data...................................... 19 3.5. F2--Save plot to disk.............................. 19 3.6. F4--Print screen................................... 19 3.7. F5--View menu...................................... 19 3.8. F6--Label plot..................................... 19 3.9. F9--Main menu...................................... 20 3.10. What about F10?................................... 20 3.11. Error messages.................................... 20 3.12. PC-Graph files.................................... 20 3.13. PC-Graph updates.................................. 22 3.14. If You Need Help.................................. 22 3.15. Restricted Permission to Copy..................... 23 INDEX..................................................... 27 _ PC-Graph User's Guide Page 3. 0.1. YOUR EVALUATION COPY A Note About Your Evaluation Copy At several places in this copy of the User's Guide you'll see the following notice. ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** We honestly feel that we've supplied enough of the manual to allow you to make a good evaluation of the program. There are several reasons why we didn't provide the entire manual on disk. * We'd like to encourage more of our users to pay for the product. We've priced our software so that you can afford it. Frankly, it's the best bargain in the industry. We also suspect and hope that you (the buying public) will want to cast your "vote" for lower priced software by paying readily for such programs. Other software publishers would then be forced to take notice. * We feel that the honesty of our "registered" users should be rewarded. They're entitled to some extra value that should rightfully be denied to those who don't pay. * It takes up too much room on the diskette. We trust that you'll be open-minded about the omissions. We hope that we can soon add you to our list of very satisfied customers. The printed copy of this manual is over 55 pages long. _ Page 4. PC-Graph User's Guide _ 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. GENERAL INFORMATION PC-Graph is a program that allows you to plot database and report files which have been created by PC-File. It has been designed specifically for ease of use and understanding. With PC-Graph you can see your data very quickly, giving you a perspective that reports cannot (a picture is worth a thousand words!!). With PC-Graph you can: - Produce line graphs of Report files or Database files (up to 1000 records) - Define the area on the screen to use for your graphs - View all or portions of your data - Put labels and comments on your graphs - Save graphs to disk - Print your graphs Any database or report file that has been created with PC-File may be graphed using PC-Graph. Many types of files created by other programs (such as VisiCalc) may be imported into PC-File and then graphed using PC-Graph. Above all else, PC-Graph is easy to use. Most people have been able to use it with no training or instruction. We developed this program with you in mind, trying to give you the most desirable features without making it overly complex. You will be "seeing" your data, the way you want to see it, moments after creating it with PC-File. Any suggestions which you have for improving this program will be thoughtfully considered and greatly appreciated. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: - 192k IBM-PC computer - IBM (or IBM "compatible") Color/Graphics Monitor adapter - Graphics monitor - PC-File III database program - An IBM graphics printer (or compatible) is recommended. _ Page 6. PC-Graph User's Guide 1.2. GETTING STARTED Before trying to operate PC-Graph: - Please carefully read this User's Guide - Put a write protect tab on your PC-Graph diskette, so that it can't be accidentally erased or overwritten. - Make a copy of your disk and use the copy to run PC-Graph. Assuming you have a two-drive system, these are the steps to follow: 1. Put your DOS system diskette in the "A" drive, and a blank diskette in the "B" drive. 2. If you don't have a DOS prompt on your screen, then boot-up the DOS operating system in the usual manner. If you do not know how to do this, refer to your DOS manual for instructions. 3. Make sure you are defaulted to the "A" drive. To do this type "A:" (do not type the quote marks) and press the (enter) key. 4. Format the diskette in the "B" drive as a system diskette. This is done by typing: FORMAT B:/S Caution: any data currently on the "B" diskette will be lost. 5. Remove the DOS diskette from the "A" drive. 6. Put the PC-Graph distribution diskette in drive "A" 7. Copy the PC-Graph files to the "B" disk by typing: COPY A:*.* B: 8. Remove the diskette from the "B" drive and label it as your PC-Graph diskette. 9. Put a write protect tab on your new PC-Graph diskette, so that it can't be accidentally erased or overwritten. 10. Store your PC-Graph distribution diskette in a safe place. Now that your program is backed up and your original is safely stored away let's explore what can be done with PC-Graph. _ 2. TUTORIAL We have included some sample files on your PC-Graph diskette for tutorial purposes. This section will show you how to create a plot, label it, save it and bring it back, using some of those files. This tutorial is meant to take you by the hand through most of the options. It won't go into a great deal of explanation of those options or their features. If you want a more detailed description, please refer to the PC-Graph Options chapter. 