This utility program is made available to the public as a shareware program. All rights and titles to this utility are reserved and copyrighted by Daniel Delamatta and George F. Farrell, Jr.
You may use this program till your heart's content, and you may give copies to anyone. Under no circumstances are modified copies of this program allowed without the express consaent of the above programmers. If you do not wish to keep this program, then either delete it from your disks, or give it to someone else.
If you do want to keep this program, then send your $15 shareware fee to:
Daniel Delamatta
275 South St Ext
Coventry, CT 06238
On receipt of your fee, you will be put on my mailing list, and will be kept informed of the latest updates.
If you have any problems or questions, then write to the above address, and please state your version number.
Welcome to the PrintIt program, from Daniel A. Delamatta and
George F. Farrell, Jr.
This program will allow you to design a text file output to your specifications. This utility package is very flexible, and will use any ASCII text file of any size. However, it will not handle TeachText or other “text” processors that allow you to type without inserting a carriage return at the end of every line. At the present moment, it will not handle these files properly. In the future, I hope to be able to implement those type of files, as well as some other well-known word processor files.
Until then, this program can handle text files of up to 99,999 lines in length (if you implement the line numbering option -- refer to the PrintIt™ Globals help file), which at a term paper-style of 54 lines per page yioelds 1,851 pages of text. Also, the upper limit of any page numbering is 9,999. There is no inconsistency between these two page figures: the program allows you to fragment your text file, and allows you to start numbering the pages at any point (up to the limit, of course).
Following this introduction you will find more complete
instructions, as well as examples to all the various functions.
To find more complete instructions, and for a more complete breakdown of functions, refer to the other help files. You may print them using TeachText (they were written using that program), or any other word processor that allows you to read ReadMe-type files.
So enjoy the full use of this program, and study the instruction
manual well.
Be forewarned that all global and text commands must be used as shown, and that "short-cuts" will result in errors. The program has been constructed to weed out as many errors as possible, but no one, nor any program, is perfect.
There are five menus available, at this time. They are: apple, file, defaults, load, and help.
1. APPLE
At this time, the only option under this menu is the ‘About PrintIt’. At some future time, desk accessories will be implemented.
2. FILE
At this time, the only option allowed is to quit. As above, at some future time, cut/copy/paste functions will be implemented.
3. DEFAULTS
There are three options currently: blank, computer program, and term paper. The program on launch, and after each consecutive print session, returns to the blank default settings. This may seem not quite right, but it is massively easier to program, at this time.
The blank defaults are: no functions (see below), single spacing, no comment characters to delete, output to the printer, page length of 62, left margin of 1, and right margin of 80.
The computer program defaults are: line numbering, page numbering, page heading with the text's name as the heading, single spacing, one comment character to delete, output to the printer, page length of 62, start page numbering with page 1, start numbering at page 1, left margin of 7 (the actual number is 1, but line numbering adds 6 to the left margin -- see later for further explanations), right margin of 80.
The term paper defaults are: page numbering, word wrapping, page heading with the text's name as the heading, double spacing, no comment character to delete, output to the printer, page length of 54, start numbering with page 1, start numbering at page 2, left margin of 11, right margin of 70. The margin settings are set to allow a 1" border all around the text to be printed.
4. LOAD
This menu selection will allow you to load a particular type of text file, ie., ASCII, TeachText, etc. At this time, only ASCII (eg., files saved from such programs as Turbo Pascal, Microsoft Basic, LightSpeed Pascal, etc.). Future version will have other options.
5. HELP
Well, you already know what this menu is for, since you are already here. On the off chance that you don't, this menu will allow you to get on-line help, at any point up to the time you either quit or start to print. There are four options: main display (this help instruction), printer defaults (displays what settings are available for you to use within your text files), global commands (explains the accessible print options, and how they affect your text file print format), and text commands (shows what print commands there are, and how they affect the printing of the text).
There are five functions in the main display: line number, page number, ignore, word wrap, and page header.
1. LINE NUMBER
This function will allow you to number each of the lines as they are printed. This function can be turned on and off within the body of the text file. However, the lines will continuously increase, even if turned off, so that if it is later turned back on, the next line number will be the current line's actual line number.
2. PAGE NUMBER
This function will allow you to number each of the pages as they are printed. As with the line numbers, page numbers are constantly increasing.
3. IGNORE
This function will allow you to ignore and embedded printer commands, EXCEPT for one: the function which turns this function off. Please refer to the global help section for more information.
4. WORD WRAP
This function will allow you to create a text file of 80- character length lines, and print it out in 60-chacters, for example. It is a function that is at the user's disposal in most major word processors (to cite an example, TeachText does this automatically). This function, as all the others, can also be turned off from within the text file.
