Shareware Super Platinum 8

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Super Platinum 8 / Shareware Super Platinum 8.iso / mac / DATABASE / SPDAYS.ZIP;1 / README.SD < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 19.7 KB | 371 lines

README.SD for SPECIAL DAYS (Version 2.5) ------------------------------------------ A RECAP OF WHAT IS NEW IN VERSION 2.5: 1. NEW DATA. We have added data for 1989 and 1990 and have corrected some errors in earlier years. You can now create a TimeScript for any date from 1/1/1850 through 12/31/90. 2. BETTER PRINTER SUPPORT. We have added support for over 25 new printers. You can now print a report with lined borders on a much wider variety of printers. Some of the printers now supported include: Brother M-1824L Brother HL8-PS Laser Citizen GSX 140 Citizen 200GX Citizen 5200 C.Itoh 240/245 C.Itoh 510/515 Epson FX86e/286e Epson LQ850/950/1050 Epson LQ1000 w-ESC/P module Epson LX810 HP DeskJet + HP LaserJet + HP LaserJet IIp HP LaserJet III IBM Lasers (proprt emul) IBM Proprinters NEC P2200XE NEC P5200/P5300 NEC Pinwriter P6 Okidata 182/183 Okidata 320/321 Okidata 391 Panasonic 1080i Panasonic 1180 Panasonic 1124/1164 Star NX-1000II Star NX2410 Tandy DMP133 TI Microlaser (HP emul) A FEW TECHNICAL NOTES ON PRINTERS: When first running the program, a printer selection screen is displayed from which you pick your printer. Once you've selected a printer, you can change your selection from the User Options Screen. Just press the left or right arrow keys on the Printer Type line to horizontally scroll through the dozens of different printers now supported (only two of these printer types are displayed on the screen at one time). Many of the above dot-matrix printers support multiple fonts and/or character sets. SPECIAL DAYS is set up to work with a non-proportional, 10 characters/inch set (e.g. a 10 pitch courier or pica character set that supports the IBM extended graphic characters). Do not try to use SPECIAL DAYS with a proportional font or an elite, 12 characters/inch character set. For laser printers, SPECIAL DAYS comes with its own soft font which you can download into your laser printer's memory by entering LASERSD from the DOS prompt (see page 5-3 in the User's Guide for more details on LASERSD). 3. SHORTER PAGE LENGTH. We have shortened the length of all three report types (i.e. Birthday, Anniversary and Flashback) to a maximum of 60 lines. This offers several advantages including: a. EASIER PAPER HANDLING. You won't have to spend as much time adjusting your top-of-form setting so that the entire document will fit on one page. b. MORE WHITE SPACE. The resulting document now has a larger top and bottom margin and seems better proportioned than the earlier versions. c. ACCOMMODATING STANDARD 8" x 10" FRAMES. You can now use readily available 8 x 10 frames for mounting your documents after trimming the borders (instead of the non-standard 8 1/2" x 11" frames previously required). d. NON-COMPRESSED LINE SPACING ON LASER PRINTERS. Since most laser printers only support 60 standard spaced lines, the earlier version of SPECIAL DAYS compressed 66 lines into the same amount of space. This resulted in output that had a more "scrunched" look to it. This "scrunching" is no longer implemented. 4. CUSTOMIZED TAG LINE. A number of customers felt that the SALINON line at the bottom of each document detracted from its appearance. You can now delete the tag line off of the bottom of the page or replace it with one of your own up to 72 characters in length. For example, if you are sending Birthday reports to clients, you can now use the tag line at the bottom of the page for a message like: "Compliments of Mary Jane Boswell Insurance". To change this tag line you will need to edit the TAGLINE.SDR file with a text editor, your word processor or with the DOS COPY CON TAGLINE.SDR command. Be sure and make a backup copy of this file before editing it. You can either leave the tag line blank or insert a message up to 72 characters long. If you edit TAGLINE.SDR with your text editor or word processor, be sure and save it as an ASCII file with no special formatting or control characters. It should contain only one line of data, the tag line. Alternatively, you can create a new tag line with the DOS COPY CON command. To do this, first log on to your SPECIAL DAYS Database Diskette or to the SPECIAL DAYS subdirectory on your hard disk. At the DOS prompt, type the following line and then press the ENTER key: COPY CON TAGLINE.SDR Now key in your single tag line (up to 72 characters in length) and press the ENTER key. Finally, press the F6 function key and then the ENTER key. You have now created a new TAGLINE.SDR file. 5. REDUCING RAGGED RIGHT BORDER. In testing the new SPECIAL DAYS on dozens of different printers, we noticed that some printers produce an uneven or ragged right lined border. While there isn't a program fix for this problem, we did discover that manually switching a printers' feed setting from TRACTOR FEED to FRICTION FEED often corrected or reduced this problem. To a lesser extent, we also reduced this problem by switching from DRAFT to NEAR LETTER QUALITY mode, using a different character set, or in a few cases, using a different (usually thicker) paper. 