2.1. PREPARATION - Put your backup PC-Graph diskette in the A: drive - Set default to your A: drive by typing "A:" (no quotes) from a DOS prompt - Type "pc-graph" (no quotes) and press the (Enter) key - Enter "A" (no quotes) in response to "... default drive [A-H]" - Enter the appropriate response to the question on printer type - Now you will see the Main menu appear _______________________________________________________________ F1 - Plot data F2 - Save plot to disk F3 - Load plot from disk F4 - Print screen F5 - View menu F6 - Label plot F7 - Turn key row on/off F9 - Main menu (here) 1-Plot 3-Load 7-Kyoff ______________________________________________________________ _ Page 8. PC-Graph User's Guide 2.2. PLOTTING Press the F1 key (Plot data) and you should see the light on drive A: come on. PC-Graph is building a list of all available files and will present it to you when it's complete. The screen will look like this: _______________________________________________________________ Which file do you want to plot: TUTOR1 TUTOR2 9-Menu _______________________________________________________________ Type "tutor" (no quotes). You will hear a beep and get this message: entry not unique.... re-enter. Press any key to continue. You got this message because PC-Graph was not able to uniquely identify which file you wanted from the list. Press any key and let's try again. Type "tutor1" (no quotes). You now have a list of available fields to plot. Some of them will not be meaningful to plot. Only numeric fields can be plotted; anything else will result in meaningless data (PC-Graph will still try to plot it though). _______________________________________________________________ Which field do you want plotted: payee amount# _ PC-Graph User's Guide Page 9. 9-Menu _______________________________________________________________ Notice that on the bottom row there is the number of a function key displayed, followed by a word. The bottom row will almost always display the active options you have (that's ALMOST always because one option you have is to NOT display your options). Whenever "9-Menu" is active, you may use it to get back to the main menu. In fact, to get to some options you may find that you need to go through the main menu to get to them. Now type "amo" (no quotes). Notice that you didn't have to enter the entire field name. With both file names and field names, you only need to enter enough of the name to uniquely identify it. Now the screen will blank, the A: drive will start spinning and you will get a new display: _ Page 10. PC-Graph User's Guide _______________________________________________________________ Report: TUTOR1 Field : amount# number of data points = 17 maximum value = 205 minimum value = 6.63 9-Menu _______________________________________________________________ Your data is being read in and the values are displayed on the screen as PC-Graph reads them. The display is there to remind you of the choices you made, and to let you see some activity so you know something is happening. If you want to be adventurous, you may press the F9 key (your only active option) and see what happens. If you do that, just follow the steps above to get back to this point (we'll wait for you)...... After all the points have been read in (about 90 in this file), you will see the CONFIGURATION MENU. You will also notice a cursor positioned in the first field (Top edge of plot). The cursor is moved by pressing the [tab], [arrow] or [enter] keys. Move the cursor to the Grid field by pressing the [enter] key 4 times. Now type "N" (uppercase or lowercase). Move to the Axes field by pressing the [down arrow] key (you could have used [enter] but we are exploring). Type a "Y". You told PC-Graph to plot using the following area on the screen: The top of your plot will be at -- line 5 The bottom of your plot will be at -- line 20 The left edge of your plot will be at -- column 2 The right edge of your plot will be at -- column 78 You just told PC-Graph where on the screen you wanted the plot located and how much space it should take up. You could make it very small (rows 15 to 17, columns 40 to 45 for example) or very _ PC-Graph User's Guide Page 11. big (rows 3 to 22, columns 2 to 78 -- this is the maximum size). You also indicated you wanted PC-Graph to place Axes in your plot (you may have Axes or Grid or Neither, but not both) and not to draw a box around your plot. Later, you can read more about these parameters in the Plot Data section. Let's move on for now. Notice your active options at the bottom of the screen. Now press F10. You will now see another menu; the VIEW MENU. The view menu lets you create the window, or view, of your data. With it, you tell PC-Graph how much of the data you want to look at. The cursor is moved the same way as in the previous menu. Position the cursor to Minimum y-value and type "20". You are telling PC-Graph that the bottom of your plot will represent a value of 20. Points that have a value less than 20 will not appear in the plot. Press the [enter] key. Now type "22222". Whoops! Let's say we didn't really mean "22222". Just press the [backspace] key (the key just above the [enter] key) five times and use the [space bar] to clear out the 2's. The field will be cleared now (that means the maximum y-value displayed will be the maximum y-value read in -- see Maximum y-value in the Plot Data section). Now you know how to enter data into fields, how to make mistakes and how to undo them, so let's see the plot. Press the F10 key and your plot will be drawn on the screen. _ Page 12. PC-Graph User's Guide It should look like this: PUT TUTOR1 PLOT HERE Notice that after the plot gets drawn there is some disk activity. PC-Graph is saving temporary information about the plot that will be used later