5. PAGE HEADER
This function will allow you to put a heading at the top of each page. You will note the text entry field next to the function: if the function is turned on, that header will be used. Also, if that header is filled in, and the function is turned off, and is turned on from within the text file, without the header being changed, then that header will be the one used.
This program will allow you to select one of three spacing options: single (one line per print line), double (one line every other print line), or triple (one line every third print line). Additional spacing requirements are not implemented, nor will they probably ever be. This ability has been implemented to allow user to use single spacing (the normal form of printing), double (for term papers and such), and triple (for rough draft printing). To my knowledge, quadruple spacing is not available on any typewriter, so the additional spacings are not accessible. Also, if you need more blank lines between each line, there is a text command available (refer to the PrintIt™ Texts help information).
This ability has been recently implemented to allow programmers to be able to delete global and text commands from within a program's listing, so that the compiler will not go crazy trying to understand PrintIt™ commands. Most users will need only the ‘None’ option, while most programmers will need the ‘One’ option.
Please note that the ‘Two’ option is available for programmers who want to print RMaker resource files. Be sure to put the special character (see below) PROMPTLY after the double semi-colon. Otherwise, you will end up with a single semi-colon at the end of a line.
There two kinds of output selections: disk and printer. Be forwarned that all command code sequences are constructed for the ImageWriter printer. So if you select a disk file as your output, make extra sure that no such commands are ever implemented.
If there are any owners of non-ImageWriter printers, please contact me (Daniel Delamatta, 275 South St Ext, Coventry CT 06238) if you wish for me to substitute your printer's sequnce codes for those of the ImageWriter. If you do this, you must also send me the codes for your printer. I will be happy to change them for any registered user, but the complete testing of the changes will have to be done by the end-user, since I only have an ImgeWriter.
WARNING: When sending the output to the disk, the program creates a straight ASCII text file. Also, for the moment, any file that you decide to send to the disk MUST be in the same disk/folder/sub-folder (etc.) as the text file that the program is reading. This is a quirk of the text-reading function of the language I used.
There are seven text entries: page length, begining page number, start print page number, special character, left margin, and right margin.
1. PAGE LENGTH
The limits to the page length are a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 62. The maximum of 62 allows the program a two- line leeway at the top and bottom of the page (mostly used for mis- alignments; future versions may allow the user to put the page header at the top or bottom of the page, so the extra two lines are necessary). The minimum of 5 allows the user at least 1 line per page (the program takes up the other 4 -- see above). Any value between these two limits is valid. You can also change them on the fly, but I seriously warn you not to do so, not unless you have a VERY specific project in mind for the extra (or less) space on the page.
2. BEGINNING PAGE NUMBER
This number can be anything between 1 and 99,999. Additionally, this number must be equal to or greater than the next entry's number. This number is the current page's startng number, from which all page numberings are taken from.
3. START NUMBERING AT
This number must be at a minimum equal to the preceding entry's number. For example, a term paper will begin at page 1 (Beginning page number) but won't start numbering the pages until page 2 (Start numbering at). These two page numbering selections can be changed from within a text file. WARNING: You change them at your own risk: the program will not re-check them for you if it encounters them within the body of the text file.
4. SPECIAL CHARACTER
This entry is the character that the program wants when it looks for its in-text commands. You can change this to just about any non-alphanumeric character, but only within the standard keyboard keys (no option or command key sequences). Your text file can also change it if you are going to use the tilde very often.
5. LEFT MARGIN
The minimum for the left margin is 1, and the maximum is one number less than the right margin (you can type out two-character
lines!). Additionally, if you turn on the line numbering option, the program will add 6 to this number, so take this into account if you decide to change it.
6. RIGHT MARGIN
The minimum for the right margin is one number higher than the left, and the maximum is 80. This number can only be changed by text file-imbedded commands: no special functions will do so.
7. HEADER LABEL
This header can be up to 75 characters in length, although only 45 to 47 can be displayed. Initially, the header is set to the name of the text file you are printing. If you need to change it, you MUST change it only AFTER you have selected your text file. Otherwise, the program will overwrite your selection with the text file name.
When you are satisfied that the information in front of you is correct, then click on the ‘Print’ button. The program will then launch itself into the printing mode. When it is done, it will re-initialize the display, so you can start from fresh.
NOTE: There is a short-cut to printing a file: select the default option you want, or click on the options you desire, and then click on the ‘Print’ button. This will automatically ask you for a text file to print, put the text file name into the header box, and if you selected the disk output option, it will then ask you for the name of the disk file. The program will then launch itself into the print mode.