6. OTHER MINOR CHANGES. We have corrected some minor problems including formatting, error messages and F4 key operation. We have also compiled the entire program with a new compiler and substituted some new assembly language and screen handling routines to slightly improve execution time while reducing overall module size. A RECAP OF OTHER FEATURES NOT COVERED IN THE USER GUIDE: 7. The User Options Menu now gives you two additional options: BORDER On Off ASCII FILE On Off You can now turn the border on or off before printing. This feature will let you print TimeScripts on forms with a preprinted border. Prior to Versions 2.0 and 2.5, the only way to eliminate the border was to print the TimeScript out to a disk file called LASTDAY.ASC, and then to manually erase the border using your word processing or desktop publishing package. You can now also turn the ASCII file, LASTDAY.ASC, on or off from the User Options Menu. Once turned on, all TimeScripts that you generate on the screen (irrespective of whether or not you print them on your printer) are written out to LASTDAY.ASC, one right after the other. This feature lets you save TimeScripts on disk without having to print them on your printer. You can then port this file into your word processor or desktop publishing package for final formatting and printing at a more convenient time (see 11a. for more information on this feature). NOTE: All bolding is turned off when creating this ASCII file to facilitate your reformatting of the document. 8. The characters used for printing the border have been moved to an ASCII disk file called SETINFO.SDR. You can edit this file with most word processing packages, substituting sets of border characters that you prefer for the default sets already provided. THIS FEATURE IS TO BE USED WITH CAUTION AND BY ADVANCED PC USERS ONLY. Continue reading for more information on how to change your border characters. 9. The Anniversary Report now calculates the anniversary date independent of the current month and day (using strictly the year). This allows you to run Anniversary TimeScripts prior to the actual Anniversary date without having to worry about an incorrect number of years calculation. MORE DETAILS ABOUT SOME OF THESE FEATURES 10. Here is some more information on BORDERS and the SETINFO.SDR File: The User Options Menu allows you to turn the border on or off (used for the screen display, for the printout and for the LASTDAY.ASC file). This feature was added to accommodate those users that wanted to print TimeScripts on forms with preprinted borders, or to help those users that wanted to add their own borders with a word processing or desktop publishing package. In addition to now having this on/off switch, you also have the ability to substitute a different set of border characters (using a simple text editor or many word processing packages) for each of the three character sets provided by SALINON. IMPORTANT NOTE: IF YOU ARE NEW TO COMPUTERS, IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT GRAPHIC CHARACTERS YOUR PRINTER SUPPORTS, OR IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH HOW TO MODIFY ASCII FILES, WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE SETINFO.SDR FILE. SALINON TECHNICAL SUPPORT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HELP YOU IF YOU'VE CORRUPTED THIS FILE AND DON'T HAVE A BACKUP COPY. The border characters are stored in this ASCII SETINFO.SDR File on your Database Diskette. The format of the file is as follows: Row 1: 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 10, 1 (User Option parameters) OUTER BORDER CHARACTERS: Row 2: "I","*"," " (upper left-hand corner) Row 3: ";","*"," " (upper right-hand corner) Row 4: "H","*"," " (lower left-hand corner) Row 5: "<","*"," " (lower right-hand corner) Row 6: ":","*"," " (vertical border) Row 7: "M","*"," " (horizontal border) INNER BOX CHARACTERS: Row 8: "Z","+"," " (upper left-hand corner) Row 9: "?","+"," " (upper right-hand corner) Row 10: "@","+"," " (lower left-hand corner) Row 11: "Y","+"," " (lower right-hand corner) Row 12: "3","|"," " (vertical border) Row 13: "D","-"," " (horizontal border) Before making any changes to this file, be sure and make a backup copy. If you inadvertently make an error and then run SPECIAL DAYS, the program may freeze or produce some very unusual print- outs. If this happens, recopy your backup SETINFO.SDR file on top of the one you modified. Here are a few hints for how to modify the SETINFO.SDR file: a. Don't change any of the values in Row 1. They are the parameters from the User Options Screen (Printer Type, Sound On/Off, Etc.) and should only be changed directly from the User Options Menu. b. Rows 2 through 7 contain the border characters used for the outer border around the edge of your TimeScript. Rows 8 through 13 contain the border characters used for the inner box around the title. c. The first column of characters in Rows 2 through 13 is used when you select almost any of the printer options on the User Options Menu. The second column of characters is used when you select the GENERIC / OTHER printer option or a few of the other printers that don't support lined borders (e.g. DAISY WHEEL printers). The third column of characters is used when you turn the border off (that is why this column contains all blanks). You can place any alternative set of characters in any of these three columns as long as each character is surrounded by quotes, and separated from the other two columns with a comma. In