if you decide to go into Label Mode (we'll do that soon). While saving, all the options are turned off (you are stuck here) until the copying is complete. You may continue when the active options are again displayed on the bottom row. Let's say after all this, that you've decided you want all the data displayed (remember we left out points that had a value less than 20). Press F5. This will take you back to the View Menu. The entry that you made before is gone (View Menu will load the fields from a default file if you create one). In fact, all the fields are empty (unless you created a default file by running this tutorial before). If all the fields are empty press F10. If not, you may blank them _ PC-Graph User's Guide Page 13. out by moving the cursor to each field. Either use the [space bar] to blank them out, or the [backspace] and [del] keys. When the fields are clear, press F10. Now you have the plot back. See the difference? You now have ALL the points plotted on the screen. Also notice your active options. You may activate any of these simply by pressing the appropriate function key. Don't press anything yet though. Some of the keys will cause you to lose your graph and we don't want to do that yet. Before going on to labelling, let's try one more thing. Press F5. This will get you back to the View Menu. Now let's enter some numbers. As this is only a tutorial, let's be a bit daring! For minimum x-value, enter -20 (that's right -- minus 20) For maximum x-value, enter 100 For minimum y-value, enter -100 For y-axis spacing, enter 50 No entries are made for maximum y and x-axis spacing Now enter a "Y" for Save for this file Press F10 and see what you get. We wanted you to see what happened if you "Saved for this file". When your options are active again, press F5 and see what you get!! This time the fields have the entries you made before. In fact, they have been stored on your default disk in a file called TUTOR1.VUE. Whenever you plot this file the answers in the view menu will be defaulted with these entries. You may change them and re-save the file if you'd like. Later, you may delete the file from the disk using DOS. The file is not required. Now clear all the fields and press F10 so we can get on with labelling. _ Page 14. PC-Graph User's Guide 2.3. LABELLING Press F6. This will put you in the label mode. A message will appear at the upper left corner indicating that you are in label mode. It will disappear when you press any key. Press any other key except an active function key to get rid of the message. Now let's learn how to move the cursor, enter text, and correct mistakes. There are several keys that allow you to move the cursor without affecting the graph: the [arrow] keys and the [tab] key (shifted and unshifted). Let's try the [arrow] keys. Try pressing the [down arrow] key several times. If you get the number 2 instead of moving down, then press your [num-lock] key. You can delete the 2's by pressing the [backspace] KEY or the [del] key. Then press the [down arrow] key several times again. This time you will move down. Now press the [scroll lock] key (upper right corner of keyboard) and press the [down arrow] key several times again. Using the [scroll lock] key you can cause the cursor to move an entire character space each time you press it, or 1/8 of a character space. Play with it for a minute using the [scroll lock] key and the four [arrow] keys. See what happens when you move off the edge of the screen. Now try the [tab] key. Press [tab] several times. Press [shift tab] several times. The [scroll lock] does not have an effect here. It only affects the [arrow] keys. Next type some text. You may type anywhere you like, including right over the top of your plot. If you make a mistake simply press either the [backspace] key or the [del] key. If you want to type on the bottom 2 rows, first press F10 to turn off the DATA row display and then press F7 to turn off the KEY row display. Both of those keys will toggle their respective display lines on or off. Try entering text right over an area of the plot. Now press the [backspace] or [del] key and see what happens. That part of the graph is restored! This is why the graph was saved after drawing it on the screen. Enter as much text as you like. You can label the axes. Toggle F10 to see the limits of the axes and the spacing, but watch out. _ PC-Graph User's Guide Page 15. It will clear out any typing you've done on that line. When you're through, press F2. 2.4. SAVING THE PLOT You save the plot to disk. It's saved exactly as it looks on the screen -- the cursor temporarily disappears. Next, the screen goes blank and you are asked to enter a name for the plot. Type in a name. This name will be the file name on the disk. Do not enter a period or the three character suffix which is sometimes used with a file name. PC-Graph automatically supplies its own file suffix. After the name is entered, your plot is shown again. If you wish you may continue labeling and save it again with a different name, or you may go on to a different option. 