Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/discs/pipeline/abacus/p_line/Templates1/ReadMe

Text File | 1995-01-22 | 14.1 KB | 303 lines

%OP%VS4.13 (28-Apr-92), Gerald L Fitton, R4000 5966 9904 9938
%OP%DP0
%OP%IRY
%OP%PL0
%OP%HM0
%OP%FM0
%OP%BM0
%OP%LM4
%OP%PT1
%OP%PDPipeLine
%OP%WC2,1238,168,1748,0,0,0,0
%CO:A,12,72%
%C%Templates
%C%by Gerald L Fitton
%L%Keywords:
%L%Choices Templates Fitton


Introduction

You can customise the way in which PipeDream 4 operates through two
different mechanisms.  Nearly all document production packages have two
such mechanisms.  In PipeDream the first set of custom features is
available through the Choices menu (in some other packages this is
called Preferences) and these choices affect the way in which PipeDream
operates with all documents.  The second mechanism allows you to create
separate proforma for different types of documents; in PipeDream (and
Fireworkz) this second mechanism is the facility to create a large
range of Templates.

You will find an article on making your 'global' choices through the
Choices menu in the directory Choices01.  This article describes the
use of templates for 'local' choices.  I suggest that you read the
article in Choices01 before you read the article in this directory.


Getting Started

Install PipeDream on the icon bar, place the pointer over the icon and
click the mouse menu (middle) button.  The pop-up menu which appears
has five items; one of these is New document.  Run the pointer through
New document and you'll find that you are offered a template.  You can
cycle through the set of templates using the up and down arrows.
Unless you have added to or deleted any templates you will find four
templates supplied by Colton Software; these are [Numbers], [Records],
[Text] and [Text_font].  Select the [Text] template and then click on
the OK box; that template will be loaded.


Saving a Template

You can customise this [Text] file to your personal requirements (more
of this later).  When you have finished making changes you will want to
save the new version.  Do this by by executing <Ctrl FI>; enter a
suitable filename in the File name dialogue box and click on OK.


The Templates Directory

To open a directory which starts with a ! (what Acorn call an
Application and what I think should be called a package) you must hold
down the <Shift> key and then double click (the select button) on the
directory you wish to open.

Open the !PipeDream directory.  In it you'll find a directory called
Templates.  Open the Templates directory and unless you have added or
deleted any templates you will find the four templates supplied by
Colton Software referred to above.  I have included their four
templates [Numbers], [Records], [Text] and [Text_font] in the
Templates1.Coltonsoft sub-directory of this disc.

To see the construction of a PipeDream file such as [Text] you need to
hold down the <Shift> key and then double click.  Because you're
holding down the <Shift> key the file will load into Edit (instead of
PipeDream) and you'll see a document containing perhaps a couple of
dozen rows each starting with a %PC% character.

Unless you want to do something very special you probably don't need to
know what these cryptic %PC% so called 'constructs' mean.  If you do need
to know then you can do some research by looking at the section headed
PipeDream File Format which starts on page 197 of the PipeDream 4
Reference Guide.  Pages 199 to 201 contain a brief description of each
of the %PC% constructs.

What you will not see amongst the %PC%OP%PC% constructs are those which
derive from the Choices menu.  The Choices menu is called up by
clicking the mouse menu (middle) button over the installed (on the icon
bar) PipeDream icon as described in the Choices01 directory.  These
'global' choices include options such as 'spell check as you type'
(shown as Auto check in the Choices menu).  The %PC%OP%PC% constructs for
these global choices are found only in the [!PipeDream.Choices] file.

Generally you will not need to study the %PC%OP%PC% constructs nor will you
need to load a template file directly into PipeDream from the
!PipeDream.Templates directory.  The usual method of loading a template
is from the New document option on the PipeDream menu called up from
the icon bar as described above in the section Getting Started.  The
usual method of saving a template is through the <Ctrl FI> command.


A Template for Text

In the sub-directory Templates01.Gerald I have included my four
favourite templates.  These are [Data], [ReadMe], [Sheet] and [Words].
I use the file [Words] as my template for plain text and the [ReadMe]
file for the [ReadMe] files on the PipeLine disc (the <Ctrl W> width of
column A has been changed recently from 72 to 12 characters - this
change has not filtered through to all the [ReadMe files on this disc).