other words, the file format needs to be kept intact or SPECIAL DAYS may bomb when you try to run it. Note that the first column of border characters may appear as "I ; H <" in your SETINFO.SDR file, but will actually print differently on your printer. These characters are extended ASCII characters created by holding down the "Alt" key while entering in a number from your numeric keypad (For example, pressing the "Alt" key while entering "2 0 1" from the numeric keypad generates the letter "I" on your screen, but this character will print as an upper left-hand corner on IBM Proprinters and compatibles) . If you don't know how to enter extended ASCII codes, just stick with the standard typewriter keyset (what is shown on your keyboard) when experimenting with different character sets. d. Once you've completed your changes, be sure and save SETINFO.SDR as an ASCII file with no special formatting or control characters. Some word processors automatically insert these codes unless you explicitly tell them not to. Many of these codes will corrupt the SETINFO.SDR file causing erroneous results when you run SPECIAL DAYS. 11. Here are a few cautions about using the ASCII File On/Off feature; a. Once you turn the ASCII File option on from the User Options Menu, it stays on until you turn it off or until you run out of disk space. Every TimeScript you generate on the screen will also be written to disk. This can fill up the available space on a floppy disk quickly. If you run out of disk space, SPECIAL DAYS will print a warning message and automatically turn the ASCII File option off for you. If you get this warning message, you can keep running SPECIAL DAYS, but you will not be able to write any more TimeScripts to disk until you exit the program. Once you exit the program, you can print your LASTDAY.ASC file or copy it to another disk. You can then restart SPECIAL DAYS, which AUTOMATICALLY ERASES your old LASTDAY.ASC file and frees up the disk space it used for a new set of TimeScripts. Each TimeScript takes approximately 5,000 bytes of disk space. This means that if you are running from 5 1/4" floppy disks, you have room for no more than four TimeScripts on the SPECIAL DAYS Database Diskette. Check and make sure that you have adequate space on whatever disk you are using before turning the ASCII File option on. b. SPECIAL DAYS remembers your Options setting between sessions. This means that if you exit SPECIAL DAYS with ASCII = "On" the next time you start SPECIAL DAYS ASCII will still be on. c. At the start of each SPECIAL DAYS session, a new LASTDAY.ASC file is created and the old one, if it exists, is erased (regardless of whether the ASCII File Option is on or off). If you need to save what is in your LASTDAY.ASC file for future use, be sure and rename the file before starting SPECIAL DAYS again. d. When editing LASTDAY.ASC with your word processor, you may find that each line on a TimeScript takes two lines on your screen. To solve this problem, reset your word processor's left margin to 1 and right margin to 80. You may also find that the right-hand border doesn't always line up properly on your screen, even after you have changed the margin settings. This is because some lines of a TimeScript may contain null characters (which have a length of zero) but which some word processors display as having a length of one. To solve this problem, you can print the TimeScripts out with a different Printer Type (e.g. IBM Pro- printer or with Border set to OFF, or you can use your word processor do delete all the null characters. NOTE: even though the right-hand border may appear jagged on your screen, when you print LASTDAY.ASC from DOS using the "Print" or "Copy" commands, the right margin is printed properly. 12. The date calculation in the Anniversary TimeScript Report used to look at the current year, month and day. This caused a problem for users who wanted to print a report prior to the actual Anniversary. For example, let's say you want to give an Anniversary TimeScript to your parents whose 25th wedding anniversary is next week. If you run the report today, the heading will read that they have been married for over 24 (not 25) years, since their 25th anniversary hasn't yet arrived. To correct this, Versions 2.0 and 2.5 only look at the current year when calculating the number of years since the original event. If you are running some Anniversary TimeScripts in December for January anniversaries, the number of years calculation will still be one year off. To solve this problem, temporarily reset your system date to the upcoming year with the DOS "Date" command. SOME COMMENTS ABOUT PRINTERS (All Versions) 13. If you have one of the old HP LaserJet printers that doesn't support downloadable soft fonts, you will not be able to use the font we've included on the Program Disk. You will still be able to use this printer, but will have to load one of your cartridge fonts that supports the IBM graphics characters to get a nice looking border (e.g. the PRESENTATION 1 cartridge, #92286R, is one to try if you have it). You will be able to use the downloadable soft font on the newer HP Laser printers (and compatibles) such as the LaserJet + or the LaserJet Series II or III. For more information on downloading this font, refer to page 5-3 in your User's Guide. THE END OF README.SD - NOW GO HAVE SOME FUN WITH SPECIAL DAYS!