2.5. PRINTING Assuming you have a printer and did not type an "N" when asked to "indicate printer" at the beginning of this tutorial, let's print our graph. Make sure your printer is set to top of form and is on-line. Press F4. The printing process will take about 3 minutes. If you want to cancel the printing process, press any key on the keyboard and you will return to the mode you came from (At this point in the tutorial, you would return to Label Mode). If your printer is off, you'll hear a beep. Turn the printer on and press F4 again. If the printer is off-line, just set the printer on-line and the printing will start. If you typed an "N" (indicating no printer) way back when you were asked "indicate printer" then forget it. The print option is not being supported. You'll hear a beep. _ Page 16. PC-Graph User's Guide 2.6. LOADING PLOTS FROM DISK One more thing to try. We are going to load a plot from the disk. These are plots that have previously been saved (you just did one). Press F3. You'll get a list of available plots. The name you entered will be among them. Simply type the filename you want (or enough of the name to make it unique) and press [enter]. The graph will be drawn on the screen and will be saved in a temporary file on the disk (as before, for labeling purposes). Notice that F5 is not an option this time. This is because PC-Graph did not read the actual data. Therefore, it could not plot the file. It could only restore a saved image. You may still label and print it, and even save it under a new name. There are several plots that have been saved to the disk for you to examine. Look at them so you can get an idea of what you can do with PC-Graph. When you want to exit the program, go back to the Main Menu (F9) and press the [Esc] key. For a more detailed explanation of how each of the options and its features works, refer to the applicable section. 2.7. COMMENT We did not show everything in this tutorial nor did we intend to. You'll get a fuller understanding of what can be done by reading the rest of this manual and experimenting with files. Most users have found PC-Graph easy to use. _ 3. REFERENCE SECTION 3.1. STARTING THE PROGRAM To start the program, put the PC-Graph diskette in your default drive (usually the "A" drive) and type "pc-graph" (without quotes). When prompted with the question "Which drive has the data to be graphed [A-H]", enter the letter corresponding to the disk drive where your database, report or plot files will be stored. The drive that will have those files may also be the default drive. If this is the case, you may now remove the PC-Graph diskette (it's not used after the program is loaded) and put your data diskette in it's place. PC-Graph now needs to know about your printer. Two printers are currently supported: the IBM graphics printer and the Epson MX-80 with Graftrax. If you have the IBM, then enter an "I" (uppercase or lower -- no quotes) and if you have the Epson, enter an "E". If you do not have either of these then enter "N". 3.2. MAIN MENU The PC-Graph menu looks like this: _______________________________________________________________ PC-GRAPH MENU 'ESC' to exit F1 - Plot data F2 - Save plot to disk F3 - Load plot from disk F4 - Print screen F5 - View menu F6 - Label plot F7 - Turn key row on/off F9 - Main menu (here) 1-Plot 3-Load 7-Kyoff _ Page 18. PC-Graph User's Guide _______________________________________________________________ This is what appears on your screen after the introductory prompts. This is the list of options you may execute while running PC-Graph. You move from one option to another by using the function keys (F1 - F10). However, most of the functions are not "active" all the time. There are times when certain functions would not make any sense, depending on what you are doing. For instance if you are at the main menu, it would not make any sense to try to "Save plot to disk" (F2), because there is no plot on the screen, so when you are at the main menu, "Saving" is not an option. Look at the bottom row of the main menu screen. It looks like this: 1-Plot 3-Load 7-Kyoff This row, which appears at the bottom of your screen, shows you which options are currently active. The numbers represent function key numbers and the labels are the options associated with that function key (they represent the labels in the main menu). For example, if you wanted to plot a report or database file you would press the F1 key. If you wanted to "Load" a previously saved plot you would press the F3 key. This row of "active" options will always appear at the bottom of your screen unless you turn them off. Now let's find out what each of these options is: 3.3. PC-GRAPH OPTIONS ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** _ PC-Graph User's Guide Page 19. 3.4. F1--PLOT DATA ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** 3.5. F2--SAVE PLOT TO DISK ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** 3.6. F4--PRINT SCREEN ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** 3.7. F5--VIEW MENU ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** 3.8. F6--LABEL PLOT ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** _ Page 20. PC-Graph User's Guide 3.9. F9--MAIN MENU ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** 3.10. WHAT ABOUT F10? ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** 3.11. ERROR MESSAGES ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** 3.12. PC-GRAPH FILES This section briefly describes the files that come with PC-Graph and the different file types that are used with the program. Your PC-Graph disk comes with the following files: ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** The only files you need for this version of PC-Graph are pc-graph.exe and pctext.bin. They must both reside on the same diskette and when you run PC-Graph you must be set default to the drive it resides on. _ PC-Graph User's Guide Page 21. The following file types are meaningful to the PC-Graph program: ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * ************************************** _ INDEX ************************************** * Omitted from the evaluation copy * **************************************