Load [Words] and then execute the command <Ctrl O>.  The new slot
format is Text as you might expect.  I like to have Insert on return
ON.  I do this because I do like my paragraphs to reformat when I
delete a character or delete a word (with <F10>).  Many people don't
like this option because they find that blocks of text reformat when
they don't want it to.  Let me explain.  Here are two (identical?)
examples of a pair of lines which you don't want to reformat:

Gerald L Fitton
Abacus Training

%L%Gerald L Fitton
%L%Abacus Training

Place the caret anywhere in the first Gerald and tap the <Space> bar
followed by the <Delete> button.  You will finish up with:

Gerald L Fitton Abacus Training

This is almost certainly what you don't want to happen!

Now repeat the exercise with the second Gerald.  The text does not
reformat.  It does not reformat because I have applied <Ctrl LAL>
(Layout Align Left) to the two lines.  If you forget to use <Ctrl LAL>
on such lines then, sooner or later, you'll reformat a block that you
don't want reformatting.

I have Wrap turned ON so that, when I get to the end of a line, the
text will wrap around onto the next line.

If you have more than one column then you can choose what happens to
the other columns when the text wraps.  The choice is that an extra row
is inserted into all columns or that an extra row is inserted only in
the column containing the text you are in the process of typing.

Load the file [TestFile1].  Place the cursor at the end of the text in
slot A1 and type "another word".  The new text in A1 spills over and
wraps forcing the text in A4 to move down a row.  However, the text in
B4 remains in B4.  A new row has been inserted but only in the column
into which the text is being typed.  This is because the <Ctrl O>
Insert on wrap option has been set to Column.  Delete this text using
the <Delete> key and you'll find that the extra row (in column A) is
deleted but column B is not affected.

Now execute <Ctrl O> and change the Insert on wrap to Row (instead of
Column).  Repeat the exercise of typing in "another word".  This time
you'll see that the whole of row 4 is moved down (to row 5) when the
text wraps.  Delete this text and you'll find that you can regain the
original layout.

I hope that I have not laboured the above explanation too greatly.  My
only excuse is that I do get quite a lot of correspondence from people
who have never really mastered the way in which the Insert on wrap
operates.  Just as a 'by the way', I can't find a similar option in
Fireworkz probably because, in Fireworkz, it was deemed that the multi
line paragraph feature makes such an option redundant.


A Database Template

The file [TestFile2] has the options set to the same values as those of
the template [Data].  If you add "another word' to A1 then the words do
not wrap around, they remain in slot A1.  Execute <Ctrl O> and you will
find that both Wrap and Insert on return are switched OFF.

The New slot format is Text because it is usual to enter text (rather
than numbers) into a database.

Any slot can be converted from a text slot to a number slot by tapping
<F2>.  I have entered a 2 in B1 and B2.  The 2 in these slots are
characters and not numbers.  In B3 I have entered the formula B1+B2.

You can convert any of these characters to numbers by placing the
cursor in the slot (say B1) tapping <F2> followed by <Return>.  If you
want to convert all three slots then drag the pointer from B1 to B3 so
that the three slots are highlighted.  Now execute <Ctrl BNT> (Block
Number to Text - or the reverse) and you will find that 2 and 2 make 4!
Another 'by the way' is that, as a hangover from PipeDream 3, an
alternative undocumented command is <Ctrl ENT> (Edit Number to Text -
or the reverse).  The command <Ctrl ENT> is identical in its effect to
the command <Ctrl BNT>.

I prefer the grid lines ON but many prefer them OFF, particularly since
the grid lines are printed if you use RISC OS printer drivers (but not
if you use PipeDream printer drivers).


A Spreadsheet Template

The only difference between my [Data] template and my [Sheet] template
is that the New slot format is Numbers instead of Text.  As you will
have seen demonstrated in the previous section, you can change any slot
retrospectively from a Text to a Number slot (of course, you can also
do the reverse operation).

If you type text into a number slot then, provided PipeDream can
recognise it as text, there is no problem.  Load [TestFile3].  It has
the same options as my template [Sheet].  Type Hello World followed by
<Return> into slot A2.  As you type you'll find the words appear in the
formula line; when you tap <Return> the words drop into slot A2.

Now try Start-Finish (the hyphen is intended to mean start to finish)
in slot A3 and you'll get the error message Name not defined.  What has
happened is that PipeDream has 'recognised' this text as a formula.
The formula is interpreted as a subtraction sum in which finish (note
the conversion from upper to lower case in the formula line) is
subtracted from start.  Start and finish are 'recognised' as PipeDream
Names and, since they have not been defined, PipeDream doesn't know
their values.

There are many ways around this little problem.  The method I prefer
(if I remember in time) is to type just one word, tap <Return> and then
continue typing in the rest of the text.  If it's too late then I use
<Ctrl BNT> and then change any (incorrectly portrayed) lower case
letters to upper case.

Another 'by the way' is that if you change the option for New slot
format from Text to Numbers then it affects only new slots.  You can
not use it to change the nature of slots retrospectively (use
<Ctrl BNT> to execute retrospective changes).

If I've got a lot of text - or a lot of numbers (or formulae) - then I
use a couple of command files, [Data_Sheet] and [Sheet_Data], to change
the options between Text and Numbers.  I've included these command
files in the Templates01.Gerald directory.


Printing Options

In addition to all the <Ctrl O> options there are many other choices
saved with the file.  These include both the <Ctrl H> and <Ctrl W>
options which determine the column structure, the position the window
appears on the screen and even the position of the cursor within the
document.  I find that the fact that printing options are saved with
the file most useful but, if you choose printing options which are
inappropriate, then they can cause you a lot of grief - particularly if
you don't know what's going on!

The menus accessed through <Crtl PO>, <Ctrl PY> and <Ctrl PD> contain
many options, all of which are saved with the file.

The order in which I set these up is <Ctrl PD> to choose Parallel (in
order to use PipeDream printer drivers) and my preferred PipeDream
printer driver.

Then I choose my <Ctrl PY> (page layout) options.  Because I use the
system font and PipeDream printer drivers I set the page length to
zero.  A setting of zero allows the printer to load a new sheet of
paper whenever it thinks it has run out.  The alternative is that an
unsuitably long page length might be forced on the 'system' causing
unwanted form feeds.  Another 'by the way'.  If you choose RISC OS
printer drivers and you set the Auto Line height option ON from the
<Ctrl PFG> menu then you will find that you can't force your page
length from the <Ctrl PY> menu.  You may think you have but, when you
Save, delete from screen and then Load your file (or just try to print
it) you will find that the page length will have been set automatically
- PipeDream has read the page length of the paper size contained in the
selected Printer (the one on the icon bar).

Finally I set my <Ctrl PO> options.  These include the default number
of copies.  I usually set this at 1 copy.  If you are using the
PipeDream printer drivers and need more than one copy then it is fairly
easy to tap the <Print> button (followed by <Return>) more than once.
If you are using RISC OS printing then you might like to use the method
I describe in the directory Printing01.  Essentially this is to
(RISC OS) print one copy to a file and then drag the Printout file to
the Printer icon (on the icon bar) as many times as is necessary.  In
either case I find that one copy is what I need as my <Ctrl PO> choice
(saved with the file or template).

Another (possibly the last) 'by the way'.  If you have selected RISC OS
printing (rather than Parallel) then, when you Print to File from the
<Ctrl PO> menu, you will not be using the Text printing options of the
RISC OS printer driver but those of your selected PipeDream printer
driver (eg the HPJet printer driver).  It is this 'feature' of
PipeDream (giving the file destination a higher priority than the type
of printer driver used) which causes some of the more recent Turbo
drivers to fail when used for text printing from PipeDream.


In Conclusion

In the Choices01 directory I describe those 'global' choices which
apply to all documents.  In this directory I have explained what is
involved in setting up and saving a template file containing 'local'
options.  Both sets of choices have their place.

If I have missed something then please let me know and I'll mention it
on the next PipeLine disc.  If you believe that it would be useful to
explain in more depth any particular choice for a template file or, if
you have trouble creating a template to your special requirements, then
please let me know and please include a copy of your template (or your
attempt at creating your special template).